Happy Easter Every Bunny

Just a swingin'

Since the weather has been in the 70s the last few days I've been taking Sophia to the playground down the street by the tennis courts. I put her in the jogging stroller and run down to the playground. Sadie joins us, of course.

Sophia really likes the swing. The very first time she cried a bit when I put her into the unfamiliar seat, but only a few days later and I'm having a hard time coaxing her out of the seat when it's time to run home.

Eggstravaganza at the Zoo

We had a really fun time on Saturday exploring the Virginia Zoo for the "Eggstravaganza". The Zoo was honoring all of the egg laying animals with a special tidbit of information about each animal tacked to the exhibit.

There were also volunteers throughout the zoo showing special animal and "animal-related" things like an real injured hawk, turtle shells, snakes, leather belts, and much more. Sophia got to touch a snake. She wasn't even scared. In fact, she really wasn't interested in it at all. She really just wanted to get out of my lap and crawl around.

Will and I think Sophia's favorite animal was the giraffe. We talk alot about giraffes and their long necks. We stretch our arms into the air to show her how tall the giraffe is. I think she may have recognized the giraffes when we pointed them out to her, but then again maybe she was enjoying riding around on her dad's shoulders ~ being almost as tall as one of the 14-footers.

Here's Will "underground". The neatest exhibit we saw was the prairie dog environment. They are tiny little things and move really fast. You can experience what they see when they pop out of their holes. If you look close enough at the next picture you will see Sophia and me in the peep hole getting a prairie dog's view. It's very difficult to see through the grasses so I imagine they spend alot of time underground.



The grossest animal: I would have to say he tarantula - an egg layer.


Will would probably say the snakes - egg eaters.


The dirtiest animal: The old man billy goat.


What a fun day! Please take a look at the rest of our pictures from our day at the Zoo.

Brushing her teeth

Now that she has so many of them, we're trying to teach Sophia to brush her teeth after each meal. She's washing her hands after her meals too. I hold her over the kitchen sink as she puts each hand into the stream of running water.

Here's a video of Sophia brushing her teeth in her new pajamas after breakfast. Sadie makes a special appearance in this video too.....have I mentioned lately how great Sophia and Sadie get along?

Grandma and Pappy come for a visit

Sophia got to play with Grandma and Pappy on her own turf. She really enjoyed having some new playmates and showing off all her toys. Here's a video of Grandma bouncing Sophia and teaching her that if she makes noises while she's getting bounced she will feel it vibrating.

Grandma and Pappy babysat on Saturday while Mommy and Daddy went out to see the movie 300. We both really enjoyed the movie. Mommy even cried at the end when King Leoneidas died. How tragic. I'm still amazed at how they could cast this movie. Every single person in the movie is completely buff.

After the movie we went to the mall and Daddy got his birthday present from Grancy and Big Daddy. He's now sporting a very cool pair of Oakley sunglasses. Then we went out to a fancy dinner at a martini bar down the street from our house called The Tilted Table. We had a wonderful time. Daddy had the Rockfish special dish and I had the Ahi Tuna Stir Fry.

Mommy baked a cake and Grandma decorated it for Daddy's birthday. Daddy really had a wonderful birthday.

Another thing to babyproof

Will and I thought we had done a decent job babyproofing our house. The exposed outlets were covered, the plants and blind cords were placed out of reach, the doorjam stoppers were in place, and the breakable objects were placed on high shelves. Sounds pretty good, right? We had a baby gate and other cabinet-door gear ready and waiting.

So, once Sophia began to pull on any cabinet knob and I saw her sticking her hand into the VCR (yes, we STILL have one) and pulling all of the DVDs and video games off the shelves we installed the cabinet door blockers on the TV stand and in the bathrooms and kitchen. Phew...problem solved!

Well then she started crawling up the stairs on her own, so we knew it was time to get out the baby gate and install it. Ok - that about does it, right?

WRONG...

Playing the day away

If I had to rate Sophia on a scale of 1-10 on her ability to play on her own I would definitely give her at least an 11. She is so content to simply play in her crib by herself when she wakes up each morning and while lulling herself to sleep at nap time. I can hear her "talking" to her animal friends. Against the advice of everything I've ever read about placing stuffed animals in the crib she has a few animals in hers to keep her company. She plays pretend with them and makes them interact with her.

Lamb is the leader of the Animal Pack. Followed by Kitty Kat, Elmo, Spot the Dog, and we can't forget about the various Teddy Bears participating too. They have a secret language comprised mostly of squeals and high pitched screams. It sounds alot like you'll hear her doing in the video below.

She was playing yesterday morning after breakfast by herself in the playroom. She's rediscovered her Baby Papasan chair and at the present time she loves to find a toy or a doll and drag it up into the chair with her. In this case, she was sitting on the chair and pulling things out of her toy basket, but then seemed to get really interested in the Animal Speak and Say. Watch the video.

Sophia has mastered the sippy cup!

Ok, it should really read: Sophia has almost mastered the sippy cup.

Or, better yet, it should read: On certain days when the spirit moves her Sophia can drink perfectly from the sippy cup, but on other days she has absolutely no desire to even try.

She's a real ham for the camera and loves to show off for Mommy. Watch this video and listen to her babbling during lunch.

Here's another video just a few minutes later and she's a bit more cranky.

Pillow Toss Baby

Take a look at this video. Sophia loves to be tossed into a pile of pillows. She grins ear to ear each time. It's so much fun to watch her enjoying the game. She will throw herself down backwards to continue playing when we take a break. It's so cute.

Sophia's Favorite Foods

Sophia is a really good eater. She wants to feed herself and wants to eat everything Mommy eats. She's got 6 teeth now. Grancy noticed 2 new teeth last weekend, although it took until this morning for Sophia to sit still long enough for me to see them.

These are her favorite foods:

1 Veggie Crackers by Gerber Graduates - we should buy stock in Gerber.
2 Green beans - right out of the can...heated up a bit. She shovels them in.
3 Bananas
4 Spaghetti, but more importantly the MEATBALLS! YUM
5 Mac & cheese
6 Any flavor Gerber Puffs
7 Arrowroot cookies
8 Yogurt (baby version and adult version)
9 Cheddar cheese
10 Toast with grape jelly


These foods fall into the YUCK category:

Watermelon
Swiss cheese

New Sophia Videos

Here are the latest Sophia videos. ENJOY!!!!

She's really taken to the word - NO! Watch this video:






Here's one of her snoring. Will and I check on Sophia together before we go to bed every night. Listen to what we heard when we entered the room. No picture on this one - just sound.






Sophia is really talking up a storm these days. She's got lots of different sounds. Listen to her eating her puffs at breakfast. She especially loves the peach-flavored ones.





Listen to the most adorable little giggle you ever heard. And then watch her with Lamby.





Sophia LOVES to play with any "adult" toy...cell phones, remote controls, computers, purses, keys.

Just had to post this adorable picture

Sophia, Sadie and I have been taking walks in the afternoons again now that the weather has been warmer. She loves it! Of course, I bundle her up so she's nice and toasty warm and simply adorable. I just love this picture of her. You can see her top teeth coming in if you look close enough.

Up to some new tricks...

Sophia has acquired some new mealtime tricks! She can make her food reappear! She does this by forcing her whole fist into her mouth to gag herself when she gets a spoonful of something she doesn't like. This list includes EVERYTHING except fruits. It's really a disgusting habit and Mommy simply cannot take this new found talent.

A second skill she's discovered is making a gurgling sound. It's a very light feminine, airy sound ~ it reminds me of a bird. It's adorable!

Cold, cold, cold, our trip to PA

Last week Sophia and I took a quick trip to PA to visit Grandma and Pappy. We flew through the Cleveland airport each way and literally had to walk outside of the airport and then climb up the steps of the plane. Um, yep, the plane only had 1 seat on either side of the aisle. EEK, but we made it.

We had a fun, but the cold winter snow really threw us for a loop. We really enjoyed coming home to 64 degree breezy weather.

Here's some of the pictures from our trip.

Sophia's Baptism

Yesterday we had Sophia's baptism. She was a doll through the entire 11AM church service. We sat in the front row so we had easy access to the Baptismal Font. Will held Sophia while Dr Moore cupped the water onto her head and dedicated her in front of the congretation. Then Dr. Moore took Sophia and carried her around to all of the pews as she was "welcomed" into the church. She was delightful. I think she knew she was the center of attention. She was on her best behavior throughout the rest of the service.

As we were driving home we opened up the certificate expecting it to read Sophia Amber Alexander, but instead it read: Abigail Elizabeth Gilbert. A slight mix-up. There was a message on our answering machine when we got home asking us to make the exchange this week.

Sophia Stats - Updated...

Sophia just turned 9 months old.

Height - 30 inches. Dr. Mitchell declared her "off the charts" for her age.

Weight - 20 lbs 5 ounces. (the 80th%)

Crawling - Yep, she just graduated to the full fledged crawl.

Pulls Herself Up - Yep, using anything available to her.

Talking - Not really, but she makes the mmm...mmmm...mmm sound when eating her favorite crackers. She also shrieks, squeals, squawks and screams all day long! Dr. Mitchell told us this is her way of babbling. He thinks she really likes the sound of her own voice.

Food - She's a big girl now! She doesn't really like Mommy feeding her with a baby spoon anymore. She wants to finger feed herself. Some of her favorite foods include vegetable crackers, cheddar cheese, yogurt, apples, pears, mac and cheese and toast with jelly.

Best Friends - Bitty Baby and Sadie

Favorite Toy - The Learning Table (of course)

Sophia's New Action - Blow a Kiss (and she loves to receive them too - with a light blow of air to the face). It always makes her smile.

Valentine's Day Party

Sophia and I went to a Valentine's Day party earlier this week. It was so cute to see everyone decked out in red and pink. Sophia received so many Valentine's from her little friends. She gave out candy message hearts to everyone. That's her red bag in the front left corner of the photo.

Sophie's reached the separation anixiety phase. She clings to me when we're around strangers. Once she warms up a bit, she can even be pleasant to interact with, but she wasn't even interested in mingling at the party. This was the ONLY salvagable photo of her from the entire party. As you can see, she's interested in playing with her Paci which has been her best friend throughout this teething pains.

A Romantic Valentine's Day Gondola Ride

Yesterday we went to take a "romantic Valentine's Day gondola ride" at the Y. The only bit of information we knew was that between 2-4 the YMCA was offering gondolda rides in the indoor pool. I thought we should wear our bathing suits. Will had a good point, we would never get wet on a gondola ride, so we did not wear our bathing suits. In fact, our plan was to go out to dinner afterwards so we wore nice clothes.

When we arrived we saw the canoe. We also saw that the only people riding in it were kids. Well there is NO WAY Sophia could ride on her own so they suggested that I ride with her. Um, OK. Just let me climb in a sit on the sopping wet floor of the canoe and hold Sophia...which is exactly what happened. When I got out of the boat at the end of the ride my pants, sock and shoe were all soaking wet. I was sitting on my left leg, so only one side of me got wet. I might even go so far as to say that the entire canoe floor was dry. We all had a good laugh about it. And yes, we still went to eat sushi for dinner. Well we were the only customers so it didn't really matter.

Sophia didn't really care for the experience and seemed a bit stunned the entire time. I'm not sure if she even noticed the balloons tied to the boat. I tried to show her, but maybe the boat-rowing teenage boys wearing their glittery masks and speaking in really fake accents scared her too much.

Daddy was playing cameraman - and took 2 videos!
Watch a video of us on the ride.
Watch Sophia at the end of the ride.

Babygarten

We went to Babygarten this morning. Sophia really enjoyed watching all the other kids in the class. In fact that's all she did for the first 10 minutes. I think she was just being a little bashful, but she took the time to stare intently at each little face in class and then decided that she felt comfortable and started shrieking in delight.

Sophia totally got a kick out of learning the hand movements to Itsy Bitsy Spider and she recognized them when we practiced this afternoon at home. It was so cool.

We stayed for the open playtime after class. The teacher got out a frog bubble blower and gave each kid a bubble shower.

Sophia's Favorite Activity

Sophia's favorite thing to do right now is stand up! She'll stand using whatever she wants. She's not always successful, but most of the time she can get herself up. Take a look for yourself...

A few more Sophia Videos

Sophia playing in Sadie's water bowl.

Blow Mommy a kiss.

Playing before bath time.

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....