Here's a video of Sophia playing outside yesterday.

It was in the 60's today (Sunday) and we all got out of the house for a walk around Mulberry Loop. Sophia said HI to all the boys on skateboards as we passed them. She seemed fascinated with the all the older kids playing outside with their big kid toys.

Tomorrow I will tell you about Sophia's near death experience this morning at IHOP. Don't worry, Will saved her from choking on a piece of bacon.

Boo Hiss

A double disappointment: Redskins loss followed directly by Steelers loss!

2008 off to a great start

I'm hoping that this trend continues...and I hope not to jinx it by blogging about it, but Sophia has been really really nice for the past week. She's already had a few opportunities to be around kids and has done spectacular. She announces that she's going to be nice as soon as I tell her that she's going to be around other kids.

We're going to a neighbor's house this afternoon to watch the Red Skins playoff game and 2 little girls live there so I hope she can keep her hands to herself. I kind of have a bad feeling about it since kick-off starts at 4:30 and it is presently 2:30 and she hasn't napped yet, but I have high hopes.....!

--UPDATE--

It's now 4:25 and Sophia went down for her nap about 1/2 an hour ago. I guess all the playing Sophia did outside today really wore her out. I hope she wakes up before 1/2 time. Will just left to go to the neighbor's house. Go Red Skins.

Sophiaisms

Sophia has been doing some extremely adorable things lately and I just have to share.

Sophia = ME!
-- Sophia was riding nicely in the shopping cart this afternoon at Toys R Us when I asked her a question I've asked a ton of times before: Who Is Sophia? She looked right at me, pointed to her chest and yelled out - ME!!! I asked her again and again and she kept doing it. Way to go!! She can say some of the names of her friends. She'll say Addie, Haley, Cole, Riley and Uh-oh (that's Isabella's name because Sophia visited her over Christmas and pushed her down a few times).

Drag Mom & Dad Around
-- Whenever she wants either of us to play with her (and lately we've only been playing Little People) she takes one of our hands and pulls us toward the play room. When we arrive at the play destination she commands us to "DOWN" (which means sit down and play with me please).

Cold or Hot
-- Sophia declares everything either COLD or HOT. Most of the time she thinks her food is going to be "HOT". Whenever she's outside and the wind blows she shouts out "COLD". Her milk and cucumbers are COLD. The running bath water is HOT.

No Shirt, No Shoes, No Service
-- Unless she's wearing shoes, this kid will run around in her bare feet all day long. She's let you know the floor is COLD, but she won't keep her socks and slippers on at all. She also prefers to be totally nude these days (yes, that means sans diaper) and will not stop running around long enough for me to change her clothes or put new clothes on her. It's one of her favorite games! Make Mom Chase Me and Then Wail When She Catches Me Because I Hate Clothes!

Duck Duck Goose
-- This game started as a remedy for her Make Mom Chase Me to Put My Clothes On game, but has since progressed to a real game of duck duck goose. Sophia loves it when Daddy plays and giggles and grins each time she's pecked on the head and named Duck or Goose - it doesn't matter to her!

Home from Christmas

OK - I think I've finally recovered from being gone for over a week. Sophia too. I feel like I'm finally caught up on getting the house back in order and things put in their proper place. I've used my awesome Christmas present, the Dyson, a few times and so has Will (yea!!).

Sophia finally went to bed at her usual time last night - 7:30 pm - and that's after finally! taking a 2 hour nap in the late afternoon. She woke up around 8:30 this morning. Phew...things are getting back to normal.

Well, maybe not totally normal. For starters I'm feeling the baby move all the time now. Little kicks that feel like thuds and thumps. And.....Sophia's speech has exploded in the last week and she's saying so many real words now. She's repeating lots of new words all day long too. In fact, she just held up a Little People Daddy person and told me he is "COOL".

When she isn't playing Little People House with the Daddy, Mommy, Baby, Nana and Car she's playing Little People Farm. Yesterday afternoon while she played Farm she put all of the animals in the silo and then had each on "FALL" out of the door opening. It was hysterical. Right now they are all stuck in the rain drain gutter of her Front Door house toy. Mom and/or Dad need to "save them".

I wish I knew what she was saying....

Please go to sleep

Dear Sophia,

You've been up in your crib twice already today and still haven't fallen asleep for a nap. What gives? It's going on an hour now that you've been up there talking to Barney, Bop and BJ. I was waiting outside your door on the floor for about 35 minutes, but that got a little boring for me. Mom really wants you to take a nap so you'll be rested and happy for the rest of the day.

Love, Sadie

PS - When you wake up, can you please get the bone from underneath your crib for me?

Baby Update

I'm 19 weeks along now and almost at the 1/2 way point (20 weeks). Next Friday, on Jan 11, we're having the gender ultrasound done in the morning. I cannot wait to find out. My intuition is suggesting it's a boy right now. At first I was convinced we were having another girl, but now I'm not so sure.

The baby is about 8.5 ounces now and 6 inches long. It can hear and distinguish between sounds/noises and voices. How exciting to know.

I haven't felt any flutters yet, but I'm pretty sure I have felt a few faint kicks in the evening for the past couple of nights.

Photo Review of our Christmas Travels

Click here: Our visit with the Annie, Adam and their future famous gymnast or Parkour athlete, Isabella (16.5 months)...

Click here: The 2nd Cousin Christmas Tradition Photo Session...
Morgan Baker (6 months)
Cole Hurley (1 month shy of 4 years old)
Sophia (19 months)
Rylee Hurley (15 months)

Click here: Great Aunt Carole gave Sophia a 5x5x5 Dora Tent. It's huge! Sophia absolutely loved running and crawling through the front door and out the back door. Some pictures are taken through the "window" so they look a bit blurry.

Click here: We were at Nana & Poppy's house from Sunday - Friday. Sophia had so much fun playing with all of her new toys and watching her new Barney movies. Lily, Daniel's hamster, was quite a hit too, although I think Sadie wanted to "play" with her the most. (wink wink)

Click here: We stopped at Grancy & Big Daddy's on the way to PA and again on the way home for two days. Happy Anniversary!

Click here: Sadie and Jinx always know how to stir up some fun.

Happy New Year

Wishing you a happy & colorful 2008!

She turned 19 months old

Sophia is officially on her way to 2 years old. She turned 19 months old last week!

She was drawing and I interrupted her to take her picture. She didn't want to cooperate and smile for me, but at least she didn't frown!

This dog has the life!

No Santa this year...

Last year Sophia sat on Santa's lap and didn't mind one bit. Of course, she was only six months old and really didn't have a choice to get up and walk - I mean RUN - away from him.

We've been to several different malls in the last month and have stopped to wave and say HI to Santa from afar. About two weeks ago we stood in line to see Santa and when it was our turn Sophia simply didn't want to be anywhere near him! She was frightened of him and cried super large crocodile tears. Her body tensed up and she refused to sit on his lap or even on the chair beside him. Her crying didn't let up when I sat on Santa's lap and she sat on my lap.

Just this morning we were at the mall again and when I mentioned that Santa was going to be there she immediately scowled up her face and started making a very angry sounding moan. Obviously she didn't want to see him again today. We did stop as we were walking by to wave, but I could tell she was on the verge of tears so we kept moving. I really wish she wasn't so scared of him. I really want to get another picture this year.

Our holiday party

We had a holiday open house on Saturday from 4 - 8:30 for some of our friends and neighbors. The timing couldn't have been better. Sophia woke up from her nap minutes before our first guests arrived. I could tell she was having a blast with all the little ones that came with their parents. She was covered in marker by the end of the night - especially her shirt. These are the two girls that she goes to music with each week and we've done a few play dates with them too: Haley (20 months) and Addy (turning 2 in 2 weeks). Sophia is taller and bigger than both of them at 19 months just to give you a comparison.

This little girl is Olivia. Her dad works with Will. She was born within days of Sophia. This was the first time that the girls met and they seemed to hit it off so hopefully we'll be able to set up a play date. I honestly don't know if Sophia's hand is on Olivia in a "nice" way or if she was bopping her for the 20th time. Her grin looks friendly enough...

Here's a photo of the big kids that came. They had a blast playing on our Wii in the frog (have I mentioned that I'm thrilled to pieces that the Wii finally has a new home!) and unwrapping the crepe paper balls that Will made for them.



The other pictures I randomly snapped throughout the night didn't turn out so great. I'm definitely not the photographer in the family! Here's a link to view the rest.

My little Picasso

Sophia has a new found love affair with drawing, coloring, and now painting. You can see her sprawled out on the floor here working her crayon magic. Not only does she love to color on her large floor pads and in her coloring books, she's picked a few favorite walls, toys and books to autograph. Ironically, when she sees one of these crayon marks she points and exclaims "Ohhhh!" as if somebody did something bad.

On Saturday morning I took Sophia to a "Make and Take" art class. She painted and glittered two ornaments for her mini Christmas tree. She also did a hand print painting so the teacher painted her palms yellow and then made her place her palms down on the paper. Sophia thought this was extremely cool! She's been drawing on herself with markers ever since!

Sophia got a new toy earlier this week. It's a magnetic drawing pad and she can erase her drawings and start over when she's ready. Her friend, Haley, has one and Sophia fell in love with it. Of course I had to get her one of her very own. Take a look at these videos of Sophia and Will.

Drawing Video

Dad Draws Sophia

Tracing BJ and Barney

Drawing with Dad

Drawing Nana and Poppy

News Flash....

This just in:

Sophia has jumped 6 slots from 2006 to become the Most Popular name of 2007 for girls. Are we trend setters or what?

New Words

Sophia has been picking up 1 word a day this week and repeating it over and over again. Here are some of her favorite words right now.

Favorite words by far:
Baby - I don't think she considers herself one, but others definitely are!
Poppy - one of her first words and still a favorite
Barney and Bop (I think these two rotate between #1 and #2 spots)


Last Week Favorites and have now become Regulars
Doggie - says this all the time now.
Nice - I think she hears Mom say this one all the time and now she says it.
Bye - She waves and says Bye to lots of different things. Every time we leave our house (in the car) she waves and says Bye as we back out of the driveway. Every time she hears the toilet flush she runs in to wave and say Bye.

JUST TODAY
Mambie (rhymes with Lambie) Yea, Sophia, I'm so proud of you!
Moon - Found him on our walk home tonight and then in a book at bedtime.

Yesterday
Cart - she kept repeating the word after I put her in one of them to do some shopping.

Her first push-up pop....

Sophia just devoured her first orange sherbet push-up pop and this is what she looked like when she was done.



However messy this looks, believe me it was actually much neater than having her eat a popsicle. At least with the push-up she had a protective covering (or an easy grip) over the cold sherbet.

She ate her push-up outside and then we went for a walk down to the playground again today. It was an unbelieveable 76 degrees today!

This morning I had her totally overdressed for music class and her cheeks were rosy by the time we got home. The poor girl was so warm. She kept her hair bow in until the car ride home and then *presto* *magic* it disappeared in the car somewhere and will probably be discovered in 6 months!

Shedding the sea bands

For the past 10 weeks I've been wearing 2 very unattractive gray elastic bands around my wrists. They kind of looked like exercise sweat bands, but a bit thinner.

I've been afraid to take them off, but last night I forgot to put them back on after giving Sophia a bath and I didn't remember to put them on this morning either and I made it through the whole day without feeling ill at all. Hip hip hooray! Let's hope this is a new trend! Literally up through the weekend I was feeling sick.

Doctors appointment

I had my 16 week appointment this morning. I got to hear the heart beat again. This time it was 154. The doc said everything sounded good. I gave a vial of blood to be tested for the quad-screen and will find out the results at the next appointment. Speaking of the next appointment - it will be the 1/2 way point. The 20 week ultrasound where we can find out the baby's sex! Can't wait. January 11.