A Trip Down Memory Lane

I knew this day was coming: the day Sadie took stock of her baby book (and its degree of completeness) and compared it to Ella's baby book, baby scrapbook, pregnancy journal, and so forth, and demanded to know why Ella had MORE. I guess I just didn't expect it to happen so soon. I thought I'd have time to write more stuff in Sadie's baby book and to add more photos to it. I even had it in with a pile of things I planned to tackle some time soon. Of course, if you're the parent of more than two kids, you know why this happened, and it has nothing to do with lack of love for the second born. Though if the second born wanted to ensure she had baby memories, she might have considered, I don't know, sleeping through the freaking night before she was 18 months old.

Nevertheless, as I am ever the one to try to right a perceived injustice (which is a constant and exhausting battle around here) and having just ordered the cutest photo book from Shutterfly for our 2011 photos, I promised each girl a Shutterfly photo book of their first year. Which, of course, will have to be designed, ordered, and shipped simultaneously to avoid injured feelings. I started with Sadie and have spent most of the day (when, yes, I should be working) going through photos and videos of her first year. They are completely and absolutely hysterical. Some impressions:

• Ella has really mellowed considerably in the past six years. She is hilariously bossy and scowly in some of these productions.
• She did not enjoy her new baby as much as I "remember."
• Nevertheless, it's easy to see the friendship these two are forming even that early, which is pretty precious.
• It's hard for me to see the baby Sadie was in her first year in the six-year-old she is today, whereas I can absolutely see the baby Ella was in the eight-year-old she is today. I'm not sure what this means about either of them, but it's interesting.

For your entertainment, a video that had me laughing and crying at the same time: