Redmond, Karen and Sadie's Planet

Merry Christmas!!!

2009-12-25T12:26:00.002-05:00

MERRY CHRISTMAS, EVERYONE!!!

Click on the above link to see some Christmas pictures!!!

No, I haven't abandoned this blog!!!

2009-11-09T13:43:00.006-05:00

Well, folks, I have probably set a new record in the time lapse between blog entries. Most of my friends and relatives have moved over to Facebook, and to be honest, Facebook is a much easier format for me in terms of uploading and resizing my pictures. It takes me over an hour to do each blog entry here, as my camera creates huge files, and I have to resize all my pictures by hand. However, I realize that there are a lot of folks who still don't use Facebook, so I'll try to post the cream of the crop here and link to my public Facebook albums so you all can see the rest.

A few weeks ago, we celebrated Sadie's fourth birthday at Spence's Educational Farm in Chapel Hill. The kids all picked vegetables in the garden, fed the chickens and goats, and rode ponies. The weather was cooperative, and everyone seemed to enjoy the party. Here is a link to Sadie's birthday party pictures:

Birthday pictures

And here are a couple of highlights:

Sadie getting ready to take a pony ride...

Sadie and me walking around the farm. On our left is Charlie, Jen and Molly, and Siobhan and Reilly are on my right.

Redmond and me.

I've also compiled an album with some assorted pictures from September and October.

Random pictures

Here are a couple of highlights.

This picture was actually just taken this weekend. Sadie got a "grow a rubber duckie" gift for her birthday, and it hatched from an egg and grew to be pretty large. She's holding it proudly.

Sadie, on one of her rare "princess" occasions. Actually, she has been dressing up all "girly" more often lately. She is a pretty even mixture of tomboy and girl.

Sadie at the NC Zoo, posing with her head hanging out of a giant "beehive". As you can see, she was getting a little sullen by this point. She's pretty much given up the afternoon nap on weekends, but she probably could still use one, as she often gets cranky around 3 or 4.

Posing with her Mee-Maw at the zoo.

Pretending to be Spiderman on the playground "web".

Redmond and I are kept busy working and chasing the Boo. I find that I'm far busier than I ever dreamed I'd be as a working parent. The days and nights are a complete whirlwind. What keeps me sane is knowing that we can all slow down a little on the weekends and take the time to spend quality family time together. I still wish my house was a little cleaner, but I still tend to choose seeing the world with the family over having a sparkly clean house and no life experiences. One day, Sadie will prefer to hang out with her friends to spending time with her boring old Mom and Dad, so I'm soaking up all this family time while she still likes us. ;-) When she gets older, I'll have all the time in the world to clean the house, though I'll most likely find another excuse to avoid doing it...

Redmond and I are still plugging away at Weight Watchers. I've lost 50 pounds so far, and Redmond's really starting to dig in and lose weight himself. I feel so much better, and I'm actually daring to post pictures of myself these days. I'm hoping to lose about 50-60 more, and then the hard work of maintenance will begin. I know how to lose weight and gain weight, but I've never figured out the trick of how to maintain weight.

We're planning a trip to Bladenboro for Thanksgiving to see my paternal relatives, some of whom I have not seen in over 10 years. I'll try to make sure I post pictures from this trip as soon as I return.

My little princess...

2009-09-03T20:47:00.002-04:00

As if...

Sadie sports her brand new Spiderman costume...

Beach Week 2009

2009-08-20T06:41:00.000-04:00

We're back! What a relaxing week at the beach... Our group continues to spawn new members. Rachel and Danny have a brand new baby, Walter. Brian and Missy had a baby 8 months ago, Josie. A new family joined us; Sean, Siobhan and their daughter Reilly. We missed James, Emily, Pippa and Rowan this year. How dare they decide that northern Maine is just too far away from NC! ;-)

Before I get so bogged down by routine that I forget, here are a few of the photos from our beach trip this year. I have also linked to the rest of the pictures and videos in our Picasa Web album at the bottom of the entry...

Sadie + blueberry cobbler = a mess.

Sadie saw Alex riding on the back of Josh's kayak and had to do it herself...

Ft. Fisher Aquarium...
Handstand Sadie

I swear, I've never seen a toy more popular than this bucket!

Tree climbing at a Surf City park...

Lila grinning
Sadie being Daddy's girl...

Here is the

Full album of pictures and videos from the beach...

Vermont pictures and film clips!

2009-08-05T06:03:00.001-04:00

It's been a long time since I've been able to post any blog entries... I have no excuses- it's something I mean to do almost every day and then I just end up getting bogged down by my daily activities.

We recently had a glorious week in Vermont, visiting my Aunt Sylvia, Uncle Mich, Aunt Diane, Uncle David and cousin Kristy. Sadie was obsessed with swimming, so we swam at least once every day that week. We spent time on the farm, visited the Shelburne Museum and Shelburne Farms, and took ferry rides. Basically, we had about the same schedule we followed last year. Unfortunately, because Uncle David was recovering from an illness and Kristy had surgery that week, we only were able to see the Nichols family once.

Next year, we're hoping to take the camper up and stay in a nearby state park, rather than in a hotel room. We want to make sure we're getting our money's worth!

Next week is our annual beach week on Topsail Island.

A couple of pictures...

Beautiful view of an island in the middle of Lake Champlain...

Sadie, "driving a tractor"...

Redmond, Sadie and Aunt Sylvia enjoy the tractor ride to Shelburne Farms...
Sadie snuggles with Aunt Sylvia...

Sadie continues with the tractor meme...
On a ferry ride...

Sitting peacefully (yes, that's rare!) at the Shelburne Museum...
High in the sky, bungee trampolining!

You can see all our photos on our Facebook photo album.

Here are some videos...

At Shelburne Farms, the chickens are about as free-range as a chicken can be. Sadie kept trying to feed the chickens her picnic lunch...

Sadie got to help milk the cow...

Uncle David and Aunt Diane saved the egg gathering on the Nichols Farm until we arrived... Sadie had a blast finding all the eggs....

Here are a couple of short clips from our visit to Stowe. Sadie tried the bungee trampoline, and went back several times for more!

And here she is pretending to fly her Uncle David's ultralight plane...

One challenge we've been facing lately is that Sadie insists on dressing herself. And she doesn't want to wear anything "pretty". She wants to look "cool". This means she wants to wear Spiderman t-shirts every day, and shorts without "flowers". I have no idea if this is just a phase or not, but my days of winning large Gymboree auctions on Ebay appear to be over, if only temporary. I can no longer just buy clothes for her.

I'll upload the beach pictures next week!

open range hours

2009-07-08T18:52:00.003-04:00

Test

Our daughter is growing fins...

2009-07-02T07:05:00.000-04:00

We've been wondering when we'd first start to have a real sense of what kind of hobbies and interests our daughter might grow into. We've known for some time that music was something she enjoyed- she's always singing and likes to fiddle with musical instruments, but over the summer, it's become clear that Sadie is strongly drawn to water and swimming. She is in her second round of swimming lessons, and she's already able to swim underwater and jump off the side of the pool without any assistance from us. Last night, she attempted to dive, but is just belly-flopping. I'm guessing that by the end of the summer, she'll be diving and beginning to do swimming strokes above water.

We've been going to our local pool at least 3-4 times a week, and also enjoy swimming in Jordan Lake, despite the fact that a youngster east of Raleigh was infected by some rare kind of flesh-eating bacteria in a lake over there and had to have a foot and his nose removed! Luckily, that's extremely rare and didn't happen in Jordan Lake, so I'm trying just not to think about that.

Redmond has been out of town this week at the national TSA conference with his kids, so I haven't had much time to do blog entries. His state pulled out funding for the kids at the last minute, so they scrambled to do some emergency fund-raising. Through posts on Facebook, we had a good deal of support from friends and family, and we thank everyone who contributed to the cause. Your generosity was incredible.

This Saturday (July 4th), we'll be heading to Vermont to see our family up there, so we should have a plethora of pictures and videos coming up...

Here are some pictures from Sadie's swimming class....

Ring around the Rosie... Gotta love a children's song based on the Bubonic Plague and the cremation of dead bodies... It's even worse than the lullaby about children falling out of trees in their cradles. Good grief...

The parents of one of Redmond's students invited us to a party at their mini-farm. They rescue farm animals in need and raise them on this farm. Sadie had so much fun petting goats and sheep and a very sweet horse. Here is the back of the house.

Another view of the home- it's a lovely farmhouse.

We spent a day at Jordan Lake. Sadie spent most of the time swimming underwater...

I just joined Weight Watchers about 4 weeks ago. This will be my official "before" picture. Good God. I'm only posting it because I am already about 15 pounds lighter (was 14.4 down last week and haven't weighed in this week), so it can only get better from here. I have a *long* way to go, and I'll just have to be patient and keep pushing.
We love the Saturday Farmer's Market in Carrboro, and a couple of weeks ago, we bought a pint of the hugest blackberries we've ever seen. They were as big as my thumb! They were also mega-juicy- you couldn't even touch one without getting "purple finger". Sadie REALLY likes berries, and this was the result. Notice her little boy Thomas pajamas. She still loves Thomas, and carries her little engines around and makes up little soap operas with them...

Ahhh... evenings at Maple View Dairy. The balloon guy comes on Sunday, and Sadie loves to have a hat made for her...

Another lovely view of the farm from the deck...
Look for Vermont pictures in the next week or two!

More random photo albums

2009-06-08T12:55:00.011-04:00

So, I decided to be less lazy this time. Instead of linking directly to a Facebook album, I resized my ginormous photos and loaded them in. Too many media sources... I wish there was one button I could push that could replicate my photos across the Internet landscape.

We have a new toy! After years of talking about it, we finally broke down and purchased a pop-up camper. We got a great deal for a 2002 Starcraft, and immediately took it out for the weekend. We met the Boyers in Hanging Rock State Park, and a few other folks came up for the day. The weather was perfect.

Our campsite. You can see our camper in the distance. It is lightweight enough that our minivan had no problem towing it along.
Where are my manners? Sadie shows off her banana.

The back of the camper.
One view of the inside. The camper has a queen bed, a king bed, a stove, a sink, and a dinette/sofa area.
A view of the other side.
We decided to name her "Bettie".
Kids seem to like the camper. Redmond joked that he was going to open a day care facility in this thing. Jen is reading a book to Henry, Molly and Claudia, and Sadie is off in the distance contemplating swinging on a bar.
This is Hidden Falls. I think. The falls are starting to run together now. I guess, literally, they eventually do.
Behind Window Falls.
Molly, Alex, Claudia and Josh, behind Window Falls.
Claudia, Brian and Lila. Unfortunately, the Philpott/Valentine clan were unable to camp due to family illness, so Brian came with Lila for the day.

Sadie on the slippery rocks.
Molly, Josh, Sadie and Redmond. I tried not to panic when Sadie navigated the rocks.
The water was wicked cold.
Hidden Falls.

Henry, Sadie and Lila, off to hike.
Alex, Molly and Sadie.
Last weekend, James and Emily paid a surprise visit to the Triangle area. Sadie was thrilled to have a chance to see Pippa and Rowan again, and we headed over to a friend's house for a potluck.

Alex, Molly and Henry appear to be sword-wielding wizards.
Sadie is a harmonica-playing, sword-wielding Viking. This was right before she fell down the stairs and ended up with a boo-boo on her cheek. Note that she already has one boo-boo on her cheek from running into a tree at preschool. She's a klutz like her Mommy.
Sadie as a monster.
Rowan has grown so much! She was just barely one when we last saw her. She looks just like her older sister!
Missy with Josie. She's six months old now. What a cutie!
Alex the wizard.
Pippa is one of the few toddlers her age I know who will actually pose for the paparazzi. Sadie still looks away.
Hailey, Claudia and Pippa.
So, it's Redmond's Lordy, Lordy birthday. I promised I wouldn't take out a "Lordy, Lordy" ad in the newspaper. We have an annual tradition of having Sadie help Redmond blow out the candles on his cake. This year, there are only two candles to blow out- a 4 and a 0!

Mom and Dad came over to help eat the birthday cake- I mean, to help Redmond celebrate. My Dad has lost a ton of weight this year, btw.
I have no idea what game Sadie is playing here, but it's pretty silly!
Dad and Sadie.
Redmond was working on Sadie's baseball skills at the park on Sunday. She hit the ball 2 out of 5 times. She insisted on wearing a dress, so she looks a wee bit silly. BTW, I have to be a stalker for a second here. We had a picnic at the park, and John and Elizabeth Edwards and their family were a couple of picnic benches away from us. Their kid's baseball team was having a huge cookout. I would have snuck a picture, but a few of the parents knew Redmond from his school and came over to chat, and I would have felt a little desperate and weird. Elizabeth looked tired and sad, but I might just be projecting here. I don't want to politicize this blog, as I have family of all political stripes, but I'll just say that I was once rather fond of Edwards, and I tend to not care much about the personal lives of politicians, but what he did to his dying wife was so beyond the pale that even I was turned off.
Random playground pictures...

Hawaii pics..

2009-05-24T07:26:00.003-04:00

Just returned from Hawaii... Though most of my trip was spent in the Convention Center, I did manage to do some sightseeing with Mom. I can't wait to return with Redmond and Sadie, when she's a little older, but I think I'd do another island, such as Kauai or the Big Island...

Click on the picture below to see my picture album...

Farm tours...

2009-05-10T06:22:00.001-04:00

As promised, here are some more pictures. Last weekend, we stayed very busy. Dad was in town and we went on the annual Piedmont Farm Tours, just as we have for the past 5 years. This year, we decided to visit some new farms, and Sadie had her first pony ride...

Here are a couple of films of Sadie's first pony ride...

Before I get to the farm tour pictures, here are a few random pics from our last trip with Sadie to Planet Child. She wants to go there now just to dress up in costumes...

Spiderman, all domesticated in the kitchen...

Spiderman, driving an ambulance...

Spiderman and Darth Vader's love child...
Oddly dressed as a cheerleader...
Cheerleader, driving an ambulance...

Batman, sans mask...
I have no explanation for this costume... Puppy cheerleader???

Dad and Sadie hanging out before the farm tours...

As soon as we pulled into Baldwin Family Farms, our first farm, we turned around to see Sadie passed out cold...
Charolais cows are naturally low in fat and cholesterol...
We took a tour in a tractor pulled wagon, and rode first through the "maternity ward". This calf was just born...

We moved on to Avillon Fiber Farm, where fiber producing goats, sheep and rabbits are raised.

Spence's Educational Farm in Chapel Hill was a blast! Sadie immediately begged for her pony ride.

She found a new best friend in a hay maze. This little girl was Sadie's age and towered over her. Given that Sadie is in the 95% percentile for height, this little girl had to be off the charts!

We finished our farm tours at Pickards Mountain Eco-Institute, where animals and crops are farmed using alternative energy sources, such as biofuels and solar and wind energy. This is a compost outhouse. Sadie was completely fascinated with this potty!
There are several of these geodesic dome homes on the property. Apparently, people live in them. I was intrigued, and would love to have one of these on some mountain land someday.
We bumped into Mary Alicia, Paula and their daughter, Katie Bren on the farm. Robena and Philip's daughter, Twyla was with them, but I'm not sure if the kids managed to get into any of the pictures... There's Paula behind Redmond, watching as Sadie appropriates someone's tractor...
oink

Sadie, checking out the livestock...
Ah- there's Twyla, two kids to the right of Sadie.
Katie Bren, checking out the chickens, roosters and guinea hens...
Our Maple View Dairy just opened an agricultural educational center, only a couple of miles up the road from us. Schools can come and tour the facilities, use the classrooms, and learn about farming. Here are some pictures of the animals behind the center...

Sadie finds llamas fascinating...

more oinkage.
This Wednesday morning, I am heading to Waikiki Beach, HI, for the annual Medical Library Association Conference. I'm going with Mom, and I know we'll have a great time, but I am dreading the inevitable ear issues that will arise. Every year in the spring, my ears fill with fluid and flying becomes excruciating. I am checking in with an ENT specialist tomorrow morning to see if something can be done to help. I am recovering from an ear infection and still feel a little stuffy inside my ears. I will greatly miss Redmond and Sadie. 8 days is a long time to be away from my little Boo. Anyway, I'll try to post some pictures of the island while I am away...

Pictures, April

2009-04-19T08:35:00.013-04:00

Whew! Here's a yoooge picture dump from our trip to Savannah and the Okefenokee Swamp, and some other assorted pictures.

In a few days, I'll try to upload our pictures from the farm tours this weekend. We have some cute videos as well...

We camped for several nights at Stephen H. Foster State Park on the edge of the Okefenokee Swamp. Our next door neighbors at the campground had an adorable 4 1/2 year old girl named Claire, and Sadie and Claire became fast friends. You'll see some pictures a little further down of Sadie and Claire. Unfortunately, my camera battery crapped out on my trip and it took some time before I could locate my charger and find a place to charge it up. So, I missed some great photo opportunities, but I think we ended up with some good pictures anyway.

We rented a small motorboat one day and set out into the swamp. We thought we would canoe, but canoes are tippy, and we have a three year old, so there you go. We figured we needed one person to steer the boat and one person to keep the child IN the boat. Fortunately, the frequency of alligator sightings kept Sadie motivated to stay put.

Because a freak cold snap had just passed through the Southeast, the alligators were desperately trying to warm up in the sun. It was a beautiful, warm, sunny day.

The family we met on our trip, the Brownyards, decided to go out boating with us. At one point, our motor went on the blink, and they had to tow us back to the Visitor's Center to get a new boat. I'm grateful that they turned around and noticed that we were no longer behind them, as we only had one paddle in our boat and there were alligators around us.

Check out these big guys!

Lots of beautiful lilypads....

We pulled over to visit an island in the middle of the swamp. This is the view that greeted us. A family had settled here for a couple of hundred years and squatted on the land. Eventually, the US government paid them to vacate their home.

The family maintained their own graveyard on this island...

Here is Sadie, with her friend Claire, walking on the trails on the island.

A metal structure of some kind, left behind.

We spent three nights in Savannah. Beautiful city! Here is River St.

This is Ft. Pulaski on Tybee Island. This is an old Civil War fort, with many tunnels to explore.
This was a mockup of the old officer's quarters.
Sadie enjoyed peeking through the windows and checking out the tunnels...

After we returned home, we took Sadie to Twyla's house for an Easter Egg hunt...
Sadie tried to get ALL of the eggs...

We followed up our week with a trip- yes, another trip- to the Museum of Life and Science.

Checking out the new cow...

I still have more to come! I will be uploading some of my phone pictures from our trip, as well as our pictures from the Farm Tours this year...

Pictures, part 1

2009-04-19T07:54:00.014-04:00

So, we are woefully behind on posting our pictures... I meant to have them all online by Monday, but have just been so busy. I have so many that I am dividing them into two entries. I am going to post pictures from March today, and then, by this weekend, I hope to have up our pictures from our vacation in Charleston/Okefenokee Swamp.

Sadie changes so quickly these days that it's difficult for me to keep up. Our little tomboy has suddenly taken to dresses, and refuses to wear pants to school. She's also really transfixed by older boys. At the playground recently, she approached a boy of about 6, and asked "What's your name? Is today your birthday?". I'm not sure if that's the three year old equivalent of "What's your sign, baby?", but after much flirting on her part, I managed to distract her. You have to watch out for those wild 6 year old boys!

She enjoys playing board games- we now have Candyland, Chutes and Ladders, and Cherry-O's. However, she believes that the rules only apply to us... ;-)

Here are some random, only halfway assorted pictures...

We took a nice, spring hike in Eno River State Park. Sadie loves hiking, especially when she gets to be the "doggie helper". We usually take a sheet and a picnic lunch. This trail is awesome, as it has this really scary hanging bridge and an old, abandoned log cabin.

The Eno was raging full, after many recent rains...
If you blow up the picture, you can see the scary hanging, swinging, BOUNCING bridge.

Here's the awesome abandoned old cabin. You can actually go inside and see the raw timber log walls.

Yikes!

This thing bounces when you cross it. Inevitably, children want to jump up and down.
Sadie pets a doggie.

The non-scary end of the hanging bridge.

Gee, these pictures of me in my hiking clothes are just SO attractive. ;-)
Here are just some random pictures of Sadie playing with her toys...

Dad came for a visit in March. Sadie is really becoming attached to her "Pee-Paw".

Ah, the silly faces...

She likes the old "spoon on the nose" trick. Check out that egregiously messy kitchen counter! This is what the house looks like the day before Sadie's weekly sleepover with Mee-Maw. We end up spending half of our "date" night trying to restore the house to an acceptable level of chaos. Making it clean these days is just beyond our grasp.
Sadie just finished her first swimming class, and we plan to enroll her in the next two segments this summer. The child has no fear, though, and will jump right off the side of the pool. She has learned to hold her nose while underwater.

Sadie and Malcolm.
Malcolm...

Redmond dries Sadie off after her swimming class.
Here is Malcolm with his mother, Peggy. We usually have a playdate after her swimming class.
Some pictures from a recent visit to "The Waz-eum" of Life and Science. Pee-Paw came along.

More to come... I have a slew of pictures from our vacation, some of Easter Sunday, and we're doing the annual farm tours this weekend, so we should have some pictures of wee baby animals.

Also, Mom and I are heading to Honolulu in a couple of weeks for my MLA (Medical Librarian Association) conference, so I should hopefully have some pictures of the scenery on Oahu. These pictures will NOT include myself in a swimsuit. ;-)

Hungry cow!

2009-04-18T21:22:00.002-04:00

This is basically a quick drive-by until I have a chance to upload the monstrous number of photos we've accumulated these past few weeks. We've been super busy with work and took a wonderful vacation camping in the Okefenokee Swamp! I hope to upload many pictures in stages over the past week...

For now, I just have to share this video of a very.. um.. affectionate heifer we visited today at the Museum of Life and Science...

More to come!!!

Sadie's diva 'tude

2009-03-23T06:10:00.002-04:00

Mom informs me that Sadie is very much like me. I used to play piano and sing all the time, but would always stop as soon as someone walked into the room. I caught Sadie playing and singing her little three year old version of "Mary Had a Little Lamb" and well, you'll see how the little diva reacts....

So, I skulked away and continued to stealth-film....

This time, I thought that I could sneak a shot from her from behind a curtain. How was that workin' for me?

Here's Robot Sadie, shaking her sillies out...

Ma Na Ma Na + pictures

2009-03-08T17:59:00.002-04:00

Yes, I'm turning my daughter into a trained monkey... ;-)

Some recent pictures... Taken at MacDougle Elementary's playground this weekend.

Speaking of monkey...

We actually have to take Sadie places outside the neighborhood to allow her to ride her "tricycle". Our home is at the end of a very long, gravel driveway, and the main road into our neighborhood has too many steep drop-offs.
Redmond and his TSA students spent all of Saturday mixing and pouring concrete in several areas around the school. Looks like fun, and I can't believe no one snuck back later and put a hand or foot print on the drying concrete. The kids are really slipping these days...

Sadie had fun playing with Malcolm on Saturday night. They took turns crawling into a crab pot...

Sadie at her swimming lesson....

Last Monday, we had about 4-6 inches of snow, and neither of us had to go to work. We spent the day outside playing in the snowy woods...

Two birthday parties

2009-02-27T06:04:00.001-05:00

Heh heh... My phone gets the silliest pictures....

Yes- it's been three weeks or so since I last blogged. I don't have any decent excuses, other than the normal "OMG I'm so crazy busy I don't even have time to use the restroom" variety.

Over the past couple of weeks, we've attended two birthday parties. The first was Amelia's first birthday party. Amelia is Griffin's sister and Dana and Finley's daughter. Then, the following weekend we headed to Chesapeake to Lucas and Lily's third birthday party. This was a whole adventure in itself, as we ended up staying in a motel that was taken over by gangs, and where the fire alarm on Saturday night went off on an hourly basis. It turns out that some "Valentine's Day Lovers" in the room down the hall from us were burning candles and incense, and that kept tripping off the fire alarm. I should have known we were in for a treat when we passed their room and saw fake rose petals sprinkled all over the carpet in front of their door. Ugh. Redmond, if you ever decide to get all romantic with me by booking a room at America's Best Value Inn in Norfolk... don't.

A couple of videos...

Sadie, Lucas and Lily had a grand time marching in the silly drum parade!

Like most kids, Lucas and Lily actually find the confetti inside birthday gift bags more exciting than the actual gifts...

Watch Sadie as we sing "Happy Birthday" to Amelia. There's a picture further down where you can see Sadie planning a stealthy cake attack in the corner of the picture...

On to pictures.... Here are some pictures from Amelia's party.

Every time we go to Dana and Finley's house, I always seem to get a picture of Sadie hanging out under their playground set.

I can't believe she managed to squish herself into Amelia's little Bumbo chair!

Grapes are so much fun to eat...
The happy Lee/Deaton family...

Look at the left bottom corner of this picture... See our little stealth cake stealer?

Here are some pics from Lucas and Lily's party. Yes, Sadie's wearing the same party dress. She's obsessed with that thing. I think she wore it to school today...

Sadie loves to play with her little wooden pizza kit. Thanks, Uncle Robert and Aunt Marsha!

Recent video clips...

2009-02-02T06:00:00.000-05:00

We played Hide and Seek in the snow... First, Sadie looks for me... Note that she calls herself "Wyatt" and me "Princess Pea". She is currently in this stage of constant fantasy play, and I never know what fictional characters we're all going to play at any given moment. There's some PBS Kids show on learning to read PBS called "Super Why", and Wyatt and Princess Pea are characters on the show. The one recurring theme is this- she is always in the "star" character role, and I am always a "plucky sidekick".

Now, Sadie wants me to find her, but she needs to work a little on her hiding skills...

Mommy and Sadie play on the slide together... I'm a bit big for such things...

This is part of the Fire Safety demo the Chapel Hill fire fighters gave at Malcolm's birthday party.

Here are the kids as they first discover the fire truck... And it's Tarheel Blue!

Sadie, the fire fighter, driving the truck... Notice me telling her "Here, let me help you do it yourself!" I hate saying that, but Sadie is often in full autonomy mode, and since I am not going to allow her to, say, sword fight all by herself, I often have to offer to "help" her do it "by herself". I sometimes wince at the ways we have to actively manipulate our kids.

Here are the kids on the engine making siren sounds...

Here are the fire fighters leading the "Happy Birthday" song for Malcolm...

Stuff...

2009-01-30T06:02:00.000-05:00

The last couple of weeks have been a whirlwind of activity, and I have fallen behind on blogging! Unfortunately, we've been so busy that we've forgotten to take our camera much of the time, so I've missed some great photo and video ops. And Sadie just keeps getting sillier and sillier, so I have kicked myself several times when she's doing something wacky and my camera is not around.

A couple of funny things that have happened recently. One evening, Sadie was just moving her carrots around her plate without eating them. Sigh... I won't even go into the difficulties we're having in inspiring the child to eat vegetables. As an obsessive worrywart, I'm convinced she's going to get scurvy or some other pirate disease. Anyway, Mom and Redmond were home with her- I was out somewhere. One of them told Sadie "You should eat your carrots- they're good for your eyes!" A few moments later, they looked back at Sadie and she was actually trying to shove a carrot slice in each eyeball. Toddlers are so literal minded!

Our friend Missy had another baby recently, and we told Sadie while Missy was pregnant that Missy had a baby in her tummy. We then told her that she was once in Mommy's tummy. Soon after, she stuck her head under my shirt. I asked her what she was doing and she said "I'm trying to get back in your tummy, Mommy!"

In the car on the way to the bowling alley, Sadie said "I want a beer!" I incredulously made her repeat her sentence, as I thought my hearing must be off. Once again she said "I want a beer!". I asked "Who gave you beer?". She answered, "Daddy did- at the bowling alley!" By this point, I figured she must be mistaken- OR, Redmond was in big trouble. When we arrived at the bowling alley, I looked around, and no alcohol is served there. However, over at the concession stand, ROOT beer was available as a fountain drink. She pointed at the picture of the root beer and said "There it is- beer!". So, Redmond's off the hook, but I'm not sure that giving a three year old root beer is the healthiest treat... I also said "Sadie, make sure that when you tell people about this, that you say ROOT beer". I would hate for her to announce at school that her daddy gives her beer at the bowling alley.

Last point of interest- Sadie has informed us recently that she's afraid of giants, comets, asteroids, meteors, black holes and robots. That's a pretty lengthy list, and sometimes at night, I have to reassure her that her room is bereft of all of these things. And yes, I said room. She's finally sleeping in her own room, though around 4 am, she usually trots her Thomas blankie and Thomas pillow (Ugh- we've been cajoled into purchasing licensed products) into our room and asks to crawl in our bed. This is still an improvement!

On to the pictures. I'll have films up soon...

Yet another Marbles visit...

"Me, I want- a hula hoop"

Child in a tube...

Fireman Sadie. This theme comes up later in this blog...

She calls herself "King Sadie". I asked "Do you mean QUEEN Sadie?" and she answered- "No- YOU are the queen. I am the king. Daddy is the Toy Prince."

Thesbian Sadie.

Preparing to enter the Pirate Ship.

A contemplative pirate. Arrrrr!

Awesome slide at Daddy's school.

We have joined the minivan brigade. Redmond cracked a few jokes about his manhood dangling from the rear view mirror, but really, it's great on trips. I love being able to move from the front to the back without parking. And Sadie can use a miniature potty inside the van with ease. I feel like a ginormous cliche, but I'm trying not to think about it much. It comes in handy, for sure.
Sadie, um, rocks.
Tubes make such great "artsy" playground shots, don't they?

So, we actually had SNOW on January 20th. It wasn't much, but in NC, one flake causes a stampede to the grocery store for milk and bread, and everything pretty much shuts down. The upside was that we were able to stay home on Inauguration Day and watch Obama being sworn in. We also played in the snow and made hot chocolate. What a wonderful day!

I debated as to whether or not I was going to post this picture. Sadie's getting to the age where she's getting a bit old for half naked pictures. But this was just too cute to not post. I may regret this later, and I may take it down soon...I present the half naked fairy princess....

My Bridger kitty...

And Madison, who often "stinks" outside the box...
Here are some pictures from Malcolm's birthday party. He just turned three. His mother took advantage of a free service where fire fighters come to childrens parties and bring a fire truck. They talk to the kids about fire safety and then let the kids get on the truck. The kids had a great time!

Here's the birthday boy...
Sadie immediately put on her fire fighter t-shirt and a fire fighter hat...
Malcolm, sticking his tongue out for some unknown reason...

Fire fighters teaching kids about fire safety...
And on we go to the fire truck!

A few films from Christmas vacation

2009-01-13T16:03:00.002-05:00

Here are a few video clips from our vacation...

Sadie enjoys bowling... and dancing at bowling alleys...

Sadie and her friend Malcolm had a playdate recently. They are so cute playing together! Here, they are running around and around in circles...

Pictures from Christmas vacation

2009-01-07T11:25:00.005-05:00

Hi! Goodness, we've been so busy that we haven't added anything to the blog in a couple of weeks. While I prepare a proper entry, here's a link to a Flickr photostream of our vacation... Enjoy... I'll return with some videos as well...

Flickr photostream- Christmas Vacation 2008

New baby, gorilla poo, etc

2008-12-19T15:03:00.005-05:00

Once again, I let the entire week slip by before updating this blog! We've been crazy busy these past couple of weeks getting ready for the holidays, and I'm good at remembering to take pictures- uploading them, on the other hand, often escapes me...

I have a few pictures and a few videos. I still have more Charleston videos to upload, but I should be able to fully catch up over the holidays, as I am off work from the 24th- January 2!

We visited Brian, Missy, Lila and new baby Josie last weekend. She is only two weeks old and very wee and very cute. Sadie is obsessed with the playgrounds at Chick-Fil-A (yes, my dream of having offspring who only eat sprouts and wheatberries has been dashed), so we took the kids for some time in the tubes and slides there.

Tiny little Josie... She looks very much like her sister....

Sadie, preparing to bounce off the walls.

Lila, trying to work up the nerve to climb all the way up...
Here are the kids on the slide...

On Sunday, we took Sadie to the zoo. It was freeeeezing cold. We bundled ourselves up and braved the cold winds. There were more animals there than people. Having lived in Montana, I don't mind the cold weather at all, and I enjoyed the peace and quiet.

Here is a mountain lion enjoying a nap....
Sadie enjoyed resting during the long walks between Africa and North America in this nice cart.
Watching the feeding of the sea lions..
I really love the new playground in North America...

Sadie loves the leaf slide...
Riding a squash....
Little Sadie Spider...
Whee!
A resting otter...
Mama and baby elephant...

This cardinal looked so pretty against the berry bush...
Here's where things started to get very..um... different. Sadie and the gorilla in question stared at each other... The gorilla looked so... wise... so.. dignified...
Then, the gorilla reached behind her, pooped in her hand, and shoved the product in question right in her mouth! Here she is, just chewing away...

And here is Sadie's reaction... She's still talking about it!

Here's Sadie, doing the hokey pokey in her new lion costume...

Charleston videos....

2008-12-11T16:12:00.003-05:00

A few quick videos from the Charleston trip... More to come soon...

Here's Sadie at Ft. Moultrie in her "revolutionary-era bonnet" addressing all the cannons, one by one.

Sadie, flying a model airplane at the USS Yorktown at Patriots Point.

Sadie decided to steer this "ship" with great gusto at the Charleston Aquarium. I am reasonably sure that, had I been a passenger on this ship, I'd have serious seasickness!

Check out this REALLY creepy eel at the Charleston Aquarium. I have the urge to pipe in Bing Crosby's version of "White Christmas" to match the mouth motions...

Cool Barn Owls at the Charleston Aquarium.

Charleston, Santa train, etc

2008-12-08T05:55:00.000-05:00

I'm now finally uploading all of our Charleston pictures. Our trip was a lot of fun for everyone. Sadie has been begging almost every day to go back to Charleston. We stayed in a fairly roomy suite with a separate bedroom and a fold-out bed in the living room, so Mom, Redmond, Sadie and I never felt particularly cramped. The weather was great the first day, but we had rain, on and off, the rest of the weekend. Unfortunately, we arrived to the Birds of Prey Center to find it closed, due to inclement weather. The rest of the trip went smoothly, however. We had a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner at the Middleton Plantation and spent some time touring the plantation afterwards. We moved on to Patriot's Point, where Sadie enjoyed running around the submarine and aircraft carrier.

The following day, we visited the aquarium. Sadie's nap schedule always tends to limit our activities, though. When she finally gives up napping, I will miss having the chance to relax or take care of things for a couple of hours during the day, but I'll also welcome the chance to plan more sustained day activities without worrying about how to work around the 1:00 witching hour.

I threw in a few pictures from the ride on the Santa train at the Museum of Life and Science in Durham last week. Unfortunately, the lighting was not particularly good, so few of the pictures came out. Sadie rode the train with her friends Malcolm and Richie, and met Santa at the "North Pole".

I'll try to post the films later this week.

Last week, Sadie couldn't decide on a "lovey" for school, so she attempted to drag a stuffed rat, a snake and a pteradactyl to school. Note that only MY child would have animals such as these as her "lovey". I'm guessing that the average little three year old girl would probably favor a little bunny rabbit or a baby doll.

The following set of pictures are from Middleton Plantation in Charleston, SC., Thanksgiving day.

We took a horse and carriage ride after dinner. These were our "guides".

This was a cabin where freed slaves lived.

On the horse and carriage ride... Getting sleepy eyed...
And passing out...
The house in the distance is Middleton Plantation- the main residence.
My sleeping angel.

This alligator was just hanging out in the pond.

A cormorant, drying out his wings.
Beautiful manicured gardens.

Here is the aircraft carrier at Patriot's Point, off in the distance...

Sadie "flies" a plane.

You will see many pictures of airplanes to follow. Don't ask me to tell you what they are. Redmond can tell you, "Hey- this is a J-3.14", but to me, they are just "planes".

Sadie walked up to the any hole in any plane she saw and yelled "Hello in there!"

Our suites were at the base of this bridge, that connects Charleston with Mt. Pleasant. We could have walked the pedestrian lane of the bridge...but... we didn't.

Sadie is my co-pilot...
Here is Ft. Moultrie on Sullivan's Island. Totally amazing place to walk around. This fort was built before the Revolutionary War, and was Charleston's main sea defense area until Ft. Sumter was built. There were probably miles of tunnels and mazes in this old structure.

Sadie picked out this Revolutionary era bonnet and doll in the gift shop.
The Charleston Aquarium... Sadie rides a turtle...
A pair of Barn Owls...
Sadie touches a horseshoe crab...
Sadie and Mom by the "campfire" inside the camping exhibit...

Here are the few pictures from the Santa train that actually came out.... Here is Santa, having a meet and greet with Malcolm... Malcolm and Sadie, by the way, spent much of the evening holding hands...

Santa asks Sadie what she wants for Christmas. She replies that she wants to have Halloween again. He kind of "ho ho hos" his way away from us fairly quickly... ;-)

New videos...

2008-11-25T06:49:00.001-05:00

Since we're off to Charleston, South Carolina, tomorrow, I figured I would upload a few videos today to make room on my camera for our upcoming trip. Sadie has asked us each morning if we are going to Charleston that day, and every time we try to tell her how many days it will be before we leave, she cries and says "I want to go to Charleston TODAY!" So, tomorrow, she'll be a happy camper when we she realizes that the trip is finally here.

Here are a few clips from the past few weeks...

Sadie's class had a Halloween party, and parents were invited. Here she is, distractedly singing "Five Little Pumpkins" with her class. She was constantly looking around to make sure we were watching her...

These next few clips are from a recent trip to the Museum of Life and Science...

Watching the alligators and owls...

I know a lot of people find possums squicky, but this one was rather cute...

Sadie had fun playing in this little space shuttle...

These clips are from Hailey's birthday party at the Puppet Theater in Raleigh-

All the kids got to be part of the puppet theater and hang out on stage during the program. Sadie, however, is showing early signs of being just like her mama; in her own little bubble world. Here, she plays with a stuffed turkey while the other kids participate in the play.

In the next two clips, Sadie enlists her little friend Lila in the "I'm not going to pay attention to what's going on around me" game.

Trying to move past Halloween...

2008-11-18T06:45:00.000-05:00

So, Sadie is clinging tightly to Halloween. Though it's mid-November now, she still asks almost every day if we are going to go "Trick or Treat" with Malcolm and what our costumes are going to be. I've tried to transition her to Thanksgiving, but face it, turkeys and pilgrims are just not as exciting as witches and ghosts, and the concept of "being thankful" is not nearly as compelling to a three year old as the concept of being frightful and scary. We're trying...

Sadie's favorite activity these days is dressing up. We have a cedar chest we fill with costumes that I've been collecting- we run the gamut from mummies and pirates to princesses and "fancy ladies". Some days, she actually wants to go to school dressed up as something. I've noticed that some professions lend themselves to costuming more than others. I see so many little firemen and women running around, but I rarely see an "accountant" or a "librarian" costume. Feh, I say!

I have a bezillion little films- I'll try to put them up later this week. I was out of the office last week at the TRLN Management Academy and was crazy busy, so I've fallen behind on blogging. I'll at least post some pictures.

Here's Sadie in what she calls her "clown costume", which consists of several pairs of underwear- one on her head, one on her shoulders, and several around her ankles, and Play-Doh on her nose. She squeezes her "nose" and makes the sound of a honking bicycle horn.

We attended a friend's birthday party this weekend. Hailey turned three. The party was at a puppet house/comedy club in Raleigh, and the theme was "princesses". As tomboyish as Sadie can be, she is, fortunately or unfortunately, depending on your perspective, beginning to embrace the whole princess meme. We recently joined the minivan brigade and now have a Honda Odyssey. We pulled up in the parking lot and found we were minivan #21, and as our daughter exited, we looked around and saw 21 other princesses, and I realized that my punk rock days are officially over. ;-) Here she is preparing to dig into a beautiful piece of candy made by Hailey's mother, Lisa.
Missy and Lila, who managed to escape the princess theme. We attended Missy's baby shower shower later that day.

Two weekends ago, we took Sadie to the Museum of Life and Science, for, like, the 25th time. Thank goodness we're members! Each time is a different experience, though, because she grows increasingly engaged with her surroundings and has picked up new skills and interests. We have some cool films of some of the wildlife there that I will post later this week.

Racing to get down the stairs to the butterfly house...

Yay- time for a train ride! We'll be riding the "Santa Train" there next month.
Waiting for the train to start moving...
Hurry!
Ugh. I'm not crazy about this picture of me, but we have so few pictures of us as a family, that it's going to have to stay here...
Halloween night, we had dinner with Sadie's friend Malcolm and his mother, and then went out for trick or treating in their neighborhood, as trick or treating in my neighborhood would consist of walking in 180 acres of woods, shining a flashlight, and asking the woodland creatures for acorns. Malcolm was an octopus, and Sadie was, as she called it, a "fancy lady". I don't have the heart to explain to her what a "fancy lady" actually is; nor would she understand the concept, so there you go. She picked the dress out of the chest and insisted on wearing it, even though we already had a nice, complete witch costume.

Malcolm, the octopus.

Knocking on doors... Malcolm is almost three now, and he had a hard time restraining himself from actually entering peoples' homes. He also kept dropping his candy into Sadie's bucket. Nice guy!
The fancy lady and the octopus eat their dinner...

I think I like this picture of myself even less than the one on the train. Blech! Ah, well, it is what it is... This was taken at Sadie's school Halloween afternoon, during the Halloween party.
Sadie's pumpkin mask...

More to come...

Happy Birthday, Sadie!!!

2008-10-28T14:27:00.012-04:00

The past two weeks have been filled with activity, chaos and bedlam, so I had a memory card full of pictures and films to process today...

After spending most of last week in Morgantown, WV at the Mid-Atlantic Chapter of the Medical Library Association's (MAC-MLA) conference, I raced home to help Redmond prepare the house for Sadie's third birthday party. Robert, Marsha and the twins came to visit, Dad stayed at Mom's apartment, and we had a pretty decent turnout at the party. We rented a bounce house, so of course it rained on Saturday. The kids didn't seem to care if the floors of the bounce house were slick- nor did my Dad!

Sadie had a great time at her party... She's been talking about it for the past month, and seems to think that every day is her birthday.

These days, Sadie is completely obsessed with Halloween. She talks nonstop about witches, ghosts and jack-o-lanterns. She has memorized several of her Halloween books and walks around reciting them. She has learned the Halloween song from "Yo Gabba Gabba" and "I Don't Like Candy Corn" and sings them all the time. I'm not really sure what she's going to do after October 31st- somehow, Thanksgiving just isn't that much fun for kids, though we're spending the long weekend in Charleston and will be doing plenty of "kid things" there.

Here are some film clips and pictures....

Sadie acting coy during the "Happy Birthday" song...

Lucas letting us know how the Cookie Monster sounds when he eats cookies...

A couple of weeks ago, Sadie and I visited Redmond at his booth at the Chapel Hill/Carrboro Schools Walk for Education Fair. There were all kinds of edible treats, face painting, crafts, and jumpy slidy inflatables... At the fair each year, the "Worst Party Songs of All Time" station is played at full blast. I heard such songs as the Electric Slide, "Pour Some Sugar on Me" and "Barbie Girl". Here, Sadie demonstrates her dancing skills to the tune of "Cotton Eyed Joe".

Sadie dances, part 2

At the birthday party, the kiddies weren't the only folks enjoying the bounce house... Watch my 71 year old father in the next two clips!

Sadie and Lucas play with a pirate ship... Sadie's pirate ship play has become a bit more intricate since she moved into the three year old classroom populated with mostly boys. Now, she's making people walk the plank and announcing, gravelly-pirate voiced, that "I have you where I want you!!!"

Lucas, clutching a ladybug ball...

This is Malcolm- Sadie's favorite friend at school. She always puts his hat on his head for him when the class goes out to play, and she talks about him all the time. We've gotten together with Malcolm outside of school for a playdate a couple of times, and they seem to really enjoy each other. Someday, she'll scribble his name in her notebook...

Sweet Lily and Marsha...

Finley, Griffin, Dana and Amelia... Griffin is in the "NO PAPARAZZI!" stage of toddlerhood...
Gathered around the food in the outbuilding. The young guy to the left of Robert and Lucas is Bradley, Sadie's second cousin.
There's Dad, post bounce house shenanigans!
Redmond's cousin Melissa arrived in witch costume with her daughter Bridget as Minnie Mouse. We hadn't seen Bridget or Bradley in a couple of years and were amazed at how grown up they were.
Sadie prepares to tackle her spooky orange cupcake.
My friend Anne with her kids Elizabeth and Max.
Here's the family graveyard... This was the beginning of our haunted trail... It's amazing what can be done with styrofoam these days...

The bounce house...
Sadie, taking a rare moment of reflection... She was dressed as a witch for her party, but the hat didn't stay on very long...
Molly, who informed me that she was "a fairy princess, not just a princess!".
Here is the view of a lake not far from Morgantown, WV. We had a picnic here on the way to Morgantown.
Here's the New River Gorge in WV.

Sadie in Homestead Park.

On the way to Homestead Park, Sadie picked this morning glory for Malcolm, in case he happened to be there. He lives right next to the park, and we've met him at the park before. It broke my heart when she walked around with her little flower asking for Malcolm and when she realized that he wasn't there.

Here's Sadie at the Walk for Education. She had a jack-o-lantern painted on her face.

Getting ready to slide...

Long overdue post

2008-10-13T06:55:00.000-04:00

Yikes! I just realized this morning that I forgot to update the blog last week. Sadie and I both have been battling a gastrointestinal bug. She missed a few days of school last week, and I spent most of the weekend down for the count. This is a relatively short blog, as we were definitely not taking pictures this weekend.

Sadie's birthday party is coming up on Saturday, October 25th. Redmond really wanted to have the party at home this year, which means that, ugh, we have to make our house a slightly less disaster-y disaster area. Though I'm prone to exaggeration, I sometimes want to submit our home to one of those reality TV "OMG, help! We are messy hoarders" shows. Really, part of the problem is that we have two cats and a dog, and one of the cats has made the entire house his litter pan since Sadie was born.

Here are a couple of films and pictures from Lila's second birthday party at Pullen Park. Sadie actually became ill last Sunday, right after eating a cupcake and riding the carousel.

Here she is playing soccer at the party...

Watch Sadie and Griffin as they delicately and neatly eat their cupcakes!

Here is the adorable birthday girl, Lila, with Missy.

You saw the film. Now, see Griffin and Sadie tackle those cupcakes in still life.
I think this shall be my new Facebook avatar!

Pssst- are you ready to open your presents?

Pullen Park trip

2008-09-29T06:34:00.000-04:00

It's been an interesting two weeks. Last weekend, Redmond, Sadie and I headed over to Pullen Park in Raleigh to meet up with Dana, Finley, Griffin and Amelia. We planned a picnic lunch and some train, boat and carousel rides. I can't believe in the 12 years I've lived in the Triangle area that I have never checked out this park. The carousel dates from 1912 and was moved to Pullen Park in 1915. There's a small train that follows the perimeter of the park and is a huge hit with kids. There are also small kiddie boat rides and larger, paddle boats for rent. Picnic spots abound. Our picnic spot was surrounded by large, lush trees, rocks to climb, and boarded a small lake with hungry, begging mallard ducks.

Unfortunately, I somehow misplaced our camera for the next two weeks and assumed it had been stolen at Pullen Park. I found it this weekend, just before we were heading out the door to purchase another camera.

Last Sunday, we met Josh, Jen, Alex and Molly at the Marbles Museum. And this Saturday, Sadie returned to Marbles to see Anne, Elizabeth and Max. Of course, given that I did not have my camera, Sadie managed to be "increasingly adorable" the last couple of weeks(see SNL, Tina Fey/Sarah Palin skit).

Right now, everything is Halloween, Halloween, Halloween. I found a plethora of costumes at thrift stores, and I've just been collecting them as dress up clothes. Almost every night after dinner, she decides which costume she wants to wear and then does whatever she would normally do in the evening, but as a witch or a mummy.

We're busy trying to get the house into some reasonable form of shape for Sadie's upcoming birthday party. It's a holy wreck!

Here are some pictures and films I actually did manage to take before I misplaced my camera.

Sadie and Griffin are riding in the kiddie boat at Pullen Park. Sadie was thrilled to discover the bell, and we were thrilled that she didn't jump out of the boat.

Here we are on the train ride. Griffin was definitely single minded about the train ride that day. I think we ended up riding about three times!

Here's the historic carousel... You can see us in the middle- Sadie is riding an ostrich. I'm the one waving madly at the camera...

Here are some pictures of Sadie and Griffin on the boat... I was amazed that not a single child attempted to jump out of the boat... I was especially amazed that Sadie didn't!

Here's Dana and Amelia. I think Amelia's about 9 months old now.
Sadie and me on the train.

Sadie climbing rocks near our picnic table...
This is Sadie's witch costume. She seems to be very much at peace with her dark side...

Sadie is a robot

2008-09-16T06:13:00.000-04:00

I've had a very busy week thus far... Last weekend, I drove to the Tidewater area to see a few folks... I don't normally like to take trips without my family, but it wasn't practical this time to haul everyone home, and I planned to spend part of the weekend with my best friend Karen K and some of my other old buddies, so it made sense to just go alone this time. I spent Friday night with Robert, Marsha, Lucas and Lily. The twins are so cute and so grown up now! I could hardly believe how much more verbal and physical they are, compared to the last time we saw them. Saturday, I saw Dad and Debi, and then headed to Karen's house. We met up with my old friend Kim for lunch, and then had dinner at Jeff and David's. Sunday, I scooted back home, so I could relieve Redmond so he could take care of schoolwork. He is back in school now, starting his MS in Technology Education, and that, combined with being a teacher, takes a bit of time.

Before I post my pictures from this weekend, I have to share this video of Sadie being a robot. Redmond made this costume for her this weekend, and apparently taught her monotone robot speech...

And here is a still of Robot Sadie...

Lily and Lucas, being the sweet, active twins they are. I have a couple of films of them dancing that I will shortly process and upload...

Lucas, ready to commit mischief...
I'm silly for posting this... My friend Jeff is a whiz at interior design. I've known him since the late 1980's, and even on a starving 20 year old's income, he always had a knack for creating a quirky, stylish atmosphere. He designed this bathroom scheme on his own... You can't see from this picture, but he has gargoyles over the toilet! He also collects tiki swag.

Karen, fiddling with her new camera... The necklace she's wearing was my birthday present...
That's it for now... I may have more to share later this week...

Not a ballerina, but....

2008-09-09T11:04:00.003-04:00

So she thinks she can dance... I am so highly amused by this...

Labor Day- Camping photos

2008-09-03T06:41:00.001-04:00

So, we spent the weekend camping at Grayson Highlands State Park in Western NC with a few other families. This was the same trip we attempted to do last Labor Day, but we had to return home when Sadie became ill. So gee- 2 out of the 5 times we've attempted to vacation in the VA mountains as family have been successes! I feel drunk with power now!

Anyway, I had a great time, though I am having to adjust to camping with a small child. Redmond and I started camping together around 1991, and we became accustomed to camping being a very laid-back, relaxed activity involving hikes during the day oand sitting around in camp chairs being lazy in the evening. There is no lazy allowed when you have an almost-three year old who is in constant motion and cannot be contained in a small tent. Sadie wanted to climb every tree, visit every camp site, and scale every rock. I'm hoping we can squeeze one more camping trip in this fall. She seems to really enjoy being outdoors.

I captured Sadie standing on a tree stump playing a great orator. I think this is her presidential campaign speech. I have no idea what she's saying, though I can pick out some phrases like "spooky hour" (a book she likes), owl, and elephant.

We set off another one of Redmond's rockets in a nearby field.

We are on the Rhododendron Trail at the park and Sadie is concerned that we aren't getting enough to eat, so she offers both Redmond and me a piece of "pie".

Our group took a hike on Sunday morning up the Rhododendron Trail at Massie Gap to the AT, where we did some rock scrambling. Here are Dad, Rachel, Milo, Susan, and Karen. And of course, Redmond in the front...
Whenever Sadie became tired, Daddy would give her a lift...
A lovely view of a knob in the distance. If you look down to the road, that's where we parked.
We stop for a rest to make sure Sadie is hydrated...
More boulder scrambling...
Susan, Karen, someone behind Karen, Milo and Sadie
Nice view...
This is a huckleberry bush... The kids had so much fun climbing up in the bushes and picking huckleberries, which we added to our pancakes the next day. We also found many ripe blackberries along the trail. Sadie proudly announced that she climbed the tree all by herself. That's Milo scaling the bush with Sadie.
Redmond looking like an Irish farmer taking a rest in the field while the kids pick berries...
Picnic area at Massie Gap.

A still of Sadie making her big speech...
Our tent, which managed to stay dry through a heavy rainstorm...
Molly, being cute.
In the field, getting ready to launch a rocket...
Sadie, Alex, Claudia, Henry, Lucie, Redmond and unidentified girl setting up rockets...

Jen, Molly, Josh, Susan, two little unidentified girls in our campground, Milo, Karen, Sadie and Alex, all getting ready to launch a rocket...

Milo, Karen, Lucie's torso and Sadie.
Redmond playing a paddle game with Lucie.

I swore I would not do the princess thing with Sadie. I was not a "princess" type when I was a girl and the "princess" culture in which little girls often engage is a bit over the top for my tastes. I am a dyed-in-the-wool feminist, for goodness sake! However, Sadie likes to dress up in all kinds of costumes- pirates, animals, and yes, princesses, and I think it would be a bit much for m e to impose my own particular prejudices on my daughter. She has the right to try on different roles and different identities and explore all the myriad ways to express herself. So, anyway, I digress... Mom picked up this princess outfit and Sadie just loves it. Sigh... Here it is...

Few more pics...

2008-08-27T06:46:00.001-04:00

Aunt Sylvia sent us some pictures from our Vermont trip and frankly, she's a better photographer than I, so here is a slideshow of her pictures...

Here are a few highlights...

On the ferry across Lake Champlain...

Picnic lunch at Shelburne Farms..

Being pulled by a tractor...
Uncle David, Aunt Diane and Aunt Sylvia watching TV...
Sadie milking a cow...
We had lots and lots of delicious sweet corn from the Nichols farm almost every night... Sadie could have eaten it day and night...Taking a quick swim in Lake Champlain...
Sadie, petting a sheep...
We loved this display at Shelburne Farms...

Now, on to something both slightly embarrassing and amusing... My old high school buddies have been scanning and posting pictures from back in the day on Facebook in the past couple of weeks. Here is living proof that I am a child of the 80's...

I'm guessing this picture was taken in 1985 or 1986 during my freshman year of college. I determined this by calibrating hair length with this particular shade of red. This may have been around the time I took out my short-lived nose ring. Karen Kriner is wearing a leopard print shriner hat. We have the appropriate sullen looking goth facial expressions...

This would be in 1983 or 1984, my junior year of high school. Here's Karen Kriner and myself standing on the sidewalk designated for "punks". To my right is Kim Tharp wearing a trenchcoat. Thom Stanton is behind us, mysteriously clutching a trash can. To our left is what we used to call "goathead wall", where the, um, stoners who liked classic rock hung out. If you could pan to the front and right of us, you'd see "prep wall", which is pretty self explanatory. Can you believe the smoking kids? Back then, the principal used to occasionally come out and smoke with us. The world has certainly changed.

I have absolutely no idea who this boy is. He wasn't anyone I dated. But this is the only current picture I have of me with blonde hair. I have a slew of pictures to scan, but haven't gotten around to it yet.
Here's some of the "motley crew". In the front is Kim, Tasha, me and Karen K.

Here I am- probably early in my sophomore year of high school- I can tell because I still look relatively "normal" and the clothing style was fairly preppy in the early 80's. I was at my friend Elena's house. I'm not sure why I had my palms up- I don't recall ever having stigmata or anything.

Elena lived in a lovely home by a very wide river and we used to hang out in the yard and enjoy the view.
This would have been 1987 or 1988. This was an old boyfriend who was heading across the country on a trip. I was trying to sneak in his suitcase. Gosh, I was so thin back then!
Oh my. Talk about dated! I'm guessing this was early 1983, probably taken soon before the picture of me in Elena's house. This was one of my first boyfriends. Remember back in middle school when the little girls grew so much faster than the little boys?
Karen recently scanned my junior year yearbook photo. I remember picking up this silly purple men's tuxedo shirt at the Salvation Army, and I found these awful purple feather earrings that look like roach clips. Ouch.

Ok- we were dressed for a costume party. This was a bit wild- even for us! This is Amy, Andy, myself, Karen K and John.
My friends threw a surprise birthday party sleepover for me when I turned 16. This photo screams "80s! 80s! 80s!" Look at how young my Dad looks here! He was 46.
This picture was probably taken around 1988 or 1989. Someone should have clued me in that fishnet stalkings look rather silly with denim shorts.
I think this might have been 1989, but after the preceding picture. I chopped off all that hair in the summer, as I often do. Another old boyfriend, who is sporting a mullet!
Technically, this is the 90's, but I thought I'd throw this one in. Obviously, this was taken on my wedding day. Karen K is posing with me. She and Elena actually took the initiative to have their bridesmaid gowns made for them. I planned my Virginia wedding from Montana, Redmond and I were starving students, and I had a lot of help from friends and family to pull it all together. The stunning floral arrangement was made by Debi, my father's wife. There were succulents in the arrangement, so I had another bouquet made that I could throw without spiking anyone...
I am very much anti cake-smooshing. I believe that there is most likely a positive correlation between cake smooshing and whether or not a couple ends up divorcing... Redmond was a very gentle cake feeder.

This weekend, we are going to Grayson Highlands State Park with a few families to camp for Labor Day. Here's hoping we can actually make it there this time!

Sadie and her silly noises

2008-08-22T08:14:00.003-04:00

Sadie likes to make silly noises. She usually has a current favorite at any given time, so when you ask her to make a silly noise, she'll regale you with her noise du jour. She is multi-versatile with these noises- she can impersonate a penguin doing the silly noise, or a pirate, or any other bizarre combination on command.

More vacation pics...

2008-08-16T08:39:00.010-04:00

If you haven't checked the blog for some time, you might want to look at the entry immediately below this one as well, as I uploaded some videos last night.

I'm still sitting here in this spartan Red Roof Inn somewhere in the outposts of Boston, and am getting ready to hail a cab and attempt to come home today, as my flight last night was canceled. I'm going to post a hodgepodge of photos from my trips the last couple of weeks but will probably hold the commentary to a minimum.

Here are some photos I snapped on a tour of Harvard's campus. I was in a daze that day, as we often were up until after midnight doing homework, so unfortunately, I remember little about specific building names, etc.

Here is the quintessential "Ivy Leaguers studying under a massive shady tree" shot...
A statue of John Harvard. What I do remember from this tour is that a fire burned down all of his personal books and portraits, so that by the time this statue was erected, no one knew what he actually looked like. This statue is called the "Statue of Three Lies". The plaque says "John Harvard, Founder, 1638". We already know the statue was not in the likeness of John Harvard. Also, he was a contributor but not the actual founder. And the school was founded in 1636.

This was our tour guide. She is studying cultural anthropology, and was very typical of the Harvard students I encountered. Supremely self-confident, outgoing, and very type A.

This is an example of why it breaks my heart that so many colleges received an insurgence of funding in the 1960's and 1970's. This is the Science Center building, and is apparently universally considered an eyesore by students and faculty alike.
Here is a picture of our mock "graduation" ceremony at the end of the Harvard Leadership Institute for Academic Librarians .
This is my discussion group. There were about 100 librarians enrolled in the seminar, but we were also assigned to smaller discussion groups that met each day to discuss each others' case studies. It really turned out to be much more like group therapy. I met several people in my group that I would like to keep up with in the future. There were some great folks with great ideas in my group!

On to Vermont... These pictures will be somewhat out of order, as Blogger is acting up today....

We took Sadie to Pizza Putt a couple of times to play in the room of inflatables and the ball pits.... She found another little girl the first time named Addy, I think, and they stuck together like glue... Here they are in the ball pit pretending to be sleeping...

Aunt Sylvia introduces Sadie to Uncle David's pheasants...

The beautiful main structure on the grounds of Shelburne Farms.

On the tractor ride around Shelburne Farms...

Aunt Diane takes Sadie into the chicken building on the Nichols Farm.

Sadie pushing a wheelbarrow...

And riding a tractor...
Stomping around Shelburne Farms with big wader boots... There's a cute film of this in the entry below...

Though you can't really see it, Sadie is milking a cow here! There are some better pictures of this coming in the mail from Aunt Sylvia and I will post them when I get the disc...

This is Uncle David and Aunt Diane's house on the farm. The house is at the tail end of a mile long gravel road and is very isolated and peaceful. There are wild turkeys and even coyotes that cross the property.

A view of Mount Philo from the farm...
Sadie talks to the chickens...

Another shot of Aunt Diane hoisting Sadie around the chicken building.

Long overdue update...

2008-08-15T20:47:00.007-04:00

While Redmond and Sadie are sleeping at home this evening, I am stuck in a very nondescript Red Roof Inn in the far-reaches of the Boston area. I put Redmond and Sadie on a plane in Burlington, Vermont this morning and then drove to Boston to turn in my rental car and fly home. Unfortunately, the weather on the east coast was a mess, and most of the flights going up and down the coastline were canceled. So, I'm stuck here in a very non-walkable part of Boston, as there is a convention in town taking up all the hotel rooms, and I figured I might as well finally get around to updating my blog.

The last two weeks have been a whirlwind... Last week, I attended the Harvard Leadership Institute for Academic Librarians. I stayed in a dorm in an old building on the Radcliffe side of campus. The program was quite intense with hours of homework and readings each night, but I found the material and structure of the class to be very enlightening and informative - even somewhat transformative. Last Friday, I rented a car in Cambridge and headed up to Vermont. Redmond and Sadie flew in on Saturday and we spent the week in a nice, comfy suite with a nice pool with a neat waterslide that Sadie just loved, and we had a great time visiting Aunt Sylvia and Uncle Mich in Essex Junction and Uncle David and Aunt Diane on the farm in Charlotte. Sadie chased chickens at Shelburne Farms, visited the islands of Lake Champlain, rode on a ferry, spent one night on the family farm, climbed on tractors, swam daily, and visited the Shelburne Museum. Plus, she was able to spend the week with several doting adults, and she ate up the attention.

Unfortunately, I was a dork and forgot to bring my camera battery charger, so I'm waiting for some of Aunt Sylvia's pictures to show up in the mail. I did manage to get a few pictures before the camera battery died.

Tonight, I'm adding some videos. Tomorrow morning before I head back to the airport, I'll add some pictures.... I never posted any of our beach videos, so this blog entry is a bit of a mish-mash...

At the beach, Sadie was very interested in Josh and James' kayaks... Heres, she's making off with Josh's kayak...

Sadie and the other kids were tossing their shirts in the air and being generally goofy... Sadie tended to copy whatever Henry, Alex and Charlie did...

Sadie and Lila had a lot of fun playing under and over the coffee table ...

It's fun to dig little "swimming pools" for the kids...

Redmond set off some of his rockets from school....

Sadie ran laps around the wrap-around porch... She found someone's straw hat and pretended to be a cowgirl...

Here, we jump forward to Vermont. We visited the beautiful Shelburne Farms, where Sadie milked a cow and chased chickens... This poor guy looked pretty stressed....

Aunt Sylvia takes Sadie out to splash in mud puddles...

More at Shelburne Farms... Sadie has added cowboys to the list of professions with which she is preoccupied...

Gathering eggs from the nest... The chickens are not amused...

Here are a couple of clips from the class at Harvard. This is from our little mock "graduation" ceremony...

The night before our "graduation", we were treated to a traditional clam bake, complete with whole boiled lobsters... Half of us had absolutely no idea how to eat them...

I have a new Nevada Barr book waiting for me, so I think I'm going to beg off for the evening and read a bit before nodding off.. Hopefully, I'll make it home in good time tomorrow to see my family...

A few beach favorites...

2008-07-30T06:54:00.001-04:00

I just wanted to post a few of my favorites from our beach photos... The rest can be found in the photo album to which I linked in the entry below.... I have to give some credit to the Stinehelfers, who took a few of these pictures... I basically raided their Snapfish album... Hopefully, I'll have some videos up by tomorrow...

This very well may be my new favorite Sadie picture... She's actually looking at the camera, smiling and sitting still. Somehow, all the stars aligned!

And another smiling picture! This was her little yellow duck float that she used in the baby pool...

Redmond looking vaguely Dr. Evil-esque...

Mommy looks like h-e-double toothpicks here, but Sadie looks cute... Lisa and Hailey are strolling by...

Redmond brought some of his rockets from school and set them off on the beach. Alex and Charlie seemed to particularly enjoy this...

A crowd assembles for fireworks... Shh... don't call the police!

Sadie, looking for some mischief...
Henry, Claudia and Sadie have their very own deluxe swimming pool...
Sadie enjoyed playing hide and seek behind the curtains in the living room... Unfortunately, the house had these sheer white curtains in the bedrooms as well, so we had to drape a thick comforter over the windows so Sadie would take a nap in the afternoon...

Molly and Lila weren't so sure about those fireworks...
A lady of leisure...
Surf's up!
Some more pictures of Sadie on the beach...

Back from the beach!

2008-07-29T06:33:00.000-04:00

We came back from the beach on Saturday evening, and I'm pretty swamped trying to catch up before I leave yet again next Saturday for my ACRL Leadership Conference and trip to Vermont. For now, I just dumped all of our photos in a Picasa web album for right now, and will add captions and organize later this week... Also, I have some very cute videos I'll try to upload in the next day or so...

Topsail Island, 2008

Massive video dump...

2008-07-08T06:15:00.000-04:00

So, here are the videos I promised yesterday... If you haven't checked my blog in a few days, be sure to scroll down and see the following entry, where I made a massive photo dump. I had to make sure I emptied out my camera before our beach week that starts Saturday after next.

Sadie seems to be musically inclined... Now, I'm basing this on the fact that she bellows out notes from various and sundry songs she's learned and bangs on several musical instruments, but you know how parents are... If I see her holding something resembling a test tube, of course, she's going to be a famous chemist, and when she uses her play stethoscope to check mommy's heartbeat, I'm going to assume she's going to be a renowned Cardiovascular surgeon, right? So, here, I present Sadie- the budding musician!

Unfortunately, I couldn't get my camera fired up quickly enough and the noise in Planet Child was louder than Sadie, but if you listen very closely, you can hear the end of "Twinkle Twinkle". I am so sad... A year ago, the song was "Hinkle Hinkle Little Tar". I always feel weepy when Sadie learns the right way to say something. I'm still suffering that hot dogs are no longer "wot dogs" and that butterflies are no longer "wee-o-wies".

Sadie has invented the "Cookie song", which consists of her singing the words "Cookie... cookie... cook-key, key, key, key, Cookie...." The lyrics are poignant and moving, no? Here, she accompanies herself with my guitar... I should probably check to make sure the strings are still on...

Not to be limited to one genre or musical instrument, she adapts the cookie song to the piano. Playing as naked as she came into this world, she seems to be making the statement that her art is the naked truth, and not sugar-coated by the mask of clothing... And thank goodness the video is very dark!

The basic melody of Beethoven's 9th takes a darker, post-punk goth turn... Yes, I am being completely facetious... ;-)

Sadie also appreciates the art of dance. She has adapted her bluegrass dancing moves so as to continue dancing while Daddy applies sunscreen.

Sadie does not like to be a trained monkey. She often stops whatever she's doing when she sees me turn the camera on her. Here, I was trying to get her to slide down the haystack, but she balked and eventually demanded that I turn the camera off. But she did play "flamingo" for the camera. She likes to pretend to be different animals, and being a flamingo is an exercise in balance...

Sadie plays pirate at Planet Child. Notice that she uses "pirate voice" throughout the clip.

I love this clip... Sadie was playing around with the garden hose and managed to wash Mee-Maw's car, Pee-Paw, and Mommy.

Big picture dump

2008-07-07T06:21:00.000-04:00

It's been some time since our last update... With Redmond's annual national TSA competition taking him away for about a week, and the mad rush before the trip to pull everything together with his kids, it's just been too busy around the house to take many pictures or to update the blog... So, I have a pretty massive picture dump today. Later this week, I have some pretty cute videos of Sadie to upload, so check back!

On the recommendation of a friend, I ventured to the wilds of suburban Cary to a children's play area called Planet Child. Not quite a children's museum, but with a predominance of toddler-oriented play stations, Planet Child has enough to keep Sadie busy, but is small in scale to the degree that I don't worry about losing my little F-5 tornado. She tends to run at 60 mph in Marbles, and occasionally leaves us in the dust. Planet Child is Sadie's new favorite place to go, and makes a great substitute for a park or playground on a rainy day. She often wakes up in the morning and queries, "We go to Child?".

Redmond and I took Sadie to Planet Child right before he left for TSA in Orlando, and then I visited again with my friend Anne and her two kids. Here are some pictures...

The love that cannot be named... OK- I'll name it- it's penguin love...

Playing rock star....

After Sadie finishes playing "guitar" and obsessing over the electric trains, she usually makes a beeline to the pirate ship....

Ahoy, matey!

Sadie's entering the stage where she wants to dress in costumes all the time... I really need to make and collect some costumes to keep at home... Currently, she wraps a blanket around her shoulders and announces that she's a super villain looking for the key to the world... I then have to chase her around, capture her, and tickle her...

Here, she's pretending to be a car...

In a rowboat with Max...

Here's she's going for the Johnny Depp pirate look....

Just your average, ordinary, lion-riding pirate...

Once again with the guitar...

She's waiting for me to swing her around in the bucket...

While Redmond was away, we had the perfect storm of events... Mom was also away touring Ireland with her sister, my aunt Sylvia. And Sadie's preschool was closed for the week. So, in order to ensure that I wasn't stranded in the wilds of Western Orange County all by myself for a week, Dad graciously came down to help.... This time, he and Sadie really bonded. Here, we have taken Sadie to the "ice cream store", but she actually was indifferent to the ice cream. She pretty much goes to play on that tiny little haystack....

Dad is trying to pique Sadie's interest in her ice cream cup, but she's far more engrossed with scaling the haystack...

Clutching the butterfly Dad gave her...

We usually attend the Eno River Festival every year, and this year was no different, though the stormy weather kept us away until Sunday. Unlike most years, the temperature only reached the high 80's. I have memories of watching live bands in 100+ degree weather, so I was thrilled to be relatively comfortable.

Sadie was wildly enthusiastic about the bus ride to the festival from the parking lot.

Crossing the river on a bridge...

The old mill on the Eno River...

Some of the crafts for sale...

Unfortunately, the previous days of rain had the river engorged and running crazy fast, so the kayak trips were not appropriate for small children. We mollified Sadie by allowing her to kayak in grass...

And she realizes that kayaking in grass is somewhat lame...

Splashing...

Brave folks swimming in the engorged river... We stood in tantrum alley, as Sadie and a bazillion other toddlers begged to swim in the river...

New pictures, same places!

2008-06-18T06:27:00.001-04:00

We had planned to go camping on the Blue Ridge Parkway with some friends this weekend. We were totally looking forward to taking Sadie on her second camping trip and sleeping under the stars. However, once again, our plans to head to the mountains were foiled. Sadie had strep throat and then passed it along to me. By Friday, she was feeling better, but I was definitely not, and I also had spasmodic coughing fits, as did Redmond. I couldn't think of anything I would LEAST rather do than sleep outside, so we had to opt out of the trip.

Though we weren't up to camping, we did take Sadie to RDU's Observation park to watch airplanes, and to the Marbles Childrens Museum in Raleigh. So, the only difference between the pictures we've posted before and these would be the fact that Sadie is older now. Enjoy, and we promise to do something new and unusual one day soon!

Here are some films.

Sadie and Daddy watch an airplane landing. The first part of the film is really more interesting, as she decides that she is a monkey and a gorilla. I'm not sure why a monkey and a gorilla would be hanging out at RDU's Observation Park watching planes, but there you go...

Sadie, running through Marbles banging on a drum...

Sadie dances, or at least, she dances until she realizes we're filming. She had been dancing cutely for several minutes. As usual, she stops doing whatever she's doing when she realizes the camera is on. Aaargh!

Sadie plays with water.

And drives a fire engine...

Pictures...

There was some local production of Peter Pan at Marbles. Sadie peers through the bars down at the dancing pirates.
Sadie is playing with water...

In a Pirate Ship. She now has a "pirate voice" that is deep and gravelly, and she'll say things like "Ahoy Matey!" and "ARRRRR!" I taught her how to swab the deck and walk the plank.

Sadie mans (or toddlers) the pirate ship wheel.

Trying on various and sundry pirate hats. Sadie takes her pirate-ism quite seriously. It's serious business.

Sadie absconds with a wheelbarrow filled with fake produce.

Fishing in a fishing boat...

Planting carrots with another kid.

Trying on hats... Sadie is finally beginning to enjoy dressing in costumes. I love that she can go right from dressing like "a little princess", as she puts it, to driving a dump truck. Awesome! That's my girl!

Grabbing some lunch...

Redmond and Sadie watch the airplanes taking off and landing...

I snapped this yesterday morning... Note the beautiful accessory of a NASCAR sippy cup. It matches the dress perfectly!

Last minute trips are often the best!

2008-06-06T08:39:00.024-04:00

So, sometime in the middle of last week, I decided that "Redmond needed a nice birthday present", and what he needed was the easy weekend trip I'd been wanting to take for ages- a day in the Salisbury area at the North Carolina Transportation Museum followed by lodging somewhere with a pool and a day at the Zoo. Yeah, I dream big. Luckily, Redmond has been wanting to visit the transportation museum as well, so it actually
was a real birthday present for him, not something I called a birthday present but was really for me. ;-)

We pulled together a trip at the last possible second, and off we went. The NC Transportation Museum rose from the grassroots efforts of the citizens of E. Spencer when the long-abandoned railroad acreage in their town was slated to be destroyed. Now, the museum has rides on both steam and diesel engine trains, a restored roundhouse full of engines and several installations on the grounds with old cars, buses and helicopters, and other transportation devices. It's a fabulous experience for the toddler who loves trains. Sadie ran through and tried to identify which Thomas character each train resembled.

We bought a ticket to a train ride, but while we waited, the steam engine train rolled right by. We all get to wave at the train...

Here, we check out an old fire engine and an old helicopter.

When we boarded the train for our ride, Sadie decided to take the narrator's seat. Of course. After we filmed this, we hustled her to a seat where we wouldn't get in any trouble. She thinks she's singing karaoke. Note that I have her songs confused. She hums a track from "Carmen", "Eine Kleine Nachtmusik" and Beethoven's 9th. Sometimes they sound the same at first. She also will sing these songs with animal sounds. You haven't heard anything until you've heard "Habanera" from Carmen as sung by a seal. MeeMa is most likely responsible for the opera acquisition. I'm most likely responsible for the seal voice.

Here's some video from our nifty ride on the old steam train. Part 1.

Train Ride- part 2

Redmond stopped to take some video of the restored roundhouse.

Grinning outside the gift shop door. She knows that there are many Thomas product placements inside.

Outside a vintage passenger car.

An old engine. And to the left, a train.

Redmond and Sadie pose in front of a red caboose.

I'm not sure, but I'm guessing that this car was somehow connected to the Flagg Coal Co.

Sadie's figured out how to do that weird thing with her eyelids. Yay, me!

A nifty old orange school bus. I covet.this. much.

Another old train thingy. I think this was the one we originally built for the Russians in the early 20th century, but after the revolution, they ran out of money, and so we inherited the train. Apparently, we also inherited the small cardboard conductor that went with it.

The Green Crescent. Ok- I don't know what this is, but it's a train. I should have let Redmond write the captions for this entry.

A view of some of the trains in the roundhouse.

Sadie's goal is to try to climb higher than we can reach...

Anyway, the museum was very interesting, even for me. Thomas comes in the fall, so I guess we'll make the trek back for all the great product placement action!

We stayed at the Hampton Inn in Salisbury because the pool looked nicer on the Internet than the other motel pools. And pools are crucially important to toddlers. We took a nice swim, and Sadie seems to have finally ditched the habit of launching herself into a swimming pool regardless of whether or not there's someone right there to catch her. She is finally learning fear, thank goodness!

She's beginning to find heights a bit scary. Here she is looking out the window at the Hampton Inn, getting a wee bit wigged out...

We have a gazillion zoo pictures, so I'm keeping it to a minimum this time.

Last time we visited the Africa section of the zoo, Sadie called the gorilla "Daddy". She didn't do it this year. I think she called her daddy "Gorilla".

We took a few films at the gorilla exhibit. Here's part 1:

Gorillas Deux

The Gorilla Strike Back!

Hide and seek in a rock joint...

You probably can't see the baboons up close, but trust me, they were very cute!

Sadie loves meerkats. We had to stop and watch them for a bit. Meerkats are all the rage now since "Meerkat Manor".

'

Sadie sees her own reflection in an exhibit at the zoo. Sometimes, I feel like she IS an exhibit at the zoo... ;-)

There's a new installation in the Africa section where kids can climb in helicopters. This was quite popular.

Video of Sadie in the helicopter...

And afterwards, she's sacked out in a fake "camp" near the elephants. I was ready to stretch out on one of those cots and take a nap.

First view of the elephants:

Elephant up close. Notice how red he (or she) is. The red clay in the soil permanently stains their skin.

Then, we headed home.

Sadie's been obsessed lately with playing "ghost" lately. Sometimes, she wants to be the ghost and chase us, and other times, she makes us be ghosts. We have worn out our comforters in the last week chasing her around wearing them over our heads. She often dictates which kind of ghost she wants us to be . The White Blankee ghost has the down comforter and the Flower ghost wears a comforter with a floral print Ikea duvet. She wants her ghosts to have the proper decor. Sometimes, she insists that I read her a story as a ghost and use a ghostly voice. And she calls me ghost. "Read me a story, ghost!" Here's Daddy being a ghost, early on in the ghosting games.

It's been a LONG time....

2008-05-27T06:53:00.001-04:00

I think it's been about three weeks since my last blog entry. It's been a steady string of illnesses at the Grigg household. Sadie has been ill five times since starting pre-school, and whatever she picks up, I tend to get it next. Somehow, Redmond is impervious to illness- it must be the immunity building exercise of working with kids every day.

In the past few weeks I've had two ear infections, vertigo and conjunctivitis. I feel like a toddler!

Chicago was fun! I enjoyed seeing friends, doing my poster session and meeting up with vendors and seeing new products. I missed my family, but it's just too difficult for Redmond to find a substitute in May, so I have to attend this conference alone. I think Chicago is one of my favorite larger cities. There's so much to do, a lot of green space, and a certain Midwestern lack of pretension I appreciate.

Pictures and videos...

20 minutes before I had to head off to the airport, Sadie decided to strip off her clothes and play in the mud. We had to hose her off!

I wish we had better video of this... We've been reading "Green Eggs and Ham" to Sadie, and she's become obsessed with constantly asking us if we would, if we could, with a "fill in the blank here". Sometimes, she'll ask over and over for about five minutes, and will invent things like "Will you, will you (she doesn't quite have that part perfected) with a dinosaur? Will you, will you, with a bird house?" By the time I grabbed the camera, she was almost done this time, but you get the general idea.

We went to Pippa's second birthday party this weekend. This little clip gives some idea of the general chaos of these birthday parties.

Pippa's little sister, Rowan, is a great, big, adorable baby. She is 8 months old and actually wears a larger diaper size than her two year old sister. Sadie was fascinated with the "big baby".

Most of these pictures were taken at Pippa's party...

Sadie eats a wild strawberry found in the grass... We didn't catch on film the subsequent spitting out of said strawberry.

Sadie contemplates whether she wants to go outside or hover near the food table. I have to just mention that Sadie is going through a phase where she is voraciously hungry every couple of hours. She is particularly obsessed with blueberries, and I have purchased about 3 pints of blueberries in the past week! You'll see her eating in many of these pictures... I don't know if she's getting ready to go through a growth spurt or what, but we hear "I HUNGRY!" all day long.

Josh holds Emily and James' baby, Rowan. Rowan's sister Pippa is the birthday girl.

Pippa and Sadie play with a tiny fort. If you've seen the movie "Spinal Tap", this fort reminds me very much of the tiny Stonehenge that descended onto the stage.

From left to right, someone with a plate, Molly, Pippa, Emily and Missy.

Lila strikes a pose. When Sadie saw this picture, she exclaimed "It's Lila! She's so cute!"

Sadie running around with another child's Pooh Bear.

Sadie just enjoyed a small sunflower butter and strawberry jam sandwich. Yum!

Sadie and Pippa play at the tiny fort. I believe Sadie is eating something else.

Sadie finally managed to get her hands on a chocolate cupcake. We had to stop her from smearing her chocolate covered hands on Emily and James' furniture.

Post-chocolate cake. With the brown mustache and beard, she resembles the cliche of a French Existentialist. She just needs a beret and to say "Merde" every five minutes.

Josh and Molly.

James and Pippa, the birthday girl.

Lila, playing the bongos.

Emily feeds Rowan.

Alex and other kids head out to the backyard.

The next day, Sadie, Redmond, my Dad and I went to a local park. We have a thousand playground pictures, what's a few more, eh?

Sadie runs back and forth across the swinging bridge. Actually, I get a little nervous with this bridge because it can become slippery with just a light sprinkling of rain.

Sadie goes down the big kid slide.

And races back up again....

This is another one of the many "Pee-Paw pushes Sadie in the swing" pictures.

And finally, this picture is a wee bit cranky, but the sign on the side of Sadie's crane said it all that day....

Missed photo ops!!

2008-05-05T06:56:00.001-04:00

It's been a couple of weeks since my last post. Everyone except Redmond has been "laid up", as we say here in the South, with a cold that has left us with nasty ear infections. My right ear still is filled with fluid to the point that I can barely hear with it, and I feel constant, irritating pressure. Mom has the same problem. Unfortunately, giving Sadie antibiotics is more challenging than pilling a cat. She outright refuses to take it directly, and she can taste it immediately in milk and other beverages. We've had to resort to a variety of stealthy tricks, such as stirring it in ice cream (which occasionally works), half melted popsicles, sherbet and yogurt. Sometimes she'll eat the secretly laced food and other times she figures us out pretty quickly. Augmentin must be given twice a day, and it apparently tastes nasty.

Mom, Redmond and I attended the Piedmont Wildlife Festival in Durham on Saturday. This is the first annual offering, was sponsored by the Piedmont Wildlife Center, and we all had a great time. Mom ended up joining the Piedmont Wildlife Center and is planning to enroll in classes in order to become a wildlife rehabilitator. Sadie had the opportunity to actually pet a small alligator and a turtle, and we also had a chance to visit a red-tailed hawk and an opossum.

There were live bluegrass bands and food vendors, and Sadie sat on the lawn and tapped her feet to the music.

But woe of woes, I turned on my camera, and found I had left my memory card at home! Curses! There were so many great photo and video ops.

I do have some pictures from Sunday. We had a picnic at Cedar Falls Park and had dessert at Maple View Dairy. I took a few shots at Maple View, as I'm so fortunate to have views like this in my own neighborhood.

Sadie has decided that she wants to be a puppy. She frequently pants and slurps. I'm not sure, but it's possible that she actually licked the picnic table here. I know they say today's children are so clean that they are not building up immunity, but that's not the way we roll. Apparently.

This video was taken at Maple View Dairy. Sadie spots a 10 month old crawling baby, and drops to the ground to crawl with her.

Some pics...

Sadie always makes a beeline to the swingset.

Sadie leaps into her Mee-Maw's arms. She spent Saturday night with Mom. Now that Mom is not watching Sadie full time, she occasionally has Sadie sleepover on Saturday nights so that Redmond and I can have a date night. This weekend, we went to the movies and hung out at the bookstore.

Climbing the ladder up to the slide.

No, I don't want to get down and have dinner!

Playing with a flower from a tulip poplar tree. She said "I LIKE tulip flowers". Lately, she's been announcing things she likes and loves. She loves ice cream and eggs. And she likes flowers.

A farm view from the Maple View Dairy store.

This is a regular sight on a Saturday evening. When I was pregnant, I noticed that I was usually one of about a gazillion pregnant women standing in line for the sacred ice cream. On the weekends, it seems that half of the children in Chapel Hill and Hillsborough are here. It's a rare occasion when Redmond doesn't bump into one of his current or former students.

Sadie, enjoying some chocolate ice cream.

A view of Maple View farm from the porch.