Santa, Santa, Santa....

Sadie didn't know who Santa was for her 1st Christmas. By the second one, she was still a little confused. I now have a photo of my daughter with a perfect frowny face with a man in a big red suit on our refrigerator from the church bazaar. Santa completely freaked her out on every level in every experience she had with him. But then something happened. Santa brought her the most amazing pink stroller and baby for Christmas... and now she loves Santa.

However, in her realization of the pure awesomeness of Santa, she now thinks that anyone with a white beard is THE SANTA. We can live with the fact that she thinks Noah from her Little People's Noah's Ark is now Santa. And she now points out all of the "Santas" in her nursery rhyme books and storybooks.

Then came the Lincoln/Darwin Bicentennial. A lot of people don't know that Abraham Lincoln and Charles Darwin were actually born on the same day. Since I work for the Smithsonian this was a major event for us. I brought home my newly published Smithsonian Magazine... and Sadie thought Darwin was Santa. And to be honest he does kinda look like Santa.

But I don't think it's worth all of the effort to correct her.

I love short animated films...

Yes, I love cartoons. They are goofy and silly and often have a good moral lesson. But I love animated films that say something deeper about the human condition. When I saw this one, I thought of Sadie. She's energetic, creative, she never sits still, and she is constantly exploring. When people ask me how she's doing, I have to explain that she is either going non-stop or she's asleep. There's never any mellow time. With that in mind, enjoy this little 8 minute film called Ex-ET. I'll admit, I'm a little worried that when Sadie starts school her spirit might be a little tarnished. This movie really celebrates those little kids that burst with energy and excitement. Sadie may be the most exhausting kid I've ever met, but she's the most perfect kid to me.

There are things that you forget from your own childhood...

... and somehow you stumble on them again. I've been "stumbling" with StumbleUpon a lot lately. Tonight, I came across one of my favorite childhood games. Merlin.

This guy listed all of his favorite toys that he's kept over the years and put them up on this site.



I was scrolling through (and found the Candy Cigarette Machine Bank amusing since I used to LOVE those little candies.) Then I noticed "Merlin" and I thought, "Well, that sounds familiar... but what game was that?" Then when I clicked it and saw it's red plastic and little black buttons with blinky lights, I thought, "Oh MY GOD, I loved this game." I used to sit with it for hours playing Tic Tac Toe. Now, it's considered a 1978 vintage piece. And I feel awfully old.

Amazon has a new and updated version... but it's not the same.

I'm 5'8"...

...but my kid is quickly catching up on me. Sadie has been in the 95% for height since her first growth spurt. Usually, this isn't a big deal. Yeah, she's tall and we buy her bigger clothes. But she is about to turn two on March 27th and she's wearing at least a 3T. Again, no biggie. Our problem lies with the fact that she can reach practically anything in the house. We try to put things out of her reach on the kitchen counter, but then she goes on her tippy toes and snatches it. We'll put things on the bookshelf, but she can reach it when we aren't looking. She's the Kareem Abdul-Jabbar of toddlers. We'll think our stuff is safe, until we notice she is holding the exact thing we thought we hid away.

She can move furniture, turn on the computer, and she even figured out how the the portable DVD player works... which is amazing since we just got it for Christmas and monitor her time with it very closely. We used to try to contain her in the pack n' play, but then she would bounce from side to side like a professional wrestler and we thought she was going to tip it over. She was also reaching the point where she could swing one leg over and almost leverage herself outta there. And to think... our problems were only starting when she figured out how to do this: