Tuesday, August 30, 2011

8 Months Down!

We recently got back from a wonderful trip to California, and so this is a bit past due- but Sophia is 8 months old! Huzzah!
She is getting sooo much personality and is fun, and most of the time out right hilarious, to watch.
My favorite things about Sophia right now:
1. Eatin' time- she looovvess real food, especially Cheerios, sweet potato, and apple. But really anything we eat, she wants to try too. And we let her eat to her hearts content since she's so little. After one month on solids she put on a whole pound! (to put that in perspective of relative gain- that would be like me gaining 15 pounds in a month!)
2. Talking, talking, babble, babble- I just love how talkative she is. She especially loves to talk herself to sleep. We'll put her down and she'll just chat to herself for a good 10-15 minutes before falling asleep.
3. Baby on the move- she is crawling all over now, and quicker and quicker everyday. You turn your back for a minute she'll definitely get somewhere you weren't expecting. Usually stuck under something she can't get out of and starts squealing. It is funny to watch her chase around the house after stuff. Her favorite thing to follow around is Petra, our dog- who always moves just as Sophia is about to make it to her. Then the game gets to start all over!
4. C-u-r-i-o-u-s! If she were a cat, she'd be dead. Seriously. She loves getting to play with everything other than her toys- power cords, computers, glass containers, trash cans. She has an affinity for the dangerous- thrill seeking baby? Maybe.
5. Mimicking- this also just started on our trip. She'll shake her head back and forth to mimic you and also mimic sounds (especially Aunt Heidi's "lalala's"). It's kind of really exciting to see her learning and repeating something from you. I just hope that all the head shaking doesn't mean her first words will be "no"
5. Happy- some of the most common comments I get from people are "she's so cute!" and "she's a pretty easy going/ happy baby"- both of which are true! We sure lucked out on that one. She really doesn't get upset much at all, and the few times she does is easily comforted if we just hold her. Every morning when we hear her waking up, Rick will usually go in to her room to get her and bring her in to our room so I can nurse her. The second she sees me she gets a big 'ole smile and squeals and starts wiggling. I love it- it's the best part of my day.

One last true occurance. I was in the bathroom around the corner from her room, where she was playing. She followed me in to the bathroom (she follows me around a lot, it's cute) and started trying to get in to the trash can. I blocked her with my foot- she tried to get around, over, under my foot to the trash, but to no avail. She hit my leg a few times to make her point, then turned back around and went back to her room. I assumed she had been disswayed and given up. Only a few seconds later she crawls/scoots back to me with a toy (a little stacking cup) in hand. Once again goes right for the trash can, and is one again blocked by my foot, and then she uses the cup she brought to hit my leg! I don't know if this was really 'tool' use or what- but I couldn't help but having a total '2001:A Space Odyssey' moment with the monkey's discovering tools and the music playing. Hahaha- it was just too cool/crazy.

Okay- on to more pictures!

Got to take these in nice sunny California. Whenever she wears this outfit and can't help but sing "You Are My Sunshine"








Crawling in to uncharted territories



Visiting Petra in her house

Saturday, July 23, 2011

Stoney Creek

Metro Detroit has these huge natural parks around the area. They are fantastic. We went hiking for the day in Stoney Creek around a bird reserve. It was beautiful.

I think this was an Egret










Hi-prairie grass

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Wednesday, July 20, 2011

7 months!

That's right- another month has flown by all too fast. Summer has been so fun with Sophia- lots of hiking, swimming, and general good-time-havingness.
Most exciting things about Sophia this month
1- SQUAAKKK! Her cute little squeals have taken a turn for the sound of a baby firetruck. No joke, I was the pool with her today with lots of other kiddos around, and there was this high pitched shrieking. I was like, 'who's kid is that?' until I realized it was mine.
2- Wrinkly nose face (scroll to see evidence below). We don't know where she got this, but all of the sudden she'll wrinkle her nose when she smiles. It is very cute.
3- Sitting up champion of the world! She has so quickly become a sitting pro- can sit up basically as long as she's interested.
4- Kinda crawling? She'll get on her hands and tiptoes and flex the rest of her body up off the ground and kind of throw herself forward. It is pretty funny.
5- Direction-ality. When she sees something she wants she'll wiggle and roll her way to it. The funniest thing she does is scoot over to her bookshelf, pull off books, and hide them under the bookshelf, between it and the floor. It is so cool to see her become more and more independent in discovering things.
6- Babble face- lots of new consonant sounds coming. See previous posted Dadada video :D
7- Real food. Solid foods are going great. We're taking it really slow (one new food a week) since she obviously has some food sensitivities. Right now her favorite thing is definitely avocado- she'll like down almost half of one in one sitting. It's incredible.
7- Cloth diapers. Okay, this is really more of a mommy achievement. I've been wanting to do them for a long time, but felt overwhelmed. So I finally took the plunge, and love them! It is seriously super easy and would totally recommend it to anyone who's thinking about it.

Alrighty, on to more pictures!



scrunchy nose face


Look how tall I'm getting!






Petra is the most interesting toy in the house. Sophia LOVES her. She is the best incentive to get Sophia kinda-crawling to me.


And they called it puppy love...

Thursday, July 14, 2011

Dadadada...


Excuse the naked babbling baby....

Thursday, July 7, 2011

Road Trip- Grand Haven

First adventure with road tripping with baby. I'm not very brave so we only went 3 hours away, but it was a good test drive on seeing how Sophia would do. (Not so good on the way there, better on the way back). We headed across Michigan to the cute little town of Grand Haven along Lake Michigan. Beautiful beaches and fun times by all. I absolutely love Sophia in this picture by the way.


Our little bathing cutie. Loved being at the beach- almost felt like home.






A little overcast at first. But seriously- this totally could be California.


sitting in the sand...


staring at the sand...


eating the sand- I figure it's a right of passage




feet in the water- not such a fan- cold!






View of the beach- they had a really cool lighthouse, but you couldn't see it very well with the fog


2.5 mile boardwalk between downtown and the beach




Cute downtown Grand Haven- with American Flags and Trolleys and All!


First road trip success!

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Tuesday, July 5, 2011

First swim

I have been waiting for the chance to get Sophia swimming. With both Rick and I practically being part fish during our childhood, I couldn't wait to get her in the pool. Here she is being oh so cute modeling her swimming suit and awesome hat.


And.... she loved it! We were in the pool for like 40 minutes and she loved it the whole time. Kicking and laughing little water baby.






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Sunday, July 3, 2011

Sophia Laughing

Sophia laughs so much when Rick tickles her with his beard. I've been meaning to post it for a long time. The sweetest sound to my ears.