Your crying is very important to us. Due to unexpectedly high child-cry volume, we are unable to attend to you right now. To help us serve you better, please choose your desire from among the following options. Please listen closely, as the options have recently changed.

Press one for “Boob”
Press two for “Send the baby back to the hospital”
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For all other requests, please hold on the line and continue wailing.

Your crying is very important to us….

They asked the children at Sadie’s school what they want to be when they grow up. The other girls want to be mommies, or ladies or mermaids; my little girl wants to play football. Hell yeah.

Maybe she’ll be the next Adam Vinatieri. I think she’d rather be the next Junior Seau, though.

Day three of the Butler foursome went very well. Sadie is becoming very protective of her little sister.

In one of the most anticipated meetings since Obi-Wan met Anakin, Sadie and Lucy were introduced today. They seem to like each other, so far. We’ll see how long that lasts.

No more sippy cups at meals!

So far, we’ve only had a couple of spills. I’m glad we have lots of rags in the kitchen.

It’s been a long time since I’ve been able to post about Sadie. We’ve had tons going on, but I want to take a quick break to tell you all how she’s doing.

Sadie is incredibly active, running around the house until she’s nothing more than a blur.

She loves sitting in the living room, where the sun comes in and make her hair all glowy. She likes that.

She loves coloring at her table. She’s graduated from sheets of paper to coloring books. Art school, here we come!

We spent some time yesterday coloring Easter eggs. We have to start with a nice snack first, though. Everyone likes the milk.

We started out with the hard-boiled eggs. You need to drop some vinegar into the cups. Be careful!

While you’re waiting for the eggs to color, it’s fun to play with the basket.

Easter morning: It’s time to search for the eggs. Found one!

So much fun. Sadie ended up with a full basket of eggs. She didn’t like the jellybeans, though.

Baby should be coming in the next ten days or so, so I suspect there’ll be lots more pictures coming soon.

We told Sadie this morning that I was going to take her to the high school tonight to vote for president.

She said, “Vote Duck.”

Perhaps we’ve read this book a few too many times:

Sadie, Sadie, jumping all around. Jumping up and down from the bottom of the stairs is one of Sadie’s most favorite games. We spent eleven minutes this morning climbing up and jumping down. Great fun!

It’s been a while since I’ve put up any new Sadie pictures. Sorry about that. One of the new year’s resolutions is to take new pictures of her (and impending baby) at least once every three days. I hope this discipline will let me keep more up-to-date with her changes. In the meantime, here’s some new pictures to keep everyone happy.

Sadie is looking pretty small outside in the yard.

Sadie is getting really good at feeding herself and taking control of her milk intake. She knows that if she asks nicely, she’ll always get some more milk.

The week before Christmas, we got together and decorated a gingerbread house. Sadie liked putting on all the candy.

Sadie had a very nice Christmas. One of the highlights was her very own tricycle. She doesn’t quite reach the pedals yet, but we’re all looking forward to summer, when she can ride free.

One of her other favorite toys from Christmas is the ever-popular Play-Doh. Spending an hour with the Play-Doh is one of our new Saturday-morning traditions.

That’s all for now. More pictures in a few days!

You finish wrapping the present with her, then when you turn around, she gleefully rips open the paper.

She’s not quite getting the concept yet.

“Sadie, stop it. Cream cheese is not a hand lotion.”

Grammie and Grampie gave Sadie an easel for her birthday last week. She’s been coloring like a fiend ever since.

She loves having her own whiteboard. Now, when she wants to know more about a subject, we go to the board for a deep dive. Here, we’re dissecting and analyzing her Sunday breakfast: biscuits go in the oven, eggs in the frying pan and bacon in the microwave.

She really feels like she groks it now.

We’re so proud.

So, we were waiting in the room at Holliston Pediatrics this afternoon, and I’m showing Sadie pictures of herself on the phone. In under 15 seconds, she saw how I was doing the flick to advance the photos and she started doing it herself.

Egads. I’m not sure I want her anywhere near my computers; she’ll probably optimize them when I’m not looking and I won’t be able to find anything again.

Sadie is two years old.

She’s a real little girl now, with very little of toddlerhood still around. She’s talking all the time. She takes care of her things. She understands when we’re talking to her. She even has her own whiteboard now.

She’s starting to learn some useful life lessons. Here, she’s playing with one of her balloons. Soon, she would see what happens when she decides to roll her whole body onto the balloon. Sorry, but we obey the laws of physics in this household, missy.

Even if the balloons don’t always bring joy, Sadie still gets the high of wearing a crown. She would like every day to be crown day from now on.

What’s a celebraton without cake? On Sunday morning, she helped prepare the birthday cupcakes. She knows that one starts with the muffin cups.

You can’t make a cupcake without breaking eggs, so Sadie helped Mommy incorporate the eggs into the batter.

When it’s all done, you get to blow out the candles. And this year, no unfortunate cupcake incidents!

Happy birthday!

I spent all morning today out in the yard raking up the leaves. Sadie helped, rolling around in them and getting them all over herself.

p.s., The iPhone takes some spooky pictures. Other than cropping it, I didn’t touch this one up at all.

Sadie was a big hit in her Cindy Lou Who outfit this Halloween night.

Pretty good likeness, if I do say so myself.

She went out with the pumpkin, soon filled with a dozen or so candy bars she’ll never see.

We let her have a little bit of a lollipop. She was pretty excited by that, but was all done after only a couple of licks.

I felt bad a little later, though. We let her answer the door when one of the neighborhood trick-or-treaters rang. The ten-year-old boy was dressed up in a skeleton mask, and poor little Sadie screamed. She was so scared — and the boy was petrified. It took me fifteen minutes to calm her down at bedtime.

I hope Thanksgiving isn’t quite that exciting.

This Columbus Day wasn’t a total washout; Sadie loved stomping in the puddles.

I probably should have put her in boots, though. I’m not sure the Mary Janes are in real good shape right now.

Now that Sadie’s all mobile and filled with energy, we’re constantly looking for new and interesting ways to entertain her. Last Saturday, we went to the Roger Williams Zoo in Providence, about 45 minutes away.

It’s a pretty good zoo, with one of the highlights being the brand new baby giraffe. He was very cute:

Sadie mentioned that the crowned crane should really try putting some ponytails in her hair. That will help with the slight sticking-up problem.

You’d be surprised how many things you can climb on at the zoo.

It’s all a lot for a little girl to take in. Sometimes she just needs to sit and ponder.

Sadie’s school has a perfectly appropriate playground for toddlers. Sadie continues to pine for the big kids’ playground on the other side of the fence, though.

I’m not sure I’m happy about her literally climbing the walls.

Sadie and I visited the McGilvrays on Sunday and found, yet again, that everyone loves playing with a cheerful toddler. Sadie especially liked playing catch with the soccer ball. She pretty much has heading down, as Auntie Karen captured in this picture.