Sadie's 10th Month

Sadie's tenth month was a month of some pretty incredible firsts! We had Christmas, New Year's, and a trip to Hawaii all coming within days of each other. Although Sadie couldn't register what all the excitement was about, her big sister definitely knew big things were coming!

The entire Christmas season is pretty big with my family here in Reno, so we always gear up for a month of activities and traditions.  One of our favorite things is our Christmas Eve dinner with my Grammy.  Every year, she takes my family out to dinner at Harrah's Steakhouse.  It's the best service and best meal, and they always manage to give us our own private room.  With two little children, I am always grateful that they can give us this accommodation.  Half of the battle is keeping the kids entertained and occupied for the entire meal, and this year was no exception.  Let's just say that Stella and Auntie Manthie took many trips down the escalator over the course of dinner.  After dinner, we headed back to my parents to exchange gifts with Grammy, and we were all headed home only a little past bedtime. 


  

Christmas day itself was a pretty exciting scene in our house because we actually had someone who understood what Christmas was this year.  After learning our lesson at Halloween, Steve and I decided that we should probably spend a few weeks prepping Stella for the holiday so she knew what was going to happen.  We talked about Santa, explained what the tree was for, and even let her help us pick out a few presents.  She helped get gifts for Daddy, Sadie, and Auntie Mantha, but the main thing that she actually picked out was a purple chair for herself.  It barely made it here in time, but there would be a purple chair under the chair.  We explained to her that on Christmas, she would look over the balcony, and there would be gifts from Santa under the tree.

After weeks of looking at gifts, showing them to Sadie, shaking them, and waiting as patiently as a two-year-old can- it was finally Christmas morning!  The first thing Stella said, "Purple chair!"  All of the presents were a bit overwhelming, but she definitely stuck to a few early favorites.  For the rest of the morning, she rotated between all her new goodies.  As this was Sadie's first Christmas, she was a bit too young to really understand what was going on.  But, since Stella kept bringing her new things to play with, Sadie definitely enjoyed herself Christmas morning.

As eventful as the morning was, we still had the Christmas day celebration to attend at my parents' house.  After A LOT of playing and naps, we packed up and headed over to join the rest of my family.  The gifts, the food, and the fun continued late into the evening, and our little ladies definitely enjoyed spending time with some of their favorite people.

We only had a few days to breathe because we had to get ready for our biggest Christmas gift- a trip to Hawaii!  After a year of planning and preparing, we were taking the girls on their first trip outside of Reno/Northern California, and on their first plane ride.  As excited as we were, I was a ball of nerves because I wasn't exactly sure how our girls would handle the trip. We actually started planning and booked this trip a year ago, so we had a lot of time to prepare.  As much as we could prepare, Steve and I were both aware that anything could happen with the girls on this trip.  Regardless of all my misgivings, I was thrilled to finally get to go to Hawaii!

To start, we had to get through two flights.  We had a short flight to San Jose, then we had the longer leg into Oahu.  The best advice we were given we were given from one of my friends was to create a "bag of wonders."  Literally, my friend advised me to go to the Dollar Store and buy ten dollars worth of random.  As the flight progresses, you pull out all the new goodies that your child has never seen before.  To say the least, this was PERFECT!  Stella had more than enough to keep her busy, and honestly didn't even sleep because she was enjoying all her surprises from the bag.  Sadie was a bit too young to really appreciate the bag, but she did take a nap and had two pretty perfect flights.

Once we arrived on the island, the fun truly began!  We had so much to see and do, and we all wanted to fit in some time in there to simply relax, too.  However, first on the list- the ocean!  Neither of our girls had seen the ocean before, so we made sure to head there first so they could see and feel their first ocean.  Sadie screamed; Stella walked right out, but they had now been to an ocean.

With it just being days after the holiday, everywhere we looked- it was Christmas!  It really is strange being in a tropical setting and seeing a Christmas tree!  I always like the idea of celebrating a traditionally cold weather holiday somewhere warm, so I definitely embraced the Mele Kalikimaka :).  Even though it was all decorated for Christmas, Hawaii still had all the traditional fare that any tourist would think of.  I think that everyone found their favorite things, including the girls.

For Stella, she probably had a few favorite to be honest, but her main one that she continues to talk about was hula!  We happened to walk by a hula lesson while we were walking around the Hilton resort, and the next thing we knew, Stella had walked right on over to the group and started dancing!  She would stop and watch (or dance) every time that she found a group of people practicing the hula, and she will still ask to have her bedtime songs accompanied by hula dancing.

For Sadie, I think that the trip provided so many new experiences that she was just enjoying each day!  She had her first time swimming- ever, which ended up going pretty well.  She got to meet many new people and see things she'd never seen before.  But, to be honest, her favorite thing was probably the food!  You would have thought that she was a native because all she wanted was mahi mahi and rice.  Breakfast, lunch, and dinner- the kid wanted fish and rice.  She has always been a good eater, but I've never seen her so happy and excited with every bite!

We all loved the warm weather, beautiful sites, and yes, the food!  We tried to get in as much as possible, but I know that there is still more even on Oahu that we should go back and see.  With the military resort being so convenient, affordable, and nice, I have a feeling that this may become a regular trip.  We all really enjoyed the break from reality and the escape into paradise, and it even did wonders for some of our hair :).

I've heard many parents ascribe to the theory that new experiences make their children grow, and after this trip to Hawaii, I would say that I agree!  Sadie and Stella came home from their trip and were completely different little people!  They both had grown and changed so much and in so many ways that it is hard to name them all.  For Stella, she quickly became a parrot in Hawaii.  You could not say anything around this girl because she would repeat it exactly!  Not only was she speaking in full sentences, but she would repeat your songs, and anything that struck her fancy.  For Sadie, she began to leap ahead physically.  She had definitely grown, but now she was becoming even more mobile.

As I had mentioned in a previous post, Sadie had been crawling, but only in circles. After her time in Hawaii, she came home and immediately began to crawl around.  She started small by crawling on the carpet towards Gwen and Stella, but by the end of this month, she was moving throughout the house!  She has now realized that there is so much to see and do, and she has become quite the explorer.  In addition to her crawling prowess, she is already looking ahead to walking!  She has already been able to pull herself up and stand by herself for some time, so now she a walking with the aid of anything that she can pull herself up on.  To say the least, she's keeping us all on our toes!

Stella also had a big milestone come as a result of the trip- her big girl bed!  With the hotel room having one crib for Sadie and a bed booked for Stella, we were trying to figure out how to prep Stella for her first nights in a bed.  We showed her the idea and tried practicing with her during naps, but she never really actually slept in a bed before we left.  What we decided to do was make this the test to see if she was ready to come home to a bed.  We explained to her that Hawaii would be a practice to see if she was ready for a big girl bed.  If she was ready and the practice went well, she would come home to her very own bed!  I let her pick out the whole set, and of course, she wanted a purple bed.  To say the least, the first few nights were very long, but she did end up sleeping by herself and staying in the bed.  So, when we got home, we were greeted by everything to put together the purple bed!  It's crazy to think that she's already in a bed and no longer in a crib, but it's just another sign that our big girl is going up.

Sadie also had one more change after Hawaii- she added a word to her vocabulary!  Sadie's talking for months has only consisted of "Dada" and "Momma," but this month, she added a new word to her repertoire.  Right after we returned from Hawaii, Sadie's love of both the dogs in her life only continued to grow.  She could now easily get to both of them, so she was constantly trying to locate and get to Gwen and Trigger.  You could see her scanning the room, looking for a dog, and she would squeal when she would find one.  One day, the squeal changed to an actual word- "DOG!"  Now, whenever she sees a dog, Sadie will gleefully let us know that there is a dog in the room.




After a very BUSY month, we were left with the feeling that our baby was continuing to inch her way towards no longer being our baby.  One big trip, and she had changed so much, and we were just trying to guess what she would do next.  Sadie is now only two months away from being a one-year-old, and it's incredible how fast time continues to fly.  Here is our sweet Sadie Lady looking, frankly, awfully sweet:

January 23, 2014