Sadie likes nothing more than to cuddle on the couch with her favorite toy, her Patriots football.

It’s holiday time! We got the Christmas Tree yesterday morning — free plug: we love Medway Gardens — and this morning we’re setting about decorating it.

It’s important to have the roaring fire to set the mood.

Lucy is playing with (and occasionally eating) her Santa hat.

And Sadie, for the first time, is really helping to decorate the tree.

Loads of fun for everyone. Very merry.

Sadie’s starting to get the hang of some more adult things, like talking on the phone…

I’m going fast and furious on Serendeputy, A. is insane with end of the year stuff at her job, and the girls are growing very quickly. It’s hard to keep up with pictures, but I will try.

Sadie’s getting very big, now that she’s three. All the nuisances of toddlerhood are pretty much gone, and she’s a fully functioning little girl now.

Lucy is doing very well sitting up — not crawling yet, but that’s right around the corner. She sits on the rug and watches everything we do.

Sometimes she gets really excited (and a little manic) — especially when she’s playing with her turtle and baby buffalo.

She’s also really good about sitting on the chairs. She loves being up high, especially if there are kitties nearby.

Sadie’s not sure what to do when she sees Lucy playing with (i.e., eating) one of her toys, in this case, her baby doll Unc.

Sadie can usually figure out how to express her displeasure.

But, then, as always, all is forgiven. The two sisters love each other.

Sadie and I were screwing around in the front of the laptop. We took this picture. It’s kinda cute.

Sadie and Lucy got to spend some time with Auntie Amy last weekend. Sadie decided to become queen of the flying trapeze.

Mostly, though, she loved playing in the leaves. They have far better leaves there than at home.

Last year, Sadie went out for Halloween as Sadie Lou Who. This year, she went as a grasshopper.

Sadie thought that it hardly seemed fair that we had all this candy already in the house, yet she needed to go out trick-or-treating to find some for herself.

Lucy decided to dress up as a giant octopus-eating baby. Maybe next year we’ll get more ambitious with her costume.

Sadie has inherited my fine hair. While very pretty, it sometimes succumbs to the ravages of static electricity.

It took us a while to pack. It turns out that 50 pounds of children need to carry with them 80 pounds of crap. Because, the world will end if our giant stuffed panda doesn’t accompany us to the vacation spot.

Once we got all our gear down there, we spent most of each day down at the beach.

At the beginning of the week, Sadie was pretty scared of the water, so we spent most of the time up on the beach, often playing with the frisbee.

And then, often chasing the runaway frisbee down the beach.

Later in the week, we got up the nerve to walk out on the flats at low tide.

That’s pretty exhausting, so it’s good that were always smart enough to pack a snack.

Sadie then worked up the nerve to get into the water.

It’s kinda fun playing in the water. All sorts of interesting seaweed.

Splashing Daddy is serious work.

When we were done with beach, Sadie had a great time playing around the cottage.

Everything’s more fun with a pink balloon.

Sadie did a lot of work with the spelling games — Boggle and Upwords. She likes asking us how to spell out words and then putting them out on the board. Lucy didn’t quite see the point.

Lots of fun.

She can’t wait until next year.

And, this was a tweak gone awry. I was playing in Photoshop cropping on the pictures, and I somehow managed to do something weird with the output. Anyway, I like it. It kinda looks like a painting. (It’s the same picture as the first one in this entry)

I have a couple of videos I should be able to put up later this week or next weekend.

Sadie wasn’t feeling great yesterday, so we keep her out of school for an unplanned “Daddy and Sadie’s Day of Fun.” We ended up outside with a good round of playing with the bubbles in the haze.

Ok, so it’s less haze, and more my cropping tightly a picture I took from fifteen feet away with the camera on my phone. It’s like an impressionist painting of a little girl blowing bubbles.

Sadie’s school had a special Family Fun Day at Lookout Farm in Natick on Saturday. Sadie enjoyed seeing the animals and the magician, but she really liked riding on the caterpillar train with her friend.

Sadie got a higher hoop in the backyard this weekend, and she’s been doing her Garnett impression ever since. She needs to work a little on her arc, though.

This weekend has been rainy, but a couple of weeks ago, we were all playing outside. Sadie really enjoys rolling on the big ball, even it ends up with her going head over teakettle.

Sadie had a lot of fun in Grandmama’s back yard on Saturday. Watch the video.

If the embedding doesn’t work, check out the original video on YouTube.

Sadie had a lot of fun at Grandmama’s house this morning. She got to play out in the garden, saying hello to the frogs.

After lunch, we went inside. Sadie kicked the kitty out of the kitty condo. She had more important things to do with it.

We all hope to go back soon. All of us except the kitty, of course.

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….