Still Here

We're still here--haven't gone private yet! We're waiting to work out a little technical glitch. In the meantime, happy fall. We've got lots more pictures coming soon.

Two Years Old

Two years and about thirty minutes ago, we held Sabine in our arms for the very first time. It's hard to believe a little person can grow and change so much in such a short amount of time. That day two years ago was a magical day...but honestly we haven't looked back. Sabine just becomes more wonderful and engaging every day, and it's been incredible to watch her turn into an amazing little girl. Today she talked to us in sentences. Today she wore underwear instead of diapers. Today she already knew to anticipate her "happy birthday," as she calls it. She knew there was a new toy waiting for her when she woke up.

We got her a play kitchen, the same one she loves to play with at the toy store. When she walked into the kitchen this morning, she stopped to stare at it, pulled daddy over to help with a closer inspection, and then kept saying, "Let's cook something!" all morning.

And so she did.



There was lots of pretend mac & cheese, cupcakes, and even broccoli concocted this morning.

We took a small break to try out her Halloween costume and meet some friends at the pumpkin patch. We brought some mini cupcakes to celebrate the special day, and Sabine took down the lion's share...terrible pun intended. (Sorry, it's late.)

When we got home, Sabine got right back to business.



Sabine's dear friend S gave her some new gear for her kitchen, so Sabine had all sorts of new things to try out once we got home. A whole new world opened up, including "eggs for daddy" since she now has a spatula and frying pan. The biggest attraction, though, was the salt and pepper shaker.

Special placement in the ice dispenser by Sabine. They fit perfectly.

Everything she cooked from there on out was seasoned within an inch of its life. Including "mommy's wine."



Thank you, S. Sabine is thrilled.

The kitchen also came with a phone, one of Sabine's favorite things to play pretend. Here she is calling grandpa.



The conversation went:

Hello, Grandpa? I'm in the kitchen, actually. Bye-bye. Love you.

What I find ironic is that her stance is not so dis-similar from Grandpa's when he's on the phone.

Sabine's baby dolls also have extremely clean clothes.



They were put in the washer several dozen times this afternoon.

The kitchen was a hit, but so was our playdate with friends. So were all the phone calls from family. So were the cards in the mailbox. "MAIL FOR SABINE!"

We feel really lucky that Sabine has such a warm, loving extended family, that so many people would reach out to her on her birthday. We love you all, and thank you for helping make this such an incredible first two years. Here's to many, many more to come.

Celebratory Ice Cream

Celebrating a second day of no accidents and no diapers. (Other than to sleep.)

Sabine has exceeded all of our potty training expectations. We are so proud of her, she's doing so well. There's still plenty of practice to be done, but we're done with cloth diapers as of this week. No looking back, just full steam ahead with our almost-two-year-old!

Pumpkin Patch

We made it to our favorite pumpkin patch last Friday, with some of our favorite people. Not only were Grandmom and Grandpa there,



but Sabine's friend S and her mommy and grandparents also joined us.



It was a fantastic afternoon.



She's grown a bit from last year (SEE LAST YEAR'S PHOTO) and was much more opinionated about all the activities and things to see.

But the donkey was still the favorite animal.



She's been carrying around imaginary donkeys all weekend, rocking them, cooing to them, and handing them off to Mom so that she can pick up another one.

Sabine took her pumpkin picking duties more seriously this year.



We even examined the corn in the corn field, but she was unimpressed.



But we did have a lot of fun, and will undoubtedly go back before the season's over.



It's a beautiful time of year.

Here We Are!

Sorry it's been a while. I've learned my lesson. I am going to stop posting about this:

because every time I do, I jinx it. We had a rough couple of weeks following Sabine's little cold, and while I think we're slowly getting back on track, it's still tenuous.

Speaking of sleep, though, Sabine seems to be pushing her nap time back. For a long time she was going down right at 11:30AM. How long she stayed down was another story entirely, but more recently she hasn't been ready to go down until closer to 1:00PM or even 2:00 some days. We'll see how long it lasts. This could potentially open up more lunch options for us!

Still, we're staying busy, Sabine continues to be quite the social butterfly, hanging out with all of her good friends and getting out and about.

in Boulder

At our house

In downtown Louisville

In the ice cream truck at Babies R Us

Sabine's talking more and more, and we've gotten several compliments on her advanced vocabulary. While I do think she's got a good vocabulary for her age, I also think she's very good at enunciating, which I think helps make a good impression.

She's also working on shapes, and can correctly identify stars, hearts, and triangles. She gets ovals, squares, rectangles, octagons, and circles right about half the time.

Imaginative play has also really blossomed recently. Sabine likes to pretend she's carrying a dinosaur, and never has any newborn baby been given as much attention during transfers as her dinosaurs. (Which appear to fit just perfectly in the crook of her arm.) Usually they are blue, but sometimes she has two (so that you can carry one), and then one is green or purple. Unless they are both blue, which happens just as much. Luckily, they are some of the few things mommy lets Sabine bring in the shower, so, BONUS!

And last but not least, she's getting more and more hair. Look! There's twice as much in the clip as there was last year!