Wednesday, August 17, 2011

Moving Is Hard....

Well, its official. We are residents of Manhattan, KS! Its hard to be away from friends, most nights after Sophie goes to sleep we watch lots and lots of Netflix and try to organize our house full of stuff into our 2 bedroom apartment....not an easy task! I start teaching one week from today, and let's just say its going to be DIFFERENT. More relaxed, a more comprehensive math program, letter grades, and time for science and social studies! Crazy!

Sophie has adjusted REALLY well to her new home, and has a great play area in the front room. Speaking of MOVING, she never sits still! She is always crawling, cruising along the couch, and moving toys from one place to another. She's not brave enough to try walking alone yet, but does really well holding our hands. Her bedroom/the office is coming together, and once that's done I'll post pics of the new digs. Until then, enjoy this video of our monster!


Monday, July 25, 2011

10 months

All photos in this post are the beautiful work of Dac and Alisha Call over at http://dacandalisha.com/blog/. We have had 7 sessions with them over the past 4 years, and we have loved every single one! Not to mention they are also friends of ours. They always makes us feel relaxed and laid back, and they capture the most beautiful pictures. OK, now on to Sophie......

Oh my Little Sophie Lou Lou,
Happy 10 month birthday to you! (Ok, it was last week, but we are moving in 7 days and I've been neglecting my sit-on-couch-and-blog time, sorry dude). At your 9 month appointment you weighed 18 pounds and 8 ounces, and you were 26 inches long. Sometimes you are shy and somber-faced, and sometimes you cheeze it up with big grins. You still have bright blue eyes like your Daddy, and you give sweet, sloppy open-mouth kisses any chance you can get.

Every single day you amaze me with all that you are learning and doing. I went to Texas for 4 days earlier this month, and the day I left you were just starting to pull up on the furniture and stand. When I came home to you, you were pulling up like you had been doing it for months, cruising along the furniture, and even standing alone for a second or two. You are going to walk any day now, SLOW DOWN LOVE BUG!

You love upside-down time, playing patty-cake and peek-a-boo, and bath time is still a highlight of your day. You are officially the Splashing Princess of Cowley County! You also smile REALLY big when we sing songs to you. You can say mama and dada, and you point to Porkchop and say "dah!" so we think its dog. Now Porkchop has a new home, and you will sometimes look for him saying "Dah? Dah?" We are working on clapping and waving bye-bye.

My FAVORITE thing you do right now is "read" books to yourself. You pick a book (its usually upside down, but we can work on that later), and then you sit and turn the pages and babble a little for each page. "Bah da ma da be dah. Turn page. Do be dah ma ma. Turn page. Yah de urdle bah!" HILARIOUS. Trying SO HARD to catch this on video, but once I grab the camera you stop....I'll get you soon!

You have 5 teeth, and you are such a good little eater. You have never spit anything out and you love trying new foods. You do kind of hate baby food now; you have moved on the bigger and tastier things. Your favorite foods right now are toast, yogurt, carrots, mandarin oranges, pears, pasta, and chicken. You always want to eat what we are eating, and you also REALLY like to *share* and put your food in Mommy and Daddy's mouths (sometimes after its been in your mouth first, in which case we may exaggerate how yummy it is).

Mommy has let go a little and lets you hold your own bottle, which you are a pro at. (I know, I know, most babies do this MUCH earlier, but I couldn't let go!) I still love giving you your bottle; I miss nursing a little and crave that cuddly bonding time with my babe. So we compromise and I let you hold your own bottle except before bed. That's Mommy time :)
You also can drink with a straw and you are getting the hang of the sippy cup.

You are the very best thing I have ever made. I don't want to brag, but I made some STUNNING collages of magazine clippings while I was in high school, as well as a needlepoint of an angel....with the word ANGEL under it in case people couldn't figure it out. It's hard to beat those, but you my dear are the very best of your daddy and me.

We love you, we are so proud of you, and I can't wait to watch you grow more. You probably learned to walk or drive or speak Spanish or something while I was typing this, so I'd better go check out what you're up to. Love you to the moon and back.

Monday, July 11, 2011

Messy Spaghetti!

Yummmmm, aren't the messiest foods the funniest to give babies? How does spaghetti get in her hair, her ear, and her diaper all within 20 minutes?

We've taken the leap to table foods and there is no looking back, baby girl loves spaghetti, macaroni, cottage cheese, yogurt, grilled chicken, potatoes, you name it she'll devour it! Every stage is fun and new and I can't explain how my heart swells watching this little bug discover her world.

This is my favorite baby.Well, I don't mean Sophie is (although she is my favorite, duh). This is early morning, messy face, goofy hair, barefoot, only wearing a onesie and a diaper Sophie. And she is my favorite. She looks up at me with that big cheesy grin and I need to scoop my heart up off the ground. She babbles about turtle-durdles and giggles at the wall. And she's my sweet baby bug, and I couldn't be more in love.

I love our quiet mornings together, it won't be too long until she's sleeping until noon and going out with her friends and thinking I'm a total idiot just because I'm the mom. For now, we giggle together and stack blocks and play patty-cake. Can't she stay small forever?

Tuesday, June 28, 2011

Video Bomb

Just uploading videos of what we've been up to this last week. Mostly Sophie has mastered crawling with the speed of a torpedo, and has now moved on to pulling up on any and all furniture...and her crib....and my leg.....cruising is not far off for our big girl!

Disclaimer: please ignore the huge mess of baby things in the background, we hadn't cleaned up from playtime. My house is not usually this gross.



And just for kicks, a video of music time and one of her laugh attacks. Enjoy!





P.S how funny is that thing she does with her hands when she is *really* excited? so hilarious!

Saturday, June 11, 2011

Little Miss Crawls-a-Lot

We. Are. In. Trouble! Sophie Lou is MOBILE and getting places! She will be 9 months old in about a week, and she is growing and changing every single day! She can get from one end of the room to the other really well, and constantly tries to be Porkchop's best friend...he's not that into being friends, but they're working on it. Coming soon: video!





Thursday, June 9, 2011

Book Review

Little Lou Lou loves to read books. She also tends to chew on, throw, and hit books, but I can tell she enjoys playing with them! When we read at night she is catching on to "The end!" and always looks up at my face with a huge one-toothed smile. Some of our favorites are The Very Hungary Caterpillar, Gossie and Gertie, and Go Dog Go! Here is her latest review of the caterpillar book. :)

Tuesday, June 7, 2011

A Day in the Park

Ahhh, summertime is here! The end of the year was a tad hectic, but another school year is in the books and now my only concern is to take Sophie to the park, to swim with Sophie, to play with Sophie, and read my Kindle. Did I mention hang out with Sophie? We took a family walk to the park a few evenings ago, she loves the swing and slide (with Daddy, of course).