Sadie Pearl

Our baby is turning two years old on Sunday. I remember when I was two years old. The White Album had just come out. How could I forget that?

Sadie has grown up SO FAST since the beginning of the summer. It's mind boggling. She speaks in complete sentences now and can clearly communicate all of her emotions and needs. There's no confusion now at the dinner table if she's pooping or asking for more apple juice.

Lately, she's been so freaking cute and it's so hard to put in words. Every single morning when Deb gets her out of her crib she runs upstairs and slams into me screaming, "Daddy!! I'm awake!! I MISSED YOU!!"

Every time we change her diaper she runs into the bathroom to sit on the potty. For about five seconds. Then she jumps off and flushes the toilet. She watches intently as the clean, wasted water goes down the drain while saying, "Bye bye pee pee!!" Does she really think she peed?

Sadie has also become a bit of a star at the synagogue. All eyes are always on her at Friday night services as she dances around and says hi to everyone. She has a fan club there.

I can laugh at this now, several weeks later, but it was not so funny at the time. However, this is Sadie to a tee so the story needs to be told. Deb had a few business trips last month and I was with the kids for a few days. One afternoon I was hanging with Sadie watching TV when the phone rang. It was a friend of mine and we were talking for about ten minutes when I noticed Sadie had left the room. Not a big deal for most kids - the house is pretty much kid-proofed and she certainly could not get out of the house at all. However, this is Sadie Pearl we are talking about. I paniked. I hung up with my friend and begain to search the house. I found Sadie not thirty seconds later. She was sitting ON HER DRESSER. Yes, she was sitting ON HER DRESSER. Do I need to type that again? She was SITTING ON HER DRESSER. How she got up there - no idea. She must have used the small, round knobs on the drawers to scale the front of it. Anyway, it gets better. In one hand, she held a red and organge striped shirt. No big deal. Then I looked at her legs. She was wearing blue jeans. I sort of recognized them as they were the ones I put her in that morning. However, they were different now. You see, several weeks before Deb and I were packing up old clothes from the girl's room and putting them in Rubbermaid containers. So I would not forget what clothes were in each bin, I labeled them. Common sense, right? Yeah. Well, my label maker of choice was a black, permanent Sharpie marker. When I was done with the marker that day, I thought I would place it in an ENCLOSED CONTAINER and, hmmm, where's a HIGH place where a two-year old kid could NEVER reach it? YEAH - on top of a dresser! That's perfect!! We call those jeans her "Zebra pants" now. Hyperventilating, I lifted the smiling girl off the dresser, placed her on the floor and began to admire her artwork. The dresser top was neatly scribbled on, as was her WINDOW SILL where about fifteen innocent, completely unsuspecting stuffed animals live. I hope they like their new stripes. The shirt that Sadie was holding was also redesigned. She wears it still. It's a red, orange and BLACK striped shirt now. Amazingly, the Sharpie was placed back in the container from which it came and said container was CLOSED BACK UP again. Incredible.

We are just going to The Mayan for dinner and to watch the hot cliff divers tomorrow to celebrate. She'll enjoy it.

Happy Birthday, my little angel!! I am going to New Jersey next week for four days and when I get back to Utah, I can't wait to hear those magic words..."I MISSED YOU!!!"