Sophia's Firsts

It has been a while since I last posted. Just too busy and when I do have down time I find I am doing something else. Hopefully now that we are once again ditching the TV I will rediscover some "free" time and recommit to updating the blog more often. A lot has happened in the past 2 months since my last post.

Sophia now has 3 teeth on the bottom and we have learned it is no longer fun to have her suck on our fingers because she bites!

She had her first Thanksgiving in North Carolina. We had a small family gathering with Phillip's second cousins. Sophia also experienced her first "kiss" during this visit.


Her first Christmas was a noisy, chaotic, exciting, family filled blast! Per our family tradition she had her first photo with Santa and didn't scream.





She started solid foods over our vacation and has enjoyed sweet potato, banana, avocado, and of course, rice cereal. She is a pretty good eater and I trust the experience will become even more rewarding when she has a highchair to eat in instead of her walker!

Mmmm.....brown sugar. She's definitely my daughter:)

She uses rolling as a main form of transportation and can sit unsupported most of the time. She occasionally looses her balance but enjoys the world from this new perspective.

Cuddling with Aunt Julia

Resting my eyes with Uncle Skipper

On the steps of 123 Sesame Street at COSI/ Sesame Steet THE BODY exhibit

The "youngests" waiting to go down stairs and see what Santa brought. Grace (8), Julia (22) and Sophia (8mos.)

"The Modern Gramma" drinking a mimosa Christmas day while holding Sophia!

There are many many fun photos to share from out time at home over Christmas including pictures of the Sibling Bake-off between Skipper and I. I will try to set up a Picassa or Fliker account so I can share the photos with you all. I hope you have enjoyed this little update!

More soon.

Sophia's First Halloween

We have had a week full of fun preparing for Sophia's first Halloween! On Sunday we carved her Jack-O-Lantern.



She was more interested in trying to eat the newspaper than the actual pumpkin carving but what do you expect? She's only 6 months old!

On Wednesday she had her very first Halloween party with her buddies at daycare. They all looked so cute dressed up in their costumes.
Tomorrow we will hand out candy to the neighborhood kids. I'm sure we'll have more photos to post then.

Ready for Halloween

We originally were not going to dress Sophie for Halloween because we will just be here at the house handing out candy and she won't remember her first Halloween. I didn't want to spend the $25 or so on a costume she really would only wear once. However, her Nana (Phillip's mom) found a costume at a local baby resale shop and couldn't resist. When it arrived I thought "there is no way this is going to fit." It looked huge! But it worked and wooooowww is she cute!

Sophia is 1/2 today!

Sophia is 1/2 today or in more common terms, 6 months! She is 26.5 inches long and 15.1 lbs. Long and lean. Although she is becoming more curious about food and cups the doctor said he would really like us to continue with the breastfeeding and try to get as close to 1 year as possible before we introduce solids. So that's the course of action we're going to take.

She is cute as can be and developing more of a personality each day. She loves to be held and prefers us to hold her than set her down. Is very strong on her tummy, enjoys storytime and trying to eat books too. Anytime we have a drink in our hand she tries to grab at it. She can roll over, find her pacifier and put it back in her mouth, and hold her own bottle.

Here are a few pictures taken over the past few weeks.

Soft doggy, yucky doggy.

FOOTIES

Phillip LOVES Sophie in footie pjs. These jammies were a gift and we hadn't had the opportunity to put Sophie in them because she was wearing onesies to bed up until about a week ago when the weather finally turned cool. I was afraid she would fit them at all but she does...just barely.

Fall Fun

Last weekend we ventured out to "Cows-n-Corn"-a local farm that does a corn maze, hayride, has a small pumpkin patch, and of course farm animals! We enjoyed navigating the maze and Sophie liked seeing th cow and goats. She was too cute in her first pair of overalls.

Sophie sees the ocean

This past weekend we went to my friend's mother's house on the Eastern shore of Maryland. She lives outside of Ocean City. It was Sophia's first trip to the beach and ocean. Although it was a bit chilly and windy on Saturday I think she enjoyed the fresh salty air, the roar of the waves and some attention from "YaYa" (Becca's mom). We didn't have enough time but I'm already thinking about the next time we can get away. Assateague Island is such a great place. The wild horses just kind of mill about. It was amazing to watch people pet and feed the horses. Some people just do not understand the the horses are wild, will buck, bite, and fight. They are WILD. They got into a few picnics and people would just go right up and take their bags back from right under the horses feet as if it were a small harmless dog. Anyways, the island has beautiful beach, places to camp, walking trail, fishing, kayaking and much more. We are definitely going to have to visit there again. So below are some photos of our weekend trip.

Little Miss Sophie

So I never got around to posting the rest of the vacation photos and review of our week. Now it seems so far past I'm moving on. I do however need to post the pictures of her donning her first swim suit. It was a gift from my dear friend Robi's parents. I looked for suits for her but didn't find any I liked and decided that if she needed a suit I would rebel and just take her into the pool in a diaper...then we received this gem. So adorable. I'm just disappointed she only had the opportunity to where it once and it certainly won't fit next summer. Adorable none the less.


Sophia is 20 weeks old today. Each day I notice a few things that she hasn't been able to do the day before. Last week she realized that she has control over her hands and she can manipulate objects. She became aware that when she stretches out her hands she can make the hanging things on her car seat move and make noise. She actively reaches for things (like my glasses and hair). She is learning to roll over and is about 3/4 of the way there. She just hasn't made the connection that if she pushes just a bit more she can get to her tummy or her back. But it is fun to watch her try.


Phillip and I feel really lucky that Sophia is such a happy baby. She really only fusses when she is hungry. She loves to laugh and smile.


Sophia has enjoyed game day too!


Such a cute family I have!

Sophia on Holiday!

We took our family vacation the first week of August. Having Sophia and Dolly in toe is such a process now! I got home from work around 4pm, Phillip loaded the car while I fed Sophia, we had a quick bite to eat, brewed some coffee, changed Sophia and we were finally in the car! At 7pm! Like mom says "We're offfff......like a herrrrddddd of turtles!" We thought it would be better to leave in the evening so Sophie would sleep through most of the trip but we certainly left much later than anticipated. We made it to NC around 4AM!

Sophia was christened the first weekend we were there so Mom, Dad, Meg, and Julia all came down to join us for the occasion. Meg and Danny and Erin Fox are Sophia's godparents. Phillip and I took everyone to the Asheville Tourists baseball game on Saturday evening. We were excited to share the game of baseball with Sophia and Phillip could not have been happier that her first game was at McCormick field where Phillip and his granddad watched so many games before.
Sophie was christened at the same church where Phillip and I got married. She wore the christening gown that was originally worn by my great grandfather (Pops-born 1900) all of my brothers and sisters and my cousins. She is the 10th person to wear the gown!
The baptismal water was drawn from the Davidson river where Phillip and his Dad spent so much time fishing. It was a very beautiful and symbolic day for us. And she didn't cry!

Carolyn had a few days off to spend with us so we spent Monday in Boone. Carolyn, Sophia, and I shopped and Phillip went to shoot with his mentor. It was a beautiful day and felt so good to be in the mountains. We did some Christmas shopping and I found something I think I'll have to get for Sophie next year. Her very own Appalachian cheerleading outfit! We had a great day but she was tuckerd out by the end!
We saw the Tourists play again on Tuesday night and Sophia "caught" her first fly ball. The third base coach knew there was a baby sitting close to the wall so he didn't really throw the ball but hand it to me. Nonetheless exciting!