Well, at least it's not the microwave oven or an old refrigerator...

Sadie seems to have taken a shine to household appliances. I remember during the 1970's (yes, I'm dating myself here) reading constant warnings about leaving old appliances in one's front yard, lest children found themselves locked inside old refrigerators. I was just a young child myself, and didn't understand the big deal, as I wasn't much of an appliance fetishist. Well, Sadie apparently loves anything that is large enough to crawl inside, so we'll have to keep an eye on her, I guess.

It's pretty comfy in here...
Well, I've kicked the dryer light loose and my work is done...

Here are a couple of random videos of Sadie at play. I love that Daddy seemed to not realize he was being filmed in one of the clips and you can hear him try to hurry me out the door... ;-)

Here's Sadie playing in the kitchen...



And here's Sadie playing around with Mommy's thera-bands.



Redmond is in Nashville this week at the Annual TSA Conference with his kids, so I've been managing without him. Sadie is quite the Daddy's girl, but she's been doing well, though she lept into the arms of an unsuspecting electrician who stopped by our home. I'm thinking she must have assumed he was Redmond at first. He'll be home on Friday.

A little Photo Booth silliness...

So, we've been playing with Photo Booth on Redmond's new MacBook. There's a built in camera on the computer, and you can take pictures in front of the screen. And use really wacky effects... Enjoy the pictures of our family...

our little monkey...

If you haven't checked the blog lately and want to see recent pics, scroll down after you read this.

Our crazy little monkey has yet again spent a lovely evening at the Urgent Care. Monday night, we ate at the Red Robin (yes, another restaurant that issues crayons at the door), and after dinner, Sadie crawled up on a video game seat. You know those video games where you drive a car through all kinds of dangerous high-speed tracks with fake scenery like polar bears in the background? Well, we're cheap and she's too young to actually drive anyway, so she just likes to turn the steering wheel and pretend. Anyway, we turned our heads for a microsecond and she fell off and landed on something pointed and sharp on the back of her head.

There's nothing that sends a mother into panic mode like seeing a child bleeding from a head injury. We jumped into the car and raced to the Urgent Care Center. By the time we reached the center, she had slowed down on the bleeding enough that we were not raced to the back. Instead, we hung out in the waiting room while Sadie began trying to climb on everything in sight. This child had blood stains on her shirt and streaks of bright red in her hair and she is already plotting her next mischief. She trotted a picture book over to a woman who was nursing a finger laceration. She threw balls across the room and shouted "I Get It!" and raced across the room to pick them up. Did I mention that children are incredibly resilient. She was faring far better than her panicking Mommy.

Anyway, she has those glue type stitches on the back of her head right now, but it's impossible to tell from her demeanor that anything happened.

New updates- I was a bit concerned that Sadie was picking up words a bit slowly, but all of a sudden, the floodgates have opened, and I hear something new every day. I'm realizing that there are some words she's had for a while that I didn't recognize. She's been saying "Thank you" when handed some milk or a new toy, but it comes out as "DEE doo". She says "up" and "down", "go", "shoes" and "I get it", among other words. When she sees a picture of a ghost she says "BOO!", hoots whenever she sees pictures or statues of owls, says "YIP! YIP! YIP! YIP!" when she sees a picture of Tyrone from the Backyardigans dressed as a cowboy (you'd have to watch the show to understand why) . And when she wants to go outside any room where she's stuck, she knocks on the door to beg us to open it.

Please indulge my picture frenzy...

So, I am posting a ton of pictures today. I realized that we hadn't really posted many new pictures of Miss Sadie in ages, so I went a little nuts this weekend. My one complaint is that my camera doesn't seem to do well indoors. I have fiddled with the settings, but all the indoor pictures make people appear to have melon-colored skin. And the flash makes everyone look unwashed and shiny. One day, I'll either buy a new digital camera, or see if some expert can give me some tips. The other problem is that I have to hold the button down for about five seconds before the the picture is taken. Five seconds is about 30 changes of expression for a toddler. A beatific smile usually changes to the back of a toddler's head in five seconds.

Eh, enough complaining. We had a lovely week. We took Sadie to a community pool in Hillsborough a couple of times this week, and though we can't fit swimming lessons in our schedule this week, the woman who teaches Waterbabies saw us attempting to teach Sadie to swim and very kindly offered to give us a free lesson or two. She helped us get started, and we are planning to take her swimming a couple of times a week this summer. We also enrolled Sadie in a toddler gymnastic class at The Little Gym in Durham. There is an entire blog entry to be written on scrambling to find summer activities for children at the last minute, I tell you. Those organized mommies and daddies reserved their swimming and gymnastic classes well in advanced. I'll learn next year.

This weekend, Dad came to visit, and we had a great time. Sadie is slowly beginning to warm up to him. Unfortunately, at Sadie's age, she tends to favor people she sees on a daily basis. Because Dad lives about 200 miles away, he's not here all the time, and each time he visits, she has to become reacquainted. However, she seems to be retaining some memory of her Grandfather, because each time, she seems to interact a little more. She brought him several books to read to her this time and played frisbee with him. I believe that over time, she'll continue to warm up even more, and soon, she'll be old enough to know exactly who he is.

Here is Dad, hanging out on the sofa with Obi. Obi certainly knows who Dad is...

Sadie was doing pretty well here, considering that she was late for her afternoon nap. She tends to turn into Godzilla if she hasn't gone down by about 1:30 pm or so.

And she's even smiling!

Sadie is running about the yard. I'm having to keep a close eye on her when she's in the yard, because I spotted what appears to be a baby copperhead snake living in a hole in the concrete next to our outbuilding. The snake was small, had a reddish pattern, and appeared to have a diamond shaped head. Eep!

Who, me?
Daddy had his birthday cake a week late this year. We had so many sweets for leftovers from the big party last Friday night, that we decided to hold off on the birthday cake until we could rid ourselves of the cheesecakes and tarts lying around. We finally tossed them out, as neither one of us need the excess sugar. Sadie helps Daddy blow out the candles.
It's funny- we had a similar picture last year. I'll post it under this one. Can you believe how much she's grown in one year?

Sadie has taken to putting on my shoes and attempting to walk around in them. She's also taken to trying to put on her own shoes, while saying the word "SHOES". I think she's going to be a shoe hussy. Here, she stomps around the house with one of Mommy's Crocs on.

And then decides to ride Obi... He's such a good, patient dog...
Sadie is obsessed with climbing. If I can't see her, my first impulse is to look up. She scares me half to death with her monkey antics. Here she is on our built in shelves in the living room. Ignore the fact that there are a pair of my shoes on the shelves, and that the shelves are a mess.
After this, she climbs in the plastic bins where we store our toys. Remember now, that all of this mischief- the shoe wearing, the dog riding, the shelf climbing and the bin sitting all occurred before Mommy and Daddy had their morning coffee. Whew!

Here is an updated picture of our poor Bridger. He has pretty well recovered from the dog attack, though he still has a slight limp. He's gaining weight back, finally. We are letting him out again on a very limited basis, because he's just miserable trapped in the house all the time, but he still has this one wound that he will not leave alone. The other one finally healed, but he has a place on the back of his head that he continues to work at all the time. He will wear this E-collar until the wound finally heals up.

We bought Sadie a sand and water table at Toys R' Us last Sunday, and she really enjoys it. We knew she would, as she had been playing with her beloved dog food and water table (ugh!) for the past year already. We have to keep this covered at night, lest the neighborhood cats think we've very kindly left them both a giant water dish and a litter pan.

Evil scary Dora

This weekend should have been a great time for pictures. Friday night, we hosted Redmond's last day of school shindig at our house. Redmond's band played their second gig. I would have loved to have taken some pictures, but Sadie was in prime form that night. Someone would ask me a question, I'd turn to answer, and by the time I turned around, Sadie would have made it halfway to Chapel Hill. When she wasn't running amok, she was rushing the stage. Apparently she hasn't learned the "Chapel Hill Nod" yet, in which you show your wild enthusiasm for the band on stage by appreciatively tilting your head about a millimeter up and then down. If one is really feeling the music, one might tap a foot an inch or two.

Many of our friends were there with their children, and were actually able to sit with said children and enjoy the show. I'd like to come up with all kinds of philosophical platitudes about how refreshing it can be to have a "highly spirited" child and how all that energy will be translated into enthusiasm for life later and blah blah blah so on and so forth, but MAN, I'm tired. How can one child have so much energy? Is it just because I am a "mature" parent? (see entry under euphemism to save face)

Saturday, we took the bug to Jordan Lake, this time with proper equipment, and we all had a nice, long swim. And I forgot the camera. Sunday, we just ran errands, and I won't bore you with pictures of us waiting for our sand and water play table at the Toys 'R Sold with Apathy and Indifference to the Customer. Have I mentioned that 90% of the toys sold now are product placements? One has to really scramble today to find a toilet that doesn't have Dora the Explorer talking to your child's rear end, or a train set that isn't based on Thomas, or a doll that isn't a Backyardigans character. Yes, I am aware that I sound cranky. ;-)

So, I only have a few pictures to present this week.

Redmond, Mom, Sadie and I visited the Fake Panera Bread Restaurant (can't remember the name- Bear Rock something or another) at University Mall in Chapel Hill a couple of weeks ago. When we walked in, we saw scads and scores of pre-schoolers waiting excitedly for.. something. A woman about my mother's age walked around wearing a bright pink wig making balloons into animal shapes. She presented Sadie with a giraffe, which Sadie promptly unrolled into a long sausage with eyeballs. Then, a few minutes later, we realized what the hubbub was all about. The same woman returned wearing the scariest Dora the Explorer costume I've ever seen. I'm assuming she was supposed to be Dora- she marched around with this giant head and a cheap backpack, intoning with a deep voice that only older women who have smoked their entire lives have... "BACKpack.. BACKpack" She scared the living daylights out of Sadie and, well, all of us. Here, see for yourselves...

Dora stalks my daughter.

BACKpack... BACKpack....
That's all I have, folks, for this week. Wait- I do have a couple of stolen pictures... I received an e-mail from Aunt Sylvia and Uncle Mich in Vermont. They reported a rare bird sighting in their front yard. You don't see many birds this large around my area...

This one appears to like the seed and is very well-fed. I did not ask the bear to sign a release form, so hopefully it's okay to post his or her picture...