Trying to get a decent shot

You might think that capturing Sadie's milestone photos are a quick and easy deal.

Clearly, they are not.

I submit these photos to you as evidence.

Most of the pictures I take turn out fuzzy. She doesn't stop moving.

But every now and then...

something turns out right. Still...

I love 'em all.

Sadie's Seven-Month Milestones

(Nine days late...but better late than never...)

Weight: 18.5 pounds

Sadie can...

* crawl FAST
* pull herself up to standing easily
* climb the stairs on her own
* pick up tiny objects between her finger and thumb (and put them in her mouth)
* play on a drum

Sadie can almost...

* walk while holding onto something
* eat little pieces of bread or fruit

Our Little Miss really likes pumpkin, squash, avocado, and bananas. She wrinkles up her nose and starts sniffing madly when you make her eat peas or green beans...but she will still open her mouth and swallow them.  And she has a whopping FIVE teeth, with two more about to pop through any time.

When on the lower level of our house, she will beeline to the stairs and scurry up them as fast as she can. Going down is another story...she hasn't figured out how to turn around and go down backwards. She appears determined to make a way face first.

She really, REALLY hates being contained. Leave her in her crib a smidge too long, and she will not occupy herself (Benjamin would play with the lighted music box), no, she will wail as if we had abandoned her, no, tied her up in fact, in a dark alley. The emotional pain, the very personalization of this most intentional rebuff resounds in her cries.

Such is her response to being in the stroller. She's good for about 20 minutes, and then she wants to run free with the ladybugs. Highchairs and playpens receive the same response.

So this girl is a mover and a shaker. Not so much interested in visually grasping her environment as crawling around it.

Lately, as she has gotten so wiggly on the changing table, I have been singing to her during diaper changes and other fussy moments. She loves it. She stops and stares, and then this little smile creeps across her face and her eyes sparkle. Especially when I sing songs with her name in them.

I am pretty sure she waved at me (intentionally) the other day, but as this experience has not been repeated since, I am not positive she knows how to wave. We'll see. You can try waving at her - perhaps you'll get a wave back.


Want to see how far Sadie's come?
Six-Month Update,  Five-Month Update,   Four-Month Update,  Three-Month Update,  Two-Month Update,  and  One-Month Update.

**Note: I am photographing Sadie each month in this chair. Look at past months to see how she's grown!

A little something...

It ain't much, but I feel badly that these updates come so slowly these days. Everyone in our house was sick for the better part of a month. Benjamin's start in preschool has allowed me to take on more exercise and home cookin' (canning hot peppers, pureeing squash, roasting pumpkins and making baby food). But all of that has left me even more tired by the end of the day. And Sadie, well, that girl is already climbing the stairs proficiently. Keeps me on my toes. Anyway, here are a few pics.

These two goofballs...Benjamin looks for opportunities to copy Sadie. Sadie looks for opportunities to be more like Benjamin. So here's one view of what was going on.

And here's the other. Sadie's always on the hunt for something to sink her five teeth into.

Coming soon...a bit about Benjamin's preschool and why I like Montessori, Sadie's 7-month pictures and milestones, some cute end-of-summer photos from last month, what I have learned from my garden, and more photos that have been languishing on my computer waiting for an audience.

Speaking of audiences, these two always seem to think they have one...

Two More Toofers!

Little Miss Bright Eyes has two more teeth! These top front teeth made their slight appearance a couple of days ago; they are still more easily felt than seen. Sweet Sadie has a total of four teeth now.

Nuts! No nuts allowed...

The preschool Benjamin is attending is super strict about nuts. If there are no nut-allergies present in their students I just don't see the need, but then again, perhaps I am being insensitive. I'm just having a hard time being creative about lunch substitutes for his beloved peanut butter sandwich. Nuts are a major part of Benjamin's protein intake - he even walks around the house clutching a Costco-sized bag of raw almonds in his fist. Our favorite bars are raw nut and fruit-based - Lara Bars. What is there, if not nuts?

Well...he also loves bread products. The problem is, a diet of bread and crackers is never going to pack the nutritional punch that a growing boy needs. (Nevermind the detrimental effects of white flour and refined sugar.)

So I checked in this nifty little cookbook for some healthier ideas and found "Spicy Pumpkin Muffins".  In case you are not familiar with agave nectar, it is kind of like honey - a natural sweet nectar produced by the agave plant. Like honey, it is raw and unprocessed - it is healthier for your body. Refined (white and brown) sugar actually acts as a poison in our bodies, exacerbating all kinds of afflictions:  MS, cerebral palsy, cancer and so on. Raw, naturally occurring sugars such as honey and agave (and what is naturally found in fruit, carrots, snap peas and the like) take longer to break down and do not tax our system. There's a lot more to it than that, but I'm trying to keep it simple. Just search on the effects of refined sugar and see what you find.

So, being that I have mass quantities of roasted pumpkin puree made from pumpkins in the garden, I thought I would try out the pumpkin muffins. Here's the recipe. But first...the book can be found easily online, by author Ania Catalano. 

1 c. oat flour
1 c. barley flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp sea salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp cloves
1/4 tsp allspice (I chose to use ginger instead - 1/2 tsp...just because I like ginger better than the clove-allspice flavor)
1/2 c. milk or unsweetened soy milk
1 large egg, beaten
1/2 c. amber agave nectar (I actually mixed agave and honey and used slightly less than called for)
1/4 c. expeller-pressed canola oil
2 tsp vanilla
2 c. pumpkin puree
1/2 c. raisins
1/3 c. walnuts (I used sunflower seeds to avoid the nut issue)
1/4 c. raw pumpkin seeds (I used these, but I don't like them - too big for a muffin)

Bake at 350 for 25 minutes. (Actually...I baked mine for about 45 minutes. not sure what the problem was.)

Tasty lunchtime treat! Packed with fiber and nutrition.

WWBUT: Being Hot and Sick

What We've Been Up To...

Yes, the inhabitants of The P-Pod have been battling head colds and fevers for close to two weeks now. The Papa, Kid Sunshine, and Bright Eyes had about ten miserable days where Mama nursed them the best she could. Now Mama is in the throes of nasty head cold misery, and everyone else is on the mend. Not well, but better. This has been a strong bug.

But who wants to look at pictures of sick people? Let's look, instead, at how we have been keeping less hot these days:

Miss Sadie is sporting the wet-hair-and-sitting-in-front-of-the-fan look.

Of course, she can only sit so long before she attempts to stick her fingers in the holes or bite the cord. (She loves going after cords these days.) But it does make her happy!  (That, and getting into the folded laundry behind her...)

First Day: Preschool

Another milestone. Today we packed a lunch (a pumpkin muffin, sliced apples, and vanilla yogurt), a bag with a spare change of clothes (his initials written on the tags), and a box of wipes and tissues for the class stash, and headed off to school. Benjamin was sporting a new haircut and lunchbox, while wearing an old, slightly stained shirt. (Mama was so busy trying to negotiate all the extras this week, that she plain forgot to do his laundry!) We remembered to brush his hair and apply sunscreen, and almost forgot to brush his teeth (a rush job in the car a few seconds before leaving).

In true Benjamin fashion, he marched right into his classroom without saying goodbye. I peeked in to see if he would turn around and I could whisper or wave, but he was captivated by the circle of kids sitting on the floor listening to a story. I love that this school has such a calm and inviting atmosphere that he is not intimidated to enter a room with a dozen other children in it. I also love that my boy is interested enough in life that he does not cling to me.

This is a much needed new thing. Benjamin has been feeling the struggle of sharing attention with Sadie. He is also bored at home. I have gotten lazy about doing new things around the house with him. I am realizing that as he has gotten more self-sufficient, I have become more accustomed to letting him fend for himself while I accomplish tasks (to the extent that I can with Sadie around). That's good for his own self-reliance...not good for a boy who is smart, bored, and needing people time. I hope that these three half-days a week at school will give him the mental stimulation and the making-friends time that he needs, while I get tasks done around the house. Then perhaps I can be a better mama to him when he is around, and he will be less needy. All around good stuff, I think.

And now...off to update this blog, clean the kitchen, feed Sadie, and perhaps make it to the grocery store. Can't wait to hear how my little boy's day went!