8 months old

Sadie turned 8 months old last week. It's amazing how quickly she's growing up. She is crawling all over the place now, with great ease. She's even pulling up on things and putting her hands down and fully extending her legs, sticking her butt up in the air.

Some highlights:

• Being much more vigilant, now that we have a mobile child. It seems she has a magnet that draws her to the stuff she's not supposed to touch.
• Having tougher skin, as falling down is becoming more and more commonplace.
• Having more and more "conversations" as she develops her communication skills. (Usually loud ramblings and blowing raspberries. It's quite productive)
• Finding the right combination for cosleeping that enables all of us to sleep through the night. It's working quite well, and we're all well rested.
• Sadie loves dancing. Anytime Star Trek: The Next Generation's theme music comes on, or any kind of music, Sadie starts moving almost her entire body. If she's standing up, she backs that thing up. If she's sitting, it's a hilarious head bob and body weave. 

Couple of funny stories, then pics of course.

I work the late shift at work, and Steph goes in early. So I usually get a good bit of time with Sadie in the morning. Typically she takes a nap at around 8:15, so I get ready while she sleeps. Well, last week she slept in consistently and didn't want to take a nap. So one morning I put a blanket down with her toys in the bathroom. I jumped in the shower and planned on taking a real quick one. Shortly after I got in, Sadie crawled over and started playing with the shower curtain. Soon after that, she realized that there was water behind the curtain, so all of the sudden I heard splashing. She was halfway in the shower, splashing around in the water on the floor of the shower (It's a walk in shower, so easy access for a little one.) When I would stand under the water, it would bounce off me and hit her. She would stick her face up with her mouth open, trying to catch the water. Needless to say, after my shower, it looked like she had taken a bath. I had already gotten her dressed for the day, so I had to pick out a new outfit for her. From that day on, I brought in her bouncy seat thing to keep her occupied.

The other day we were at the farm and Alan was making faces and noises at Sadie to get her to talk. She stopped for a second, then got up in his face and yelled at him, making all kinds of noises like she was telling him off. It was hilarious, and we all laughed heartily.

My brother Kyle and his wife Hillary came into town this weekend, and we got to spend some time with them. I've included some pictures below. Sadie loved climbing on Kyle and playing with his beard, and it was great to watch her with them. I wish they lived closer and that we could spend more time with them.

Also, in my continual quest for manly skills, I've taken up making homemade wine. I started my first batch last night. I'll keep you updated as we move through the fermentation process and bottling stages.



Watching Parks and Recreation with Dad.



Lazy Saturday

The Primary Fermenter. The curvy thing allows CO2 to escape without O2 getting in.



And We're Off!

Look what someone figured out over the weekend...

Thundersnow. And Man Things.

So, last night we were witness to a weather phenomenon called Thundersnow. Yes, that's a real word and a real thing. Apparently, the League of Weathermen were sitting around one night trying to think of the coolest and most intimidating thing they could name something so light, fluffy and beautiful like snow (Since snow was getting picked on by El Nino) and they came up with Thundersnow. Well played, weathermen. Well played.
We ate dinner at my mom and dad's last night and I hoped to spend some time with dad refinishing some axes. The news had been going on all day about this snowmageddonpocalypse thing, but I thought it was just hype. I mean, how bad can 4 inches of snow be, right?
Well, I got to mom and dad's at 6:45 and we started dinner. It was still raining, and turned to snow shortly after we started eating. After dinner, I looked outside and the grass had snow on it, but the road and sidewalk were totally clear. So dad and I went to the garage so he could show me how he refinishes axes. (That's right. My dad refinishes axes. Totally Bad A, I know.) We were down there for 15 minutes, and all of a sudden we heard thunder. Steph came down the steps and said we had to get going because the roads were covered. In 15 minutes. Seriously.
Long story short, we left right after that and it took us 2 hours to get home, a total 20 mile journey. Thundersnow was totally living up to its name.
Our office opened late because of the snow, and so Steph and I put Sadie in her snow suit and headed outside to get her exposed to her first snow. As soon as we sat her down she started rubbing and playing in the snow. She loved it!
Here are some pictures of her in the snow, as well as some of the stuff dad's doing with the axes.

 Before and After a Vinegar Bath

 The hatchet Dad's going to teach me on

 Smoothing out the blade before sharpening

Rubbing the snow.

 Her snowman. We made it for her



Crawling, Talking, and a Goat Fence too

Well, as usual, things have been quite busy lately. Sadie had her seven month check up right after New Years, and she weighed 18 pounds 4 ounces. She wasn't very happy that day, so they didn't get to measure her. Trust me though, she's growing up. Pictures from the last few weeks are below. The last two are from Nanny Kate. That girl is a wizard with Instagram. Some of the most beautiful pictures of Sadie have come from Kate.

 I absolutely love this picture. That is Sadie's general demeanor. She's a very happy child. (And yes, that is a Yo Gabba Gabba character in the background. She loves that show. Especially the songs "Party in my Tummy" and "Don't Bite Your Friends.")

She's a flirt too.

Sadie is now crawling, or at least attempting to crawl. She rocks back and forth, gets some momentum going, then moves her hands and knees forward a few steps. Then she falls over and gets cranky. I think it's because she's having to exert too much energy. She's got quite the easy life.

She is also talking up a storm. We have regular conversations, and her ability to communicate is improving rapidly. She's making more sounds like Ba, Da, Pa, and other general noises. And she's responding to us when we talk to her by trying to mimic our sounds. It's really cool to see her grow and develop each day. The toys that she has that play music or light up are of special interest to her, and to us as we watch her figure out how to use them. She is very good at figuring out which buttons to push to get sound, or where to hit her books so they play music. It's not uncommon for her to have a book in her hands while we hear the same song over and over as she figures out what the button does.

Sadie definitely prefers Steph over me, but typically only if she can see Steph or knows that she's in the same room. The bond that Steph and Sadie have with each other is beautiful, and I love watching the two of them together.

I think we're getting close to the point where we're going to have to start baby proofing the house. We'll set her down, look away, and she'll be a foot away from where she was. It's not a huge difference, but enough to make us anxiously await the day that she's all over the house. I'll have to go get some knee pads for her I guess.

On a different note, I posted a while back about building a fence at the farm so we can have goats. Well, after 4 months, I'm happy to say I think we're nearing the end of it. This weekend, since the weather was so nice (72 in January? Really?) we went up to the farm to put a large dent in what was left. We put all the metal stakes in the ground and on Sunday we actually put some fence up. I'm putting pictures below to show you our progress. If you ask me, it looks pretty good for people who were making it up as we went along.

We still have two sides to finish, then put the two gates up and string barbed wire along the top, but I was very pleased with all we got accomplished. Another 2-3 days of good work and we'll be ready to build the shelter for the goats.

After we finished last night, Alan and I took the four wheelers out to look at the property lines. They've broken the dam for their pond to clean it out, and the dam is the only way to get to half of their property. So a few weeks ago we found some old plywood and built a bridge so we could get over there. I hadn't used it yet, but Alan had noticed a lot of traffic across the pond from locals who apparently figured that we couldn't get out there to check on things. So we drove to that side of the property. Sure enough, people were hunting on the land without Alan's permission. While we were out I took a few pictures of a particularly beautiful piece of land at the corner of their property.

Alan, the Four Wheelers, and Maggie.