Summer Retrospective

Well it's been 3 months since I've updated Sage's blog now. I thought some of you might be interested to see what she's been up to this summer. Those of you who are on Facebook may have seem many of these, but I realize that not everyone participates in that, so here are some repetes, and some new gems.

We'll start with a few from a funky little zoo in WV that we visited on the way up to Ethan Morris' wedding in PA. This was back in May, but I just realized we never posted them.

This zoo had PVC pipe tubes through which you could feed the animals a variety of snacks (provided for a fee at the entrance) These included popcorn, moon-pies (no joke), and little pellats called zoo biscuits. This last option looked the healthiest to us, so we bought a cup full (we still have the souvenir cup). Here are Sage and Aren feeding an Andes Black Bear:


Here she's feeding a very cute little pygmy goat:
Then she ran out of zoo biscuits, so she fed a rock to another goat. He didn't eat it.
And here she's feeding some hay to a mule. We got some more zoo-snacks after this.

And here she's reaching high to feed the grizzly bear.
Here are some pictures taken by Grandma Jan in June:


This is one of my favorite pictures of Sage of all time:
And another of my favorites. Thanks Jan!

A trip to the Zoo with Grandma Jan:

Here Sage is showing me her berry-stained fingers after a trip to our CSA farm.

And the berry smile:Posing outside in her pretty, pink dress:


Here is Sage in pursuit of a bubble at Cumberland Dance Camp in July. Click on the image to see the bubble more clearly.
And finally, here are some from the recent trip to MN (mid-September). Isn't she looking grown up?

"Mama, come look! I made a house!":
These are from the Minnesota Renaissance Festival where we went with Grandma Jan and Grandpa Darrell.



Thanks for checking folks! Here's hoping I'll find time to update the blog again before christmas!

Playing Catch-up

Here are some late pictures from the last few months. More later.

Here are some pictures of 25-26 m/o Sage for your April enjoyment. :-)


Showing off her mohawk in the bathtub:
crossing her legs very properly and eating a dried apricot (one of her new favorite snacks):Enjoying her orange tea and cranberry-oat sourdough scones for breakfast this morning:

She requested to put on her mei-tai with Bear:
And nursed him in it (I think I'm raising my child right, don't you think?):
Hamming it up:

Here, she's demonstrating that you can even jump on the couch while babywearing:
And of course you can sweep the floor while babywearing:
Here she's demoing a back-carry with Rudy the dog:Rudy also got to ride in her little pouch for a few moments:

I LOVE my baby girl :-)

Watch Out, Everybody! She's Two!

Well folks, I've done it again. I've slacked off and waited much to long to update Sage's blog. In my defense, she really doesn't give me much time to use the computer. Any of you that have had a 2 year-old will certainly understand. :-) She can be so amazingly sweet one moment, and then make me pull my hair out the next. But she's very helthy, and smart, and we have everything to be greatful for. At her two year check-up she was measured at 25lbs and 34 inches, which puts her in the 25th percentile for weight and the 75th for hight. In other words, she's absolutely beautiful and perfect. She's talking more and more coherantly, singing more and more songs, and sometimes sleeping most of the way through the night. ;-)

Finally, here are some recent pictures.

A couple from the park about 3 weeks ago:

This picture is from her actual birthday (not the day of the party). Aren's aunt Karen brought over a very nice gift, and a little cupcake to celebrate the day. Sage enjoyed licking the icing. :-)

Here are a couple of pictures of Sage with Rusty, my folks' new puppy. He is an amazingly sweet, affectionate, calm little fellow, and he suits them perfectly. Sage was quite taken with him too.

Grandma Jan and Grandpa Darrell sent her a really awesome wagon for her birthday. Sage LOVES it! We took a walk with it even though it was quite cold this weekend. The wagon is great for this because she could totally bundle up in blankets.

She was fast asleep by the time we got back from our (rather quick) walk. ;-)

Close-up of her sweet sleeping face:

Here's a video from her birthday party. She was a little overwhelmed by all the people looking at her, as you can tell, but she really did enjoy her party. :-)

(for whatever reason, blogger isn't letting me embed this video right now)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KHxXCdbtmnM

I'm hoping Grandma Alice will send some more pictures our way, so that I can put up a few more. (hint, hint)

Otherwise, till next time!

Hazel

Holiday Magic

I must preface this entry by saying that Sage has developed a rather intense dislike of having her mama work on the computer, so this will be a bit of a glossing over of a large expanse of time. I have high hopes of this being only a passing phase, so that I can do a bit better keeping up with the blog in the future. :-)

I do have much to share: In the speech department, 22 m/o Sage is saying more and more extended sentences. I think I counted a 9-word sentence a week or so ago. She can sing the full alphabet song (I'll try to get a video of this soon!) as well as other songs like Baa Baa black sheep and The Itsy Bitsy Spider. She's starting to use pronouns, "I want that", and often says please and thank you without prompting.

Cognitive developments: She has begun playing pretend in full force. She rocks, feeds, bathes, and nurses her dolls, cooks on her new Christmas stove, and plays actively with her new Christmas doll house. Perhaps her favorite Christmas present is a set of wooden "cuttable foods" which she enjoys cutting, eating, and sharing with friends and dolls. Here's a little video from Christmas morning:


motor skills: She can build tall towers of blocks, as shown here:

She can also spin on one foot, and has added that to her charming dance repertoire. Here's a video of her dancing for us just after watching the Nutcracker ballet:


Here's another video of Sage and cousin Adelie dancing together (taken with our far superior new digital camcorder! Thanks, Aren!)


We spent Thanksgiving in Kentucky with the Whites, AND Grandma Jan, Grandpa Darrell and Uncle Eric came down too, so Sage got to be with everyone for her second Thanksgiving! We all had an absolutely wonderful time visiting. Christmas was in Minnesota/North Dakota, but we got to be at the Wartmans for the McLain Christmas too. The travel was rather stressful, but it was worth it to spend such special times with loved ones whom we don't see near often enough.

Here are some various pictures from Thanksgiving through Christmas:

Decorating Christmas cookies with Emma:

Getting ready for the big plane trip with her new backpack:

What a cute little traveler!

Getting into her stocking on Christmas Morning:

Look, she got a cow!!Here she is with her brand new baby doll, made by mama:

Here she's rocking her new baby. How sweet she is!

Fall Fun

I just wanted to pop in and share some pictures from last weekend. More updates later...

Haloween--Sage was a garden elf:
Hiking with the whites on Saturday:




Trying on the beautiful kimono granddaddy brought back for Sage from Japan. So beautiful!! Emma has one too!