Halloween

Pics of Sadie from this week. And yes, this is about as festive as it gets for her this year. Sorry, no costume. Just a toboggan from Nina and a onesie that says My First Halloween. The shot of Sadie and Kate confirms that Sadie is definitely a Cox.

 Sleeping this morning before I left for work

Boscoe keeping Sadie warm. Actually, I think he just wanted to lay on the bed and Sadie happened to be there, but it's the thought that counts.

Resemblance?

I wonder whose daughter she is...

 Steph

Sadie

The farm

Sadie went on her first trip to the Waffle House this past weekend, and while we were out, we decided to keep driving and headed up to the farm for a couple of hours. We're trying out new ways of getting to the farm, finding the best back roads to get there. There are some beautiful scenes out in the middle of nowhere, and we want to find as many as we can.

I helped Alan plant a tree for Melody, and Sadie spent some time sitting in the yard looking at the animals that would come close enough. She is just enamored with dogs, chickens, anything that moves. She laughs at them, watches them intently and tries to touch them if they get close.

As you can see below, she's really mastered the art of sitting up. It's her new favorite pastime. She sits in the floor and plays with her toys. Her struggle now is if she throws the toys out of her reach. She'll lean forward to get the toy and just keep going, face planting into the blankets or pillows we have around her. We laid her on her stomach last night and she started kicking really hard. As soon as she figures out what to do with her arms, I think she's going to be crawling all over the place.

The turkeys in the background of the pics are supposed to be our Thanksgiving Dinner, but we'll see what happens. They started out with 6 turkeys, and only two have made it. Raccoons, sickness, and other things (Chupacabra maybe) got the others. The tom (male) is always puffed up and gobbles at the slightest provocation. The hen is very friendly and let us touch her.

Anyways, just some pics of fun at the farm

Maggie, Sadie, Steph, Tom.

5 months (almost)

Alright, it's been a week or so since my last update. I need to put some photos up and some memories before we forget them.

Sadie is growing bigger and bigger and showing us new responses/knowledge/learnings every day it seems. Recently, she started clicking her tongue. The other morning she woke up and just started clicking away like it was her job. We mentioned it to Kate (who watches Sadie Monday through Wednesday). Kate said that's what she does to get Sadie to laugh, so Sadie has learned how to do it from observation. It's great and amazing to see how much she really observes, and how she puts it into practice.

She also has found a new friend. Herself. Kate took this picture last week of Sadie sitting in front of the mirror in our bathroom. Sadie would look at herself, raise her arms, then lower her arms, and repeat. She seemed fascinated by this other person doing exactly what she was doing.

Sadie's also getting stronger and stronger in terms of her ability to balance, sit up, and stand up (with our help, of course).

Parts of her personality and who she is are definitely starting to show through. She often gets in her "serious mode" as we call it, and it's clear that she's just observing the world around her. She watches and takes in everything she can with this stoic look on her face. She was like that at the Dixie Classic fair this past weekend. We went to see her Godparents, Bobby and Nicole in a show that they had put together. It was an ice skating show with the skaters dressed up as dogs. Sadie watched the whole thing very seriously, wouldn't take her eyes off it. She stayed that way as we went through the livestock buildings, walked down the midway with all the games, and didn't break her concentration until we got in the car. She's a smart girl, if I do say so myself. Below is her serious face while we watched the ice skating.



And here's a family shot from the fair as well.



So, on a personal note, I'm doing my darndest to lose some weight. I gained way too much when Steph was pregnant, and now it's a struggle to get it off again. I'm doing a hybrid of P90X and Insanity from Beachbody which is kicking my butt. I also have to watch what I eat more than I ever have before. For the first time, I'm really realizing how much more difficult it is the older I get. When I first did P90X, I didn't give a crap about the diet plan and I still lost a ton of weight and got ripped. Now I have to be so much more careful, and I'm honestly not used to it. It's taking a lot of adjusting and habit changing. All that to say that as a challenge for myself, my brother and my dad, we've all three registered to run in the Rugged Maniac 5k in Asheboro on April 20th. I know it's pretty far in advance, but it gives me time to get back in fighting shape. It should be a lot of fun. As I'll be thirty next year, I plan on doing the Rugged Maniac in April, the Warrior Dash in June and the Tough Mudder in September, right before I turn 30. It's my way of telling 30 to kiss my butt. So there, I've put in out in the interwebs. That means I have to do it now. I'll try to update with progress as I have things to talk about.

Anyways, here's a picture of Sadie in her workout clothes. I was getting ready for a run and wanted to put this on her. No lie, 2 minutes after I took this picture she had a huge blowout and we had to change her clothes. Huggies are the worst diapers in the world.

And finally, here's a picture from this morning. Usually in the mornings I spend some time with Sadie after Steph leaves for work. She goes to sleep and then I get ready for work. This morning, she wasn't quite asleep and I was running late. So I put her on the bed with her pacifier and some toys and jumped in the shower. Halfway through my shower, she starts screaming and crying like crazy. So I wrap up my shower pretty quickly and run to calm her down. As soon as I picked her up and put her against my chest, she let out a loud sigh and went right to sleep. Cutest, heart meltingist thing in the whole world.

I love my daughter. Again, pic from this morning. The beginning of Serious Sadie. The drool is an added extra.