Locks I Love

It's like she just stepped out of a salon....'cause she did! The long, flowing locks were a little much to take. It was always full of food or paint or something sticky. She was becoming the Shaggy Dog, since she could barely see through the tornado of blonde. And with her anti-ponytail stance, it was time to make a change.

Voila! Look at those runway ready angles. Sadie instantly transformed from baby face to young spitfire. On the way back to the car, she whispered in my ear "My hair is beauuutiful".

Too Cool For School

Say it ain't so...this baby is ready to hit the books. A child needs to be 2.9 years old - and Sadie just made the mark to start Preschool 1. It's a great place close to home with an awesome rep. We went for "orientation" last week, where she saw her kingdom and was ready to conquer.

I bought this dress awhile ago, and being the shorty that she is, many dresses in her size are too long. This was perfect for the first day of school. I showed her last night and she kept hugging it and swinging it around, purring "thank you, thank you so so much, Mom." It was very Shirley Temple-esque. After forcing her to get in bed, the only thing that would calm her down was if she could sleep with her dress. She tucked it under her ear and went right to sleep.

Today was the first official day. One thing about having Sadie in a social setting since she was an infant is that there's no anxiety of mom or dad leaving. She sing-songed "I'm going to school today!" in the car. Chanted "first day of school, first day of school" as she marched up the steps - then turned into the classroom and didn't look back. I had to stop her in her tracks to even say goodbye.

Official End of Summer

Labor Day always shows up in a blink of an eye. It's depressing to think of the cold winter months that will stretch on forever. Snow that will lose its fresh glisten and turn into dirty ice. Bitter winds. No sunlight.

As a last ditch effort, we squeezed every ounce of summer out of the final weekend. Three trips to the beach. Playground time. An outing for ice cream.

The summer had some ups and downs, but having an escape to the Cape at any given moment was a lifesaver. We already can't wait till 2012.

Thanks for the Memories, Mimi

Today was Sadie's last day of daycare, before she heads out to the big world of preschool on Tuesday. Sadie had been going to Mimi's (Mary Anne, her non-kid name) since she was 9 weeks old. She was a small, in home shop with a handful of kids. Sadie's become quite attached to them all and provides daily reports of who she played with, what they did and who got into fights. Fascinating stuff.

This is Sadie with two of her BFFs Ovija and Kyrie.

As a parting gift, Mimi presented my little one with a bouquet of flowers and the best gift of all - the yellow Belle dress Sadie had worn as a self-enforced uniform for months. Thanks for the memories, Mimi.

Sadie had a Little Lamb

I had been hanging on to some Groupon tickets for Davis' Farmland for a few months. They would have expired in October...and in order to get my money's worth (the place ain't cheap) - we had to go in the summer.

Davis' Farmland is an exploratory farm in Sterling, MA. On one side of the road is a giant corn maze that's open in the fall. It's very difficult (I know from first hand experience when I went with a few friends in college and needed help getting out) - and on the other side is the farm itself. Once inside the gates, there's a wide open area with animals wandering freely (and some behind fences that may bite) that you can pet, play with and feed. It's amazingly clean - not a drop of poop in sight.

They also had play areas with playgrounds and toys, a little town - where you could go in kid-sized buildings, a bounce house, and water structures designed for faux fishing. Even pony rides (Cherry Pie from Southwick's Zoo has stiff competition with Blaze here...).

The pinnacle, hands down, was the spray park. Streams of water shooting in every direction. Some that mysteriously turn on and off (so watch where you step!). Sadie, who loves sprinklers but doesn't actually like to touch the water with anything but fingertips, was drenched, screaming and gleeful in 2.5 seconds. There was even a bubble machine to get suds'd up. It was one of the times in her short life that we've seen her walking on water.