The Blue Dress Photo Shoot

 
A friend of mine makes sweet dresses for little girls: AlexaIdolina on Etsy. She asked me to photograph some of her collection on Sadie, and of course I said, "Yes!"

I can't not share these beautiful photos of Miss Sadie Lou, so hang in there. I'm posting a lot today.

Note: For the purposes of showing off the dress there were a lot more full body shots. But I had to take some that focused on her face just for me!

New Hair

It was necessary. Necessary to take inches off the top. There's only so much smelly-head a mama can take, when Lovely Boy freaks out about getting his hair washed every. single. time. So Mama did it. Chopped and chopped. And then Lovely Boy discovered hair product.

Mama's favorite

Mama was thinking about just adding some volume and intentionality to the do. But then Lovely Boy said something like, "I want it to make a straight line down my head." It seemed that he was asking for a faux-hawk.

Does he look a little like he could play the son of an Irish thug in a movie? I think he kind of has that look now.

Of course we had to take photos this morning. That looking-out-of-the-tops-of-his-eyes thing is all him.

As is the expression below:

Truth be told...Mama really just wanted to see more of his beautiful eyes and brows and the hair was in the way. Problem solved!

Take My Picture, Mama!

Before Sadie came along, Benjamin was in the habit of running away from the camera, acting super silly, or wiggling non-stop.  If I asked him to be still, he would wiggle worse. I guess there is an upside to sibling envy - the more photos I take of Sadie, the more Benjamin wants his photo taken. And when I have to walk away because he won't sit still, he urgently pleads that I come back: "I'm ready now, Mama!!!!"

Yesterday I saw them sitting together and decided to snap a photo...if possible. Sadie is constantly moving and most of her pictures are completely blurry.  But I got one, just one, of the two of them. And I got one, just one, of Sadie on her own. But Benjamin sat still for a series with his monkey, and those turned out really cute. Enjoy!

Big Boy Adventures

Our boy is old enough now that people want to take him out without Mama. On Saturday, Auntie Bek and Uncle Mike took him to the Safari Park. And today Uncle Amal and cousin Judah took him fishing. It's good fun for everyone.

So while he is waiting to be picked up for an adventure, Benjamin reads. Thanks to Uncle Todd and Aunt Christie, one of his favorite selections these days is Waldo. Oh, how he loves to search the pictures for all manner of oddity! In fact, Waldo is not even the star - all the quirky scenes submerged in the chaos are what he seeks. But he gladly sets aside his books for a real life adventure.

Sadie's 12-Month Milestones

This post celebrates what she's been able to do in her 12th month -

either just before or just after she turned one year old.

Weight: 22.8 pounds

Sadie can...

* walk AND run!
* say "mama" and "dia-po" (diaper) and "waya" (water), use "all done" in a variety of situations (like when she's done with her nap or a toy or drinking her water)
* throw her toy down and sing "uh-oh" (this is a favorite game now)
* sing with me or to music
* "help" you get her dressed by offering up her arms, legs or feet
* play "so big" by throwing her hands up over her head
* drink from a sippy cup
* play "peek-a-boo"

Sadie can almost...

* go down the stairs backwards

In other news:

Sadie is presently cutting in about FOUR teeth at once.

She recognizes (and is delighted by) aunties and uncles and grandmas and grandpas.

She likes to play the piano, spin around in circles, throw herself on the carpet to roll around, and laugh hysterically with her brother. She's also into teasing - she will run towards you, then run away. Or she will poke her head around a corner until you see her, and then she'll dart off shrieking with laughter.

Want to see how far Sadie's come?

11-Month Update,   Ten-Month Update,   (I missed the nine-month!),   Eight-Month Update,   Seven-Month Update,   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 for one year. Look at past months to see how she's grown!

Vitamin D

LP: Mama, I'm just gonna take my shirt off.

Mama: Oh, yeah?

LP: Yeah. (removing his shirt) I just need to get some Vitamin D. My body is telling me I need some Vitamin D.


** Can you tell we've been talking about vitamins and being healthy lately?

Bittersweet Goodbye

Sadie is officially off the bottle. On one hand - I am elated. Somewhere around the second month of her life I started daydreaming about the day that would mark the end of bottle-washing. But then...the day came. And it means our little girl, our walking, babbling, sippy-cup-drinking girl is no longer a baby. Wow. That went FAST.

Bon voyage, bottles.

Valentine's Day Recap

Let's play catch up. Valentine's Day is a nice place to start. We actually did something fun this year.

We kicked off the day with some heart-shaped multi-grain pancakes.

LP: Thank you, Mama, for making me a heart-shaped pancake!  I LOVE it!

It was not a school day for Benjamin, so we joined our friends who ambitiously put on a Valentine's party for a bunch of one to four-year-olds.

The photo backdrop was a great idea except that we couldn't get everyone to stand still long enough to take a photo.

These lips? Just plain scary, is what I think.

I tried and tried to get a good photo of my kiddos together, but this was all I could manage:

A decently healthy lunch was served, and the kiddos did a decent job of sitting there and eating it.

Here are the two Sadies. Yep...there's another one in our circle of friends.

And the final moment of chaos of the day: passing out Valentines. Yeah, the kids pretty much just wanted those lollipops the entire time.  Hope your day was just as fun!

Just Reading

Wednesday morning, as The Papa and I were preparing breakfast and feeding Sadie in the kitchen, we noticed it was awfully quiet. I asked The Papa if Benjamin was up yet, and he said yes. As this type of silence is not usual for our boy in the morning, I went to investigate. This is what I found.

Mama: What are you doing?

LP: I'm reading with my bear and my zebra.

But of course.

Picking Oranges

Earlier this week, Benjamin and Sadie decided to go pick oranges at Auntie Bek's house. It was kind of a gloomy, damp day, but we were in need of the vitamin C. 

See, we recently had a conversation that went something like this:

Mama: (peeling and cutting up oranges for breakfast) Mmmm...oranges. Oranges give us vitamin C. Mmmm...oranges are so sweet and delicious. We are so fortunate to have oranges. They help us avoid getting scurvy.

LP: What's scurvy, Mom?

Mama: It's a sickness.

LP: What kind of sickness?

Mama:  Well, people who spent a lot of time on boats crossing the ocean would get scurvy. They would go for long periods of time without fruit, and that made them sick.

LP: Like pirates?

Mama: Yes. And explorers.

LP: I don't want scurvy.

Mama: Well, if you eat lots of oranges, you won't get scurvy.

LP:  I am going to eat LOTS of oranges! I will NOT get scurvy!

Little does he know, almost no one gets scurvy anymore. Heh, heh.

The guy below was a lot more help than our little miss. But that's not surprising.

She preferred to explore every single step and dirt patch she could find.

Benjamin held the bags for a while and then scampered off calling out, "Take a picture of meeeeeee, Mama! Take a picture of meee!" and making absurd faces while stretching his hat into unnatural proportions. I don't think that hat will ever be the same.

Does this remind anyone else of a giraffe drinking from a pond?

 And, really, I think we need a good caption for the next photo. I mean, he is so over Sadie's step-climbing shenanigans.

And that's that, folks! After much rolling down the steep lawn, we took our bags of oranges and lemons and headed home (muddy and wet and with runny noses).