Motherhood

Sadie at Two Years Old

We’ve got a two-year-old on our hands! Here’s what’s up with Sader Tot at age two.

Toddler eating snacks in bathing suit

Growth Sadie girl is 25 pounds (28th percentile) and 34 inches (64th percentile).

Wearing Mostly 2T clothes and size 7 shoes (her feet are big like mine, lol).

Personality Happy-go-lucky, cheerful, independent, and shy with strangers.

Toddler on Jeanette's Pier in Nags Head

Eating She nurses about four times a day and is a light eater with solids. She likes mac and cheese, peanut butter and jelly, chicken nuggets, yogurt, eggs with cheese, croutons, and smoothies.

Nicknames Sader Tot, Tot, and TT.

Sleeping Lately she’s been going down around 8 PM and getting up at 7 AM. She generally takes a nap after lunch for an hour or two.

Toddler at restaurant

Looks Like A mix of Jimmy and me and sometimes a bit like my brother when he was a toddler!

New Skills Sadie has been talking so much lately! It’s like language has started to click for her and she puts words together to make sentences and repeats new words we teach her. We started working on potty training and she was doing fairly well, but I think it was just too early so we are going to hold off for a little longer.

She’s great at feeding herself with utensils, goes up and down stairs well, and can wash herself in the bath. She started homeschool and has been learning colors. She knows a lot of sign language, too!

Likes School, stickers, balloons, our pets, her grandparents, wearing bathing suits, being chased, going to parks and playgrounds, reading, watching Clifford, picking out clothes to wear, putting on shoes, playing with baby dolls, puzzles, and play doh.

Mom and toddler smiling

Dislikes Getting in her carseat, being put in a stroller, having her diaper changed, being told no.

Favorite Products Reusable stickers, disposable placemats, fine-motor hedgehog, sippy cups, flashcards, arts and crafts book, hand sanitizer, potty, reusable water activity pad, and Biscuit books.

Notes She has a nasolacrimal duct obstruction which makes her eye look glassy and glazed over but doesn’t bother her otherwise. I also think she is getting her two year molars and they are a doozy, lol.

I can’t believe Sadie is two! At the same time, I can hardly remember life before Sader Tot. I’m so blessed to call her my daughter ❤

A Look Back…

Sadie’s Birth Story

Sadie at Six Months

Sadie at Ten Months

Sadie at 18 Months

Duck Eggs and I Understand Now

When I was growing up, I never saw my mom buy anything for herself. She would take me back-to-school shopping and not even glance in the women’s department. I would always ask her why she didn’t buy herself clothes, or maybe a purse? A pretty necklace? Her response was always that she wanted her kids to have the new clothes, fun items, etc. rather than herself.

Since becoming a parent, I finally understand what my mom would always tell me. I would much rather buy Sadie a new shirt than myself. I think I can count on one half of a hand how many items of clothing I’ve purchased for myself since I’ve had Sadie, and most of them have been nursing bras. It’s just so much more fun to buy clothes for my child than myself!

Garanamals leopart toddler long sleeve shirt from Walmart

Like the above shirt. It was $4.50 at Walmart and Sader Tot is in need of fall clothing so I picked it up for her. While we were in the store, I didn’t even glance at the women’s department. I’m becoming my mom, haha. Not really, though, because I don’t have too much trouble using my spending money on books 😉

I just finished up Finding Zoe by Brandi Rarus and wow, what a (true!) story. It deals with adoption, deafness, and identity. It had so many twists and turns that I had a hard time putting it down. I’m also working my way through Hannah’s Song, which is a Bible study on the book of 1 Samuel. While I don’t agree on the author’s viewpoint oo salvation, the rest of the book has been very insightful.

Onto duck eggs.

My brother and his wife bought a few chickens and ducks this spring and they’ve been getting eggs lately and passing some on to me. They know they way to my egg-loving heart ❤

Duck eggs and chicken eggs

Can you guess which ones are the duck eggs?!

My brother said he heard duck eggs are excellent to bake with because the high fat content results in fluffier baked goods. I asked them if they wanted me to bake them anything with some of the eggs as a thank you and they requested challah. Can’t wait to make it 🙂

In other news, we had a normal day over here at the Zottola Zoo. Sadie learned about the color orange and did some painting.

Toddler painting with orange paint

I went on an organization spree while she went down for a nap. Our linen closet is one of the spaces in our home that slowly becomes a catchall over time and today was the day I decided to finally tackle it.

I ended up nailing baskets and old plastic containers to the door to add some extra storage and it helped clear up a lot of space inside the actual closet!

Closet organization with baskets on door

Time will tell if it all holds up 😉

Yesterday was Niva’s first birthday and tomorrow she is getting spayed. Poor girl. It was so hard to see Mavis struggle after she was spayed (I’m going to blame my crying on the pregnancy hormones in 2018, lol) and I’m hoping it’s a better experience for everyone involved this time!

Do you have any catchall spots in your home? Our linen closet, basement, and a few drawers in our living room are our places.

Do you like to buy clothes? I would much rather spend the day in a bookstore than clothing store, but enjoy getting Sadie clothes.