Throwback Thursday

For my Throwback Thursday post this week, I thought I'd put up a picture of Parker at the same age as Sadie is right now. Wasn't he cute? Check out all the hair compared to his sissy! As I was looking through old pictures, I also noticed that he was WILLINGLY sitting up and also up on all fours ready to crawl. I guess Sadie is just taking her own path to growing up....

So happy together....

Parker and Sadie had their first shared bath experience this morning, and I got some really cute shots.

Before getting clean....
Scrubbed down and ready to get out!

As you already saw, Sadie is finally making efforts to sit up. Although she is still a little wobbly, she usually does quite well. Here is a super cute pic from a couple of days ago....

Latest Parkerisms

Sorry I haven't posted in a while. We've gone through a couple rounds of sickness in our home over the last couple of weeks, but everyone seems to be better now so I'm back in the blogosphere. It's been a while since I've updated you all on Parker, so here goes.

-- Parker is still not potty-trained. This is becoming a real source of frustration, but what am I to do? Give up? I'm seriously considering it.
-- After a time when I thought I would never see a day without a serious meltdown from Parker, he has really chilled out and is usually now quite pleasant/fun to be around.
-- Parker's never been crazy about books, but he's really started enjoying them lately. He seems to especially enjoy "reading" books to us. Most of what he says is unintelligible, but you can understand certain things and they usually correlate to what he can see from the pictures on whatever page he is on.
-- A while back, Andrew and I were having a conversation and I jokingly told Andrew "you're ticking me off". A little while later, Parker came up to Andrew and said "Daddy, you're ticking MY off". I, of course, did what any other wife/mother would have done and laughed hysterically.
-- Probably at least 50% of the time, Parker calls Andrew and I by our given names. I don't even notice anymore, but other people are like "is he calling you Kasey"?!?!
-- A while back, I had gone to run some errands and left the kids at home with Andrew. When I came back, Parker came and sat down by me and I said "did you miss me?" and he said "yeah, prob-ree" (for probably).
-- One of his favorite lunches is homemade macaroni and cheese which he called "rockaroni".
-- Parker has just recently started calling Sadie by her actual name. Before that, when I would ask him for her NAME, he would give about 5 different answers (sissy, gu-wa, baby gu-wa, sister, little sissy) but never her real name.

I'm sure there are many more things that I can't think of at the moment, but I will post again later. I'll leave you with a couple of pictures that show a bit of Parker's personality. Many mornings when Parker wakes up, he will just play quietly in his room for a while. A few days ago, I went to get him up and I found him like this.....
He had taken off his footed pajamas so that he could put on his shoes. What you can't see is that he's also sitting in front of a full-length mirror so he can check out what's he looking like. And then just yesterday I looked over and saw this....

He had completely crammed himself into Sadie car seat. Hard to believe that such a short time ago he actually fit in there.

Throwback Thursday

When we found out we were expecting Baby Strait #2, we used some pictures to tell some of our family members.

Don't you love his wedgie?
The shirt tells the story....

Sadie's first picture!

8 months old!

Sadie is 8 months old today! I'm not sure where the time is going, but it is going all the same. Here are a few updates on her:

-- Sadie is rolling all over the place now, but still not sitting up alone. I think that she is more than capable, but she only does things when it's HER idea.
-- After several months of teething, she has a total of zero teeth. I keep expecting to see one or two in there, and still nothing. Letting the fussing continue.
-- She is a pretty quiet baby until she's upset....she still has the worst cry I've ever heard.
-- She also still loves to eat. I'm pretty sure that is her favorite time of the day.
-- She LOVES to be held and interact with people. As soon as I'm out of sight, she starts crying. As soon as I come back, she stops. That behavioral pattern is particularly enjoyable.
-- Sadie has never taken a pacifier or sucked her thumb, but sometime in the last month or so she has started to soothe herself by placing one of her hands on her cheek and sucking on her lower lip. She isn't picky about which hand she's using, and sometimes she even uses both. It really is one of the cutest things I've ever seen. For the three of you who actually read this blog (and thank you, by the way!), you've already seen pictures of her doing this.

Here is a picture of my big girl taken today....
And for your viewing pleasure, Sadie has also started saying "Dada"! She said it for the first time about a week ago, and now she says it constantly. I also got her to say "Mama" once or twice, but she is uber-focused on saying "Dada". An injustice? I think so.

Poppy's birthday

On the last day of our trip to Oklahoma, we celebrated my dad's birthday with a yummy meal and fun games....

Singing "Happy birthday to you...."
Birthday cobbler

Sleepy little Sadie

Playing around after dinner

Noon Year's Eve

On New Year's Eve morning, we went to Leonardo's Discovery Warehouse and Adventure Quest for their "Noon Year's Eve" event. It was a time for kids to participate in fun activities and win prizes while waiting for the countdown to noon.

Riding the Segway
Getting out of the moonwalk

Playing Plinko

Getting his hand painted....he picked out what he wanted.

Laying on a bed of nails, one of the museum exhibits. He loved it and kept asking to do it "again"!

Checking out some fish and turtles....

In the evening, we planned a family party with lots of yummy food and games. We (the adults) even managed to stay awake to ring in the new year with some sparkling grape juice. In with 2010!

Parker and Grandma

Sadie playing with Grandpa and MaryLou

I wasn't lying about the food....

And for fun, here is a video of Parker at Noon Year's Eve. We were near a CD player that was playing "Jailhouse Rock" so I was playing around trying to get Parker to dance a little. Apparently he was feeling it, because this is what followed. He's quite the free-styler!

Last but not least....

On December 29th, we had our final Christmas. Apparently, we like to milk it for all it's worth! This Christmas was with my side of the family.

Silly Sadie
Opening presents

Very intent on getting her present open

Cousin Cortnee with her gifts from us

Showing off his new "Queen" slippers

Playing with his new road rug

Sadie playing with Grandma and Aunt Erin

Both of the kids with my Grandpa and his wife, MaryLou

Sadie and Poppy

A very Strait Christmas

On Monday, December 28th, we spent the day at Andrew's grandparents house. We had a really nice time hanging out with Grandpa and Grandma, and Andrew's dad and aunt and uncle were able to come for dinner. Even though neither of the kids would sleep all day long *ouch* we had a really nice time!

Having dinner Grandpa with his grandkids

Great-grandpa, Andrew, and Parker putting together a puzzle