We've been horrible about updating, so I went ahead and put a bunch of posts together that (hopefully) chronicle the year that passed since the last time we posted anything here. Scroll down to read them. Ideally, we will post a bit more regularly. A post with pictures of Sage's Thanksgiving production is coming soon, but for now enjoy the new posts!



Sage on her first day of First Grade.


Sage in her vampire costume...


And walking in the school Halloween parade!


A lot happened this summer, but much of it went remarkably unphotographed. Daddy lost his job, but the severance was good enough to warrant taking the summer off. There were day trips and camping trips and lots of swimming at the lake, most of which did not involve a camera. So, what follows are some pictures of Sage's last days of Kindergarten (both public school and after-care) along with a few random photos from the summer.


Sage sings in the end-of-year show with her public school class.


Gives us the thumbs-up...


And has her very first speaking part!


Sage at her after-care graduation ceremony.


Rocked-out like the star she is...


And performed in the "Midsummer's Night Dream" puppet show.

As for the largely undocumented summer...

Sage learned to use the camera, resulting in...


A self-portrait.


And numerous Loki pictures, of which this is a sample.


Speaking of Loki, Sage decided he would have a birthday party.


We also took a day trip into the city to meet up with our friend Kate, and took this lovely picture of Sage on the steps of the Met.


Sage has also developed quite a knack for cooking, and has been helping Mommy and her godmother Mara in the kitchen. Here she is dressed for action!


In April of 2007, we all took a trip down to Florida. We opted to drive and it took roughly 2 days each way. Sage was quite the trooper, especially since she was sick with a fever on the way down. Fortunately, a long ride in the car was just what she needed and she was feeling fine by the time we checked in to our hotel. But first, a bit of set-up:



Sometime around the end of October 2006, Sage lost her first tooth. She was very excited and the tooth fairy was very generous, leaving her a golden dollar (I knew those Sacajawea dollars were good for something). The funny thing is, she lost her second about a week before the trip. Then, the night before we left, she lost one of her two top front teeth. The other was extremely loose. More on this later.



On the way down, we stopped in Savannah, GA for lunch and a bit of wandering around (or dragging, in Sage's case). We discovered that Savannah would make a trip all its own.



The day after we arrived was Easter Sunday, which we spent at Sage's great-grandmother's house with Sage's Grampa Alain (Mommy's dad), Mommy's Uncle Jack, Cousin Sean, his wife Toni and their children. Here Sage hunts for Easter eggs with her cousin Sadie.



After dinner, we took a short trip to Sea World, where Sage climbed a polar bear statue with the help of Grampa Alain.



Sage rests a spell in the polar bear cave. You can see her missing top tooth and the other one is clearly loose. Click the image to see it larger.



The next day we went to Disney World. It was raining on and off all day, so not many pictures were taken. This was where Sage's fascination with ducks really kicked in. No matter where we were or what we were doing, seeing a duck would supercede all. Rides, shops, food... didn't matter. She saw a duck, she had to chase it. This kid was even distracted from buying candy at a candy shop on Main Street in Disney World by a single waddling duck.

The next day, also kind of rainy, was Epcot. I remember Epcot being kind of cool the first couple of times I visited (at 11 and 15) but the past two times have been kind of... meh. However, one cool part of the Epcot visit was finding the little plaque we had made with Sage's picture during her first Florida trip.

Sage finds it...

A closer look.

Sage and Daddy wait in line...

And Sage enjoys her namesake!



No trip to Florida would be complete without a visit to Gatorland! Here Sage stands triumphant upon the same concrete alligator that once held my brother and me in its jaws. I think they've repainted it since then. :)

We took a tour of the breeding pools, which were full of huge gators and even managed to toss hot dogs to a few.

Not all of them hit the target, apparently.



Gatorland also functions as a bird sanctuary. Numerous species of waterbirds have lost habitat to development over the years and they all make their way to Gatorland. And, one would assume, the inside of a gator. ;)

There was plenty of swimming in the hotel pool...

Another visit to Sea World (Sage's favorite!)...

And one more dinner with Grampa Alain...

It was time for one last night in the hotel.
Here Sage is ready for bed with two new stuffed animals she picked up on the trip. They are Cute (the whale) and Gatorland (the alligator). Just like last time, Sage had her own cool little room inside the room, which meant she could go to bed at a reasonable hour, but Mommy and Daddy could stay up like normal people. That night Sage finally lost the second top front tooth. Then, after another long drive back to New Jersey...

She lost another one in the car!! :)

All told, it was a very fun trip. Sage has sworn off long road trips forever, but I'm sure we'll drag her on a few more.


These are some shots taken from October 2006 to March 2007:

Sage was a Ninja Cat for Halloween 2006. She went Trick-or-Treating with her friend Paige and Paige's little sister Samantha.



Sage had a costume party at home for her 6th birthday.



In December, we rode the Santa Train for the first time. Sage couldn't wait to see Santa.



Here she is explaining that she wants a real, live kitten for Christmas, while Daddy frantically shakes his head off-camera.



Sage relaxes with a comic book in January of 2007.



Sage and her pal, Loki. :)



Sage and her new bike, Spring 2007. She still hasn't quite gotten the hang of it yet. We're going to try again in Spring of '08.


Sage turned six on November 7th with a party here at the house, and she's gotten a short little bob of a haircut. We got her school photos back and still need to send them out, but we also got her after-school photos. They happened to take them on Halloween when she was all dressed up in her ninja-kitty outfit. We were told that she vamped it up for the photographer, was on her hands and knees meowing, and the photographer asked if he was suddenly shooting for Vogue.

But today was truly momentus. Her dad and I have taken the position that she is allowed to say whatever curse words she wants, in context, and in the appropriate situations (i.e. at home, not in school or at her grandparent's house). We try to watch our language, for the most part, and so she doesn't hear us say too much too often. After first receiving this news, she spent about 5 minutes saying "Damn!" and that was about it. Today, after struggling to get her seatbelt on (you know, when you pull too fast it stops and you have to start again), she said in a very short, annoyed voice, "Oh SHIT."

Oh I am so proud.


Horrible parents, yes. We haven't updated in months. To make up for it, we have a TON of stuff!!

I tried out the movie feature of my digital camera and caught this.

She had her first dance recital, and she was really happy! We were really proud of her - she and three of her friends made up the smallest dance group, and she went on stage to do her stuff! She was really great!

Here's a picture just before the show:



And here are her dancing routines!

Routine 1

Routine 2

After she decided she was done with dance classes, she decided to try Tae Kwon Do. Her pre-K has an instructor come from a local martial arts school. After her session was done, we got to see their graduation:



All of her friends had taken the first session, so they all had yellow-striped belts and she was the only white belt. At first, the instructor told the rest that they would help Sage through her graduation, unless Sage wanted to do it herself. Sage did it alone!



Part of the ceremony was to break a board and she did it with one shot!



She was so proud of herself, and so happy about her new yellow-striped belt that she decided to do it again!



Here she is at the next graduation, "sitting like a black belt" with her yellow-striped belt on.



And here she is breaking a board with her elbow! Another in one shot!



But the most recent accomplishment is her first day of Kindergarten! She takes the bus to school, and they bus her directly to after-care where she went to pre-K. And she LOVES riding the bus and her new school is really fantastic!




Nearly 2 months later, Sage still has some of the red dye in her hair. I have a feeling that's not coming out until it grows out. I took her to get her hair trimmed last week and she decided to cut it short again. She had insisted on growing it out, but at the last minute told the girl to cut it into a bob. The gal looked at me like I would object, but like the hair dye, I don't really care. It's HER hair, and it can always grow out.

She's discovered a whole new world of reading, which has been really exciting! She and Daddy have been reading ElfQuest, getting to know the character we got her middle name - Ember - from, and has been making up her own stories about being a wolfrider. She's been practicing sounding out words, and I'm convinced she'll be able to read books all by herself by summer.

She's doing really well in school, and she's always up for a variety of activities. Sometimes she wants to watch a movie - anything from a Disney/Pixar flick to Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy to Japanese animation. She's REALLY good at repeating movie lines in context, too!

However, the funniest thing about her has to be her acting ability. She practices "crying" in the bathroom mirror when she's getting ready for bed, and in the past couple of days we've encouraged her to quiver her lip or try to make more tears when she starts fussing - inevitably she will lose it and start laughing, or ask if she's doing it right. What a ham.

So that's the general news for now!


Sage wanted to try that temporary hair dye, so we did it this morning, and now she's a redhead!

Here's a picture of her new favorite look:




Sage had Crazy Hair Day at school today, and wanted her hair to be red. We got a temporary color, but we didn't realize you had to leave it in for a half hour so we didn't have the time to do it. Instead, we found something of mine that I had picked up a few years ago but never ended up wearing - I think the result was great!