Tiny Dancer

Dance classes started on Saturday. They were a roaring success. Sabine loved it, especially when she found out her good friend S was also in the class! (Thank you, Daddy, for tagging along to play photographer.)

She learned to pique:

And played with the parachute:

And did a lot of running and clapping:

Along with learning to bow and curtsey:

And even finished class with a quick rest with scarves:

All in all, lots of fun. We are looking forward to next week!

(Also, you might check out the previous post again. I added a couple of extra pictures of Sabine with Baby because they were just so cute.)

20 Months

Sabine is 20 months old today. That is amazing to me. On one hand, I feel like she can barely be more than a baby, and on the other I feel like she may as well be a teenager with all of her wild antics, opinions, and vocabulary. (Not that she has a bad vocabulary; it's just getting very expansive!) Just the other day I climbed onto the counter to put a dish away, and I heard this little voice admonishing me, "Careful, mommy."

Yikes.

Sabine's actually turning into quite the little mommy, herself. She has a doll, Baby, who has always been a favorite, but recently has become THE Favorite. Baby goes everywhere with Sabine: to eat, to sleep, to the potty (I really want to post that picture, it exists...but have decided against it, at least until we make this blog a little more private!), as well as in the car.

Here's just a few pictures we've taken in the last week. You'll note there's been a huge upturn in Baby's presence.

(Diapering Baby with a baby-sized diaper)

We also recently opened a play doctor's kit from Aunt Dani, and it has gotten a lot of attention as well. Baby has benefitted (suffered?) the most at the hands of Dr. Sabine.

Walking to brunch with Daddy.

Showing Baby the ladybug mobile. "Baby see bug?" was how Sabine phrased it.

Then she had fun "bonking" Baby's head on the ladybugs, like Grandpa does with Sabine on the leaves on overhanging trees when they go on walks.

In summary, there's been much love this week.... Literally. Sabine has started to tell Baby she loves her. (She has yet to tell ME, but whatever.)

Oh yes. P.S. and by the way... Happy Father's Day to the most perfect and wonderful Sabine Daddy ever. We love you to the moon and back.

A Girl's Busy Summer Schedule

We're staying very busy around here, and our social butterfly is doing her thing. We attended our first birthday party of the season, and Sabine is learning to properly appreciate the goodie bag (this one included both a construction hat and bulldozer stickers; she was thrilled):

We hosted our first play group at our house, and we had a lot of fun. Sabine was super excited to have multiple friends over at the SAME TIME.

We spent a morning at the Botanic Gardens with B and E. It was the first time we've seen them since our music class ended, and Sabine was very happy to see them both. She could have cared less about the flowers and water features, she was most excited about chasing B around on the paths near the picnic area:



We spent an afternoon in the mountains with Grandmom and Grandpa, playing with their water fountain:

And we've also squeezed in some time at home. One night Sabine tried on her new ballet costume from Nanna Lin, and it fits perfectly. She spent a very happy evening dancing around to "C Is for Cookie," sung by the very popular vocalist, Daddy:

Dance classes start in eight days.

Officially Summer in Colorado

We're slowly getting back into our routine. We splurged and got a large kiddie pool, with hopes that some of our friends will come over and share it this summer. Sabine was very eager to break it in.

(Making the sign for "cold.")

She stayed in the freezing water until she started to shiver, and even then I think she would have continued getting in and out (and in and out and in and out; she's very into repetitive behaviors these days) except mommy was kind of a party pooper with her hypothermia fears, and we had to call it a night. Sabine's been back in the pool several times over the past week, though!

We also had a little shower for Aunt Dani this weekend, for the pending arrival of little cousin E.

Developmentally, Sabine is speaking more and more. She strings together little sentences all the time now, such as "No eat the balloon" (to our cat) or "Mimi go night night" (to a friend who had to leave because it was naptime.) She also has started to refer to herself as "Sammi" instead of "SSSSSS," which I actually find really interesting, because she's clearly picked up on that initial S-sound in her name, rather than the more emphasized second syllable, which is what most kids pick up on. Most little kids we meet start off calling her "Bean." She's also become a proficient user of the word "MINE."

In general, Sabine is just picking up phrases right and left. We're having to be a lot more careful about what we say around her, because everything gets repeated. It's fascinating to watch, though, and we've been having a lot of fun with her.

Sabine also started cutting her canine teeth while we were on the east coast. They don't seem to be quite as painful as her molars, but she has been chewing on her fingers and drooling non-stop for the past three weeks. The first one is about halfway up on the bottom, and the second one is just cutting through the gum. The top two aren't visible yet, but the area seems a little irritated, so I'm guessing they're not far behind. Fortunately this should be it until the two-year molars!

The latest physical milestone is that she is finally getting a little air when she jumps. Until now it's been a lot of bending knees and throwing her arms in the air, but after watching several friends show off their jumping skills (as well as daddy) she's been practicing, and is finally getting both feet to leave the ground. Sometimes.

East Coast Trip

We're back! We had a wonderful time with friends and family, but we are happy to be home to our house, our routine, and especially our daddy. But we did want to share some more pictures from all of our adventures, and to say we miss everyone we saw very much. It went by too quickly, as always.

We spent an afternoon at Longwood Gardens, and while Sabine was underwhelmed with the beautiful gardens and flowers



she perked right up when we got to the kids' area. Much of the appeal was all of the fun water features that she could stick her hands in.

Sabine also met a lot of new friends on this trip.

With Miss S and her daddy, who happens to be an old childhood friend of mommy's.

Being silly with Miss E, whose mommy is also a friend of mine. E was kind enough to show off her new walking skeelz while we were there.

And, of course, P, who was kind enough to let us stay with her and share her toys (and new big girl bed!) for most of our trip.

We visited Great-Grandmom (or "GREAT!" as Sabine calls her) several times







And then would often head to Great Aunt Betsy and Uncle Butch's house for dinner and outdoor time.



For the Memorial Day weekend we went to see family in Virginia. It was second cousin C's birthday, so we got to celebrate with her. Fortunately C is very attentive to her young relative.

And even more fortunately, she shared her chocolate cake. Sabine is kind of in love with her.




Burning off cake energy in the yard. Unfortunately the camera focused on the flowers instead of the kiddos, but you get the idea. They had a lot of fun, and Sabine now loves to "RUN FAST!"

Trying to push A in the wheelbarrow.

Sitting in a rocking chair that has survived many generations. Somewhere there is a picture of mommy in this chair when she was about Sabine's age. I'll have to see if I can dig it up.

Checking out Aunt Judy's pictures. She's pretty good with a camera.

It was a really fun trip, but by the end Sabine was definitely worn out. She was just exhausted, and needed more down-time than we were really able to take. We took a break on Tuesday afternoon to just watch some Baby Signing Time (Sabine's favorite video) in our room.

As I said, it was time to come home, and we're happy to be back, but we miss our family and friends so much. Can't wait to see you all again!