Sadie is Even More Adorable than All That

Of course as soon as I posted, I thought of a few more things and she did a few more things and now I’ve got to get them down.

1. We’re doing a thing where we sign and say “I love you” together. One of us usually initiates it but sometimes she does, and she makes the cutest little “love” gesture and has even started saying the word “love,” and then is extremely exuberant about the “you,” stabbing her finger at you like she’s fencing and drawing out the word “you” like a victory cry.

2. We went to the UPS store and she kept getting upset at the door. It took me a while but I finally realized that she was upset that people kept leaving without properly interacting with her or saying goodbye. She was very pleased when one man did.

3. A few months ago, we took the girls to a Chicago Wolves (minor league hockey) game. I don’t think anyone in the whole arena was having as good a time as Sadie. The crowd, the music, the excitement, the popcorn – it was all exactly her wheelhouse. Plus the family behind us was quite enchanted with her and interacted with her a lot, even letting her play with their foam hockey puck. She even seemed invested in the game.

4. She also went wild when we took her to mini-golf a couple of weeks ago. Balls, first of all, are wildly exciting to her. Watching all the action was greatly engaging. She loved swinging her club around. I did have to take her down to the practice green because Dad, Jason, Zoe, and Otis couldn’t really play with her running around the green and getting in the way of their balls and clubs. She loved the practice green. Then when we rejoined them, she was wildly enthusiastic about every aspect of the game and the grounds. I mean, “wildly enthusiastic” is sort of her default setting, but this was especially exciting for her.

5. She also loves performances of any kind, to the point where she needs to be taken out of them. At Zoe’s 4th grade Shabbat service, she kept running in front of the bimah and shouting “Ta-da!” at the congregation. At Zoe’s recent school play, Sadie expressed her amazement and excitement for all of the goings-on that I had to take her in the hall, because parents were glaring at me. She gets so dramatic, holding her hands to her face Kevin Arnold-style, with great big gasps, and then pointing and shouting, like, “Can you believe it, Mama?! There are people! On that stage! They sing and talk and dance! Oh my goodness I’ve never seen anything like it!!!”

6. We went to Target on Mother’s Day because what is a day without Target? (We also went to Stephanie Izard’s Little Goat Diner and I had a beer shake, which you would think would be too weird but it was very tasty.) Sadie went wild for the big rubber balls. Our whole trip ended up revolving around which rubber ball she wanted (orange), and walking the ball through through the aisles shouting “Ball! Ball! Mama! Ball!” She got it home and displayed similar enthusiasm, although she mainly likes carrying it, as opposed to bouncing or throwing or catching it.

7. A few months ago, we took her to the Shedd Aquarium. For those of you who are not Chicagoans, I must tell you, I am not normally wild for aquariums. I mean, sure, they’re fine and pretty and whatever. But they’re usually fish swimming around in a tank. But this aquarium is mega-cool. And they have belugas, which is basically enough for me. And a lot of the displays have things that are at Sadie eye-level. Boy, did Sadie love that. Absolute and total astonishment at all of the fish. And then she liked splashing in the touch-the-plastic-starfish section, but she did not like her hand being all wet, so she kept sticking her hand in, and then wiping it on my scarf. It was, as you might imagine, adorable.

8. Have I mentioned how much she loves our friend Otis? She loves our friend Otis so much. Any time Otis is around, Sadie wants to play with him. She laughs and smiles and smacks his face and has the absolute best time with him.

Okay, I think that’s it. For now. She’s a pile of adorable and it’s hard to keep up.

In Other News, Sadie is Adorable

I used to do a lot of this for Zoe (my now nine-year-old, for those of you who don’t know me, which I think is some of you now?), making blog posts of all the ridiculously cute things she did. I haven’t done it for Sadie yet (my one-and-a-half-year-old), because I usually post that stuff to Facebook, but I thought I’d do it here, too, for posterity’s sake.

So what is the adorable little smish up to?

1. A lot of this second-time-around parenting – especially given the age gap – is remembering where and what Zoe was doing around this age, and comparing. So Sadie has fewer words than Zoe did at this age, which I’m assuming is fine. She certainly has a lot of ways of expressing herself and getting her message across, and she seems to understand things we say to her just fine. So what words does she have? Well, her first was “hi,” followed by “hey” and “hello!” Which is really not surprising given her general personality. She is a very social baby. And she has since added “ba-bye!” She also says “no” (and nods her head for yes), various body parts like “head,” “hair,” “ear,” “eye,” “nose,” and “toes.” She can also identify her cheeks, her chin, and her shoulders. She kind of gets her belly, her butt, and her vulva mixed up. But she loves the Belly Button song! She has a lot of prepositions, like “on,” “down,” and “out.” She says “this” and “that”. She identifies dogs with “Woof!” She says “wait, wait,” with her little hand up. “Whee” is the swing. And she makes the little hand gesture and says “C’mere.” She’s got “Mama”, “Dada”, Zoe thinks she’s hearing an “Oh-ee,” and she has said “Ah Kay” for Aunt Kate. Generally speaking, “Mama” is not necessarily me, but “person whose attention I’m trying to get.” She’s also got “more” and something that sounds sort of like “water” which applies to any drink. And Zoe taught her to say “art” when they’re coloring on the easel. We’ve heard “door,” “house,” “doll,” “ball,” and maybe even “baby”. There’s “yay” and “ta-da”, although she hasn’t used those much in a while, preferring to express those sentiments with clapping and general one-syllable, emphatic exclamations. Oh, and of course there’s “mine.” “Mine” is a very important concept.

2. Sadie and Zoe have their little routines together. One is where Zoe goes, “Are you giving me attitude?” and Sadie shakes her hips and goes “Ti-tu!” and then Zoe goes “That’s hi-LAR-ious!” with her hands going above her head and then down, and Sadie goes, “Hi-LAAAR” with the same hand gesture as her sister. And this morning they were doing a thing where they were both going, “Di-doo” over and over again while stomping and shaking their hips. Then they had to do their usual Zoe-going-to-school routine, in which they have to give each other kisses with the door open, then through the screen door, then say “Ba-bye!”, then kiss each other a few more times, either through the glass or with the door open, and then even when I have to command Zoe to get a move on because the bus will be here, Sadie likes to stay by the door waving “ba-bye!” a few more times.

3. She and our cleaning ladies are having an enormous love affair. Sadie gets so excited when they come over, and they just about lose their minds over her. Then they give Sadie cleaning clothes and Swiffer dusters – she knows; if they don’t give them to her right away, or they forget to spray her cleaning cloths, she will remind them – and she cleans alongside them. This week, the lead lady, Erica, was also sort of kissing/tickling her shoulder, and she kept giggling and shrugging away but then, if Erica stopped, she’d point to her shoulder and make a sound to indicate that Erica should keep going.

4. She likes going into the dark upstairs bathroom and then popping out and saying “Hello!”

5. She likes popping out of anywhere and saying “Hello!”

6. She also loves clapping. Clapping goes with any good thing and she will look at you and nod as if to say, “You clap, too.”

7. Her favorite thing to do is those little Mommy & Me classes. We go to our library’s story time, and up until last week we were doing a jBaby Tots & Tunes Shabbat program. She loves the songs, she loves the activities, and she LOOOOOOOVES the dancing. Her moves – especially her extreme hip shakes – get admiration from the crowd. Who can all see her, because in any group, she moves directly to the center of the circle.

8. She’s into books of all kinds. She likes taking grown-up books – one for me, one for her, and “reading” them together.  Her favorite kid’s book to have read to her right now is In the Night Kitchen by Maurice Sendak, which is, as a piece of writing, truly and deeply weird. But it’s kind of fun to say, which was, I think, his point in writing it. And she also likes Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day by Judith Viorst, which I quite enjoy reading out loud, so that’s fun. Her favorite board books have been the Joyce Wan ones, with their adorable illustrations, and I Love You, Stinky Face, which is kind of what Runaway Bunny would be without the creepy factor, and Sandra Boynton’s Blue Hat, Green Hat. 

9. She loves to “get cozy”. She loves to snuggle up on a pillow or some other surface and have someone put a blanket on her. Then she likes to snuggle into that blanket and make this super-smug, pleased face. It’s pretty cute.

10. Have I mentioned her curls and her big blue eyes and her sweet little cheeks and her adorable baby self? Because she’s so cute.

11. She imitates just about anything Zoe does. Today, Zoe was lying on the floor crying because she just had her first truly deep “I’m sad because I finished the book I was reading” moment (such a special moment!) so Sadie lay next to her and cried, too. Then I stood up so Sadie indicated that I should get on the floor with them (“Down! C’mere! Down!” While patting the floor beside her.) So we all cried on the floor until we were laughing.

12. She has friends all over the place. The people who work at The Fresh Market by our house. The waitstaff at our local Egg Harbor Cafe. She was beloved by our Chicago Sinai family and she’s already making herself a part of the Or Shalom family.

13. She likes fist bumps as a method of making friends. But if she gives one fist bump, she must give many fist bumps. Everyone in the immediate vicinity must give a fist bump.

14. She also loves to “cheers” with drinks. Which is adorable until she’s doing so vigorously with the nice wine glasses and the purple grape juice over your cousin’s white tablecloth at your family’s Passover seder. Then it’s nerve-wracking. But also cute.

15. Sometimes she holds my face and mashes her nose against my nose and gives me the sweetest kisses.

16. She likes for people to sit down next to her, say, on the staircase, and then lean back and relax. Or lie down with her on the floor, then go to sleep, then pop heads up together like we’re startled, then lay back down. She also likes to pretend to drink or eat (or actually drink or eat) and then say, “Ah!” with a big grin.

17. She likes making her stuffed animals and toys eat.

18. She’s actually a pretty good eater and even likes broccoli.

19. She had a thing for a while about hugging the newel posts in the stairwell on her way downstairs every morning. It seems gone now but it was cute while it lasted.

20. I particularly love it when she sits on my lap and places my arms around hers. That’s my favorite.

21. She got a Moana beach towel, which she picked out at Target (Well, she wanted any number of Moana things, but I figured we could use another towel.). When we brought it home, she insisted on us draping it around her like a cloak. She indicated that she wanted this by pointing to her shoulders and saying, “On!”

That’s all I’ve got for now – not because it’s all there is, because she is full-time cuteness – but because I am tired. See y’all later.