*sorry about the format of this post right now. I am trying to insert some pictures and it is being a little difficult...
It is 9:15PM and Sadie has been "in bed" now for an hour and 15 minutes. She has asked for someone to cuddle with her, to have water, cereal...and fishies, and now Ryan is guarding her door closed while she screams and pounds on the door like an innocent imprisoned.
(huge sigh)
So, I'm just going to say that the last year has been rather trying. I
do remember some people talking about how they got it wrong with the "terrible twos" and the really terribles are the threes. I believe!!! But to be fair to the poor girl we have asked a lot of her this year, and she has risen to the occasion!
potty trained? check
preschool? check
big sister? check
cross-state mover? check
Well, she's not three anymore. Sadie turned the big 4 on August 5th. We celebrated with a big family party up in Washington (we were mid-move) and issued a silent prayer that 4 would be much better than 3.
We got off to kind of a rocky start. We gave Sadie a bike for her birthday and thought she would be thrilled. She sat on it for approximately 8 seconds and then got up and stomped away screaming, "Mom, I wanted a unicorn!!!" and closed the scene with an appropriately dramatic door slam. I am glad that I have Ryan around to help me see just how funny these situations really are because with out him I would have no more hair left on my head.
Yes, we have ourselves a spunky, sassy, independent, sweet, funny, caring, loving, energetic four year old and we love her bunches and bunches and bunches. And even though life with her is sometimes infuriatingly frustrating, I wouldn't trade her for a million billion dollars. She brings happiness and life and excitement to our family.
I have often sat down to try and write an update about Sadie over the past year and it is just too hard because her life is so complex now. But, for her birthday, here's my best shot.
Sadie weighs 28lbs and is 40 inches tall.
She knows all of her colors and shapes, recognizes patterns and rhymes, counts to 30, is starting to recognize specific letters, has started writing her name, can draw specific pictures (like I don't have to ask what they are because I can tell) and has an amazing memory.
Her understanding of the world grows more and more refined everyday and she is starting to be able to share in jokes and understand why people are sad or mad or happy.
Here's what she's been up to:
August 2011 -
- turned 3!
- We moved her out of her crib and into a "big girl" bed, which has brought on a year-long bedtime battle. I could tell you about the numerous methods we have tried to get her to just stay in her bed and go to sleep, but I won't bore you. I will simply tell you that she is her mother's daughter and I remember doing the same thing to my mom, bless her soul.
- Serious potty training began - well, for her. I had been potty training for the previous 18 months, Sadie just didn't seem to notice until she turned 3. But, once she decided to just do it, she did pretty well at it.
September 2011
- Sadie officially became a big sister! She was so excited to meet Alyssa and she just wanted to hold her and love on her all the time. She was never mean or jealous of the baby, just loved her a little too much sometimes. There were sometimes when it was hard for her to understand that we had to be accommodating of our new schedule with the baby. When Alyssa was only about 2 weeks old I told Sadie I would take her to the zoo but we had to wait until Alyssa woke up from her nap. The next thing I know, Sadie is up in Alyssa's room, screaming into her crib, "Wake Up! It's Time To Go To The Zoo!!"
- It was amazing to me how my perspective of Sadie changed so quickly once Alyssa arrived. One day Sadie was just a little toddler in my eyes, then Alyssa was born and all of a sudden Sadie seemed so big and grown up to me! It was like over night she could suddenly do so many things. This probably wasn't very fair to Sadie, making her jump from the baby role to the big kid role so quickly. And in all honesty, that is probably alot of the frustration that she and I felt toward each other for most of this year. But, she is getting so big! And can do so many amazing things all by herself.
October 2011
- Sadie dressed up for a witch for Halloween. That was only after changing her mind from a fairy, a cowgirl, a doggie, a princess... But, there were lots of witch decorations up in our neighborhood and she got really into the idea of witches and ghosts. She still talks about the ghosts in her friend, Lucy's, trees.
- Sadie got to go trick-or-treating with her dad and her friends, Leaf and Tanner. She thought that was pretty cool.
- Still adjusting to this whole new baby thing. The biggest adjustment was not having mom around as often. She became a big daddy's girl.
November 2011
- Started preschool with Teacher Jean. She did a 3 year old Joy school class that met 2 times a week for 2 1/2 hours. She absolutely loved it! I noticed a quick change in Sadie when she started preschool - she was so much more bored at home. It was like she realized there was a world outside of our house and if she was just stuck at our house she was missing out on so much fun.
- She started having real, legitimate friends. People she wanted to play with, she knew where they lived and she could ask to play with them by name. Her favorite friends were Emily, from primary, and Maryanne and Brooke, from preschool.
- In preschool Sadie started to learn how to draw really well and she started drawing pictures of people.
- She also loved to talk about all the different things she learned in preschool, days of the week, months of the year, the different seasons and the weather and a bunch of different songs.
- She also loved her Teacher Jean, so much so that she started talking like her and using phrases that Teacher Jean used. I will never forget the time when she told me that she would put her toy away "for safe keeping." I just stared at her and wondered, "who are you?"
- I gave up on fighting Sadie to take a nap. She had given up her nap months and months ago but I kept making her go to her room on the off chance she would sleep. She never would. Rather, she would destroy her room. She would pull every single article of clothing out of her dresser and strew it around the room. She would pull things she could reach (by climbing on things she shouldn't have been climbing on) off the wall and break them, she would rip books into shreds, and I try to forget the time I accidentally left her in her room with a book of stickers and a permanent marker. When we moved out of our house I noticed there were teeth marks on the blinds, so I guess she was eating the blinds too. So, I decided that the mess I had to clean up after the quiet time was not worth the free time a nap gave me. And that is how Sadie stopped taking a nap. On the positive side, bedtime became slighter easier...as in, she fell asleep at 10pm instead of midnight.
December 2011
 |
| Swimming lessons: practicing her strokes |
- Sadie started swimming lessons. She was going crazy being stuck in the house all the time because of the cold weather (when you only weigh 28lbs you get cold really fast, no matter how many layers you put on) so I decided to get her going on swimming. The only bad thing was that the pool wasn't heated so she still shivered the whole time. She loved swimming lessons, but refused to put her head in the water. (remember this fact until May 2012)
- We got to spend Christmas up in Washington with Ryan's family which means that Sadie got to see her cousins. There is no other word for this than bliss.
January 2012
- Blah. What does anybody do in January but wish for it to not be winter anymore?
- Continued preschool and swimming lessons
- Sadie moved out of nursery and into primary. She still calls it nursery, but loves being with all the older kids. She is great at singing the primary songs and sings them all the time around the house. Sometimes I am so surprised at how many she knows. She also was able to give her first talk in primary. She did an excellent job! She got up to the microphone and she spoke loudly and clearly and wasn't scared at all. I was so proud of her.
February 2012
 |
| Sisters = Best Friends ... for a moment |
- Both Sadie and Alyssa got really, really sick. Sadie had bronchitis and a double ear infection.
- We had the great snowpocalypse of 2012. We were snowed into our house for most of the month.
- As Alyssa got older and learned to do new things, Sadie discovered that there were some fun things about her. Sadie was really good at getting her to laugh and grin. And when Alyssa started being able to roll around Sadie was more than willing to give her a little push to get her started.
March 2012
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| The Park and SUNSHINE! |
- One of Sadie's favorite places to be is at the park. And, more specifically, she loves to be swinging on the swings at the park. When the sun began to peek out a little more often in March, Sadie started begging to go to the park again.
 |
| asleep during the day=sick |
Sadie was still sick for alot of the month of March - I blame preschool - which means that she was rather ornery for most of March. I could always tell when she was really sick because she would actually fall asleep in the middle of the day. She never falls asleep in the middle of the day, no matter how tired she is, unless she is really, really sick.
Sadie went to the dentist for the very first time in March. She was super brave and let them clean her teeth and take xrays and everything. She got an A+, no cavities for that girl, despite years of juice drinking and using a Binky until she was 2.
April 2012
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| Ready to road trip |
We attempted a road trip to Salt Lake the first week in April. Sadie was sick (again) and it was Alyssa's first long car trip. It took 18 hours! Alyssa lost it after about 12 hours, but Sadie was a trooper and did a really great job on the long drive. Sadie has always been a really good traveler.
- *Sadie adjusted to mom being a little more busy with Alyssa around by becoming an avid colorer. She would color all day long if I let her, and some days I do. She loves to color and sing and watch tv, all at the same time.
*We put up Sadie's trampoline. This, besides coloring, is her favorite thing to do.
May 2012
- Still sick :( Seriously, this is the worst part of preschool!
- Became a preschool graduate (and got a reprieve from the never-ending cold)
- Sadie got to add another destination to her travel log: Hawaii. While Sadie was not so fond of the beaches there, she loved the pool. She jumped right in, put her face in the water and started swimming across the pool (do you remember her swimming lessons from December and how she wouldn't even put her head in the water...yeah, and now out of the blue she is full on swimming). By the time we left Hawaii she could swim all by herself from one end of the shallow pool to the other.
- Sadie's new favorite question, "Why does it take so long???" and "Are we there yet???"
- Sadie is super friendly. Anywhere we go she will run up to the kids that are there and ask them if they want to be her friend. She makes new friends so easily. She will tell the man at Costco that she likes his shirt and she will tell the lady at McDonald's that her makeup is beautiful. She will also tell the jogger in the park that he forgot to put his shirt on and he is naked! Seriously, do you think I need to give her a little talking to and put some stranger danger inside of her? I don't know...
- "Rumor Has It," or as Sadie calls it, "Buma Has It" by Adele is Sadie's favorite song and she can sing it almost word for word. I was a little embarrassed when she went to preschool singing, "She ain't gonna love you like I will..."
June 2012
- We decided to take a new job and move back to Utah. Sadie was excited to move so that she could live closer to Nana and Papa. I was worried about how she would handle the change. When we first moved to Colorado she spent the first 2 months asking when we were going to go home. It broke my heart. This time around she seems to understand the concept and has been resilient amidst so much instability and change. She really is a great kid.
- Sadie was very helpful with the packing. She decorated the outside of all of our moving boxes by coloring pictures on them.
July 2012
- She had her first friend birthday party! I had a party for her before we moved so that she could invite all of her friends from Colorado and tell them goodbye. Man, I can't believe how many friends this girl has! And she wanted to invite all of them. We had cupcakes in the park and played some games and then we went to see the movie, Brave. I really think she had a blast.
- Did a gymnastics day camp and loved it! We have a little gymnast on our hands.
- We left our Colorado house. While Sadie was really good about the whole concept of the move, she got really confused about where we were going. We had to be out of house in Colorado by July 25th but we couldn't be in our new house until September 1st, so we did some traveling and visiting in between. We went to a family reunion in Idaho, then drove up to Washington to visit Ryan's family and then drove to Utah and stayed with my parents until we were finally able to move into our house. At every location Sadie would ask, "Is this our new house?" Just the other day she asked me why we didn't still live at Grandma Johnson's house. I think if Sadie got to choose which house to live in, she would definitely pick Grandma Johnson's house.
August 2012
- Sadie turned 4! And it wasn't just a one day affair. It was a month long celebration. It started in Colorado with her friend birthday party, continued in Washington with a major family party and ended in Utah with a Brewster side celebration.
- Sadie played, and played and played. And when she thought she was just about done playing, she played some more. Thanks to Aunt Crystal for keeping her super entertained while we visited Washington. We got to see the zoo, Seattle center, Pike Place, lots of beaches and then just lots and lots of cousin time.
- Nana and Papa gave Sadie "The Lorax" - we watched it...A LOT
September 2012
- We moved into our new house. Sadie was super excited for her princess room
- Started preschool again!!! She loves it and is already learning so much.
- Started gymnastics class. She got placed in the 41/2 - 51/2 year old class because she was so good, and that is only because there wasn't room in the older class. Next session she is going to start in a tumbling class. She is thrilled because they get to do fun things like handstands and swinging on the bars and jumping on the tramps. I am happy because it uses up some of her endless energy, that if not put to good use, turns destructive rather quickly.
Oh, Man. Where has the time gone? I remember when Sadie was about 7 months old, I sat holding her in the chair, rocking back and forth, being so sad because she was growing too fast! And look at her now. She is a beautiful, bright spot of sunshine. So grown up now that there isn't even a hint of baby anymore. She is always so happy. I love her imagination. I love her songs. Dare I even say this? I love her attitude. She is independent and sure of what she wants, and while that is sometimes frustrating to me now, it will be a great strength to her as she grows.
I have to say I am not sad about her growing bigger anymore. She will always be my special girl and I am excited to see her conquer bigger and better things.
