Thanksgiving Weekend

Sage's first Thanksgiving was wonderful. Grandma Jan, Grandpa Darrell and Uncle Erik came down from Minnesota, and Sage was lucky enough to spand the holiday with her parents, her aunts, her uncle, both sets of grandparents, and her great-grandma Betty! Here are a couple of action pics as well as a big family portrait.





Since Jan, Darrell and Erik were down from Wednesday night till Sunday morning, we were able to spend a lot of very special time with them, and Sage got reacquainted with them all. Thank you all three for making the trip down! We hope we'll see you again before long.

1st Annual Holiday Cabin Trip

I'm a little behind in my posting, but I wanted to share some pictures from the weekend before last when Sage went to a cabin in Red River gorge with her mommy, Grandma Alice, Grandaddy Al, Aunt Rachael and Aunt Emma. Daddy had to stay home and do school work. Poor Daddy! We decided we should make this a new tradition. Hopefully next year Daddy can come too!

Fridge 'o Photos

I just wanted to share today's project. We put big pictures of Sage's close family tree on the fridge, so we can talk about everyone, and remind her of her loving relatives. She really likes it! She seems especially interested in Grandaddy Al's picture. She touches it, and really studies it more than the others.

Whew, 3 posts in one day! That's a record!!

Edited to add: For the edification of all who don't know the whole family, starting top row from left: Emma White, Rachael White, Erik Jodock; Bottom row: Al White, Alice White, Hazel Jodock, Sage Jodock, Aren Jodock, Janice Jodock, Darrell Jodock.

Reminisce with me!

It seemed sad not to include any early pictures of sage, so I figured I'd go back in time a little, and reflect on how she's grown. Here's a picture of mommy and daddy the day I was pretty sure I was pregnant. Only Aren and I knew at this point. Can you tell we have a secret? I look a little tired. Huh, I wonder why...
By the time I took this one, it was pretty clear to everyone. :-) Just a couple weeks prior to this, I was at Christmas Country Dance School. I felt a little obvious, and got pretty tired out, but I was glad I went. People there were certain Sage was going to come early after all that dancing. :-) Here I am at 37 weeks prego:

Here's a sweet one of Sage at one day old. She's lying in daddy's hand. Look how big his hand seems compared to her tiny head. Her little arms are lost in the "huge" newborn-sized outfit! She was only 3 days early, but was a petite 6lbs, 3oz. Grandma went out and bought us a few little preemie outfits that she wore for the first couple weeks.

I love this one of her cuddled up to her mommy. Even this young, she already looks like herself! My favorite thing to do in these early weeks was to rub my nose in her hair and breathe in her sweet scent. It was so calming, and filled me with the warmth of mommyhood. Actually, I still do this!

This one is one of my all time favorites. She's so sweet and peaceful in dreamland. I took this picture when I was staying in Berea with my parents for the weekend. Daddy had to go to Chicago for a work training, and it was just too early to be home by myself. It was wonderful to have my parents close enough that I could do this!

It's hard to imagine how much she's changed in only a few months! Now she's nine months old, and she has such a personality. She has already learned to be silly, and to do things just to make me laugh. We had quite the giggle party today at lunch time! I really am enjoying each stage, but I can understand why people say it just keeps getting better and better!

Big Weekend

Sage started off the weekend with her first stomach bug. Yuck! She threw up lots and had a really tough time on Friday. Fortunately she was over it within 12 hours. Then Saturday evening we went to a game night, and Sage got to play with her little friends, James, Lily, Alex and Bryce. Gosh, I hope she wasn't contagious still!!! She also managed to get a really mean diaper rash, which we are still recovering from. So Sage is going old-school cloth diapering today: prefolds and pins! Her nice fitteds are in the wash, and I don't want to put covers on her because I want her little bottom to breathe. Plus this way we can tell right away if she pees. This was Grandma Alice's suggestion. Last night mommy and daddy let her crawl around diaper free! That was a pretty messy solution, though. I have to say, prefolds are awfully darn cute on my little baby!

Perfection

Grandma Alice took this picture of the most beautiful little baby in the world. She just exudes perfection. Don't you think?



We spent Saturday evening in Berea, and were thoroughly entertained By Sage. She played some lovely pieces on the piano:


And applauded herself after each (short) piece:


She also danced for us! Here she is dancing Ring Around the Rosie with mommy:


"We all fall down!"

And she dazzled us all with her sweet smiles, and lovely disposition:


Thank you Grandma for the beautiful photography!

Halloween

Sage went trick-or-treating last night, though she didn't carry a little pumpkin, or anything. We figured that would just be silly, since she wasn't going to eat any candy. She did get one piece from a family who seemed intent on giving her some, and she chewed on the wrapper all the way home. We went along with our friends Bill and Jen and their son, Tyler, who was collecting candy dressed as Spider Man. Here is a picture of Sage in her Halloween costume:


Oh wait, that's a real diamondbank terrapin. Here's Sage:


I spent an inordinate amount of time making her costume--especially since very few people actually saw it, and it was dark. I made the shell so that it could either go on the mei tai carrier or directly on her body. Here's a close-up of the shell in better light:

It's made of three layers of fleece painted with fabric paint. I'm hoping she can use it for dress-up when she gets older. I spent way too much time on it for it to be a one-use-wonder. It was a fun night, though! I wish I'd gotten a picture of Sage and Tyler together. Ah well, there's always next year, right Bill and Jen? ;-)