Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Miss Sadie

I never did blog about our brand new baby daughter. She caught me by surprise as I had been expecting her to be a boy. In fact, I entered into marriage believing (and accepting) that I would only ever have sons. I came to this conclusion based on my husband's family history that is predominantly male...one uncle even had 7 sons and 1 daughter. I called the baby "he" all during pregnancy and it took a few days after she was born for my husband and sons to get used to saying "she" and "her." We didn't spend much time on choosing a girl's name because I truly felt we wouldn't need it. In hindsight, I wish we had, but now our Sadie Loise is in our arms and she has been an amazing blessing already.

She was born on her due date, in the afternoon, just as I had dared to hope. She weighed 8 pounds even and came complete with a full head of dark hair. She immediately reminded me of her older brothers, who adore her. They both love to give Sadie hugs and kisses several times a day. Levi already tries to teach her things such as how to share and play with toys. He's a thoughtful and doting big brother. Ian has learned the rules of not feeding the baby or pushing her carseat. Sadie miraculously sleeps through most of their noisiness during the day and they, even more miraculously, sleep through her screaming fits at night.

Sadie has been a great sleeper from the get-go. In fact, it was hard to wake her long enough for feedings in the beginning. She still naps most of the day away and sleeps for 4-hour stretches through the night. Normally when she wakes up she doesn't cry. She just stretches, looks around and quietly waits for someone to notice her. Sometimes I catch her smiling at her own joke. But more often she smiles wildly when we talk to her. And then she talks back and makes the cutest little faces. She's too precious! God is so good to make babies so cute. I'm trying to enjoy every minute of her, which isn't hard, but I still feel like I just can't get enough baby-loving until she will be grown up and out of this stage.

Monday, September 14, 2009

Farm Review

On September 5--hubby's 31st birthday--we took another "vacation" day. This time we visited Lake Metroparks Farmpark in Kirtland. The weather was beautiful and the setting was perfect for two little boys and a stroller. First we watched Mickey the cow get milked and Levi even tried his hand at milking her. Then we watched as all the children cranked the handle on the homemade icecream maker. It took so long we didn't wait around to try the finished product but I'm pretty sure it would've been the best we've ever tasted. Levi and Ian's favorite part of the day was watching the electric train go 'round and 'round the track outside. We also took a tractor ride out to a huge corn maze and watched an informative presentation about sheep. We didn't have time for everything but the park is small enough that another hour or two would've done the trick. When the boys are older I'm sure they will be interested in more things--maybe even taking a pony ride or feeding some of the animals. In addition to the cows, horses and sheep, they have pigs, goats, llamas, alpacas, rabbits and chickens. I'm sure this park will be on our list of annual spots to visit for many more years to come.