Girl Power

Before I had Sage people would always ask what I was having-a boy or a girl.

I didn't know.

This seemed to invite people to give their opinion about which gender I should be wishing for and why. I didn't really mind this but it inevitably led to asking which gender I wanted and why.

I didn't know.

But I usually said the same thing every time. I was comfortable with boys and having a girl scared me. I am by no means a girly girl and all my attempts to become more so usually only last about a week before I give up and revert back to my slothful state of little to no makeup, pony tail and comfortable rather than fashionable clothes. So what would I do if I had a little girl who wanted to play pretty-pretty princess and cared about what she wore? Terrifying thoughts, I tell you, terrifying!!

Fast forward to May 27th.

It's a girl!!
Thank goodness for family and kind friends!

It started with Charlotte and her bag of girl clothes. Then Mom and Elise came. (Blogger had a little glitch here but the picture was too cute to leave out!)
Elise brought an entire suitcase full of girl clothes. A large, I mean seriously large, suitcase! Then I got a surprise package from my sister-in-law with even more cute outfits that I can't wait for Sage to grow in to. More friends gifted us with other darling outfits that will ensure that at least for the first 6 months Sage will not be mistaken for a baby boy. In fact, she will be totally stylin'!!
But you know, for a girl, clothes are not enough. Oh, no. They need accessories!!!

And so we went out and got the makings for headbands and clips: ribbon, bows, flowers, etc.
It's a good thing that Elise had some clue how to go about making them because I had spurned all previous opportunities to learn how to make little girl accessories, after all, I didn't think that the boys would wear them!

Grandma also had a brilliant idea for helping us differentiate between Ian's lovey rags and Sage's burp clothes, aka cloth diapers.
Mom works for the "ribbon lady" and has a plethora of scrap ribbon that we were able to put to good use. Now Ian always comes to me and shows me his rag and says "no wibbon" in his sweet little voice that you just can't get from reading this.

Thanks, ladies, for helping us get a jump start on our Girl Power! I feel a little more prepared for the future and should the time come (and face it, we all know it will) that I need more help in the girl power department I know where to come!

Things to remember

An alfresco dinner after a refreshing dip in the pool with your best bud.

"Pirate Daddy, Pirate Ian, Pirate Noah

Noah has loved 'camping' with Chris in the back yard. So much so it has become his favorite thing to pretend play. And recently it has spilled over to him sleeping on the floor. He even asks "Can I sleep on my good floor?" (We have always referred to their beds as their 'good beds' to encourage their desires to be in them:) It has also been cute to hear him grammatically substitute floor for bed. ie Can I take it to floor with me?

Ian seems to have a hard time saying taxi and continues to refer to it as 'axi.'

Ian's diaper rags are still his loveys and we worried about how he would feel if he had to share them with Sage. We didn't want to create opportunities for resentment. We thought that we would buy some new ones and dye them blue or pink depending on the gender and Ian would know that the colored ones were the baby's and the white ones were his. Grandma offered a different idea one day: sew ribbons onto the diaper rags. Since she has tons of beautiful ribbon scraps she brought some boy ribbon and girl ribbon. The rags turned out great and now Ian has a great time distinguishing between his rags and her rags. He will frequently bring me one his rags to see and saying "no wibbons, no wibbons!"

Ian's go-to words are "not working." He finds them useful in a number of situations. For instance, when he has eaten the 'beenana' down to the peel and needs the peel to be pulled down more. Or when he is eating a Popsicle and needs help to push the popsicle up out of the wrapper so he can eat it.

Happy Father's Day!!

My love and appreciation goes out to all the great, amazing fathers out there.

Especially mine, my brothers, my bils, and the father of my children!! I know that you would have been willing to climb into a crib to comfort a child but hopefully you are all smart enough not to!

Happy Father's Day!

Sage

Warning: There are a LOT of pictures in this post. And not much writing.
Photos by Elise.


Sage is just over a week old in most of these pictures.






















Did you enjoy the sweetness as much as I do?