Mummy notes

When I'm in my 60's, and bragging about how my daughter ALWAYS slept through the night, let this be a record that since 13 months of age, she has. I'm so in awe of it sometimes that I'm afraid I'll forget whether or not it was really true. Here are a few notes I need, as an official record of fact:

• the first 13 months were almost completely sleepless for me. Sapphie liked to nurse all night long, and the longest stretch she ever had was about 8pm to midnight, in her crib. After that she would come in the bed and most nights would nurse every hour.
• putting her on rice cereal didn't change her sleeping habits a bit (thanks to all you who advised me to put a little rice cereal in a bottle with my breast milk - I never tried it, but did find out that it wouldn't have made a difference at all!).
• When Sapphie turned 13 months old, Kevin and I had a talk with her about going to bed. As soon as we said it, she threw herself down on the couch to demonstrate sleeping. It was really cute but it also showed us that she understood what it meant to go to bed (and that she could understand what we were saying). We felt like she was ready for a new stage of independence. That night, we put her in her crib awake and told her we loved her and that it was time for bed. She cried for 5 minutes. We went back in, didn't pick her up and told her we loved her and that it was time for bed. She cried for 10 minutes. We went back in again, told her we loved her and that she needed to go to sleep. She cried for 30 seconds and went to sleep. That first night, she was up every few hours and we did the same thing - told her we loved her and to go to bed. Since that night, she has regularly slept 12 hours or more every night - uninterrupted.
  
• During the last few months, she has been regularly sleeping from 7pm until about 9am (and sometimes 10!). She also naps 2 to 3 hours a day.
• We have found that when she's overtired, she sleeps less, wakes up earlier in the morning, and doesn't nap as well.

A few weeks ago, she started a new habit (actually I didn't realize what was going on until a few days ago). She would wake up about once a night crying for me and I would go to her (we don't really let her cry because she usually needs something). She would point to the rocker and say "sing a song in the chair". It was so cute that I obliged happily. During the last week before Christmas she was doing it twice a night! I realized what was going on and on Sunday, as I was putting her to bed, I said "I need to talk to you about something." She said "yeah." I said "you know, you've been waking up at night and asking me to sing a song in the chair." She said "yeah."
"Well I don't want you to do that anymore. Mummy is sleeping when you do that and I need my rest too. If you wake up, I want you to snuggle with your lamby and go back to sleep." She said "okay."
And she hasn't done it since! It's so cool that I can communicate with her! How fun. I can't believe in a few weeks I'll be back to being up all night with number 2!

I'm sure that this was pretty boring for you, but since my blog serves as my journal I must sometimes do a factual entry for my records. More to come! I've already got some notes going on how my two pregnancies have been different...xo

Snow fun

Sapphie and I had some fun playing in the snow today. We took the dogs for a long walk at the golf course, and then of course she wanted to go over to the sledding hill to watch the kids. As we got close, she said she wanted to walk (yes, I brought her boots this time. And, thanks to Auntie Lucy for getting her a fleece with hand mitts!! We now have no mitten drama and have very warm hands). So I let her out of the backpack, and she walked. Then she decided to throw herself down and play with the dogs in the snow. Here she is saying cheese and trying to avoid a stick in the face (Cabot was dancing around her with a huge stick).

Here she was yelling "swimming!". She was trying to copy Cooper, who likes to "swim" and rub his entire face and body in the snow.

Watching the sledders. We did that for about half an hour.

Cheese!!!!

Geeking out with Uncle Ollie

Sapphie loves computers. It's a little unnerving, but she knows how to use an iPhone, iPad and an iTouch better than I do. And, we hardly ever let her play with them! Certain relatives, though, like to geek out and she knows exactly who they are and that they're a sucker for her requests (yes Uncle Ryan and Uncle Ollie, I'm talking to you).
She got Uncle Ollie on her birthday this Sunday. She said "come" in her soft voice and pointed to the bedroom, where she knows Colin keeps his computer. They had a blast taking computer pictures while I was enjoying Richard's amazing eggs Benedict and grilled venison steak for brunch. Here's some evidence:

Sapphie's famous "cheese!" face

Double trouble!

Ha! I caught them.

Then Auntie Hannah came and took Sapphie to Paris.

First real sledding day

This Christmas Eve, Sapphie had her first real sledding day. Of course we took her out last year, but only on the golf course (no hills, just flat). She loved it but was still too little to go on any hills. Here she is being towed by Kevin last year:

She had a blast and loved wearing her sunglasses!

This year, on Friday (Christmas Eve), I put her in the backpack and we went over to the golf course to walk the dogs. Honestly, it hadn't even occurred to me to bring the sled since there's no way I can pull it (34 weeks pregnant and a sore back), and I like having her in the backpack so she can see everything that I see. She still insists on wearing her sunglasses. And refuses to wear mittens.


As soon as we got there, I hear the shrieks of joy coming from the gigantic sledding hill and point out to Sapphie all of the kids sledding down the hill. "See kids!" She yelled. I told her we would go later, after our walk. So we did a loop on the course, then turned around and the whole way back, she asked if we could go watch the kids. We went over to the hill and she wanted to get out, but I hadn't put her boots on (she was wearing her slippers)! What was I thinking? I'm going through a huge learning curve during this switch from baby to toddler. I forget that she wants to do everything we do, not just sit there with her cute booties on! So Kev ran home and got her boots, but while he was gone she said she wanted to go sledding. So she and I headed home to get her sled, and met daddy in the driveway. He took her in our back yard on the ledge which is pretty steep! She LOVED it. Here's the video:

Bathroom Rehab

I've recently decided that I need to go into each room in the house, identify the things I absolutely hate about the room or what's in it, and write it down so that I can have a goal to fix it. I don't know why it is, but I have a bad habbit of getting used to things the way they are, and not realizing how simple it is to make a few adjustments that will make me really happy with my house. Do you do that? I don't think it's laziness, it's just hard to identify what needs to change in your own house unless you really make an effort. Anyway, the first room I tackled our guest bathroom, and, this weekend, I re-did it! I was inspired by a mirror that Kevin's parents just gave us. This gave me the perfect vision, and now it's come to life! The greatest part is that we didn't have to do new floors or a new vanity (which we'd love to do but it's not in the budget). Just some paint, some new hardware, and a beautiful mirror, and it looks amazing.

Here are the "before" pictures

And now, look! I love the guest loo!

Fall Frenzy

Hmmm. What can I say about the absolute deliquency of my blogging? Uh...we've been...busy. Yeah, that's it. Here, I'll show you what we've been up to the last few months!

Here's Sapphie playing chef at Ruby's house. She has really gotten into helping in the kitchen, and being the mummy to her dollies and stuffed toys.

Snuggling with Sylvester, Kevin's doll from when he was little!

Reading with Uncle Ollie

Helping Daddy walk the dogs


Oh yeah, and Kristen got married!! I love this picture of her

Kissing a monkey in Newport, RI

Walking down the aisle with mummy

A visit to Shelburne Farms

And we had a visit from the Manguals! It was such a great time. We went apple picking at Shelburne Orchards. Julia kept Sapphie in line.

Walking with Lukey

Sleeping with her new doggie that John gave her. She loves him!



And, last weekend, we carved our first Halloween pumpkins! Sapphie was scared of them when the lights were off, but when it was light she would run up to them and say "hello!"

There is so much new with Sapphie. I don't even know where to start! She loves to count. She says "one, two, three, four, NINE!! Two." It's hilarious. She is also totally obsessed with babies, both real ones and dollies. She hugs and kisses them, sleeps with them, eats with them sitting next to her (and yes, she tries to feed them), and takes them everywhere she goes. It's really funny. She also likes to bathe them and change their diapers. Her second favorite thing? The dogs. They are her best buddies and it is so cute to watch her play. If she's drawing, she puts out paper and crayons for the dogs too. She cleans their ears, rides them like horsies, and feeds them any food she doesn't want to eat. She's also talking all the time. Some really cute things she says: every night, when I put her to bed, I tell her I love her. Then she says "daddy love you? Babot (that's Cabot) love you? Coopy love you?" And I say "yes, we all love you." And she says "otay". Then she goes to sleep. If there's someone else on her mind, she'll ask me if they love her too.
She says her own name: Sassie. It's so cute! And she's starting to understand ownership with toys. She says "mine", and if another child tries to take it away she yells "no!"
For some reason, she's always asking if strange things have a nuk (that's a pacifier). She'll say "moon nuk?" "doggie nuk?"...she wants to know if they suck their thumb or have a nuk. I tell her they suck their thumb, then she puts her thumb in her mouth.
She loves to go to church because she gets to play with the babies in the nursery. She loves to go to Yoga so she can play with all the babies while the moms do yoga.
Whenever she wakes up in the morning, she plays in her bed for at least an hour. She makes such a racket in there playing with all her dolls and stuffed toys. She talks to them and often throws them overboard. When we walk in, she yells "all done night-night!"
When Kevin tells her no, she comes yelling "mummy mummy!" as if I'm going to save her. It's so funny. She loves the itouch and plays lots of baby games (spelling, animal sounds, etc) on it. I think she actually knows how to use it better than I do...
I think that's it for an update! Lots to tell. I'll try to post more frequently from now on. Happy fall!!

Maine Vacation

We've just had an amazing long weekend in Maine. We had planned this family vacation - Kevin, Sapphie and I, plus Penelope and Colin, and Hannah and Isaac - about 3 months ago. Brian was going to be in town so he came too! We had so much fun. We Wall sisters used to live in Maine, and we hadn't been back to Boothbay Harbor in over 20 years! It was just as beautiful as we remembered it, and some of our favorite places were still in business. Number one, the taffy shop, Downeast Candies, where they make homemade taffy the old fashion way and it just melts in your mouth. And number two, the popcorn place that makes so many flavors of popcorn!! Everything looked, smelled, and tasted exactly the same. Especially the ocean.It was so wonderful to be there with my sisters, and with Sapphie who really loves the ocean. It was really special to share the memories with our favorite boys, and watch them fall in love with the place. We've already planned to go next year, and will rent exactly the same house! It was such an amazing weekend and we left feeling sad to leave, but fully refreshed. Isaac has posted some of his fantastic photos on his blog. Here are some of my favorites that I took:

The ocean from our back yard

Walking to the beach

Sapphie playing in the sand
The guys taking in the ocean
Sapphie reading with Penelope
Walking with daddy to go on kayak!
First kayak ride
Playing at the beach, half naked
Saying goodbye to our wonderful spot

And, as usual, here are some more:

Marblehead

Last weekend, we went to Marblehead to visit the Manguals at their new house. We had such a blast!! Their house is absolutely beautiful, and I must admit we were a little jealous of how much space they have. One day, we'll buy a house and be able to renovate it just the way we want. For now, we'll have to go visit them more often. We've already invited ourselves for a week next summer!
Sapphie had so much fun at the beach, and with the kids. She really bonded with Julia and loved the ocean! We spent most of our time at the beach, and hanging out cooking. It was such a relaxing long weekend. Here are some of my favorite pictures:

With Daddy at the beach
Huge smile after she took a face plant in the sand

Bath time!! The three youngest took baths together every night.

On a walk with Julia

On her very first bikeride. She loved it and was so serious! We need to get her a bike.

And here are the rest!

My Office (by Kevin)

Do you ever have those days that you wonder why you are doing what you are doing? Maybe there is a better place to work? Maybe I should change careers completely?

And then there is something that brings you back to why you are doing what you are doing? Why you really do love your job, the people in the office or that commute for some?

I had one of those moments last week. Work has been crazy lately. The nights seems too late and the mornings come too early. Can't complain because I am gaining new business but that sometimes just brings that extra added stress. I sometimes daydream about Emma and I selling everything we got and packing up the family and move overseas and basically check out. Those daydreams are short lived and then something brings me back to Earth and I remember why I truly love my job.

The reality is regardless of the time of year I have one of the best offices in the State of Vermont from my windshield of my truck.

A couple pictures with my clients last week at Shelburne Farms. They seemed happy grazing and enjoying the view. Not a bad place to work or be a cow I must say.