Sadie's First Birthday Bash

Well, it’s official. On Friday September 4, 2009 at 7:50 am, Sadie Emerson Smith turned one year old! It’s amazing! She now has four teeth – two on top and two on bottom. She will eat almost anything that you give her. She enjoys feeding herself and has really started to like to use a fork and actually spear her own food. She LOVES yogurt and yogurt bites. Since turning one she has done a better and better job of sleeping through the entire night. She goes to bed between 8:30 and 9:30 pm and doesn’t get up until between 8:00 and 9:00 am! When she does get up in the night, it’s only once. She’ll have a bottle and go straight back to sleep! She’s also still taking one long (usually) afternoon nap from between 1 pm and 4 pm. She usually doesn’t nap more than 2 hours, but sometimes it’s closer to 3! Sadie is the happiest little girl! She smiles almost constantly and LOVES to clap for herself. She is an expert at walking around the furniture and can walk almost independently. She will walk with only one adult hand for help, but still prefers to have two hands. She often will stand up independently and then dance in place. Not only is it hysterical, but it’s REALLY, REALLY cute! She can clearly say “Mama” and “Dada.” She also says “ba(ll)” or “ba(ttle) (bottle)”. She very definitely understands more words than she can say, though, because if you ask her to bring you something (a brush, a toy, etc), she very often will go find what you asked for and bring it to you! Sadie also LOVES “Sesame Street,” particularly Elmo. If she is in one of her rare crying moods, you can put Elmo up on the TV screen and she will INSTANTLY calm down. It’s the one thing we have found time and time again that ALWAYS works to calm her. And, for her birthday, she received numerous Elmo gifts that she delights in playing with and allow Mommy and Daddy to have a break from TV Elmo. :) Sadie also has a strong love for books. Sadie owns more books than most children do in their entire lifetime. We keep three shelves full of these books in the living room. She delights in going over to the shelves, pulling ALL of the books off and then selecting a few that she will drag around to any adult in the room and demand that you “read” with her. By “read,” I really mean a fast flip through the pages accompanied by a very fast retelling of whatever the story is actually about. She prefers to flip the pages herself, but she really likes it when you stop and point out some of the illustrations. Her current favorite books are “The Very Hungry Caterpillar” by Eric Carle and a book called “Cats” that has fuzzy bits and makes a squeaky noise. My mother has become and EXPERT at retelling “The Very Hungry Caterpillar” at warp speed, while still stopping to point out all of the things the caterpillar has eaten and stopping for the longest time at the last page where he has actually changed into a butterfly!

On September 3, the day before Sadie’s birthday, she woke up, had a bit of a bottle, and within an hour threw up all over her car seat and then all over grandma. My mom called me at school and I rushed to make a doctor’s appointment for the afternoon. By the time we got to the doctor – around 2:30 pm – Sadie had eaten some yogurt and a few other snacks and kept it all down. She had also had an afternoon nap. She was acting like she felt ok, but we were obviously all concerned. The doctor examined her and wasn’t too concerned. That was great, until my Mom mentioned that on Wednesday she had really hit her head very hard. Then the doctor was concerned. She was afraid Sadie’s brain might be swelling from the inside and she might be in need of a Cat-Scan. She said that we didn’t need to go to the ER immediately since Sadie hadn’t gotten sick since that morning. But, we needed to very carefully monitor and look for any symptoms out of the usual – extreme crankiness, extreme tiredness, more vomiting, etc. So, in a rather scared-to-death state, I drove Sadie home and did everything I could to make sure she was as comfortable and peaceful as possible. She was acting fairly tired, but because of the timing of the doctor’s appointment, she hadn’t had a particularly long nap. So, Adam and I just kept hoping that she would be fine and that she was just tired due to her shortened nap. Thankfully, by the time she got up on Friday morning, she seemed to be feeling better and better. Even though I had already missed so much of school due to my own problems, I decided to stay home with her. Knowing that she hadn’t been feeling well and that she had really scared me, my own body seemed to be having a bit of a melt-down on its own, so I figured I was probably better off to stay home anyway. Adam, too, took the day off. So, since it was Sadie’s actual birthday and she seemed to be feeling better, we made our way over to Grandma’s to pick her up and then went to visit Grandpa at his school. After Grandpa did a little birthday showing off, we headed over to Chuck E. Cheese for a birthday lunch. Now, when I was growing up, we never really went to Chuck E. Cheese. We went to Showbiz. But, Showbiz has long since been out of business. So, we were only left with the option of Chuck E. Cheese. And oh what a disappointment it was. I VERY fondly remember sitting and watching the cast of animatronic characters sing and dance across the stage. At Chuck E. Cheese, there was only one animatronic – Chuck E. himself. He was little and stuck in the corner. The rest of the “stage” was made up of video screens that had the other characters recorded on it and they all “sang and danced” together. Really, this just crushed my wonderful memories of the place from when I was little. Technology can be a good thing, but in this case it just STUNK! But, all that said, Sadie did LOVE to ride on all of the little rides. And, here are some pictures to prove it:























For Sadie’s birthday dinner, we decided to go to Buca di Beppo’s. I had to call ahead to make sure that they had some meals that they could prepare that I would be able to eat, but once that was confirmed, we happily headed off to dinner. Daddy, Mommy, and Grandma and Grandpa Stotts accompanied Sadie. She LOVED eating the bread, some salad, and some Chicken Saltimbocca. She also LOVED when her birthday cupcake arrived! At first, she wanted nothing more than to dip her fork into the icing and lick the icing. But, as the sugar rush started, she eventually dropped the fork and instead began using her hands. Finally, she ended up getting her head COVERED in icing. She never actually dipped her face into the cake, preferring instead to just smear cake and icing with her hands. She LOVED this whole situation and repeatedly clapped for herself for the “good job” she had done. Our waitress and some of the other wait staff even came to watch her because she was so funny! We do have the whole thing on video, and if you are a Facebooker – you must go and check it out!






















Sadie’s actual birthday party was not until Sunday. Sadie had an Elmo themed party. I got all kinds of Elmo decorations from Factory Card Outlet. This included two Elmo balloons – one of which is actually features Elmo’s voice singing “Happy Birthday.” She LOVED them! I also made Sadie an Elmo birthday cake. This was a work of art! We bought an Elmo cake pan and then I decorated Elmo with butter cream frosting. It was awesome! Check out the picture:















Sadie did enjoy “slapping” Elmo in the face to get the icing off. She most preferred the black icing from his mouth. :) Sadie also had an Elmo dress on, an Etsy special, and has a very special Etsy birthday hat, though we don’t have a picture of the hat.

Sadie got to celebrate with both sets of Grandparents – Grandma and Grandpa Stotts and Grandma and Grandpa Brinkley. She also got to see her Uncle Tim and her cousins, Codey and Noah. At first, she was a little afraid of everyone, but once things got rolling, she wanted to be everyone’s friend. Sadie got MANY, MANY gifts. Her favorites included an alphabet train from Uncle Tim, Aunt Sarah, and Codey and Noah, a pull-along bead maze from Mom and Dad, a pink purse complete with cell phone and accessories from Grandma and Grandpa Brinkley, and a golf set from Grandma and Grandpa Stotts. By the time it was time for everyone to head back home, we were ALL exhausted, but certainly had had a very good day! Check out all of these pictures: