2 Months & 2 Years

Wow, it has been busy around our house and I feel like we have a lot to catch up on so there may be a lot of new posts in the next couple of days. For now, I'll just talk about our recent check ups.
I'll start with Sadie. As you know Sadie just celebrated her 2nd birthday, so we went in for her check up and the doctor said she looks great. Sadie is 37 inches tall, 95th percentile for those of you who are interested (same height as big sister Lily was at age 2). She weighs 28 lbs. 6 oz. and that puts her in the 75th percentile. Sadie doesn't really enjoy seeing the doctor but she did great, until the nurse came in to give her a shot......the last one until she turns 5! There were tears but we made it and she was very excited to get a Cinderella sticker when it was all over.

And now for Mia. Mia turned 2 months old on Monday and also had her check up. She is a great baby, very laid back and a very good sleeper. We have started to notice a fussy time in the evenings especially after days when she has been around a lot of people....too much stimulation. She is smiling and cooing a lot and she laughed for the first time on Monday. She likes to play but tires easily and loves to just watch her sisters as long as they aren't right in her face. Ok, so her are her stats. Mia is 11 lbs 9 oz. (75th percentile) and she is 22 1/4 inches long (50th percentile). She did great at her appointment and only cried a short time when she got her shots.

This next picture has nothing to do with check ups but I love it. Matt and I wanted to give some of our family members a picture of all 3 girls together so I had my mom help me with a little photo shoot. The girls did great and Mia had her eyes open for most of the pictures. This one is just a favorite of mine.

We hope you had a great Christmas! Stay tuned for more about our Christmas celebrations...

Happy Birthday Sadie!

It is just after midnight on Dec. 19.....Sadie is 2 years old today! I should be in bed but I thought I'd take a minute to write about my Sadie. If you have been keeping up with our blog, you know that Sadie got glasses at the beginning of this month. She is doing really well with them and I think that she is noticing a difference. So what else is going on with Sadie? It seems like her vocabulary has really increased....she is talking so much and putting sentences together really well. She is able to add things to conversations at appropriate times. She still repeats a lot of what Lily says, but there are a lot of things that are completely Sadie. The toys that she loves to play with right now include her new baby pony Cheerilee, blocks, puzzles, stuffed animals, and she loves to read books. There are some really challenging days because Sadie loves to climb on things and get into things she knows she isn't supposed to get into. But no matter how frustrating she is, she seems to know exactly what to say to make me smile or laugh.
Sadie is sensative and caring, she is curious and likes to experience new things, she loves being a big sister to her "baby Mia" and adores her big sister Lily, and she still likes to cuddle. I love watching her dance like "Cillallella." In this last year she has grown and changed so much and while I don't want her to grow up too fast, I'm looking forward to seeing what comes next :)

We love you Sadie!

Happy 2nd Birthday!

Preschool Christmas Program

Lily was the cutest little lamb in her preschool Christmas program last night. It was a short little program and all the kids did a great job. The 3's class was all dressed up as animals and all they had to do was sing the songs. Some kids actually sang while others cried or just stood there very distracted. Lily seemed very distracted at times but she also sang. Here is a video of one of the songs they did. If you listen at the beginning of the video you can hear Sadie's voice as she discovers Lily for the first time during this 2nd to last song of the program :)

Birthday Celebrations Part 2

...Saturday morning we got up and started packing for our day trip to my parents house in Illinios to celebrate Sadie's birthday. The drive there went really well. Sadie started to get a little antsy near the end of the three hour drive but overall she did great....Sadie is our worst traveler :) Mia slept the whole trip and Lily pretty much entertained herself with her toys and just looking out the windows. My parents just moved into this house so when we got there, we had the tour and the girls found the toys. After lunch Grandma brought out a singing penguin that was the entertainment off and on all day long.

Mia didn't really know how to react to the penguin.

Sadie & Lily thought it was very cool.

Sadie opened some presents, she didn't open them all at once, just one at a time at different times throughout the day. It worked out well because when she opens them all at once it is hard for her to decide what to play with first.

Mia loved being at Grandpa & Grandma's house

Lily, Sadie, Grandma, Grandpa, & Daddy spent quite awhile decorating Christmas cookies. Lily did a great job but some of the sprinkles came out very fast and she ended up with piles of red and green in front of her.

Sadie had a hard time not sampling the cookies and ended up with very messy hands and face....evidence of a great time =)

Grandma had party hats for the girls and they actually wore them for a little while but then Sadie got a hold of them and ripped them into pieces.

After a great spaghetti dinner, we had another pink puppy cake.

When dessert was done we decided to give all 3 girls baths. Lily & Sadie loved playing with measuring cups in the tub. Mia didn't really like her bath and showed us that by pooping in it.....sorry Grandma! Soon after that it was time to go and we loaded up our 3 clean girls in the car to head home. The ride home went just as well as the ride there and although we were all tired the next day, I'm glad we went.

Birthday Celebrations Part 1

Friday night the Staal family got together at Grandma's to celebrate Sadie's birthday. We were also celebrating my birthday and Matt's sister's birthday but it really wasn't about us :) After a delicious dinner we let the kids play a little and then had Sadie open her gifts.

Sadie waiting for the fun to begin
She had no problem opening presents this year. She loved her legos and aquadoodle from her cousins (and aunts & uncles). Grandma got a big hug after Sadie opened her Snow White dress, a new book, and the fridge phonics. Sadie asked for a pink puppy cake this year, so this is cake #1 of 2. She thought it was cool that the puppy had glasses like her.

Singing Happy Birthday and blowing out the candles.....she needed a little help from daddy to blow out the candles.

Sadie had a great time at her party. She loves seeing her cousins, especially when there are presents and cake involved.

It was a little bit of a late night and we put all 3 girls to bed as soon as we got home because we were heading to another birthday celebration the next day...

Fun in the Snow

On Friday morning the girls were so excited to see snow on the ground. They asked all day to go out and play in it but I had to keep telling them that Mia was too little to go out and I couldn't just leave her inside by herself, as Lily suggested :) So, when Matt got home after work we bundled them up and let them play while Matt shoveled the driveway. Here are a couple pictures.

Lily loved her new shovel, but kept taking the snow from the yard and bringing it to the driveway....stinker :)

Sadie just liked being outside. She had a hard time walking in all her winter gear and fell a couple times but she still had a good time.

Just Like Mommy

Some of you may know that I had to get glasses when I was 2 years old. Because of this I have been watching my kids for the signs that they might need glasses too and a couple weeks ago I noticed some of those signs in Sadie. After taking her into the eye doctor we found out that she is far sighted, just like mommy and she needs glasses, just like mommy. Her glasses just came in today so I thought I'd post some pictures. I just hope she keeps them on :)

mommy with glasses (I think I'm 3 here)