What a couple of days!

Poor Sophia has had a nasty cold all week. This thing has hit every little kid that I know so who knows where she picked it up, but it was a killer especially for Mom.

She's been completely congested all week and now on day 4 she's developing a nice little cough. Just yesterday afternoon she finally realized that when I come at her with a tissue I'm trying to help her. She hasn't wanted to sleep and I've had to really coax her to eat. The only thing she's wanted all week is to be cuddled. I haven't been able to put her down and when I do she screams and immediately follows me.

I don't think it would be nearly as bad if she wasn't teething at the same time. I know her mouth has been really bothering her because she grinds her gums together so hard that I can hear the "rubbery" rubbing noise they make. Her teething pacifiers are helping a lot.

Will has been out of town all week and comes home THIS EVENING. I cannot even begin to explain how happy I am. He left Monday morning, but got a dose of what was coming on Sunday afternoon while I was at the grocery store. Maybe he can work from home tomorrow...(wishful thinking...)

She's truly mobile now

Last night at 4 AM I woke up to Sophia crying up a storm. When I entered the room I saw her standing in the crib. This is the fourth time Sophia has amazed her mom and dad by standing in the crib all by herself. I suspect she starts crying when she realizes she can't sit back down on her own. She gets stuck!

Sophia has also learned that she can move from room to room and explore the house all on her own. She frequently ditches her play room (which is supposed to be our dining room) to "find Mom" or to eat one of Sadie's gnarly bones. And if you've ever been in our house you'll appreciate her effort. We had to put up a baby gate between the kitchen and the dining room to prevent Sophie from getting into Sadie's food. So when she wants to find mom she has to crawl all the way from the dining room through the living room and the entryway and then down the little hallway into the kitchen.

Sophia has practiced her little butt of and can now successfully crawl up a flight of stairs. Thankfully she hasn't discovered that she can crawl to the stairs and attempt to climb them on her own yet. I've captured it on video. Take a look. Of course, I have to admit, this footage is a few days old and she has improved a lot. Enjoy!

To Gymboree or Not to Gymboree

Yesterday morning Sophia and I went to a free review of Gymboree's Music class for her age group and we had a blast. We got to sing and dance, bang on drums and ring different types of bells. Sophie squealed in delight throughout the entire class and was a big hit with Teacher 1. She even wore her name tag the entire class without ripping it off and it was only a little soggy when we got home. Even though we had fun I still wanted to try another place called My Gym before we commited to Gymboree.

Well, lucky for me, I didn't sign up yesterday because today we went to a free program at the Norfolk Public Library called Babygarten. Today was even better than yesterday. Granted, the library does not have the fancy facility, but we still had a great time. We sang and danced, we read a poem and then read an alphabet story. Then there was open play time for 30 minutes. Sophia had a great time. Sophia is the girl in red on the floor with the green ball.

All I want for January is my two top teeth

Both of Sophia's top teeth appeared today. I didn't notice them until lunchtime, but there they were poking through her gums. Maybe that's why she slept until after 9AM this morning. It was heavenly!

For a week now she's been getting up in the middle of the night at any random time and staying up for almost an hour. She'll eat and play with me and then go back to sleep. Could it have been she was teething and needed some middle of the night cuddles? We'll see if they continue...

Look for a picture of Little Miss Toothy soon....

I'm stunned. She's communicating with me.

This is the third consecutive day that Sophia has communicated with me by "walking" to what she wants. When I say "walking" I really mean she's walking with my assistance. She's holding her arms above her head while holding onto my fingers and I'm offering her my hands by bending at the waist so I'm at her level. You know what I mean, the back killing "walking" that pre-walking babies want to do all the time. It certainly makes me feel old when I attempt to straighten my body back to normal and am basically stuck midway up for what feels like forever. Oh well. Back to the good stuff...

The past 2 days I could tell that Sophia was getting hungry for dinner. She was puckering her lips in her cute little pursed way and acting antsy. Normally I ask her if she's hungry and offer her an empty spoon to see if she opens up for a bite. If she does then we begin the mealtime routine. I decided to skip my part to see how she would react. In fact I didn't even let her know I knew she was hungry. Instead I offered her my hands to take a walk. She proceeded to "walk" from the dining room into the kicthen straight to her highchair and then she stopped. It really floored me.


I tried it again last night and she did the same thing. Whenever she was hungry for dinner she led me over to her highchair and stopped.





Just this morning she did it again. This time we were playing in her bedroom. I had attempted to put her down for a nap only 10 minutes earlier and she absolutely refused to be placed into her crib so we continued to play with her toys and Sadie. When she acted like she wanted to walk I gave her my hands and she walked right over to her crib and stopped. I lifted her into it and she immediately grabbed onto Lamb and started rolling around and cuddling with him. WOW! Lights out!

Do all babies do this? Personally I think she's a genious, but I'm slightly biased.

Sophia plays with Bitty Baby

You've just got to watch this video of Sophia playing with her baby doll. She loves her new playmate. She can't get enough of the plastic head and blinking eyes. I think Sophia really thinks Bitty Baby is a real baby.

Sophie turns 8 months old

Wow. Once again I have to comment on how fast has gone by since Sophia's arrival.

It's hard to believe that she used to weigh only 8 pounds now that she's reached the 20 pound mark. She's wearing 12 months clothes and eating like such a big girl. She's even started figuring out how to drink from the sippy cup.

We had to switch her out of the infant seat last weekend and so far she loves her big girl car seat and has a much better view. She's still facing the rear, but she looks 100% more comfortable now. She'll be in this seat for a few years.


Sleeping. Hmmm... Sophia has taken to waking up in the middle of the night ready to practice standing, crawling and walking. I hear her sqealing in the baby monitor and when I go in to check on her she wants to get out and play with me. This has happened on 3 different nights to far and she's usually up for an hour and then goes back to sleep after playing and drinking a bottle. It's no fun for Mommy who isn't quite so exited to practice with Sophia in the middle of the night. Oh well, I had 2 solid months of her sleeping through the night.

Ba!

Well, today Sophia decided to say BA. Not a string of ba ba bas. Just a single ba and then a few seconds later another ba and then she said it a third time. We both heard her. It was really cool.

Her previous language skills include mostly blowing bubbles and shrieking. I have a feeling she's going to figure out how to add more consonants soon. I can't wait until we can babble with other all day. I babble all the time now, but it will be awesome to have her babble back at me instead of ignoring me. :-)

Sophia can play Peek-a-boo

She's learned how to hold her arms up!

Everything she can get her hands on these days seems to go over her head. We've turned it into Peek-a-boo and we try to "find Sophia". She beams each time she raises a blanket or a sippy cup or a diaper up over her head/face and then lowers her arms to reveal herself.

It's adorable.

Sophia's favorite things...Part II

Sohpia's favorite things include:

Lamb and Kitty Cat - her sleeping pals
Slapping her open palm on any hard surface

Favorite Songs/Games: BINGO, Pat-a-cake
Favorite Toy: The Learning Table, The Little People Farm Animals (she loves to eat their hair/fur), and her V-Tech Car Bike - however she ONLY likes to stand on it.
Favorite Person: By far, Daddy.
Favorite Food: Sweet Potatoes
Favorite Activity: Standing
Favorite Word: Anything super duper loud that resembles a squeal.
Favorite Noise: MMMMMmmmmmmm - it means she's hungry
Favorite New Way to Eat: Slurping

Sophia's Dislikes include:

Having dirt wiped off her face
Having water poured on her head
Being strapped into a car seat or stroller
Going to bed without seeing Daddy

Videos of Sophia

Here's all of the videos of Sophia to date.

Sophia and Sadie Crawl

Sophia Crawls Day 2

Sophia Crawls

Sophia Tries to Climb Mt. Daddy

Sophia on the Rocking Chair

Sophia Reads the Circulars

Sophie on the Boppy

Sophie

Sophia Practices Walking

Sophia Kicks Off

Sadie Likes Bubbles.

Sophia Eats a Magazine

Sophia and Daddy at the Learning Table

Sophia Sings Along with the Radio

Sophia Can Roll Over

Sophia Rotating on the Table

Exersaucer Part III

Exersaucer Part II

Fun in the Exersaucer

Sophia Eats Rice Cereal

Sophia and the Pink Princess Bear

Sophia Talks to Herself

Sophia - 24 Hours Old

Sophia Amber- Just Born

Some recent shots of Sophia

Great news...about Sophia

When I got home from the grocery store this evening I was pleasantly surprised with Sophia's brand new skill....creeping/crawling.

She's been testing the water on her belly for a while but has been more interested in standing and walking rather than crawling. Well tonight she was able to get up on her knees and pull herself along with her elbows and kick off with her feet. She cruised across the floor. We were so proud of her and so was she.

Her motivation was to play with the toy bone that Sadie was happily chewing. She got the bone. See a video.