This month flew by, partially because I was late to acknowledge her at three months. But, for once, I was on time and took these pictures the day before. Mostly because I wanted to take pictures of her in this insanely cute bonnet before her noggin got too big.
So here are pictures of my adorable baby with some strategically placed toys, and a strategically placed little hat chosen because it makes her cheeks look so deliciously scrumptious. But, even if I strategically styled these pictures, you can be certain that I scraped aside all of our junk with my forearm and placed her on my rug that may or may not have been vacuumed for quite awhile. You can also be certain that those are some genuine Sadie smiles. She is the sweetest.
Miss Sadie is still loving her midnight snacks, and keeping mama busy all night long. But, she is taking some longer naps during the day, and that makes a big difference. She insists on being a part of our daily lives now. She likes to sit in the Bumbo and watch us eat our meals, or snuggle into the sling to hang out while I clean the house. She LOVES when Eliza plays with her. Eliza can get her to laugh almost every time. Sadie's responses to Eliza have really lifted some of the tension. I think Eliza is starting to feel like Sadie is more of a person, now that she can interact with her. Although, she still gets pretty jealous and clingy when Sadie needs to nurse or needs my undivided attention. It's tough being a big sister.
Sadie is also starting to hold and "play" with things a bit! She mostly just loves to cover it in her slimy river of drool, but it is nice having more items in my toolbox to keep her busy and happy. It's that lovely age when you feel like you are connecting with them at whole new level, like a tiny human.
Little Miss Sadie:
"mama"- I know I mentioned this before, but it really makes me so happy. Sadie has developed a special "call" for when she is hungry, and it's quite literally "Mama." All the heart eyes! I know she is not saying it for real, obviously. But, I kind of love it. Sadie likes to eat right when she wakes up from her naps. So, she just lays in her bed humming, "Mamaammamamamama" until I come to get her and feed her.
the neck folds- I know most babies have the neck folds, but honestly, Eliza didn't have much of any folds. So, I sort of love Sadie's little neck folds! Like, when she wear her little blue sweater dress to church and I find blue fuzz lined up in the creases. Or, when she smiles really big and her cheek and chin all smoosh together.
post-nap- When Sadie wakes up from her naps, I feed her, unwrap her, and lay her on the bed. I then always try to spend a few minutes giving her all of my attention before taking her out into the craziness of Eliza's world. We chat and sing songs, and her face just lights up. I get her to giggle by lifting her arms up over her head, or brushing my fingers down her face. Those are my favorite Sadie times.
side by side- There are, honestly, very few times when we can't decipher Sadie's needs. I mean, she cries like a baby.. a lot. But, we can usually figure out what it is that she wants within a few minutes. Every once in awhile she gets pretty worked up and won't be comforted. When that happens, she doesn't even want to be held- I have found that she just wants me to lay down next to her. We lay side by side, me in my bed and her in hers, and she just stares at me until she drifts off to sleep. Sometimes, her little hand will sneak out of her swaddle and I will let it wrap around my finger while she falls asleep. It doesn't happen very often, but when it does it makes me happy to slow down for a minute and stare at my baby as her long eyelashes float and flutter.
high pitched scream- In the past few days, Sadie has suddenly developed this funny, gargly high pitched scream-talk. It's this sort of throaty, screamy chatter she uses when she wants to say something and we are not really paying attention. Like, "Get me out of this dumb seat." Or, "I've been staring at this wall for 30 minutes now." Or, "Guys, I've been super chill while you got ready, but now I want to get out of this little straight jacket." And sometimes the little high pitched scream-talk babbles out when she is just happily playing with her toys. It's so funny.
We love our Sadie Lee.
Also, these smiles and those cheeks, and the time it took me to write down a few words about my sweet girl, have made this exhausting week just a little easier. There is always light in this world, and my family will always choose love.
Eliza calls the shots for Halloween costumes around these parts. And, I will force a family costume for as long as I can, gosh darn it. So, after dodging a few bullets (No, I will not be all the characters from Frozen) Eliza decided that she wanted to be a butterfly this year! And not just any, but it had to be a "Mon-awk Butta-fly." It made me smile.
She loves butterflies. When you ask her what her favorite animal is, she says "Butterflies, flamingos, and pigs." As for the specific request for a monarch, I blame it on the wonderful nature school that she is a part of. I need to devote an entire post to nature school, but just know that it is the cutest and best thing. She knows so much about creatures and plants, and when she sees a bug she immediately picks it up to study it- whereas my natural instinct is to flick it away. I love that about her.
Eliza's costume was super easy this year. My good friend gifted Eliza these butterfly wings awhile back, and she has always loved them. So, I just glued a smattering of little butterflies to a leotard and pinned some in her hair. She was super stoked about the antennae for some reason. I bought them thinking that we might not use them because I thought she would rather have a butterfly crown. But, after she spied them on the table one day she ran up to me and whispered, "Mom! I saw some things for my butterfly costume!" as she wiggled her two fingers on her head. She wore them around the house all week long. I was the most excited about the face paint! I found a decent set of paint on Amazon, and we did a few practice sessions. The first few attempts were terrible. Like, awful. But, I would like to think it got a bit better. I don't want the extra paint to go to waste, so I have been practicing to go pro by painting Eliza and her friends' faces when they come over to play. It's fun!
Once we had the butterfly costume, I had to figure out a way to tie in the family- and the garden bugs were born. After playing with a few ideas, I decided chubby-faced Sadie needed to be a caterpillar. No question. And, it only made sense for her to be a monarch caterpillar. I made the swaddle and bonnet out of fleece, while binging on a new show on Amazon Prime. It was a great night. I miss doing projects, and it felt good to create- even if it's just a striped tube to shove my cute baby in. Sadie won "cutest costume" at our church carnival, and stole many hearts Halloween weekend. She was seriously cute.
I made my snail costume with this tutorial. It was actually really simple, and only $3 worth of paper and styrofoam balls. It was surprisingly light and easy to wear, except that I bumped quite a few people. I decided it was also a good excuse to by a gold, crushed velvet dress, too. Score.
Sam, in true Sam Gray fashion, waited until the day of to make his costume. We talked bugs for a couple of months before Halloween, but he could never settle on one, until... he saw this kid's costume. This roly poly is amazing. Apparently, the kid and his dad took months to make this after studying and literally dissecting pillbugs to design the structure. Sam says that his is not as legit, but I was pretty impressed with the finished product. He used vulcanized fiber (really thick paper) to make the plates, by spraying them with water, shaping them, and letting them dry. He then spray-painted them, and taped them together so that they could still have mobility. I made the legs out of an old pair of sweat pants, and we just pinned them to his sweatshirt. It looked great!
The older Eliza gets, the more Halloween festivities she gets to go to! Her friend had a birthday party- a "monster mash dance party" where the kids danced around with glowsticks, and Sadie "oooed" and "ahhed" at the disco lights. Then, we played at our church carnival where Eliza timidly played a few games, and used her tickets to buy a Madeline doll and a couple of books at the prize table.
Unfortunately, she got sick the night before Halloween and I had to keep her home from preschool, which broke my heart. So, I walked down and asked her teacher if she could come march in the parade and she was happy to have her. So, I dressed up my snotty-nosed butterfly and she marched at the front of the parade with Teacher Nelly. It was the cutest thing. They walked around the square block, jingling tambourines, while all the parents skipped after them trying to take pictures. I seriously cried a little, she looked so happy and so grown up.
After resting up the rest of the day, we headed out to trick-or-treat! Eliza got to go door-to-door with her best friend, Sage. She was so brave, and the two girls went up to every single door by themselves. Even if no one was obviously home, they needed to check out every one. And after knocking, they just sort of silently stood there with their bags open and little smiles on their faces. It made me so happy, and I couldn't help but laugh every time she ran back down from the porch exclaiming, "I got candy!" as if she still couldn't believe it. We went to a little haunted house run by a neighborhood kid (which was a little too scary for the girls!) and hit up Russell Street for a little. But, by then the kids were in a daze, and it started to rain a bit. But, Eliza brought home a good, little haul of candy.
Poor Eliza has been recovering from that cold all week, and I'm sure the excessive amounts of candy she's been eating haven't helped! But, she had such a good time. I love how much our family loves Halloween! Oh, and a caterpillar costume is the best choice for a little one. Sadie has never been so content as she was wrapped up in that thing all weekend. I'm thinking I need to make it a regular thing.
Happy Halloween, friends! We hope you had fun!
