Sadie 2.5

I haven’t written in a while about Sadie’s stunningly adorable cuteness so I have probably missed a lot. You guys, she is basically (tied for) the cutest creature ever to exist on the planet Earth. IMHO.

So what’s she up to lately?

1. Being the cutest damn smishness in the world. We’ve started putting her in pigtails, in which she claims she looks like a bunny. She also loves putting on crowns and declaring herself a queen and/or a princess.
2. She declares herself to be a queen or a princess a lot.
3. Sometimes she claims to be a monster, or possibly that her name is monster. But also my name is monster. As far as I can tell, being a monster is not a bad thing in her mind.
4. She really loves looking in the mirror or taking selfies. Well, I guess they’re not selfies if I’m pressing the button, but she prefers to take pictures with the camera facing her.
5. She’s still doing the “attitude/hilarious” thing. And the “wait, wait” thing, which was originated by our cleaning lady.
6. Her default setting is still wild enthusiasm. What I like particularly is that she’ll pester you for something – “More milch (milk)? More? More milch? Milch? Milch in (the cup that she’s pointing to)? Milch more milch milch in?” and then when you actually do it, she’ll do her super-surprised big gasp of amazement and delight as if she can’t believe that you got her exactly what she’d been pestering you for and she’s so very pleased.
7. She also has started saying “thank you” and sometimes will blow kisses along with the thank you. And if asked, or if she feels you’re not responding
8. She enjoys being with her sister a lot, and, if she’s in the mood, she’ll be Zoe’s little copycat. Zoe will lead her in dance moves or other activities and it’s pretty great.
9. We went away with our new temple on a little weekend retreat at OSRUI (the URJ’s sleep away camp in the area) and Sadie had the best time of all best times. She played Gaga. She danced her little butt off, at the dance party, or whenever anyone sang and played guitar, or just whenever. She read the prayerbook during services (when she wasn’t dancing or marching through the aisles). Other children chased her and let her pull their hair and helped her do handstands and cartwheels (by which I mean they held body in the right position for her). Zoe played with her and paid her plenty of attention and colored with her and got her a flower from the vases that were out at every meal. She loved it.
10. She’s super into wearing dresses, especially princess dresses, and also she’s super into talking about her dresses. “Dress!” “Yes, you’re wearing a dress.” “Pretty dress!” “Yes, the dress is pretty.” “Cute!” “Yes, the dress is cute.” “Belle dress!” “Yes, it’s a Belle dress.” “Yellow!” “Yes, it’s yellow.” “I princess.” “You sure are.”
11. Many things are pretty, or cute. Just about anything she likes is pretty or cute. Including her butt and her belly.
12. We go to dance class and she is so naughty. All she wants to do is run around the room and smile at herself in the fully mirrored wall, which, as far as she is concerned, is the greatest thing ever. Half the time, she doesn’t want to do any of the things she’s supposed to do, which I find sort of embarrassing, but hey, she’s two.
13. We also used to go to gymnastics class, during which she was very moderately less naughty, if only because it’s a little freer. During the times she actually was supposed to be doing something specific, she only did it if she thought it was fun. If not, she shouted, “No like this!” and ran away. During the song where they sing hello to everyone around the circle, she marched through the circle, waving like a beauty queen at a parade.
14. We got a puppy. Winnie. She is slowly warming up to the puppy. She does not like that the puppy has stolen her sister’s attention, nor does she like it when the puppy tries to play with her as if she is a puppy. But she likes playing tug of war with the puppy, and occasionally she likes petting the puppy. She also very much likes telling the puppy “No.”
15. She does this thing when she’s eating, if she likes what she’s eating, where she makes this big shrug, and then you have to make it too, and then she puts her hands on her hips, and you have to do it, too, and then she makes this huge silly grin with her head cocked to the side. Same series of gestures, every time. Don’t know why. But it’s pretty cute.
16. In our tot/adult class, at the temple where she will go to preschool, she very much likes circle time and saying “Hooray” for everyone who is here today. We went to the preschool classrooms and playground last week and she declared everything “amazing”, which gives me high hopes for the actual beginning of preschool.
17. She loves her sister, but she does not love that her sister loves me. If she sees me and Zoe snuggling, she will bust right into the middle of us and push her sister out of the way.
18. She also doesn’t like it if other people are playing with her sister, and will occasionally push them out of the way and shout, “No! Hoey mine!” Hoey = Zoe.
19. Hadie = Sadie. And she talks about herself in third person a lot. She likes to narrate her activities. “Hadie running. Hadie barking. Hadie dancing. Hadie shake butt!”
20. Zoe taught her to use any stick-like thing as a martial arts weapon, having her hold it between two hands and thrust it out, saying, “Ha!” So she calls these sticks (back scratchers and the like) hahs. And then she starts singing “I’ll Make a Man Out of You” from Mulan and it’s fantastic.
21. We have also started watching The Princess and the Frog. She calls Tiana “Teeny Ana” and we love it.
22. Whenever she’s even slightly moody, she says, “I’m tired.” It’s a sentence I’ve never heard from Zoe, so that’s exciting.
23. Now when she dances and shakes her little booty, she requests that we “smack butt.” So we do. Or at least I do. Because I am an A+ mom.
24. She dances and shakes her little booty a lot.
25. Her cousin Ari, who just turned three, came to visit. They were chasing each other on the playground. But if Ari ran in a direction she didn’t expect, even if he was wholly in view, she couldn’t find him. “Where Ari go? Where?” Big eyes, big hand gestures, as usual.
26. She really likes playing with matching cards. We don’t do a full-on version of the game yet, but we’ll put a few face down and then hold their matches up and she takes a great deal of joy in trying to find them.

Man, she’s cute. Full-time cute.

And if you’re curious about what Zoe is up to, she’s mostly researching and obsessing about pets we don’t have, like guinea pigs, hamsters, and, right now, rabbits. I had to edit out of this very post several pleas for rabbits that she had sprinkled in when I left it open one day. But listen – don’t get your kid a rabbit for Easter unless you’ve done your research and you’re prepared to take them on as a full-time pet. Zoe is really adamant about this.