Crawling in action...

She's usually much faster than this- this is the time I just happen to think to record it. If you're wondering about the toy in mouth, see the below post :D

Who needs a purse?

I'm guessing Sophia came up with this new way to crawl and carry stuff by watching our dog- it cracks me up!

At least she's resourceful?

The Henry Ford & Greenfield Village

Henry Ford believed that history should be lived, not dead in books. So he built this huge living museum of American history. Two parts- The Henry Ford: more like a traditional museum, with relics of American past. Obviously LOTS of classic cars (Ford's own first car even!) but tons of other amazing things you wouldn't expect to be in the middle of Michigan. Here we are in a classic car.

The Allegheny Train- 650 tons?! Inside the museum- nuts!

Rick- the Conductor

Sophia at the wheel

They have all American culture-even more recent. It makes you feel really old when one of your favorite toys growing up is now a museum piece.

The Wiener Car!

The actual chair Abraham Lincoln was shot in

The actual (seriously!) bus Rosa Parks refused to move from.

They also have the actual car JFK was shot in- and then tons of other stuff. Seriously the place is 8 acres of American history. You could spend days there.

Okay now part 2- the really living history part. Henry Ford built this beautiful 80 acre village where he brought in real history so people could learn hands on. When I say real history I mean, he went and bought historical landmarks, took them apart, and reassembled them here. A small taste of what is here- and these are the ACTUAL buildings- not replicas or anything. Edisons laboratory, the Wright Brother's bicycle shop and home, Abraham Lincoln's cabin where he practiced law, Robert Frost's house, the oldest windmill in America- the list goes on and on. All of this is tucked in a farm/turn of the century main street type place. The people who work there dress in that era clothing and are so knowledgeable. There's even an actual high school in the place! How cool would that be?! We only had time to see a small fraction of what's here (I had no idea how big and cool it was!) so we'll definitely be going back.

Farm-y animals

There are 3 modes of transportation (other than walking) you can take. Wagon, coal-powered train, or...

an actual Model T! We rode in it, it was awesome!

The Wright Brothers actual bicycle shop- so cool!

And their house

Sophia cooling off with some frozen custard

Have to go on the carousel!

All in all, what an amazing place?! I can't wait to go back again and again! Thanks Henry Ford for using all your money (I don't even want to know how much it costs to ship Abraham Lincoln's cabin) to do something so amazing!

Standing up!

She just started doing this like a week ago and has already gotten so good at it! I'm like -nooooo! I'm not ready for her to walk yet! But apparently she's getting ready whether I like it or not.

She looks so proud of herself!

Lions, and Tigers, and Sophie- oh my!

We live literally 5 minutes from the Detroit Zoo- and have never been until now! (Lame, I know). So we just bought a membership and have a new favorite place to hang out. I was totally surprised by how nice of a zoo it is- probably one of the best I've been to! Lucky us!

This is the outside of the butterfly house.

In the butterfly house- so cool. Totally the best butterfly house I have EVER been to. It has soooo many butterflies everywhere. It's incredible. You can see one in the right upper part of this picture behind Sophia's head.

Sophia loved looking at everything.

In the Polar Life Zone underwater walkway- too sunny!

A friendly sea lion came to say hello

Brown bear, brown bear- what do you see?

I see a baby looking at me.

Randomest part about this zoo. There are peacocks that roam free over the whole property. Just go wherever they want. So cool!

Yay for the zoo!

9 Months!

Yep- 9 months! Sophia has been alive as long as it took to make her (weird way to look at it?)

Here are some of my favorite things about Sophia now:

1) Crawling: real crawling, all over- and getting faster every day. It is getting exceptionally dangerous to leave her alone anywhere

2) Standing up: she has started pulling herself up to standing- especially when she's in her crib. She'll usually be standing up when we go in to get her after sleeping. Like she's just ready to go! This new development has made everything on our coffee table and entertainment center in immediate danger. We'll have to work on that.

3) Teeth- finally! I swear this girl has been "teething" for forever. She has gotten her two bottom teeth at the same time. I tried getting a picture, but that proved near impossible, so you'll have to just take my word for it

4) Attention, attention: she always wants my attention. If I am doing something, she comes over and talks at my feet and pulls at my pant legs. It is very cute, and luckily she gets about all the attention she wants.

5) Sharing or not: anything anyone else is using, like a toy or a spoon or even Petra and her bone, Sophia will just go over and take it to see it. But only if you are currently using it is it interesting, poor Petra can't catch a break to just chew her bone in peace.

6) Smiley: she is just all smiles all the time. I am so lucky! When I come home from work in the morning, she usually has just woken up and is playing in her room. I go and say hello and she gets this BIG smile, squeals, and then crawls after me as fast as she can. It melts my heart every time.

7) She loves her Daddy: Rick watches Sophia while I sleep after work, and they have so much fun together. He can always get her to laugh, and I love watching them.

8) Such a cute sleeper: when I put Sophia in her crib for her nap, she'll grab her blanket and just totally flop down, and suck her fingers with her butt up in the air to fall asleep. It is just too darn cute.

Sorry some of these pictures are blurry. Moving baby= difficult to focus camera. But you can still see how cute she is!

She loved playing in this ballerina skirt- so interesting

So I am going to eventually post a video of her crawling- but in the mean time- here are pictures taken in automatic secession of her crawling. Just scroll down really fast- you can get the idea :D

Love this picture so much!

Happy 9 months Sophia!

I Love Books!

Well, I didn't say I read them.

Sophia's favorite pass time in her bedroom- pulling out all the books in her bookshelf. She has gotten good at doing it in 2 seconds flat. And when I start to put them away, the game starts again and off they come! Oh how fun!

Really, it is super cute- if she wants to play with books, by all means!

And how could you say no to this face?

You can't.

The Lurker

Sophia is pulling herself up on furniture now- just up on to her knees. So every time you turn around you see the lurking baby eyes starting at you just over the tops of things. It makes me laugh for some odd reason.

The lurker- caught in the act

"Who me's??? But I so cute!?!"

On to the next item to pull down/apart/in to my mouth :D