The search is over!

I found the perfect bean bag chair for Sophia! It's pink and cushy and it's just her size. I put the bean bag into the back seat of the Explorer and Sophia had her hand resting on it the whole way home. I think she was staking her claim. Take a look at how adorable she was this afternoon after we brought it in the house.

Talking...

I thought Sophie would take a nap this morning. She didn't. Instead she was practicing how to say Mama and Da Da, but as soon as I turned on the camera she stopped and moved on to "better practice words"! Typical, huh?

15 month old pictures

These are Sophia's official 15-month old photos. She's wearing a super cute outfit that her friend Isabella got her for her birthday.
Um....what's up with her hair? Oops.

The Fall Lineup

Sophia and I are testing out some free classes to see what we're going to enroll in this fall. Thursday mornings will be reserved for the Library Story Time program. They start again in September. Sophia, but mostly Mom, can't wait.

Next week we're trying out a Kindermusik class and I have a feeling that we will be enrolling in it.

About a week ago we went to My Gym with our playgroup and had a good time, but I noticed that Sophia was kind of timid. My Gym is full of obstacle courses including climbing areas, a ball pit, a balance bar, swings....etc. Kind of similar to a playground, but with a teacher and instruction to folllow. Here's a picture of the group.


Yesterday we went to Virginia's School of the Arts to take one of her music classes. Miss Virginia was very lively and let all the kids play 2 white notes on her electric keyboard. She asked each kid to come up to her whiteboard and helped them draw a dotted half note. We sang animal songs and danced around a lot. Sophie had a really good time and, of course, didn't want to leave even though she fell on the sidewalk and scraped her knee on the way into class. In the first picture she's really wailing and in the second one she's trying to show me her boo boo. I thought the classroom was a bit crowded and only lasts 1/2 hour.

Talking up a storm

Sophia talks like this all day long. $100.00 to the first person to figure out what she's saying.

A lazy day at the beach

Today was the first day all summer, I think, that the sky was overcast with clouds. The temperature was a warm 85 degrees and there was a really nice breeze blowing so we took Sophia to the beach. Take a look at Sophie's sun suit - it's got 50 UV protection built into it. How awesome it that?

Sophia had sand in her mouth before we stepped onto the beach. She must have found some in the parking lot and decided to try it out. She didn't seem to mind the sand in her mouth and tried it a few more times throughout the day.

She was a little timid at first to step into the sand and she didn't want to get off our blanket until she was good and comfortable with her new surroundings. She played with the sand toys that Grancy bought when Terra and Madeline were visiting last summer.

Dad and I built a few sand castles for her and she basically banged the shovel in the bucket. After a while she warmed up to the sand and boy was she off and running - literally! But mostly after seagulls.

She acted the same way with the ocean. At first she didn't want to approach the water, but once she got used to the waves she didn't want to get out of the water. Mom and Dad had a blast with her in the waves. Take a look at the rest of the pictures.

A new kid in town

Um, can someone please tell me who is this new little toddler is that seems to have overtaken my little baby's body and mind?

Sophia has a mind of her own and over the course of the last few weeks has decided that sitting in her highchair just isn't as cool as it once was. I think she assumes she's a big girl now and needs to sit in a seat at the table instead of at the outskirts. We have a booster seat, but I really think that's more for a 3 year old than for a 15 month old. The booster seat securely attaches to the chair, but doesn't strap in the child.

Yesterday I found the solution...a toddler lock chair that secures itself directly to the table. Check out the pictures below. Sophia loves it!!!!! Lunch was the first meal we used it for yesterday and she dangled her feet and banged on the table in delight. This morning she ate strawberries in her new chair to show off for Dad.

Driving with Dad

Will, AKA, Mr. Spears driving with his little Sophia.



Yep - they stayed in the driveway.

Living it up at 15 months...

Which one is having more fun?




Does she look like a huge kid here or am I imagining it?



My blurry little ballerina angel princess.

Birthday parties....

Sophia has been invited to 2 birthday parties recently and I wanted to share the pictures of her and her friends so you can see how tall she is for her age. She'll be 15 months old tomorrow (August 14).

You may have seen Clara in our 4th of July pictures. She turned 1 at the beginning of August so she's about 2.5 months younger than Sophia and you can see how Sophia towers over her. Sophia really had fun at her birthday party. She loved the castle pinata game they played outside. One of the streamers was a "magical" one that opened up the bottom and released bubbles and fun bouncy balls. Sophie was really excited to play with Clara's new baby doll and we couldn't get her out of the blow-up moon bounce toy that her Grandpa got her as a gift.



The other birthday party Sophia was invited to was yesterday at Chuck E Cheese. Our neighbor, Liana, just turned 3 years old. You can see that Sophia is almost as tall as Lianna. Sophie was terribly afraid of the live, costumed Chuck E Cheese that mingled with all the little kids in the game room and restaurant, but she didn't mind the "band" which appeared to be mechanical costumed animals. She really kept her distance from them....take a look below. The party was a "Dora" party and Liana's mom made her cake. It looked awesome, but tasted even better.

Strange cravings

I'm warning you, all I want for dinner is grape tomatoes and a cup of milk! And that's it!

Sophie and her babies

Sophia fell out of love with her baby dolls for the last two months, but her adoration has returned after our visit to Grandma's house where Sophia acquired a baby doll pack-n-play, matching swing and bouncy seat. She's loves to sit in the pack-n-play with Bitty. Other times she puts all of her babies into the pack-n-play as if it was a crib. She still loves to take her babies for a walk in the stroller, but now putting her babies down for a nap is a new top favorite game to play.

Recovering after vacation

Sophia and I arrived home on Saturday evening and we're still not caught up to "normal life" within the Alexander household. I've been doing laundry and cleaning and Sophia's been napping and sleeping in to catch up on all the zzzzssss she missed at Grandma and Pappy's house.

And I think she's getting a tooth.....

We had a great time in Pennsylvania. Sophie and I went to the National Aviary in Pittsburgh with Nana (which is how Sophia says Grandma) and Aunt Carole. It was a really fun day. A pigeon got pretty friendly with Sophia, but we thought it just wanted to steal some of her pretzels. My camera didn't quite capture glowing pinkish orange color of the flamingos. A real letdown.

We started our trip by stopping overnight at Big Daddy's house and Sophie played with Jinx and Charlie outside before she decided she wanted to go for a spin in Grancy's car.
Sadie must have thought that looked like fun because the next day when we were leaving she picked the drivers seat! Look out Grancy, careful where you put your keys when these two are around!

Sophie enjoyed cooling off in the plastic pool in Grandma's yard almost every day.




There's so much more to discuss, but I wanted to post these few pictures so you could get a taste of our vacation.

She adores her Daddy!

One this is for certain, Mom is chopped liver whenever Dad is home! Sophia absolutely adores her Dad and can't get enough of him. When she gets up in the morning she races to find Daddy for a snuggle in the big bed. She loves to ride on Daddys shoulders in public - can you just imagine her view from up there?

Daddy is especially fun at all the playgrounds because he's just a big kid at heart and loves to ride the swings and the slides and bouncy things, etc... He's even showing her how to jump off the swing already.

Yesterday Sophia found one of Daddy's hats. She actually wore it for a while and had a blast walking around "not being able to see". After she took it off she decided to carry it around in a basket which was later turned into a "crib" for Bitty and the girls. Take a look at how funny she is.

WOW again.....

Well - another hot day calls for another trip to the WOW Sprinkler Garden. So we packed up our bags on Thursday and headed off for some late morning fun in the sun. Again, Sophie had a blast.

Sophia was actually yawning and acting really tired on the drive to get there so I knew our visit was going to be short-lived. She actually was more interested in "relaxing" on the swing instead of running through the water. She definitely gave it her best shot and lasted for about an hour. (She was literally sleeping before our car pulled out of the entrance on the way out.)


The sun was behind the clouds for a while so I took Sophia's hat off for a while. As soon as she realized that it was missing, she immediately started searching our stroller for her hat. She found it and then tried to put it on.

I wish she would be so diligent about leaving her barretts and bows in her hair. The minute that I try to put them in she starts shaking her head so that all of her hair falls into her eyes. And on the rare occassion that I am able to get the bow into her hair she plucks it out and tries to eat it - almost every time!

Here's a really cute video of her in the sprinklers.

Some old toys become favorites again

For a few weeks Sophie gave up her babydolls, but she's discovered them again and she's feeding them her chicken fingers and plastic toy bottles of milk. She gives them kisses and hugs and will take them for walks in the stroller around the house.

She also has a newfound interest in the interactive ride on toy that Uncle Daniel gave her for Christmas. Not only can she get on and off of if all by herself, but she can also rock it back and forth!

Here's a video of Sophia taking her Mary had a Little Lamb doll for a ride on the car.

There's a first time for everything....

Sophie experienced her first fright on Saturday.

We were in line to check-out at one of our local "everything" stores that will rename nameless. Will was returning something we didn't need to the proper aisle in the store. I was standing in front of the cart unloading our items onto the checkout belt. Sophie was sitting nicely into the child's seat in the back of the cart.

A pretty unsightly older man with a scruff McGruff grey/white beard and only 2 top teeth got in line behind us and walked right up to the cart as if he was going to start pushing it. He got right in her face and said, "BOO". She immediately started shrieking and crying. She was trying to jump into my arms as fast as she could, but couldn't get out of the seat. She was terrified. It all happened so suddenly I didn't know what to do. I quickly saved her from her close proximity to this "freak" but I couldn't calm her down at all. She was hysterical even when I had the cart between us and the man.

Will said he could hear her from the middle of the store. When he appeared she did lower the volume of her screams by one notch, but he had to take her out to the car while I finished up inside.

What a jerk this guy was. You know the type - the kind of creepy guy that invades your personal space and doesn't even realize he's doing it. I did kind of think he felt bad about scaring her, but he certainly didn't say he was sorry! Hrmph.......

How could anyone mean to scare this little peanut?