Thomas the Train

Sabine went to the Colorado Railroad Museum this weekend with Grandmom and Grandpa while Mom and Dad took a night off to celebrate their five year wedding anniversary. Many thanks for the help and fun memories, Grandmom and Grandpa!









Sabine had a great time, she is still talking about meeting Thomas and Grandpa's celebrity-connection, the engineer! (It handy having a grandpa who's involved in the local railroad scene.)

35 Months

Our last monthly update for our two-year-old. She's almost three. I have to admit, I am almost a little sad, it's been a wonderful year. She's got 30 days to squeeze in some terribleness, because we really haven't seen the Terrible Twos at all. (I hear threes are worse than twos, so we're not letting our guard down just yet, but so far, it's been awfully blissful. Hopefully I didn't just jinx everything.)

So what have we been up to since we got back from vacation? Well, first off, we caught up with family. Sabine missed her cousin E.


I think the two of them are going to be good buds!

We also went to our local Labor Day parade...


where Sabine got to experience her first orange creamsicle, among other treats. I think it was the highlight of the whole parade. Thanks to our friends K & P for lending us driveway space so that we didn't have to park miles away!



We got a small, much-needed rain shower, and Sabine tried out her ladybug rain gear. (Thanks to neighbors for the hand-me-downs! The boots FINALLY fit.)



Sabine's also showing off her new braid. Her hair is finally long enough we can pull it off, even if most of it falls out by the end of the day.



This past month has been good. Life is calmer and back to a nice routine after our fun vacation. Sabine is able to play more and more by herself, and often hangs out in her bed just talking to her stuffed animals and dolls before asking us to come get her in the mornings. It makes it easier for mom and dad to wake up a little before darting out of bed. She can count to thirty, loves singing in the shower, and asking if things are funny before laughing hysterically. Potty training is back on track, she's had a great record the past couple of weeks, though still wears a diaper to sleep. (We're not rocking that boat while she's willing to sleep all night!) Sabine still naps for about an hour and a half most days, these days, although she occasionally just isn't tired and skips her nap altogether. On those days, she usually goes to bed by 7:30. If she naps, it's more like 8:30.

Sabine has an incredible memory, we are often surprised at the things she remembers, including a budding interest in teenie-bopper bands. We heard a song on the radio and she asked if the boys were on the beach. I couldn't figure out what she was talking about, until the next time we ended up at the food court at the mall and I happened to see a music video for the boy band One Direction, where they are singing and playing on the beach. She doesn't miss much, we are having to be more and more careful about what we say in front of her.

Speaking of two-turning-pre-teen, Sabine's vocabulary has suddenly become FULL of "um," "like," and "you know." I have no idea where this is coming from, I'm pretty sure we don't speak that way, but it is disconcerting to hear it come out all the time. She definitely uses those phrases as filler. Sabine articulates really well, we often get compliments on how clearly she speaks, and when you add that to those silly filler words, she sounds like a 12-year-old. We're concertedly working on eliminating "like" right now.

Sabine loves books, she likes to be read to, and she likes to read you some of her favorite books that she has somewhat memorized, including Are You My Mother?, The A Book, and The Teeth Book. She also loves to color, with markers, crayons, and paint. We still don't see a lot of figurative drawing, faces with discernible features are still few and far between, but there is LOTS of colorful scribbling and she tells us what it is. (Nine times out of ten it's either Spiderman or a mermaid.)

Like I said, it's been a great month. It's amazing to see the little person she's becoming (already is!) with very distinct tastes and opinions. She's doing really well with her politeness routines, saying "thank you" and "Please can/may I..." without any prompting, most of the time. I think she's figured out they get her what she wants even faster than screaming. The other day I put her down for a nap, and I could hear her calling, "MOM! COME HERE! I WANT YOU! MAAAAAAOOOOOOM! NOW! ... Please? I love you." Stinker. I couldn't resist. Well-played, little one.

She's a negotiator already. Another example, she sweetly asked me the other morning if I would like some "privacy to sleep a little more." ! I said ok, and she ran off to grab Dustin, saying, "You need to come play with me, mommy wants to sleep." (It's become a goal to try and coerce daddy to stay longer in the mornings before he goes to work.)

We love you so much, big girl. You amaze us every day.

More Vacation

Whew--we have fallen behind. Too many pictures and not enough time to post them. Anyway, I am just going to put up the rest of the best from our trip to Delaware, and let them mostly speak for themselves so that you can see just how busy we were!


swinging at P's

 Sharing some of second-cousin H's sandcastle birthday cake

On one of our nightly walks to the ice cream shop at the beach, with Aunt Judy, Suzanne, and Daddy.

One of Sabine's favorite sights around town, someone had a dolphin statue and clearly had fun dressing it up.

swinging with the second-cousins


at the playground in Lewes (near the house we were staying in.)


swimming in the bay--as long as there weren't any waves she was happy to wade out up to her shoulders.

One of the highlights of the trip was meeting up with Sabine's friend G. He was one of her closest friends in Colorado, but he and his family recently moved back to the east coast to be closer to family. They were sweet enough to plan a beach visit around our trip, so we were able to meet up with them on the boardwalk. Sabine and G were thrilled to see each other.

  as soon as they saw each other they hugged, and grabbed hands.


Riding the rides


On a particularly fast one with Daddy




A nice, romantic walk on the beach at night. We tried to keep the "chaperoning their first date on the boardwalk" jokes to a minimum. (We were only mildly successful. They were too cute.)

The next day we met up at the beach again with G and his family to really enjoy the sand and water.






Snuggling on the boardwalk


Riding off into the sunset, pushing nap time back as far as we could before we had to say goodbye.


Outlet shopping with Suzanne

Crepes on the boardwalk


The Nutella was delicious, even though we were a little tired!


And a final, family goodbye to the beach, before we headed back to our family and friends up north.

We met up with P and her family at Milburn Orchards. It's gotten a little fancier since mommy used to go there to get her Halloween pumpkins as a kid! Complete with a wooden train to climb on, hay rides, and a petting zoo.



Sabine and P had a great time on the hay ride, being silly:


and being cuddly





We even got a nice, summer, east coast rain storm while we were at Aunt Betsy and Uncle Butch's house


We even got video:





Sabine did a lot of reading with Aunt Betsy (thank you, Aunt Betsy!)



And a lot of looking at pictures with Great-Grandmom







Many thanks to Aunt Betsy and Uncle Butch for all the hospitality! We really appreciated it, and it was wonderful to see you and catch up. Thanks to the Wulff contingent, too, for the wonderful beach house, it was a fantastic experience for our whole family.