Sadie's 11th Month

After being back from Hawaii, we were right back into our regular routines.  Steve still had quite a bit of his break left (gotta love those LONG college holiday breaks), but I had to head to work right after we got back.  I had these two little firecrackers blowing my mind with their new knowledge and skills following our trip, so I was pretty upset at the idea of missing them during the day.  They really were starting to become two of a kind.

As I had mentioned in the previous post, Sadie had returned from Hawaii as a master of crawling.  She was quickly getting tired of being left behind her sister, so she started a new mode of transportation- speed crawling.  Stella learned to walk and stopped crawling at such a young age, so I don't know if this is something that most babies do, but Sadie was on a mission to keep up with Stella any way she could.  She was crawling so quickly, she almost could keep up with her running big sister!  I don't know if this will make her put off walking for a bit, but clearly, she doesn't feel the need to look for a new mode of transportation to get her where she wants to go.

Between the good times in Hawaii and Sadie being able to keep up, we really started to have double trouble on our hands!  We were waiting for these two to get to this point, but they are now really enjoying their time playing together.  Mom and Dad supply the snacks and toys, but they are off exploring together and making each other laugh.

In the midst of going back to school and keeping up with the girls, Steve's body decided to throw him a curve ball.  After not eating one of his favorite meals, Steve was pretty sure that something was wrong, and after a bit of self-diagnosing, he decided that he should probably head down to the emergency room.  To hear him make this statement, I knew something was very wrong.  He definitely was right and left just in time because Steve's appendix was removed just a few hours later!  The girls had to be extra careful with Daddy for a little while, and Grandpa Robby had to add a little help for our recovering patient.  I never thought we would have to worry about either of our appendices, but Steve handled it like a pro!

God love Reno, but you really have to love a city that offers beautiful weather in the seventies and eighties in February!  It was great for me because it meant that my weekends with the girls could be spent outside.  Stella loved to go and be outdoors again, and Sadie just loved being in the grass.  Granted, this is probably because she spent a lot of time tasting the grass and leaves all around her, but I'm glad that she loves being outside like the rest of us.  Stella also made sure that Sadie had her first taste of rocks, and let's just say, she's addicted!  Half the battle now is keeping the DG in our landscaping out of Sadie's mouth now.  But, we shared a lovely Valentine's Day out in the sun.

Our speed crawler continued to perfect her skills, and she also had mastered climbing up the stairs.  She was becoming more and more mobile, and we really were waiting for her to take her first steps.  Steve and I had planned a anniversary/birthday trip back to Las Vegas to visit all our friends right at this time.  We were convinced that we would get video of Sadie walking around the house, but thankfully, she decided that she was still happy with her speed crawling.  We received many videos from Grandpa and Nonna, so it was clear that the girls enjoyed their vacation as much as we did.







February has ended, and we are now a month away from our baby's 1st birthday!  It really is incredible how much she has changed and continues to change every day.  The best part is watching Sadie and Stella become closer and really start to care about each other.  They want to feed each other, hug each other, and be together all the time.  This is why we had two kids, and we are just around the corner from celebrating the birth of our final piece of our family- our beautiful, smiley, Miss Sadie Lady.

February 23, 2014

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

Sadie's 9th Month

Immediately after the close of last month, I was thrilled to embark on my fall break from work!  My work decided to take off the week of Thanksgiving, so I was definitely looking forward to a whole week off with my girls.  We were all planned to have a Thanksgiving party at our house for a few friends and family members for the holiday, so Steve and I spent a fair amount of time preparing to host the holiday at our house again.  Unfortunately, fate did not have the same plans in mind.







The day before Thanksgiving, Stella gave us the scare of our lives.  She took a fall while playing that clearly shook her up pretty badly.  After watching her seemingly struggle to stay awake, I decided it was time to head down to the emergency room. 
The rest of the day was a series of firsts for Stella that we never wanted her to ever have to experience: Stella's 1st trip to the emergency room; Stella's 1st CAT scan; Stella's 1st IV; Stella's 1st ambulance ride; Stella's 1st overnight stay in a hospital.  Stella was amazing throughout the entire event, and she really made it seem like she wasn't even hurt.  The whole event is still a complete blur, but thankfully, Steve and I are the only ones who remember much and seem bothered.  All that Stella remembers is that she had a nurse named Barbara Ann (her favorite song) and that she met a basketball team (the Cal Bears were visiting the hospital while in town for a tournament).  If only our memories were so kind!

We were discharged with a clean bill of health for Stella mid-way through Thanksgiving day, so needless to say, we cancelled the party at our house.  Even though Stella was cleared to go home, we were told to watch her and keep her quiet for a few days.  She didn't get much sleep in the hospital, so it seemed that she was looking forward to being home and in her own bed.  Thanksgiving wasn't going to go as planned, but thankfully for us, my dad had been staying at our house with Sadie, so he decided to prepare the meal anyway. This was Sadie's 1st Thanksgiving, and Stella had walked away from a pretty scary event, so we had a lot to be thankful for. 

 
Life doesn't stop when things happen, so we did have other appointments and activities planned over the week that I was off from work.  One small and yet important activity we had planned was Sadie's latest photo shoot. After a notoriously horrible first photo shoot with Kendall, we always hold our breaths when Sadie has to cooperate for pictures.  Lord bless her, this was her best photo shoot yet!  She was an absolute angel, and Kendall got some adorable pictures of her and Stella.  




 After trying a few foods at the Thanksgiving table, Sadie started a new trend- finger foods!  Yes, I had been making a range of purees in my Baby Bullet as I did with Stella, and Sadie was eating them up. But, after Thanksgiving, she started yelling at us when we would eat food around her.  We gave her Cheerios on her tray to see if she could feed herself, and we created a monster!  She would refuse to eat anything that was pureed and only wanted finger foods.  Since she was able to feed herself, we thought we would give it a try. She will pick up anything off her tray, and she even is very good about pacing and feeding herself.  She wants to eat anything that Stella does (in true little sister fashion) and now Stella wants to eat everything that we make for Sadie.  So, our house is all about bland and boring food for our little ladies.  It's too funny because Stella has always like spicy and flavorful foods, but now she wants to eat all the plain things that her sister gets.  Oh well, at least I'm no longer cooking individual meals for everyone! 

Now that we were officially in December, it was time to start preparing for Christmas!  During nap time, I took the free hour or so to decorate the house and start getting into the season.  Sadie didn't seem to notice much of a difference, but Stella definitely took notice when she woke up from her nap.  We had another big snow headed our way, so Steve even went out and got a tree so that we could finish our decorating efforts.  Stella has started to show the tree and the presents to Sadie, so now Sadie too has a bit of an interest in what is going on around our house. 

Sadie also had a big month in her movement around the house.  She started out by continuing to work on her crawling.  She really is motivated more than anything by her want to be included.  If she can't be in the thick of things, she will do just about anything to get herself closer.  She isn't traditionally crawling yet, but she crawls 360 degrees!  It's hilarious because she'll get where she wants to, but she may have to make a few passes to get there.  This spurred even more ideas for moving places, and before we knew it, she was pulling herself up on things and trying to stand!  She can now stand by herself for a few seconds, so between that and all her practice walking with us, her mobility will only continue to grow by leaps and bounds.





As this month ends, we are literally days away from Sadie's 1st Christmas!  I'm sure that this one won't mean much to her, but I am excited to see her take in all the sounds, smells, and sights of the holiday.  I'm also thrilled for her to see her Auntie Mantha again!  To cap the year off/start the new one off right, we also will be taking a trip to Hawaii as a family, so we have A LOT in this little lady's future!  Here is our expressive little Sadie Lady:    

December 23, 2013

Sadie's 8th Month

At the end of October, we had a very big day to celebrate- Stella's 2nd birthday!  It's hard to imagine that our journey into parenthood began two years ago when we were blessed with our beautiful little firecracker!  Every day since we met her has been so much more joyful and entertaining, and I know that both of us cannot picture life without her.  To celebrate her birthday, we decided to have a big day of all things that Stella loves.  We started with breakfast at her favorite restaurant, Squeeze In, then we headed over to a pumpkin patch to play with the pumpkins, and finally, we held a small football/pizza party at our house.

Stella was given MANY incredible gifts from all of the generous people in her life, but the number one gift that both girls are clearly enjoying is Lucky!  Auntie Mantha got Stella a horse for her birthday!  Sam and I had a similar horse when we were kids, but Lucky puts that one to shame.  This horse has fur and a mane, and it has songs and phrases.  Stella took to it immediately, but so did someone else.  Sadie was jumping out of our arms to get to that horse, so we gave her a shot, and it was a huge success!  Lucky has a similar feel to her Jumperoo, so now Sadie has two places to get her jumps in.  

The day of Stella's birthday party was also made even more fun because it happened to be on the same day as a very important football rivalry game in our house- UNLV vs. UNR.  Being the only UNLV fan and graduate in my family, I generally have to hold my own during any game against these two schools (especially during football season) but we actually won!  Between all the shouting and excitement, Sadie really started to watch everyone's reactions in the room during the game.  She was definitely taking it in and processing because the next day during the 49er game, she started clapping! 









Stella's birth-day always turns into a birth-week because of the holidays that are right around her day.  Nevada Day means that we have a day off to all be together (and usually prep for her party) and then there is Halloween!  This was Sadie's 1st Halloween, so for me, it was all about the costumes.  Luckily, we already had that sorted because of Sadie's godmother.  Ashley is SO on top of the themes that I have for both girls in their rooms, and she always tries to find things for them that match the animal in each girl's room.  She had seen an owl costume months prior and immediately picked it up.  This prompted us to keep it simple and have matching owls for the holiday.  Sadie wasn't into more than teething on the outside of the treats that her sister gave to her, but this was Stella's 1st time trick-or-treating!  Let's just say that we should have prepped her before we went because she wasn't a huge fan.  She liked walking through the neighborhood, but she didn't like people putting things in her pumpkin.  Oh well, maybe next year!

As Sadie headed into November, she really started to be more aware and interested in the world around her.  Her new interest in life this month- Gwen!  Having two dogs always around, I think that both our girls often take them for granted.  But, there comes a time in each of their lives when they are very interested in Gwen.  They want to get kisses from her, pet her, and generally follow her around.  Sadie just reached this phase, so now Gwen has another little buddy in the house!  It's only a matter of time until Sadie starts crawling around after her.

Speaking of crawling, Sadie is just starting to test the waters.  She is in that phase when she knows that she can get to things that are out of her reach if she moves, and she is so over rolling around to get places.  She has been working on her army crawl to move across the floor to get to things, but she has realized that she doesn't necessarily have to go to her belly.  She is rocking and bopping on her knees, so she's awfully close.  Between wanting toys, Gwen, and Stella, it's only a matter of time until Sadie legitimately crawls across the floor.  Two mobile little ladies- God help us!

While we have been interested to see when Sadie crawls, we've actually been waiting for her teeth to finally come.  Stella already had four teeth at this age, so we have been surprised that Sadie has yet to show any, especially because Sadie's teeth have really been bothering her.  We never knew when Stella was teething, and her teeth never were a factor, but Sadie has been a drool-monster and teething on everything for months.  Sadie stopped sleeping through the night mid-way through November, and Steve and I were grasping at straws to figure out what caused the change.  Finally, we got our answer when Steve was feeding her Cheerios one night; our little lady at last had some teeth! 

Oh yes, I said Cheerios.  Sadie has had a very different introduction to food than Stella did.  Stella could've cared less about food, and it was a struggle to get her to eat anything.  Sadie on the other hand started food earlier on her own accord.  As I mentioned in a previous post, she grabbed and took bites of my banana months ago.  From there, she would cry at the table when she watched anyone eat.  We decided to start making baby food a bit earlier this time around because of this.  Honestly, the kid loves food!  She sits with us at every meal and gets bites from everyone and will yell when she doesn't.  Her favorite- vegetables- and I mean any vegetable.  I was thrilled to see teeth coming in because the lack of them was holding her back from eating things she clearly wanted to try.  God bless having a good eater!

To end the month, Sadie had one more first- her 1st snow!  Now, this isn't too exciting for any child under a year, but it is awfully fun for their parents!  We got a decent amount of snow here in Reno just this week, so Steve and I quickly put the girls in their new winter duds and headed outside.  This time around, Stella is obsessed with the snow; we can't get her inside without a few tears.  Sadie wasn't too impressed, but she did look awfully cute in her snowsuit!







Well, yet another month has come to pass, and I am in disbelief as to how fast this year has gone.  With the holiday season officially upon us, we are one step closer to the end of the year, and the close of Sadie's 1st year with us.  Even in the last month, she has changed so much.  As each day passes, she continues to get more inquisitive and involved in her world, and more and more she is becoming a little person.  Here she is, our little dear, Miss Sadie Lady:

November 23, 2013

Sadie's 7th Month

Right as Sadie's sixth month ended, we had to quickly get ready for a rather important celebration- Grandpa's 60th birthday!  It's incredible for me to think that my dad is anywhere near this age, mainly because the number is one of those that has seemed so far off all these years.  Grandpa is far too young, vibrant, and athletic to be sixty-- but, I guess I need to adjust my idea of a sixty-year-old.  My parents had remodeled their kitchen over the summer, so the birthday party became an Open House for them to show off the final product.  Literally, they did not even mention his birthday on the invitation.  There were all kinds of wonderful people from my dad's past and present in teaching and coaching, and they really are some of the nicest people you'll ever meet.  It was a wonderful party, and it even ended with cake, candles, and singing Stella's favorite song.  For his present, my mom has decided to get my dad a new puppy!  Dad was beyond surprised, and a bit overwhelmed at the thought of having two dogs, two kids, and a puppy to watch during the week. 

Sadie's six month check-up was right after the birthday celebration.  It's always fun to hear how big she's getting, and it's reassuring to get an "all clear" from the doc.  For the first time ever, this appointment got scheduled at a time when I couldn't go, so Dad had to take Sadie by himself.  As usual, Steve was incredible, and he even called me on my lunch to update me about the appointment.  According to her doctor, Sadie is healthy and growing and progressing beautifully.  She now weighs 16.2 pounds, and is 27 inches long.  Her size continues to outgrow her sister at her age, especially in height!  Sadie remains a little weed growing tall, and continues to stay in that ninetieth percentile in height. 

October has always been our favorite month!  Steve and I love the weather, the color change, the sports, and all the festivities that come in this month.  With kiddos now part of our lives, we now had one more thing for the whole family to enjoy in October- pumpkin patches!  We had taken Stella to Apple Hill last year, but we never sought out a pumpkin patch locally.  I honestly cannot remember the last time I stepped foot on one, but we had a feeling that the girls would enjoy themselves.  Stella loves pumpkins, and most patches are filled with all kinds of fun activities, so we figured we would start looking for a few to check out.

Our first stop ended up being more of a fair than a pumpkin patch, but the activities sounded like ones that Stella would enjoy, so we headed out early on a Sunday to the Verdi Craft Fair.  The elementary school out in Verdi puts on a Halloween Fair every year; we have never attended, but I thought we would give it a try.  There was a little pumpkin patch, all kinds of games, bouncey houses, and children everywhere.  Stella took a brief interest in the pumpkins, but then she found two things that really took her attention- horses and football.  Stella had never seen a horse in person until this day, and she was VERY interested.  She didn't want to take a ride, but she wanted to pet, feed, and generally be next to the horses.  Maybe she's taking after her Auntie Mantha!  Right next to the horses, there was a football tire throw that interested Stella as well.  She has recently become very interested in football, so she really wanted to hold the football and try to throw it through the tire.  For a little person just under two, she already has an arm on her! 

After getting a taste of fall and pumpkin patches, we decided it was time to hit up a legitimate pumpkin patch.  So, we took the short drive over to the Corley Pumpkin Patch in Gardnerville.  This is a pumpkin patch on a farm, so the whole event was pretty special.  I had never heard of so many events on a pumpkin patch, so I thought that this would be a great spot for us to try.  From train rides to horse rides, miniature golf to pig races; there was a lot to do!  I don't think that we even did half of the activities that were offered, but Stella really did enjoy herself, and I enjoyed the beautiful views.  Unfortunately, Steve did not come with us for our first visit, but Grandpa and Nonna made the trip.  We had a noisy, fun trip, and Stella really did have a big day. 

Sadie was definitely starting to realize that in our rather chatty family, everyone has to be a bit more vocal to be heard.  She had found her voice long ago, but this month she actually discovered it for herself.  She started to chatter and "talk" when she wanted things, and really started to let it be known that her voice would be heard.  In all her chatter, we were waiting for her first word to emerge.  Stella said hers right around this age, so we knew that Sadie's chatter would start to come together soon.  During a Sunday football game, Sadie was rocking herself in her pack 'n' play, talking to herself, and all of the sudden her chatter turned into a word-"Dadda!"  She seemed a bit shocked herself, but then she just started repeating the word.  For the rest of the day, she practiced her new word and really honed her first word.

As a parent of two, I have learned that the number one thing that keeps our family together is routine.  We all have our schedules, and we all keep things very routine.  One of the biggest things in our routine has been Stella's swimming lessons.  Every Friday, Stella has swimming lessons, and we all attend as a family.  Steve is in the pool with Stella, and Sadie and I watch from the deck.  Stella has been doing really well and enjoying her Friday nights, but just this month, she celebrated her first graduation!  Stella is now a Level 2 Baby Bear, and she will be moving to a new swimming class.  She got to ring the bell after she passed her swim, and we officially had the first of many graduations in Stella's life.

The morning after the big swim, we were asked to tag along with Grandpa to begin his puppy search.  He decided to take my mom up on her generous birthday offer, and he is looking to get his new addition this spring.  He wanted to start looking at local breeders, and he thought that Stella would like to join him to check out some puppies.  To say the least, I have never seen so many dogs in my life!  The woman we visited is a prestigious breeder who has Labradors from England and Scotland that she uses as her main breeding dogs, and they are by far the most beautiful Labradors I have ever seen in my life.  There were more dogs than a pound, and they just continued to appear from room to room.  They were well-tempered, good-sized, and seriously good-looking dogs.  Stella lost her mind!  Puppies were everywhere, and she was allowed to pet them all.  To say the least, we were grateful that Grandpa invited us to join!

Following our big trip to scout out puppies, we returned home to relax for the weekend.  I realized that even though I was tired, I had two little ladies who still had tons of energy.  How did I know this?  I had two little jumping beans bouncing around my house.  Sadie had really found a ridiculous appreciation for jumping thanks to her Jumperoo, and now she wanted to jump all the time!  She started this day by jumping in my arms, on the ground, and pretty much every chance she got.  Because we were talking about her jumping so much, I think Stella was feeling a bit neglected.  The next thing I knew, she was trying to learn how to jump.  Steve had been practicing with her a lot, and just like that, she was catching air and jumping all over our house.  So, both our girls were literally jumping around every chance they got!

 Speaking of the girls together, the month ended with another reminder that we had sisters in our house.  Stella continues to realize that Sadie is another person to play with, and that she is so close to actually playing with her.  After every nap, Stella wants us to put Sadie in her crib to hang out.  She even tells me, "Bye, bye, Momma," to let me know that she wants to play with Sadie alone.  They are getting cuter and sweeter by the day, and I'm dying for Sadie to be just a bit older so they can really enjoy each other.   




Sadie's seventh month was packed with all things fall, and many reminders that we are lucky enough to share every day with these two little ladies.  Sadie continues to grow and progress each week, and it is crazy to think how close she is to already being one!  We are getting close to many more milestones, but it was incredibly lucky that we were both home and in the room when Sadie decided to share her first word with us.  Here's hoping that we're just as lucky with the rest of her firsts!  Here is Sadie Lady at seven months:

October 23, 2013