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Saffie has been having all kinds of fun in her physical therapy to strengthen up her muscles. A few weeks ago in the therapy gym Saffie repeatedly pointed and cooed at her soon to be best new friend. Rody.

Rody is a bouncy horse for the over 2 crowd, but he’s used quite frequently in physical therapy for littler ones to help them with strength and balance skills. Saffie was hooked from her first ride and I of course felt the need to get her her own Rody. Here she is giving Rody a kiss.

Saffie was very excited to watch the election coverage this year.

Saffie is so impressed with CNN’s magic map she needs to put her shades on.

Saffie reacts to Ohio being called for Obama – woo hoo!

The whole family in our Obama wear. (We like Obama advisor David Axelrod to be in all of our family photos.)

Here’s to the next 4 years!!!

We came up with a fantastic low maintenance family costume idea. Josh and I wore “I’m a Mac” and “I’m a PC” T-shirts and Saffie wore a onesie with a BabyiPhone on it complete with drool, burp, and poop apps.

Too bad this is the only picture we have of the 3 of us.

Seriously, could Saffie have looked more disgusted. We may need to stage another photo.

A happier moment with Dad.

Cute little iPhone.

Wow! I am so happy, hopeful, relieved, etc. Last night reminded me of how I felt at Invesco a few months ago . . . it’s a good feeling. I used to be very politically ‘with it’. But after 2004 I admit I kind of shut down. It was just so depressing to see the direction the Bush administration was taking the country. So obviously I am happy with last night’s results, but a couple other things come to my mind about last night.

I’m so happy “Boulder Liberal Mark Udall” won his Senate race last night. Note to people running for a statewide office – maybe it’s not a good idea to throw a section of your state under the bus in your campaign ads. McCain/Palin I think also learned this lesson – I can’t believe how divisive some of their speeches were.

Which brings me to – maybe the Republican Party should split into 2 parties. A sane one and the wacko/hateful/lying/law breaking one. Who are these people telling Democrats to vote on Wed, calling for investigations into how “American” you are, etc. I hope you form your own Party and leave the decent Republicans alone.

And who are all these homophobic people in this country!! Shame on you!

Thank you, thank you Colorado voters for kicking Marilyn Musgrove out of her house seat. She had the craziest negative ads and I couldn’t even vote in that race because I don’t live in that district but I had to see all those ads. Bleck!

At least if Palin runs in 2012 she won’t hire the McCain crazies to run her campaign as they have been so happy to throw her under the bus for last night’s loss.

During McCain’s concession speech I felt like I was watching the end of Return of the Jedi where Darth Vader comes to his senses and realizes he has been led astray. I would gladly welcome back the McCain of 2000. I know you’re in there – I feel the good in you!!!

Good job Colorado and other western states going blue. Montana I am proud of you for being soooooo close!!

And finally. I hope Al Franken never concedes. Even if it is obvious he lost. It would just amuse me.

I’ve suspected for several months that Saffie understands me more than she is letting on. It’s a similar feeling I have had about our cats for years. But there are 3 things that Saffie definitely understands and shockingly responds to most of the time.

1. “In your mouth” This is what I say at least 5 dozen times over the course of the day when Saffie holds her food over the edge of the highchair tray or tries to stash the food beside her. She is almost always looking at me when she does this. If I am beyond her line of sight she simply throws the food as far as she can. She is getting better and better at putting the food in her mouth when I say this to her – I’m sure this is just a phase she will grow out of. When people talk about how being a stay at home Mom is one of the hardest jobs you’ll ever have the throwing/spitting/smushing/rejecting of food are some of the moments I believe they are talking about.

2. “Can I have that?” This is what I say when Saffie is putting something in her mouth that shouldn’t be there (usually some kind of paper product) She is extremely good at giving up these tiny treasures. But if you take the remote control away from her watch out!

3. “Drink your milk” This one shocked me a bit. Lately Saffie is drinking her milk almost exclusively from sippy cups. If you ask her to drink her milk she grabs it and takes a sip of it no matter what she is up. She won’t drink a ton of it if she isn’t interested but seems happy to give it a try. Again, by the end of the week I’m sure she won’t be so excited about it, but for now it’s totally awesome!

We’re still working on “go back to bed”, “would you mind sleeping in today”, “drop the power cord”, ” are you teething or just really pissed off about something” closely followed by “please don’t bite Mommy while I check your gums”, and of course, “gentle . . . gentle”

Months ago I bought an album to make a baby book for Saffron. It is empty. I have a stack of photos, momentos, etc to put in there but who knows if I will ever get to it. In case this blog becomes Saffie’s official baby book documenting her first year of life – Saffie this is why your Mama is an Obama Mama.

Saffie has had a hard time moving around. It turns out she has loose ligaments which makes it harder for her to build up muscle strength. She is extremely flexible though! After some physical therapy and some exercises at home she had a breakthrough this weekend. I am very excited to let everyone know that Saffie is crawling and can get herself into a sitting position by herself. Yippee!

She was also excited to come with me when I dropped off my ballot and get a sticker (notice the big red mark on her forehead from smacking her head on the hardwood) Let the bruising begin

There is only a hint of crawling in this video but there are lots of giggles!!

Josh and I knew that when we named our daughter Saffron she would never be able to find a license plate/mug/sticker/etc. with her name on it like we could when we were kids. I’m convinced that any day now a celebrity is going to name their baby Saffron and the name will take off in popularity (I go back and forth as to whether I want that to happen).

But someone out there – Paola Opal to be exact – did a great thing for Saffie. And my friend Emma did an even greater thing by letting me know about it. Emma (and her soon-to-be-one-year-old Bella) gave Saffie the book Saffy for her first birthday. Saffy is about a little giraffe who want to pick a leaf all by herself, but she is too little to reach one. Will she find a way?

Saffie learns there’s a book entitled Saffy.

Let’s see what’s inside.

Beginner reader.

Very exciting part of the book.

Yummy.

Thanks Bella and Emma! I love it!!

One of the fun things Josh and I did in Prague was visit a “Mirror Maze” which was more like a Hall of Mirrors as you could escape the ‘maze’ in about 20 seconds but that’s just being nitpicky. Josh and I are suckers for mirror mazes and mirrors that make you look silly so we were happy to spend some time here. By the way did you know Prague has a mini-Eiffel Tower? I didn’t either – it is right next to the Mirror Maze FYI.

In the maze.

What Josh and I would like if we were hobbits.

No wonder Saffie has such a big head!

Long arms anyone?