Swinging Part #2

First time swinging did not go so well... Who could forget this face?

Sage and I went to the park today with a couple of the other wives and tried it again.
Success!

Could have been because she had that cute little Italian boy next to her though....

Swim Class

Sage had her first swim class this evening.
I use the word class lightly because she's really too little to learn all that much. Mostly we practiced kicking and splashing today. The instructor said we'll do some practice floating and getting her face wet too at some point.
It took me a bit of running around town to prepare us for these classes. Since February in Missouri is not quite swimsuit season there wasn't much to choose from as far as swimwear goes and I had to search high and low for swim diapers! I have to go back out again because our little chunk just barely fits in her 12 month swim suit! It took both Dana and I to cram her in there :)
This is Sage checking out the pool with her dad.

Showing off her swim suit

Playing in the water

Golfing Day

The weather has been BEAUTIFUL the past few days. The snow has all dried up (hallelujah!), and there is a suprising lack of mud-I was betting on the whole state turning into a gigantic pud pie! A couple friends of ours invited Dana out golfing today so we slathered sunscreen on the baby and took her along. We were guessing that she might make it through the first nine and then I'd take her home but she was EXCELLENT all day long, and we were there for about 6 hours total.
She thought the golf cart ride was hilarious and kept trying to "drive." We'd sit in the drivers seat with her and she'd put her hands on the wheel completely believing that she knew what she was doing. She did not need any of the toys we brought along and was perfectly content playing around in the cart or watching everyone golf. I think she's definitely an outdoors kind of girl.

Valentines Day

Swinging

Sage's cousin Holly loves to swing. Since it was a nice day here we took Sage to the park so that she could try her hand at the swingset. If one baby loves it then all babies will love it right?
Wrong.

If her Daddy holds her she likes it a little bit better...but she never got excited about the whole thing.

It was mid 50s when we got the the park....still a ton of snow on the ground though! Hopefully it will all melt this week!

Laughing

Splashing Around

Sage has gotten big enough to abandon her baby bath, and man, she LOVES baths in the big tub. So far it's worked out well. Initially, I was a bit concerned about it being too slippery for her, but she seems to stay upright fairly well! The only problem she's encountered so far is that when she splashes the water (which is constant) all the toys float away from her.

I tried to get good pictures-most of them turned out somewhat blurry because she wouldn't sit still.

The crawl-it's not pretty, but it's crawling

Writers Block

Recently I've been trying really, really, really hard to sit down and type out something humorous and interesting but I have this problem:

She likes to dangle on the chair arm rest thingy while I'm at the computer. And then she starts doing this:

And I find it hard to concentrate when she's gnawing on the chair I'm sitting in. But the worst is this:

What's up with that weird face she's making at me?

Smiles

Normally when Sage is happy she has a very sweet smile. It looks like this:

Sometimes it looks like this one:

 But when she's REALLY, REALLY happy it looks like this- and I admit, it somewhat scares me:    

Delicious Food

Sage looooves to eat. Which is obvious if you've counted the number of rolls on her arms lately...
And she eats everything-Vegetables, Fruits, Yogurt, Etc. Hopefully, she continues to be so open-minded about food.
Her favorites are still squash, sweet potatoes, apples and bananas. Recently I've been getting more "exciting" fruits for her to eat such as raspberries, blackberries, mango, etc. She seems to love those too!

Woodchuck Proof

I finally got a picture downloaded to the crusty Afghanistan laptop.
Since the primary computer went down we've pulled the old faithful laptop out of storage.
I can't seem to operate Dana's point-and-shoot as well as my Nikon so it's a tad out of focus and the lighting is off but here is the proof.
I told Dana that since it's my hope chest that she will inherit maybe the teethmarks will make it more endearing.
I'll tell her first boyfriend all about it.
She will love me for it!

How much wood could a woodchuck chuck...

My child is gnawing the wood off of the hope chest in the living room.

When she only had her two, front bottom teeth she was after our fingers-and man, she can bite hard! But now that she's got the two top teeth she's going after the wood in the house. When she's in her crib she gnaws on the railings. When she's in the living room she's gnawing on the hope chest. There are actual Sage sized teeth marks on our furniture  now.
My little woodchuck.

Polite, Southern Lady

Sage is turning into quite the charming southern belle these days. She's discovered grits at Cracker Barrel and LOVES them. She's also started sitting with her legs crossed-well, more like her feet crossed. It's too funny-very proper though!

1/13/2011

Yesterday, Sage and I took a trip to Dana's new work for a "family meeting." We listened to a briefing on what his new job entails as well as expectations of each soldier. We were told they'd have a lot of homework -so we should be nice to them. Dana has actually sat at the dining room table every night this week and studied for HOURS. It's very odd to see.
We toured the new facility. The technology they have is extremely cool, but I have to say I didn't retain a single bit of information.  It all looked soooo boring! Ugh. I don't know how he'll do it. All circuit breakers, machines, welding, wires, etc. Not my thing.
The wives I met all seemed extremely nice which make me feel more optimistic about this new post. There is no structured FRG since it's a training unit so I've been considering volunteering to assist in some sort of unofficial position like that. There are quite a few pregnant wives and the soldiers get NO paternity leave. There are also wives that have no vehicles. I gave many of them my number in case they need anything.
Sage was WIDE OPEN during the meeting because she had just taken a nap. I'm sure the Oreos I was feeding her to keep her quiet didn't help... She just kept laughing while the battalion commander spoke and during the tour she kept swinging around her arms and legs. Crazy sugar rush baby.
But anyhow, that was our day. Hopefully we'll be forming some playgroups soon and I'm sure that will make for some fun pictures!

In other news, Sage is doing EXTREMELY well with solid food. She's even scaled back on the amount of bottles she takes per day which has been kind of nice because formula is EXPENISVE. She will eat the pureed food that I make her but she's starting to want to feed herself more. Instead of mushing up bananas for her I've just been breaking them apart into small pieces she can pick up on her own. Makes for a happy baby but a much larger mess...

Mommy Fail

We got about 3 inches of snow two days ago. It's been SO FREAKING COLD out here that it has stuck around. It's still all soft, white and lovely-especially on the top of my car-that has not moved since the snow.

I had a doctors appointment today so we bundled up and left the house. When we pulled into the doctor's parking lot I grabbed Sage out from the carseat, strapped her in the stroller, bundled her toys and blankets all around her, and shut the car door. Half a second after I shut the car door all of the snow that was on top of the car, all 3 inches of it, fell right from the top of the SUV and onto my baby. The doctor's office is only about 2 miles away from our apartment and I was driving so slow and cautious that I suppose I didn't gain enough speed for it to blow off the top.
She just stared at me-looking all betrayed.
Mommy Fail.

I knew this day would come

We had to lower Sage's crib.
Pretty soon we'll have to turn it into a toddler bed.
And then she'll be all grown up and leave for college.
I might cry.

Truth be told, Sage has been able to pull up for a while now but the poor darlin' didn't ever realize until recently that she could use household objects to assist her in standing. For quite some time she has believed that she can only stand with the help of someONE. We would hold out our hands to her, she'd get all kinds of excited, grab our hands and stand right up.  This week she has realized that she can use objects around her in her attempts to stand. One of those objects is her crib. 
When I'm putting her laundry away I plop her in the crib with all the clean laundry and we chit chat while I hang it all up. I was mid-way through my task when she grabs the railing and stands her butt right up. She grinned and grinned.
She looks somewhat demonic with those red eyes because the only camera upstairs was Dana's point and shoot. I can never figure out  how to fix that...

That night we lowered the crib. She can still stand-she uses the bumper as her first hand hold but now only her little head peers over.

"Grinding" on my Nerves!

Sage has 4 teeth: the two front bottom ones and the two front top ones. She's just recently gotten the two top ones and has found a new thing to do with them-she grinds her teeth.
It is the most awful sound in the world.
She's constantly doing it.
Makes my skin want to peel right off of my body when she does it.

Those darn teeth...

Miss Priss

Sage says that she was made for jewels!

 Look at me! Squee!! I'm lovely!!!

7 Months

My itty bitty baby is 7 months old yall.
Seriously!
Excuse me while I grab a bottle glass of wine and cry for a minute.
I feel the need to start planning her first birthday party. And while I do that I might as well start saving for her first car. And I'm definitely going to college with her. That's a done deal. No way she's going anywhere without me.
She's getting so big :-(

*She's wearing size 3 diapers
*She's wearing 9-12 month clothes
*Doesn't really "babble" too much but this week she's started to make the "B" noise. She is constantly squealing or shreeking. The kid has no indoor voice whatsoever-everything is pretty loud.
*She has the two bottom front teeth and is working on the two top front teeth. Poor kids gums are all kinds of swollen. She won't let me brush her top gums anymore.
*She mostly sleeps through the night. She goes to bed from 6:30-7:00pm and has been waking up around 5:00am. I feed her a bottle and plop her in the bed with me and can normally get another hour or so of sleep from her.
*She's sitting like a champ these days and her primary mode of travel is still rolling to whatever she wants to be near. She's trying very hard to crawl but so far just gets on her hands and knees and rocks back and forth a lot. She can crawl backwards somehow but that really just gets her wedged under furniture and such.
*Her new favorite thing to do is stand. If you're in the floor with her she wants to have your hands so she can stand up. She can get herself up in standing position if you hold her hands. She has yet to figure out that she can use objects around her to stand up. Thank goodness-that sounds like a recipe for a concussion.
*She's still eating like a champ. Her favorite solids are vegetables. She loves squash and sweet potatoes these days. Still loves bananas and apples but tends not care for other fruits yet. Dana is concerned because bananas and apples are the only fruits that I will eat so he thinks she'll be like me in that area :)
*She's doing well with her hand/finger coordination. She can pick up small snacks (like a Cheerio) and get them into her mouth.