Sunday, October 23, 2011

14 Months

Sophie is 14 months already! Time sure does fly when you are having fun. Sophie is at such a fun age now. It seems like everyday she is learning something new or perfecting something she has already done. I can't get over all of the things she does now and how she is growing up. Here is a (not so) quick rundown of what has happened this month:
  • Sophie weighs 14 pounds and 3.9 ounces. We have finally used all of her size 1-2 diapers so she is offically in size 2 diapers now. She still is in size 3-6/6 month clothes. I have been sewing all of her pants so that they fit her waist. The ones I haven't worked on yet come off very easily. Sophie is pretty sneaky about it, too. One second she has them on and then the next second they are off. Or she will be crawling on the floor and she crawls right out of them!
  • Sophie can identify her nose and mouth. When you ask her where her nose is, she will point to it right away. Most of the time after that she will then pick it. :-/ When you ask her where her mouth it, she will clap a hand over her mouth. Usually she will then move her hand on and off her mouth making the "wah wah wah wah" sound (or the Indian sound, as my politically incorrect younger self used to call it.) Sometimes she will point to her eyes, but not as often as the nose and mouth. We are still working on getting her to point to her ears, but no luck yet.
  • Sophie uses "Uh ohhh" properly now. She has been saying this for at least 4 months now but only in response to Joe or I saying it. The past few days though she has been saying it when she drops things. Earlier this week as I was brushing my teeth, Sophie was dropping random items into the bathtub behind me. After each item dropped she would say, "uh ohhhh." She continued doing this the rest of the week when she would (purposely) drop things. So cute and so rotten!
  • Sophie loves to "plank." Out of nowhere she will just slide out onto the ground with her legs behind her and her arms in front of her. Usually she will kick her legs around, playfully. It is so cute and so random. She cracks up at herself when doing it.
  • Still no walking or standing alone for Sophie. She can hold on with one hand and bend over to pick things up like a champ. She can even hold onto things with just a finger or two, but she just refuses to let go and stand on her own. I tricked her into doing it for two seconds two weeks ago, but when she realized what was happening she sat down. She is refusing to walk, too. Before when we would hold her hands while she stood she would run, not walk, around. Now she just lifts up her legs in protest so that she is just hanging in the air. (I am equal parts frustrated and impressed by her little ab muscles.) I know she will walk and stand when she is ready, but I can't help but feel anxious about it. I can't wait to see those first steps. Then again, those first steps signify real independence which is a bit scary and sad for this mom.
  • We discovered that Sophie likes spicy food...pepperoni, sausage, curry chicken, chicken fajitas. Who knew!
  • Sophie has been throwing some trantrums. Not too many, but when they happen they are serious tantrums. I think most of it is just from teething and when she is tired, but still. Her tantrums come from having something taken away from her or if she stumbles/gets scared (like if she was pulling on something and fell backwards). She will plank herself and start kicking her legs against the ground while yelling. Awesome. I thought we had another year before this started.
  • Sophie loves talking and babbling. Her new sound is "la la la." She loves moving her tongue around when she makes the sound. I kept wondering where she picked up this sound, as I wasn't really practicing it with her. Then I remembered that my niece will make silly faces and do that sound every time she sees Sophie, which always makes Sophie laugh. Kaci taught Sophie something new! What a great cousin.
  • Sophie loves exploring. She will climb over things and squeeze into places so that she can see everything. Her current favorite place to squeeze into is between the couch and end table.
  • Sophie loves Cosmo. Anyone who knows Sophie or has seen pictures of her know that she loves her cat. Seriously though, she adores that cat. Whenever she seems her she breaks out into a big smile. She loves laying on Cosmo and touching her. One morning I was changing her diaper and Cosmo appeared in the doorway. Sophie yelled, "CAT!" and tried to climb off the changing table (while I was still trying to put the diaper on her). Looking for Cosmo is one of her favorite things to do when we get home each day. We are lucky to have such a good cat who is so nice to our daughter.
  • Sophie loves playing with our phones, both cell and land line. Before she used to just play with the buttons but now she understands that she needs to put it up to her ear. She even tries to prop up the phone on her shoulder by squashing the phone between her shoulder and head. So cute.
  • Sophie has the silliest laugh. She can giggle, but most of the time she will do this really loud and nerdy "AH HAAA" laugh. She gets the biggest grin on her face when she does it, too. (The picture at the top of this post is one of her doing her laugh.) It never fails to make me smile.

I love watching Sophie grow up. I can't wait to see what new experiences and changes this next months brings.

Click the link before for some pictures from this month.

Click on the pictures to see them full size.

Trying out her new sippy cup - no more handles!


Hanging out in a tent with Becki


"Enough, Mom! (I imagine this will be what teenage Sophie is like.)

I always have to hit redial after she plays with the phone, just to make sure she didn't actually call someone.


Such a serious reader


She was like this in the womb and after she was born. I love that she still sleeps like this!

I love how Cosmo just takes this abuse.

This was the one time she let me put shoes on and they stayed on.



Grandma's girls

She loves her walker

So proud of herself

These are our toy boxes for the living room. She loves pulling things out of them. One day she actually got stuck and almost fell in. It was quite funny.




Exploring a tight space

Sophie and Aunt Sara

Blowing kisses

Yeah!!

Sophie is loving these little fruit pouches. It is basically just baby food in a pouch instead of a jar. She never liked baby food, but I guess it is good when it is in a pouch. Whatever gets her to eat.
Sophie has drank 5 ounces in one sitting (a HUGE deal to us) multiple times, so I decided to get some bigger bottles for her to use. We all were pretty excited about this. (She is drinking chocolate pediasure, not chocolate milk, btw.)

Visiting Daddy at work.

Grandpa's girls

Sophie loves pretzel rods. She gets really excited when I pull out the package of them.
Some days I think Sophie's hair looks like Justin Beiber's. Other days I think it looks like Donald Trumps. I refuse to cut it though (even though I have been asked about that multiple times) so that it will grow longer. I just wish she would keep her hair up when I put it up!





Since Sophie doesn't really at at her high chair, we are trying out her table as the location where she eats now. Cosmo was pretty excited by this as she can reach Sophie's food easier now.

Thursday, October 20, 2011

Another One!

When I picked Sophie up at the babysitter's house today I had a surprise...Sophie is sprouting another tooth! She was smiling at me and I saw a small white spot on her gums. I had Janice (Sophie's amazing babysitter) verify for me and she agreed that it is another tooth coming in. This is #5! It is a lower left one (I am not looking up the technical name of it), next to the two lower front teeth she already has.

I can't believe she has 5 teeth now. A few months ago I was worried that she wouldn't get teeth until she was 2 and now look at her!

Saturday, October 8, 2011

A Day at the Farm

We went to a local farm today to pick pumpkins! I've always wanted to do this and I dreamed about it when I was pregnant. We didn't take Sophie last year because she was still so young and I didn't want her out in the cold. I was so excited to finally be able to take her.

Now in my dreams I imagined taking my bundled up child out and we would walk around the patch hand in hand trying to find the pumpkin. My child would have red cheeks and a red nose from the chill in the air and we would snuggle under a blanket when we got home. As we all know, dreams and reality can be very different things. Today was a hot day! It was in the 80's so Sophie was in a sleeveless dress (the opposite of bundled up) and slathered in sunscreen. Instead of walking hand in hand to get a pumpkin, I held Sophie (as she isn't walking yet). When we got home we tried to cool off instead of snuggling under blankets.

Sophie seemed to enjoy herself at the farm, especially since Grandma Z and cousin Kaci were there. She liked looking at the animals and wanted to pet the ponies (one finally let her). She was really curious about the corn maze and wanted to touch all of the corn stalks. She seemed to enjoy the bumpy hay ride to the pumpkin patch, looking around at all of the sights as we rode around. She really like the pumpkin patch. Ever since my student gave her a pumpkin, Sophie likes playing with them. She was excited when Daddy found a pumpking that was her size. She wanted to hold it right then and there.




Even though things didn't go the way I had envisioned, it was a wonderful day. I will always cherish this memory.

Click the link below for pictures from our day.


I'm glad she doesn't have my fear of spiders yet.

Not at all afraid of the witch.


She really wanted to play with the chickens.



Grandma's girls

Exploring with Daddy





"I want this one, Dad!"


Grandma and Kaci found a good pumpkin, too.

Friday, October 7, 2011

Then There Were 4

There is a new addition in our family...Sophie has a new tooth! (What did you think I was going to say?)

I've been wondering if there was something brewing in her mouth for a week now, but she is a beast when you try to look at her top teeth. She isn't a fan of me sticking my finger in her mouth either, not that I blame her. She has been fussier than normal and even drooling in her sleep. Finally today I made her mad and held her down so I could look in her mouth. Sure enough, there is a tooth just about to break through. This is one of her front teeth which is right next to the fang tooth that she already has. How exciting!

"Leave me alone. I'm teething!"

Another exciting thing that happened today was that Sophie drank 340ml (over 11 ounces) at the babysitter's house! She never drinks this much during the day. Some days we are lucky to even reach 300ml. In fact yesterday she only drank 360ml. I was so excited when Janice sent me a text this morning letting me know that she gulped 4 ounces down. When I went to pick Sophie up and she told me the grand total I was just floored! I am so proud of that little girl. I still remember the days when she wouldn't even drink 4 ounces in a day and the days when she wouldn't drink anything by mouth. She has come such a long way. I am just so impressed with her.

Thursday, October 6, 2011

Best Friends Share with Each Other

New Pumpkin

I have some really great students this year. One of them is a sweet girl (whose mom works at our school) who brings always asks about Sophie and brings her presents. On her birthday, she brought her nesting cups as a gift. Earlier this week she brought in a four-leaf clover for Sophie so that she would have good luck. Today she brought in a pumpkin for us. It is the cutest thing with some crazy eyes. Sophie loves it! It is just her size, so she keeps picking it up and playing with it.




Strong girl!

Such a sweet, thoughtful thing to do. Love my students!