Happy 20 month old b'day

Sophia turned 20 months old today (gosh it's really hard to believe how fast time flies)! She's taking after Daddy's passion for the computer now that she's finally figured out how to turn her "laptop" ON. Now she likes to sit at her desk and PAY computer for a while each day.

A proud mama

We had company over tonight and Sophia was an extremely nice hostess for the entire evening and then as soon as our neighbors left she crawled right up the stairs, brushed her teeth and went right to sleep. It was amazing.

I was so proud of her. She shared all of her toys, games and baby dolls with Taylor (6) and Riley (10 months). And she didn't hit or push once. I think now that she has some more words under her belt like MOVE and NO she's much better around kids. We'll see if the pattern continues tomorrow morning at gym class. I have high hopes!

Lately it's been hard to get Sophia to stop playing when it's time to go somewhere, eat or even to get a new diaper. She shouts out the word PAY (play) all day long and usually when we're driving home in the truck she'll recognize when we get close and says HOME, PAY. It makes me laugh every time.

Click the arrow in the video to play it. It's not broken even though it has no preview image.

It's a girl

Will and I both thought this one was going to be a boy or at least we both voted that way in the poll. He said he changed his mind from Boy to Girl a few weeks ago, but didn't say anything.

Regardless, Cousin Jack is definitely going to be outnumbered.

We're very excited to be having another little girl. I cannot wait for Sophia to have a little playmate and best friend.

The ultrasound was a lot of fun. They commented on how wiggly and active this baby is and I have to agree. I'm always getting little pokes. The baby is doing great and is exactly where she should be so my due date of May 28th still stands.

Names - no idea yet.

New Sophia movies

Here's a few movies that we took in the last couple of days...

Sophia's been staying up later and later each night. It seems like once or twice a week she'll go to bed at 7:30. Once a week she won't take a nap at all and she'll go to bed for the whole night around 5:30. Most other nights she's been staying up until 8:30 or later. This is Will's attempt to tire her out so we can put her to bed.

Bouncing the ball with Dad before bed I

Bouncing the ball with Dad before bed II

Yesterday afternoon when we were outside I took a few pictures and movies of her, but she really didn't want to be my subject! She also knows that she can preview the photos right after they're taken and she runs to the camera sometimes to see them. In these movies she simply didn't want me to be taping her and she kept running up to the camera to make me turn it off.

Playing outside I

Playing outside II

18 month wellness check-up

well, we were a little late....(she'll be 20 months on Monday).

Here's the vital info:

HEIGHT: 35 inches - 97% (which surprises me, I thought it would be higher)

WEIGHT: 29 pounds 10 ounces - 95% (our scale at home says she's 30) It's scary for me to know it's actually accurate!

SHOT: Only 1 today and it was the last one she'll have to get for almost 2 years! YEA!!! She cried when the nurse was preparing her leg for the shot, but as soon as it was over and she sat up she didn't cry anymore! She knew it was done. I handed her a juice box and a bag of raisins which made her very happy.

Everything else checked out too so she's a perfectly healthy kid. We saw a female doctor today and she was really nice and gentle with Sophia, but that didn't stop Sophia from crying, clinging to me and calling out 'Mommy, Mommy, Mommy' for the entire visit. Sophia definitely remembered where she was and knew she didn't like it! She kept saying HOME.

We got home just in time her to see Moe and the rest of the Doodlebops!

Watermelon outfit

This morning in music class Ms. Virginia commented that Sophia looked so cute in her watermelon outfit. I'm pregnant, so I'm forgiven for this, but it really annoyed me at the time because I don't agree on the name of the color. It's not watermelon (watermelon is pink and this is more of a peach/melon color), but I simply cannot come up with another name for it and have been driving myself up the wall for hours now!

Hmmm..now I'm even more stumped because I just spent 10 minutes looking on the oldnavy.com website for the outfit so I see what they called the color and it's not on the site! Unreal.

Either way, decide for yourself. Pictures.

We're so lucky

The weather has been like spring the last 2 days. Yesterday it was 72 degrees and I was able to go for a run with Sophia and Sadie. Today it's already 67 (supposed to get up to 71) and we just got back from a run to the playground. Very tiring for a prego!

Sophia played outside before lunch today and when she came in her hair was super wind blown. I tried to take some pictures, but I think it was one of those "You had to be there" moments. What do you think?


She woke up at 6:15 this morning after fighting Mr. Sandman in her crib last night until 10PM. It's like she doesn't want to miss a single moment of what might happen around her.

My Gym

We (Sophia and I) joined My Gym yesterday. My Gym is an indoor children's gym with tons of cool activities for her to learn new skills and to burn off some of her intense energy! Plus it will get us through the winter months as mommy gets bigger. Sophia will have a structured 1 hour class each week and an additional hour on another day where they have open play time. The class is on Mondays and I think we'll go to the free play on Fridays. She still has music class on Wednesdays and the Library on Thursday too so I think we'll be able to keep fairly busy.

Sophia was off and running as soon as we entered My Gym and her absolute favorite thing to do was play in the ball pit. She was bouncing up and down in the ball pit and then hiding her entire body under the balls and peeking out at me. At times there was another little boy in there with her, but she kept her cool with some coaching from Mom.

She loved the trampoline, the balance beam, the rope hang/swing, and simply jumping and rolling around on the padded floor mats. If she had the final say she would have skipped the part where we had to sit down for the songs and structured exercises, but she managed to do it with me. The two instructors alternate between structured activities and open free play. Hopefully Sophia can get the desire for free play out of her system a bit on Friday when we go back.

Bowling

Sophia got a mini bowling set for Christmas from her Great Uncle Roger. Tonight was the first time that she's wanted to play with it since we've been home. When she took it out of the carrying container she immediately said Nana (of course this is what she calls both of our moms), but in this case she was referring to Nana Bonnie. I wasn't sure if she was saying it because Nana played bowling with her as soon as Sophia unwrapped the present or if it's because Nana really had some fun bowling on the Wii while we were there.

Either way, these are Sophia's rules for bowling:
1) Have Mom or Dad set up the pins.
2) Take the ball and knock over the pins with the ball in your hand. Do not throw the ball.
3) Repeat step 2.
4) I repeat, do not throw the ball.

Will saved her.

Ok, so yesterday morning we went to IHOP for breakfast. Everything was going perfect and then the food arrived at the table. Sophia gets the Baby Cakes meal with silver dollar pancakes, scrambled eggs and bacon and in the past she's loved it. She went straight for the gross, fatty piece of bacon and shoved it into her mouth. I was able to break it in half before she devoured it. Phew...

One of her new habits lately is to shove the entire piece of (fill in food here) into her mouth at once. She's given up on biting, but I digress...

I had just commented to Will how fatty the bacon was and how gross it must be. We looked at Sophia and she was literally choking on it! I started hitting her on the back. That didn't help. Will is still chuckling at how I looked at him and "shrieked", "Will, she's choking!". I swear her face was turning blue and she was looking at me like HELP! I shoved my finger into her mouth and found nothing.

He started giving her the Heimlich maneuver and up came the bacon and all the milk and cereal she had eaten at home before we left! GROSS! I consider it her very first barf! He definitely saved her.

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!