Hiking, dancing, and more craftiness

It has been almost a month since I last posted, and of course Sage has grown and changed dramatically since then. She frequently talks in three and four-word sentences, and sometimes even throws in a five-word sentence (example: "Bike ride, hat on head!" Hat = helmet in this case). She talks almost non-stop, so she gets plenty of practice. ;-) She has also been conjugating some verbs, which is pretty phenomenal. Some of her words still bear very little resemblance to the actual English words, but I can carry on quite a conversation with her, since I know what most of her words mean. Her newer words are fairly accurate, but her older words tend to be frozen at an earlier stage of speech. Tickle is still pronounced "ga-ga," for example.

She is a very compassionate and caring little girl, and is currently particularly interested in mother-child relationships. Every animal she sees in real life or in a book becomes a mama, and she always informs me that the mama gives milk to her babies. She also loves to have me nurse her stuffed animals and dolls. Apparently that is fairly normal for a nursing toddler. She has taken to calling her little friends' mothers "mama" too, and she is quick to ask the mamas for help on her fiends' behalf when they need a hand to climb up on something, or to put their little shoes on. My sweet child loves to give and get kisses and hugs, and likes me to rub her tummy and back as she goes to sleep. She has become quite a sweet little companion.

We had an amazing adventure last weekend hiking at Natural Bridge with my mom, Rachael, Emma, and Nadja, my parents' Danish guest. Watch Rachael's blog for more details, but suffice it to say for now that forest fires, dizzyingly steep, sloping, sand-covered rock stairs, and crutches don't mix particularly well. The forest fire was apparently on the other side of the mountain, but we could smell it very well, and it was rather disconcerting. Sage was not concerned, however, and had a grand time hiking. The rest of us enjoyed the ride up on the sky-lift, and the view at the rock bridge, but the descent on foot was a bit stressful. Here are some pictures from that adventure:





We also went to a contra dance that weekend, and enjoyed ourselves very much. Sage danced with me part of the time, and played with Grandma and Emma part of the time. We left at the break, and considered it a very successful dance outing. Here is a picture from the dance. Sage was obviously having a good time:


I've been in a sewing phase recently, and have made Sage a few more dresses. I hope you all won't mind if I show them off a bit. ;-) I think Sage looks awfully cute in little mommy-made outfits.

This one is from the same pattern as the last little dress I made. It matches the beautiful quilt auntie Deborah made for her:

This one is made from a knit fabric (my first attempt at sewing knits), and it is very soft and comfy. Sage chose the colors. She really loves it so far.

Here's the back view with the fun knotted hood:

Here's the most recent one, a wrap-around jumper dress. I just finished it yesterday. It's made from a thick corduroy, so it should be really warm this fall and winter. I really like the way this one turned out:

Please excuse the poor photo quality. I took these last pictures with my cell phone, because my camera batteries ran out.

I'm really enjoying making clothes for Sage. It helps helps ease the stay-at-home-mom syndrome by giving me a product I can show at the end of the day, and giving me an outlet for creative energies. Honestly, my mood has improved dramatically since I started being crafty again. :-)

Just for fun, here's another phone picture of sage running through the grass at the park yesterday:
You can really tell how grown-up she is here. Doesn't she look like a big girl running?!

I think this post is more than long enough, so I'll end it for now. Hopefully for the rest of the month I'll do better about keeping up the blog.

Ta-ta!