Baby, you can drive my car....

We really need to do something spectacularly exciting, like sky diving, or visiting Ancient Egypt. Our pictures these days show a complete lack of imagination and overt domestication. Ah, well. 'Tis the lives of parents with young children, I suppose. The amount of gear we'd need to pack to take a vacation somewhere like Egypt would boggle the mind.

We did have fun this weekend, lack of sky diving and all. On Saturday, we hooked up with Brian and Missy and their darling three month old daughter, Lila. She is looking all grown up these days. There's something that happens to babies at approximately three months that makes them look like themselves, rather than like a tiny little helpless creature. They start displaying distinctive facial features.

We decided to put Lila in Sadie's little push car. She held herself up quite nicely.

Here comes Helen Wheels....
Hey- who is that baby in my car?
Citizens' ARREST! *cues Gomer Pyle voice*
Brian holding Lila.
Sadie is trying her best to climb into this water fountain. She's not content to just walk around now. She's obsessed with vertical movement.
Brian, Missy and Lila.
Sadie and her windblown coif.
Looking down under a bright blue sky.

Sadie, after reclaiming her car.

Lila is working on the grabbing action. Apparently, she wants the bib off.
Daddy is teaching Lila some safety tips.

First haircut

Sadie had her first haircut this weekend! Before the haircut, I thought I'd allow you to witness Sadie dismantling the pantry. Actually, you can see in the video that the pantry is already fairly dismantled, so she was just returning to finish the job. If we don't close the pantry door, we find everything on the bottom two shelves all over the kitchen floor. Sadie also like to turn cereal boxes upside down and shake all the contents out.

We took Sadie to Peek-a-Do in Durham, which is a hair salon for children. Kids sit in little boats and airplanes instead of conventional barbers' chairs, and they can zone out on cartoons during the event. While I'm not generally a big fan of using television as a distractor, baby's first haircut can be rather traumatic, so I figured that any distraction that keeps Sadie from impaling herself on barbers' shears is welcome.

FIrst, one has to entice the child away from the giant crate of balls.

Sadie was assigned to the "boat" chair. Eventually, she wiggled enough that we had to take her out and let Daddy hold her on his lap.

Sadie gently, lovingly cradles a baby doll in her hands...

And then proceeds to try to bite her head off...


Sadie proudly shows us her rice-milk-tongue...

Sadie has this little school bus toy that one can drag around, play a multitude of bus-like sounds (Redmond and I think the giggling children sound like a bunch of mean bullies), or ride on. Rather than just riding on the seat, she's obsessed with trying to stuff her entire body into the little drawer under the seat...

Sadie "helps" us with the laundry, as usual.

The new haircut....

Sadie attempts to stuff herself into a drum....

How do you photograph a whirling dervish?

So, you've probably noticed that our blog has been a bit more sparse lately. Part of this has been a result of being too busy and not having my camera around when I need it. However- the most challenging aspect of "documenting" our family life these days is that Sadie never stands still for two seconds. Snapping a picture of her actually looking at the camera is next to impossible. She's too busy stuffing building blocks in the holes in our surround sound speakers, dumping her sippy cup in the trash can, and turning over dog food bowls to actually pose for a picture. And when we try to hold her still, the picture's composition includes several still, smiling adults, and one grimacing, squirming blur. Urp!

This weekend, we attended a friend's son's first birthday party. Happy Birthday, Griffin! Dana and Finley were lucky that the weather was so fair. The temperature crept into the seventies all weekend long.

Here is Dana with Griffin, the birthday boy.


Our friend Siobhan and her 6 week old baby girl, Riley. Sadly, the other shots I took of Riley turned out too dark to post. She is so wee and lovely.


Sadie spent much of the time obsessively hoarding two wiffle balls.



Here is a group of us, all squished together in Dana and Finley's backyard.

Missy bjorning Lila about. What a sweet baby....

Sadie flirts with an older boy.
A rare reflective moment.
The birthday boy surveys his kingdom.

Redmond with Sadie and Dana with Griffin.... Terms of dowry are being discussed...
Chillin' on the porch....

Missy and Lila, who is finally displaying eyeballs...
Sadie loves playing outdoors these days. I actually measured a temperature of 76 degrees on Sunday. Global warming or El Nino? You be the judge. I certainly enjoyed spending the day outdoors in the sun with a t-shirt on in January. My father spent Sunday night with us, but the rascal snuck off without being the subject of any useable pictures. Here are some pics of Sadie playing outside in the yard...

Sadie is in training to be a dowser. I'm looking for dowsing online message boards for her to begin networking...

Ahoy! Water, there be! Arrrrr! Wait, that's pirate speak, not dowser speak....
The divining rod becomes a mere stick....
And a tasty snack...
Commander Chaos marches off for mischief making...
The pink car is a thing of perfection. We go out for a "drive" almost every day. For some reason, she much prefers the pink car to her stroller. Thank goodness she likes it, as I am in dire need of regular exercise and taking her in the stroller was not a pleasant experience.

I didn't do it. Nobody saw me do it. I want to speak to grandma. (phrase courtesy of a gift from my aunt Sylvia)