Sadie likes her slide.

If you can’t play it from this page, click through to the original on YouTube.

With a two-year-old and a newborn, I knew that I’d need to invest in a swingset for the backyard. So, a couple of weeks ago, I went to Walpole Woodworkers and ordered one. It arrived early last week, and this is the first weekend Sadie’s been able to enjoy it. It’s safe to say that she is a fan.

When we run out of the backdoor and down the stairs from the deck, she always heads first to the swings. “Put me on the swing, Daddy.”

“Pull me high, Daddy.”

“Wheeeeeeeeeeeeee.”

Sadie gets some good height.

After hours of swinging, Sadie likes to cap it off with a quick run or two down the slide. She doesn’t go down headfirst like her cousin Peter, but she gets some pretty good velocity.

I have a feeling we’ll be spending a lot of time out in the backyard this summer (and likely for the next ten summers or so).

Lucy spends a lot of time with her mouth open. What happens when everyone does their Lucy impression for the webcam?

As you’d imagine, the last few weeks have been pretty busy. At some point, I’ll pull together a coherent set of pictures and video, but for now, here’s a quickly shot this morning of Lucy, Sadie and me. Thank goodness for the webcam on the kitchen laptop.

Your crying is very important to us. Due to unexpectedly high child-cry volume, we are unable to attend to you right now. To help us serve you better, please choose your desire from among the following options. Please listen closely, as the options have recently changed.

Press one for “Boob”
Press two for “Send the baby back to the hospital”
Press three for “No, seriously. Boob!”
Press four for “Alleviate generalized sibling angst”

For all other requests, please hold on the line and continue wailing.

Your crying is very important to us….

They asked the children at Sadie’s school what they want to be when they grow up. The other girls want to be mommies, or ladies or mermaids; my little girl wants to play football. Hell yeah.

Maybe she’ll be the next Adam Vinatieri. I think she’d rather be the next Junior Seau, though.

Day three of the Butler foursome went very well. Sadie is becoming very protective of her little sister.

In one of the most anticipated meetings since Obi-Wan met Anakin, Sadie and Lucy were introduced today. They seem to like each other, so far. We’ll see how long that lasts.

No more sippy cups at meals!

So far, we’ve only had a couple of spills. I’m glad we have lots of rags in the kitchen.

It’s been a long time since I’ve been able to post about Sadie. We’ve had tons going on, but I want to take a quick break to tell you all how she’s doing.

Sadie is incredibly active, running around the house until she’s nothing more than a blur.

She loves sitting in the living room, where the sun comes in and make her hair all glowy. She likes that.

She loves coloring at her table. She’s graduated from sheets of paper to coloring books. Art school, here we come!

We spent some time yesterday coloring Easter eggs. We have to start with a nice snack first, though. Everyone likes the milk.

We started out with the hard-boiled eggs. You need to drop some vinegar into the cups. Be careful!

While you’re waiting for the eggs to color, it’s fun to play with the basket.

Easter morning: It’s time to search for the eggs. Found one!

So much fun. Sadie ended up with a full basket of eggs. She didn’t like the jellybeans, though.

Baby should be coming in the next ten days or so, so I suspect there’ll be lots more pictures coming soon.

We told Sadie this morning that I was going to take her to the high school tonight to vote for president.

She said, “Vote Duck.”

Perhaps we’ve read this book a few too many times:

Sadie, Sadie, jumping all around. Jumping up and down from the bottom of the stairs is one of Sadie’s most favorite games. We spent eleven minutes this morning climbing up and jumping down. Great fun!

It’s been a while since I’ve put up any new Sadie pictures. Sorry about that. One of the new year’s resolutions is to take new pictures of her (and impending baby) at least once every three days. I hope this discipline will let me keep more up-to-date with her changes. In the meantime, here’s some new pictures to keep everyone happy.

Sadie is looking pretty small outside in the yard.

Sadie is getting really good at feeding herself and taking control of her milk intake. She knows that if she asks nicely, she’ll always get some more milk.

The week before Christmas, we got together and decorated a gingerbread house. Sadie liked putting on all the candy.

Sadie had a very nice Christmas. One of the highlights was her very own tricycle. She doesn’t quite reach the pedals yet, but we’re all looking forward to summer, when she can ride free.

One of her other favorite toys from Christmas is the ever-popular Play-Doh. Spending an hour with the Play-Doh is one of our new Saturday-morning traditions.

That’s all for now. More pictures in a few days!

You finish wrapping the present with her, then when you turn around, she gleefully rips open the paper.

She’s not quite getting the concept yet.

“Sadie, stop it. Cream cheese is not a hand lotion.”

Grammie and Grampie gave Sadie an easel for her birthday last week. She’s been coloring like a fiend ever since.

She loves having her own whiteboard. Now, when she wants to know more about a subject, we go to the board for a deep dive. Here, we’re dissecting and analyzing her Sunday breakfast: biscuits go in the oven, eggs in the frying pan and bacon in the microwave.

She really feels like she groks it now.

We’re so proud.

So, we were waiting in the room at Holliston Pediatrics this afternoon, and I’m showing Sadie pictures of herself on the phone. In under 15 seconds, she saw how I was doing the flick to advance the photos and she started doing it herself.

Egads. I’m not sure I want her anywhere near my computers; she’ll probably optimize them when I’m not looking and I won’t be able to find anything again.

Sadie is two years old.

She’s a real little girl now, with very little of toddlerhood still around. She’s talking all the time. She takes care of her things. She understands when we’re talking to her. She even has her own whiteboard now.

She’s starting to learn some useful life lessons. Here, she’s playing with one of her balloons. Soon, she would see what happens when she decides to roll her whole body onto the balloon. Sorry, but we obey the laws of physics in this household, missy.

Even if the balloons don’t always bring joy, Sadie still gets the high of wearing a crown. She would like every day to be crown day from now on.

What’s a celebraton without cake? On Sunday morning, she helped prepare the birthday cupcakes. She knows that one starts with the muffin cups.

You can’t make a cupcake without breaking eggs, so Sadie helped Mommy incorporate the eggs into the batter.

When it’s all done, you get to blow out the candles. And this year, no unfortunate cupcake incidents!

Happy birthday!

I spent all morning today out in the yard raking up the leaves. Sadie helped, rolling around in them and getting them all over herself.

p.s., The iPhone takes some spooky pictures. Other than cropping it, I didn’t touch this one up at all.

Sadie was a big hit in her Cindy Lou Who outfit this Halloween night.

Pretty good likeness, if I do say so myself.

She went out with the pumpkin, soon filled with a dozen or so candy bars she’ll never see.

We let her have a little bit of a lollipop. She was pretty excited by that, but was all done after only a couple of licks.

I felt bad a little later, though. We let her answer the door when one of the neighborhood trick-or-treaters rang. The ten-year-old boy was dressed up in a skeleton mask, and poor little Sadie screamed. She was so scared — and the boy was petrified. It took me fifteen minutes to calm her down at bedtime.

I hope Thanksgiving isn’t quite that exciting.

This Columbus Day wasn’t a total washout; Sadie loved stomping in the puddles.

I probably should have put her in boots, though. I’m not sure the Mary Janes are in real good shape right now.

Now that Sadie’s all mobile and filled with energy, we’re constantly looking for new and interesting ways to entertain her. Last Saturday, we went to the Roger Williams Zoo in Providence, about 45 minutes away.

It’s a pretty good zoo, with one of the highlights being the brand new baby giraffe. He was very cute:

Sadie mentioned that the crowned crane should really try putting some ponytails in her hair. That will help with the slight sticking-up problem.

You’d be surprised how many things you can climb on at the zoo.

It’s all a lot for a little girl to take in. Sometimes she just needs to sit and ponder.

Sadie’s school has a perfectly appropriate playground for toddlers. Sadie continues to pine for the big kids’ playground on the other side of the fence, though.

I’m not sure I’m happy about her literally climbing the walls.

Sadie and I visited the McGilvrays on Sunday and found, yet again, that everyone loves playing with a cheerful toddler. Sadie especially liked playing catch with the soccer ball. She pretty much has heading down, as Auntie Karen captured in this picture.

Sadie’s transition from babyhood began in earnest last week. Sadie is now sleeping each night in her big-girl bed. She and Bear are both very excited by the development.

We took Sadie out to Lookout Farm in Natick this morning to run around and visit the animals. It’s a great hour or two to spend on a sunny Saturday morning. Make sure you get there early, though. We arrived at 10 and it was fine. By 11:30, when we left, it was packed.

Once you arrive, you take a train out to the orchards and the children’s play place. The train’s a little bumpy, so you need to hold on tight.

They have a small zoo, with ostriches, llamas, a cow and a pig. They also have a petting area for Sadie to walk around with the sheep and the goats. She liked that.

They have a fairly small playground on site, but it does the job. Sadie was a big fan of the red slide.

They also have a large straw ziggurat which is just a little too big for Sadie to climb — as if that would prevent her from trying, of course. Too bad getting down wasn’t as easy as getting up.

It’s $12 an adult to get in (not counting fruit, if you want to pick some yourself), but it’s a decent place to kill a couple of hours letting the toddler run around and look at the animals.

(Meta note: These photos were taken with the iPhone. They’re obviously not as good as the ones I take with the SLR, but definitely better than any other cameraphone I’ve had.)

Sadie’s favorite spot at daycare is the sandbox. Anytime they have free play there, she always beelines to the sand. At the end of each day, she’s covered in sand, with a little cloud following her wherever she goes. They call her Pigpen.

We’re so proud.

We’re all excited to welcome football season, especially since the Patriots destroyed the Jets. Sadie’s getting used to how we handle football Sundays in the Butler household.

We went on vacation last week, down to Eastham for a week in the cottage. Sadie came down last fall, but now that she’s twenty-one months old, she actually understands a lot more of what’s going on.

The cottage is on a sand road, just a ten-minute walk down the road and over the dune to Cape Cod Bay. The first morning, Sadie made her way down the road.

At the beginning, she wasn’t sure about the water, but she really enjoyed running along the beach. She got to wear her pretty blue cover-up and her purple hat.

She will eventually learn that it’s not too smart to run with your tongue sticking out.

All the running on the beach can take a lot out of a little girl. After a while, she needed to refuel.

Eventually, we got her to walk into the water. She soon found out that it’s not quite the same temperature as her bathwater.

Oh, but it’s really fun to splash.

Sadie spent some time acclimating to the cape, embracing the culture and the icons.

She was also very helpful, watering Grammie’s tomatoes.

The tides shifted so that most of our beach time later in the week came at low tide. Sadie could run on the sand flats forever, leaving her sad father to trudge behind, carrying her tiny pink rake.

Sadie had a great week, and can’t wait to go back next summer. Hooray for Cape Cod!

Sadie had a great time in Concord for the fourth of July festivities. Her favorite part was when she got biffed in the head by a tie-died beachball. Sometimes it’s hard to see clearly from behind the shades.

Sometimes Sadie decides that she’d like to be like me, even to the point of wearing my old, decrepit Red Sox hat.

It doesn’t always end well.

It’s been a while since I’ve written. We’ve rebooted our lives in several different ways, but Sadie’s been quite the trooper.

She’s getting much bigger, starting to move out of the high chair in onto one of the regular table chairs. She still needs a little boost though.

She’s getting more mobile around the house. She’s taken to riding around on her cow, a favorite present from Grammie and Grampie.

She continues her odd fascination with books. We now have a little system, in which she climbs on the couch and I feed her books from the right. She reads them then stacks them nicely on the left. When she’s through the pile, she demands more. We may have a second-generation Operations Management major in the making.

We got to go to a corporate event at Fenway Park a couple of weeks ago. She seems to have inherited none of my crippling fear of heights.

She also enjoys sitting in the seats, proving once again that the seats at Fenway were designed for toddlers, not adults.

Sadie’s spending more time out with us in the yard. Today, she was very helpful, not only raking…

… but also mowing the lawn for me. I knew I had kids for a reason.

She’s growing a lot, and developing quite the little personality. I can’t wait to see how the rest of the summer goes…

We all got to go to an event at Fenway yesterday, and Sadie got herself a fabulous foam finger. It’s her new favorite car toy. (Also pictured: previous car favorites Baa Baa and Senor Froggie).

It’s very sweet that Sadie wants to emulate me, but I’m not sure I’m on board with her taking up residence on the couch. That’s my spot.

Sadie is now a year and a half old, and her pediatrician tells us she’s doing great. I could have told you that, but it’s fun to have a second opinion.

She’s really talking now, in sentences of two and sometimes three words. “No, Daddy” is one of her favorites, as is, “Milk, please.” She understands everything we say, so I need to clean up my language a little bit.

She’s very helpful, wanting to include herself in whatever we’re doing. So, we put her to dusting.

I tried to get her to do my taxes, but she was having none of that.

She’s getting better at running around. She jumps off the bottom step. She can climb onto the couch all by herself. She’s trying to skip, but it’s not quite there yet. She loves being outside, and her boundless energy is well-used running around the backyard.

She also loves flowers, so we took her out to the plant store, and got her a flower of her very own.

She’s still a pretty good eater, though she’s getting more finicky. She is very subtle when she decides that she doesn’t like what I cooked her for dinner.

I’ll usually win her over, though, and then she’s much happier.

Sadie has taken to demanding to see pictures of herself on the computer. It’s good to know that she does not lack for vanity. If nothing else, it has made me a little more picky about which photos I put up here; knowing you’ll need to see the collection hundreds of times is a good incentive to edit. I hope everyone likes this one.

We went to Landry’s yesterday to get a new bike for A. Sadie will have her own little seat on the back, so she needs her own helmet.

She likes pink, to match her cardigan.

My backyard has begun to bloom with blasts of yellow, purple and white flowers. Sadie has learned from Paul and Judy that now she can smell the flowers.

We went over to A.’s parents’ house for a very nice Easter celebration. To Sadie’s delight, the Easter Bunny had already visited. He left her a basket with a lamb and a candy egg.

The Bunny also scattered some brightly-colored eggs around the backyard. Sadie had a great time finding them all.

Sadie’s big cousin Peter was very generous this weekend when he gave Sadie his old slide.

Sadie is very excited. Lots of time outside this summer!

grep ‘big hug’ daddy

We finally had a nice spring weekend day yesterday, after all the months of slush and snow.

Sadie’s not much of a morning person — perhaps a few too many milk shooters on Friday night.

She eventually got her act together, so we went out in the backyard to play. We started with baseball, to get ready for the Red Sox opener. Here she is doing her “Kevin Millar in Right Field” impression.

Then, we switched to the playground ball. I would roll it to her and she’d carry it back. This went on for half an hour.

Sadie is very happy that spring is here. We’re going to spend many afternoons outside this summer.

Tabblo just launched a super-simple way to make a photo cube. I just went and did it, and it took 45 seconds to create and print out the sheet. Incredibly easy. Incredibly cool. Take a look at my quick photocube (.pdf).

More product information from Tabblo. Antonio’s launch announcement.

Yes, it’s been a while. I’ve been in the middle of launching my search product (beta releases in November, December and January; full release real-soon-now) and it’s been harder to keep notes for writing coherent posts.

Luckily, Sadie waits for no man, not even her Daddy, and she’s been out adventuring. She finds it easier to adventure when she has her hat on, so it stays on all around the house.

Sadie’s been mourning the passing of football season. Football is pretty much the only thing we watch on TV when she’s around, so she’s taken a shine to it. She enjoyed playing with her Duplos while the Bears were playing in the playoffs.

She gets to participate more when the Patriots are playing, though. She get all excited when the Patriots score a touchdown. (She’s also excited that her hair is long enough to be Pebbles’d up.)

A couple of weeks ago, Sadie moved from the Infant room to the Toddler room at daycare. Such a big girl!

It’s a little more pressure now, because she can’t just crush all the other little babies any more — they’re all bigger than she is now. They also won’t heat up her food anymore, so she’s getting used to eating her lunches cold.

The biggest transition has been around nap time, though. They changed Sadie’s nap schedule from “whenever she feels like it” to “1-3pm.” Sometimes this leaves Sadie a little sleepy during the rest of the day.

Sadie still likes to “play with” the cats. The cats still like to “run screaming.”

Sadie is still a good eater, though she’s starting to get pickier and pickier. This morning, we got her to eat pieces of an omelet — a big step forward. She’s good with her vegetables and her fruit, but she’s not taking as much meat as she should be.

She’s popped out a couple of more teeth in the past week, and several more are quite obviously poised to appear. More teeth should help with the meat.

Sadie is quite adamant about walking herself. She gets all upset when you carry her on the sidewalk at the gym. She still falls down sometimes, but she is definitely a complete walker now.

Sadie is also now obsessed with her books. Some kids like trucks, some like dolls, but Sadie likes her books. She’ll demand you read them with her over and over again. Current favorites (i.e., books I’ve memorized) include The End, Fairy Colors, Moo, Baa, La La La, One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish and Good Boy, Fergus. I highly recommend them all.

Sadie just started learning how to color. We set her up on her little red table with her magic markers (washable!). Then, we let her go at it.

She likes the blue marker the best.

When she’s done, she has created a masterpiece worthy of the refrigerator.

Another month (well, two) has passed and Sadie keeps changing. Every day is different. Every day is special. See you again next month!

“Hi, I’m not a baby anymore. I’m a toddler.” And, boy, do I have a personality.

We’ve made it through another month — lots of laughing, a decent amount of fussing, no more unfortunate cupcake incidents. It’s time for another update.

She no longer gets a bottle. We still bring out the Cheerios every day, though. In addition, Sadie now gets vegetables, fruit, toast, Spaghettios, Macaroni and Cheese, Yogurt and Milk. If she’s been really good, I’ll give her some Teddy Grahams. Teddy Grahams are, of course, the dessert of champions.

Sadie no longer just drinks the milk in blissed-out silence. She feels like she should tell you what she’s thinks of the milk. And the toast. And the state of the Middle East. She’s not afraid to express her opinion.

She’s also beginning to talk. She doesn’t have any English words (”Dada” being the current closest attempt), but she’s quite fluent in Sadie-ese. She’s obviously trying to convey a point, it’s just not in any language her poor, dumb parents can understand. I look forward to having conversations with her. So far, I’ve been providing both halves of the conversation, and, frankly, it’s time for her to hold up her end.

She’s expressing herself more with gestures as well. She’ll vigorously shake her head when she doesn’t want what you’re trying to feed her. She’ll point at the milk when she wants more. She’ll wave bye-bye when she wants to leave. Less attractively, she’ll smack the spoon as you’re bringing it to her mouth, flinging mush across the room.

She’s trying out some different toys. For her birthday, her Auntie Amy got her some Weebles, and these are her new favorites. Plus, though they wobble, they most definitely do not fall down.

We’re trying to get her to try out some new things around the house. Most recently, we’ve been teaching her a little bit of how to play the piano. Neither of us are very good at it yet, but we’re certainly making progress.

(And yes, I switch from my suit pants into shorts when I get home from work — thus the very attractive ‘black socks and slippers’ look I’m sporting in this picture.)

Another big development this month is Sadie’s continued fascination with books. Curious George has displaced the Boynton books from the top of her reading list.

She’s learned quite a few songs in the past month. If you start singing “If you’re happy and you know it…” she’ll start clapping her hands. In the next verse, she’ll stomp her little feet along with you. At night, I’ve been singing her lullabies to ease the transition to sleep. Of course, I don’t know any lullabies, so I’ve been singing regular songs for her. Her favorites so far: Me and Bobby McGee, Mercedes Benz, You Turn Me On I’m a Radio, and Anarchy in the U.K.. I’ll try some others this month to see which ones suit her fancy.

The teenaged girls at the Gym’s babysitting room still adore her. I carry her in, and we’re greeted with a “Sadie” coo in four-part harmony. Good for her; I’ve certainly never been that popular in my life.

She can walk like a champ now, straight-ahead with very little wobbling. Everyone is excited by this, except, of course, the kitties. They can still take refuge on the window sills, but it won’t be too long before she can reach them there, too.

Sadie is much more a little girl than a baby now. The transition makes me sad, but I’m reasonably sure it was bound to happen. On the plus side, we can can share more: I sit in my chair and read; she sits in hers and reads.

Happy thirteen-month birthday!

Sadie seems to enjoy playing with the computer. I have no idea where she gets that.

Yes, the little girl is now one. She just joined us, and she’s no longer a little baby. It’s been another busy month.

She’s walking up a storm.

She’s gotten past the “wow, I’m walking — just happy to be here” phase and is now in the “I get all frustrated because I’m not as good at walking as I want to be” phase.

Her teeth are coming through, two on the top and two on the bottom. What used to be “slimings of love” have turned into “bitings of love.” Those are far less cute.

Everything is new to her. Including balloons.

She likes balloons.

She understands what we’re saying, even if she doesn’t have the words to say it herself. (I’m sure that’s coming next month.)

She’s good at the snuggling.

She has definite thoughts about what foods she’ll eat. It’s fairly typical for babies to take a while to learn new foods, but that doesn’t mean it’s any more pleasant to live through.

One year in, and she’s still a sweet little baby girl.

Hmm. What’s that? That flame-y thing looks interesting.

Maybe I’ll just touch that.

Huh?

Whaaah.

After we calmed her down and cleaned her up, we tried to give her the cupcake again. She demurred. She requested we never serve her anything with sugar again.

Sadie’s starting to learn the meanings of some of our words and responding to them. Sometimes, if we ask real nicely, she’ll dance for us.

Then, of course, she’ll promptly do something forbidden.

We finally got a chance to go to the zoo last weekend. We went out to the Mendon zoo to see the animals and do a little petting in the petting zoo.

It was a little cold for Sadie.

But she liked it when I pointed out the goats to her.

Another month, many more changes.

Sadie has developed preferences, and much more of a personality. She is starting to test her limits, which is entertaining if sometimes a little annoying.

She loves the landing at the bottom of the stairs. She knows I hate when she goes there. She goes there anyway.

She knows which parts of the family room are forbidden. She’ll sometimes touch things with one finger to see if we’ll react. Then, she’ll put her whole palm on it. If we still don’t react, then she’ll go all out on it. It’s fun to watch her little schemes play themselves out.

She took a trip down to Nashville, visiting with friends old and new. It was her first time on a plane, and she was a little trooper. The Cheerios helped.

She took her first trip down the Cape, and we were able to bring her down to the bay shore. Unfortunately, it was about 60 degrees and really windy. She liked being near the water, though.

She still likes the kitties.

The kitties still dislike her.

We’ve had a rough couple of weeks. She caught conjunctivitis and gave us quite the view of her devil eyes.

She layered a fever on top of the conjunctivitis, leading to her first prescription for Amoxicillin, better known around our house as the pink stuff. We’re four days into the ten day run. No one in our house can wait for it to be over.

She loves her books. She has her own bookcase in our living room, and each evening we go over to it and she pulls all the books down and flips through them.

She’s a fan of the Pat-a-Cake book, exploring the subtle interactions between the baker and the customer, and memorizing the way one can pat the cake, roll it, and mark it with a “B.”

And put it in the oven for Sadie and me