Ike - STILL!

We STILL!!! do not have internet at home so no flickr or posts -- but I have saved up so many photos and movies and posts - when I do get back online -- there will be a lot to catch up on! Stay tuned....

Sadie is 8 months!

Slow down! It is going too fast! What a fun month August was!!

Some of Sadie's favorites this past month:
The buttons on our music box, seeing pink baby in our crib at night, pointing, music class, banging on the coffee table, Shiloh, going up stairs, swimming, drumming, toys that make noise, standing, "mummum", "dada", moving, "GO"!

Jared observed: at 8 months - she stood on her own in the middle of a room.

My favorite things:
--Checking in: Sadie is amazing at entertaining herself (all while noisily "singing"). She plays by herself and goes exploring and then she will come back and "check in" with me. She will come over and put her head on my back or leg or tug on my pants and then she is gone again.
--Hearing her chatter in her crib
--Observing Sadie testing her limits, marveling at her determination
--Our first music class back from Maryland, Sadie had only been really crawling for like a week and the instructor put the large drum in the center of the class and Sadie crawled over to the drum and proceeded to climb up on top of it and sit drumming.
--This month it became more and more obvious that she would remember things from previous interactions and she would delight in finding them again.
--I think this was the month when it seemed like she was just growing and changing daily. Her ability to grasp cause and effect became remarkable. I wrote in my journal: confidence, enthusiasm and meaning.
--I also wrote: "Sadie does not seem to know that you are suppossed to pause and reflect on one's development." It is scary that there is seemingly no pause between her learning new skills - I think of her development like one of those diagrams of early humans to erect humans -- only there is only a nighttime between each evolution not eons.

A Visit from Charles Walker Jackson (and Jimmy and Carolyn)

Cousin Charles Walker Jackson came to visit us in Houston. We had a fun visit with Jimmy, Carolyn, Lola and Charlie. We hope Charlie will come back soon - we promise no more pinching!

In Awe...

Here are the notes I jotted down this week:

Monday: kneeling, standing, leaning
Tuesday: Watched as she puts pressure on things to stabilize (learned downward pressure works on dining chairs does not work on Shiloh)
Wednesday: Dropping objects, leaning to pick them up, trying to pull up with object
Thursday: Sitting slowly backwards, shifting weight
Friday: Transferring weight on her feet, objects in hand while standing
Saturday: Confidence with one hand...testing the weight of objects...
Sunday: No hands! Transferring objects between hands while standing

I spent the week - every day for her 11 awake hours -- quietly four to ten feet away from Sadie as she got her first "wings". I just sat in the background and observed. It was perhaps the most amazing week of my life. I was drawn into her determination, her logic, her strength, her determination and patience... and I just sat quietly as she tested laws of physics she knows nothing about and over a true week transformed herself from being grounded to being physically independent and (I know too) from being a dependant to being an individual.

My Summer By Shiloh Jackson

This summer started out with much promise. Lazy May days and nice outdoor adventures. Luckily I sleep a lot (my favorite spot is on the couch when They are not looking or under the office chairs, although that spot is quite dangerous, I like to be close to feet.) because my favorite time of the day is late night/early morning - 2 - 3 am when the little one is asleep and They are downstairs working. I like to come in the room and just stare at Them for no reason at all. I also like to suddenly run thru the house, charge upstairs and flop on my bed.
I really like Frisbee and walking in the park. I like family couch time with just the three of us. In July, They took me to a new dog park with a cement pond. Also in July, the little one started to get really loud - flapping her arms like an excited chicken and making all sorts of sounds - sometimes like a purring cat and sometimes like a loud, screeching bird. I like to lick her. She smells nice and new so she is alright.
Then They left me. I had a good time with Susan and Jim and Nell but I missed Them --even the little one.
Then They came back. I was so excited to see Her when She came home - She immediately gave me lots of hugs and scratched right behind the ear - the kind of scratch that make my head tilt.
Then They set the little one on the floor and wouldn't you know, with arms flapping and excited chirps and laughter, that little one came right at me. Since last week I have had to share my duck and my bed and have also lost little hand fulls of hair. They call her the little kamikaze. She likes to grab me and pull up on me which is usually when I walk away. I am also losing sleep since I now have to have one eye open in case she sneaks up on me. But, she still smells nice and new so she is alright. So I am happy They are back - even the little one.

By Shiloh.

Sadie and Shiloh

I brought home a crawler. You should have heard the squealing and laughing when we got home from Maryland and saw Shiloh. And then Sadie crawled towards Shiloh and a whole new relationship was established. I think we spend a total of two days defined by crawling. Since Sadie sat up so early she never was one to lay down, rolling around - she just always seemed to sit. I remember checking on her at 3 months when we moved her to her crib and I actually saw her asleep in her crib and I reached down and woke her because I was just not used to her being so still. So the pattern continues, just as she got proficient at sitting she wanted to stand. Although she is already a speedy crawler - she prefers to sit up on her knees to investigate and to pull up. Poor Shiloh is our favorite target.

Our last week in Maryland

We went to the Eastern Shore to visit, to the Baltimore Zoo, the pool and saw a few Maryland friends. We love our cousin time. As Martha says, "Sadie loves me!" There are lots of photos on flickr. This trip is too short! Jared did come back to claim us (Yeah! We missed him!) and to visit Maryland for a bit.

I am addicted to the Olympics...

Seriously.. I love them.

An Email Home (8.2.08)

Sadie and I are at the beach (in Deleware for the week) and we are having a wonderful time!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (the condo has blue carpeting which is a big hit for our crawling and pulling our selves up from the floor! -- we are go go go now!!!!) and yesterday we went to the ocean and laughed at the waves. We also loved the feel of sand in our hands but not in our mouth. Cousins Martha and Ginny arrived last night and we are about to head to the beach (They have never been! so Aunt Meg bought sand castle supplies for our first ever sand castles and promised them both a ride on the merry- go -round) Sadie loves people watching on our long (shaded!) walks on the boardwalk and makes new friends everywhere she goes. Mostly we enjoy the blue carpeting and mom as a jungle gym now that we are starting to put all of our limbs together for our new 'tricks'. All of it tires us out completely but we are always a happy happy girl!

We are headed to the beach and I have my camera so lots of pictures to come. Sadie and I took those pictures in the black and white photo booth and they are really funny! We will have to do it every year we go to the beach! I am already excited for all the things Sadie can do at the beach next year! We both love the beach!

My love to all of you and a big grab out to our Shiloh (Every morning we talk about Dada and our 'Lo)

love
Meg and Sadie, the best little lady in the world!

Mommy and Me

I love my little girl.

CRAWLING!

August 1st! Action shot. We will always remember that blue carpeting... We came back from the beach, I put Sadie on the floor in our hotel room and she was gone! I think it was her "Lance" Shirt... There was not even a learning curve - she just went in the other room.

Our first Merry Go Round

First Beach!

On one of our walks in our newly converted stroller.Happy at the beach before a nap under the umbrella.Ready for the beach and the sand!

Grammie, Grandad and Sadie and I went to Rehobeth Beach! Matt,Paula and the girls joined us for the weekend. I loved being able to spend time with Mom and Dad - just filling our days with wandering. We went on morning and evening walks around the town and on the boardwalk - I can't even imagine Sadie's sensory overload! She fell asleep each time we went to the actual beach. She is so friendly - everywhere we went she made new friends. What a wonderful mini-vacation inside an already great vacation visit in Maryland. There are a ton of family photos on flickr.

7 months and August at Shiloh Farm

Sadie and I in Maryland -- our first flight alone. Our vacation was way too short and went way too fast even though we were lucky enough to visit for almost three weeks! We love Shiloh farm! and of course love seeing Grammie and Granddad, Great Grandmom, Matt, Paula, Martha and Ginny! It was so relaxing to sit in the cool weather on our wedding Adirondack chairs, listening to the peepers and watching fire flies (which I miss -- we have mosquitoes in Texas which are not quite as fun!) We were able to visit with a lot of friends but most days we relaxed on the farm and enjoyed our vacation. We missed Jared and Shiloh but we really loved being back east with family.

almost 7 months!

Jared and I have had a busy summer. Jared's business is doing really well - which means he is working a lot...and although I have the summer off from teaching, I am working on finishing up a megapixelstudios project which is taking up my whole summer so far. Sadie and I have been having fun during the days but I am staying up all night working so I am absolutely exhausted. Sadie and I leave next week for Maryland - I hope I can get the project done in time so we can have a relaxing time! We are hoping to take some time off in the fall to do some fun family activities.

Little Miss Sadie

Sadie LOVES swimming and our little pool is shady in the afternoon - we usually go after her 4 pm bottle and come back at 5:30. (before mosquitoes -- she is REALLY allergic!!!!) She is so fun to hang out with right now! She is amazing with her sitting, reaching and all of her hair coming in... she changes so much so quickly!

Teeths!

It has been a tough few weeks as Sadie's first teeth come in. She is a trooper but there is a little more drool, a lot of raspberries and so many funny faces. I finally got a picture of those bottom teeth in the last image.

Faceoff!

At 6 months -- Sadie is almost crawling... She loves lunging at Shiloh..Most of the time Sadie gets on her belly and reaches for things or actually lunges - pulling her upper body all the way off the floor at the same time propelling herself forward -- chin first. She can also scoot backwards and in a circle. She can get to a seated position and then she sits and rocks forwards.. I have caught her a couple of times briefly rocking on to all fours...She is also very loud. She screeches if Shiloh is near and hums or does a constant raspberry when she is content. She can sing several strung consonants although dada is her favorite. When she gets really tired she will do a mama type song. Her favorite toys are ones that she can make make noise and anything that she can bang. She sits and entertains herself for hours, manipulating small toys, all while "singing" and talking. (I am not sure if this is unique for this young a child but I love to just watch her -- wondering what she is thinking as she sits, humming, closely examines items...)

JULY - Swimming

The second week of July - Sadie and I watched the US Swim trials (I love to watch swimming!) and we went to swim class and our pool. Here are pictures from our first swimming experience. We LOVE the water!
This is right before we got in the pool for the first time. We take our swimming very seriously.We love it! Tongue is out so it must be good! Very relaxed..
Splashing is SO much fun!
Drying off after our first swim!It is so hot here so Sadie and I have started swimming at our pool in the afternoons. Her favorite is humpty dumpty on the wall. She is so comfortable in the water - I hold her belly and she loves to kick and go go go.

Our Highchair arrived!...

...if we only liked solids...