Fall Routine

We are all settling into our new routines, with Papa at his new job and Sadie in school 2 days a week (thought we might bump it up to three).

Sadie loves school. She names all the friends she sees there, and I hear reports of mellow but engaging activities like making purple stamps out of raw beets or pouring water over a bucket of pebbles. They eat things like soba noodles and roasted turnips, and Sadie naps like a champ with all the other kids. It seems like they are much more inclined to try new things when they see other toddlers doing it.

I don't have pictures of school (although there is a private facebook page - if you are on facebook and want access, let me know), but here are some pics of Sadie's general goings-on. These include soccer practice and playdates with Gabriel, who is back from Mexico. One nice side effect of school is that we are part of the whole wave of people getting their kids at 3:30. It can be chaotic, but also nice to run into friends regularly in the afternoons or to schedule regular after-school playdates.

Sadie has been a real gem lately. She is so articulate and fun to be around. She takes a lot of pleasure in friends (hers and ours) and is happy to try new things. What a sweetie.

Water break!

Playdate in the park with Gabriel. His mommy Lena had heard about making paint out of mud and turmeric. 

Tasting the first apples of fall at the farmer's market with our friend Cailin.

Husking corn for Gabriel's dinner.

Walking to soccer.

Hugging the lady with the hair.

Third Cancun Post

Here is Mommy's batch of photos from our trip. 

Watching airplanes at the airport!

Just chatting away.

Ready to party, bro.

Here are Maddie and Sadie in the little kiddie pool. Maddie was one of the Petit Club counselors, and she was awesome. Sadie adored her.

Every day at 4:30, the Petit Club did a group activity somewhere out in the "village" so that parents could come watch or participate. There was a pinata, finger painting, and even a little pageant in the theater. Each segment was a dance celebrating a different country or region. I honestly can't remember which one this is. The boy is wearing leopard so maybe... Kenya? I don't know, but here is Sadie all dressed up. At first she was pretty dumbstruck by the lights, but then she danced a little and then totally lost it when she saw us in the audience. But it was still pretty much the cutest thing ever. She was mostly interested in Amanda's bare belly.

I know you will all let me know if these videos don't load properly.

Still in makeup.

With her new friend Ingrid after a long week of Petit Club

Watching pelicans go "boom!" into the water.

Second Cancun Post

Our kid never stops moving.  She is a busy one, she is.  

To avoid further delays, I'm just going to post these pix with a minimum of discussion.  They are pretty self explanatory.

Yes, she looks like she is just sitting there, but you can see her planning her next flop or leap or dash.

We made sure to get her into the little wetsuit.  Isn't she stylish?!

To be fair, we actually had all of our days free while Sadie was at Petit Club.  It was pretty splendid.

Not going anywhere is particular - just running to get there.

Sadie didn't really like going in the ocean, but she liked looking at it and watching the pelicans dive for fish.

I am having an impossible time choosing which of these next few is my favorite, so you get them all!!

First Cancun Post

We returned from Club Med Cancun last night and we have over 1200 photographs to sort through and not a lot of time to do it just now.  Nevertheless, in order to keep our insatiable readership happy, we are going to post pictures of bits and pieces of our vacation in no particular order.

So, without further ado...

We tried to acclimate Sadie to the pool slowly, beginning with just splashing at the edge.

When the time was right, we took her into the pool and bounced her around.  She last took swim lessons before she was one year old, so she isn't all that comfortable in the water.   But she is getting better. 

Given the chance, Sadie would make a dash to get away from the pool.

She seemed much happier on a lounge chair checking her (non-working) cell phone.

You can almost hear out little star yelling at the director.  

At various points, we had no choice but to just let her watch a little Blue's Clues (in Spanish) in the room.  It was virtually the only way to keep her from running around on the slippery tile floor or jumping on the bed.  I think she veg's out like a pro.

The rare photo where we are both looking at the camera at the same time.

My girls are too too beautiful.

V was incredible the whole time - her ability to stay calm in the face of our little tempest was amazing.

Anyway, the trip was great but we are glad to be back.  We will post more photos very soon.