My Favorite Ball

Sophie has a new favorite ball. We have actually had it for a while, but she just discovered how marvelous it is. It's small, blue, and covered in suction cups. The fact that it sticks onto multiple surfaces is hilarious! I caught her playing with it today, so I quickly grabbed my camera!

What I also think is cute about the video, aside from her laughing, is her clapping. Sophie loves to clap. Whenever she is enjoying something, she claps. The other night I was woken up from a sound coming over her monitor-this was around 4:30 am. Confused as to what the noise was, I was surprised to see her clapping away. I am still not sure why she was clapping- but am guessing that she had a good dream!

18 Months

Sophie is officially a year and a half. Boy does time fly! We have seen lots of changes in her in these last couple of months. She seems to have lost all of her baby features and is now a toddler! Here is an updated list of facts about our Sophie:

Height: 34.5 inches- officially off the growth chart
Weight: 26.5 pounds- she has dropped down to the 80th %

Likes: Still likes to be outside, watch Barney (unfortunately), read books, play independently,swimming, and helping clean up.

Dislikes: Having her diaper changed. Changing her diaper is the most trying part of our day as she screams, kicks, rolls and spins in avoidance. I am trying different things to help encourage her towards potty training, but so far zero interest.

Sleep: She is officially down to one nap a day, which I have to admit, I dislike.

Eating: She is still very, very picky. We are down to: Cheese, peas, fruit, cottage cheese and yogurt. That's it. I am longing for the days of only fixing mac-and-cheese. Or at least something that she can order off of a menu.

Words: Sophie still babbles quite a bit, but her new word is berries- it sounds like ber-ees.

By the way, in the picture at the top, we were trying to capture her Justin Bieber hair-do. I feel as though I must state clearly, that I do not like Justin Bieber and could not even tell you what songs he sings, but I know who he is since I am a fan of People Magazine. Soph's has got the Bieber fever.

Sophie is definitely a Daddy's girl right now. When he comes in the door, she runs to him and does not look my way until it is time for bed. Her favorite thing to do is to climb on top of him and have him read to her- she is currently obsessed with word books.

This video was taken last month. I wish that I could say that she is a much neater, and cleaner eater now- but no. She is messsy!

Pumpkin Patch!

We found a WONDERFUL pumpkin patch by our house. We got there a half-hour after it opened and were shocked to see how packed it was. Apparently other people think it's pretty great too. In addition to a pumpkin patch, they had a petting zoo, a corn maze, go-carts, tractor rides, a giant bounce mat, swings, and hippity-hops. After the admission fee, everything was free-which was great as toddlers want to do everything. Sophie had a great time running all over, and her parents struggled to keep up. Going here will definitely become an October tradition!

Trying to pick out just the right pumpkin.

Hmm... Searching, searching, for one that's just right.

Going through the corn maze with daddy.

Looking at the goats. Sophie would have preferred to get inside the cage with the goats.

The tractor pulled lots of carts for people to ride in and gave everyone a tour of the pumpkin patch. We sat right behind the tractor, which was fascinating!

The bounce mat was by far the favorite attraction for Sophie. It was gigantic, and could easily hold 30 people jumping at one time. We have to get one of these!

Due to all the jumping going on, Sophie was knocked down and ended up hopping along on her knees. This was fun too!

We found the perfect pumpkin after all!

Playground Fun!

We have been blessed with beautiful weather these last two weeks. It feels great to have such nice weather since we hardly had a summer, and most of September was cold and rainy. We have been trying to get outside as much as we can before the rain comes back- or worse, the snow starts to fall. One of our favorite outside activities has been going to the playground. Sophie is now old enough to enjoy most of the playground toys.

Swinging is still an all time favorite.

Sophie now is big enough to walk up the slide steps all by herself! She is extremely proud that she can do it alone.

Getting into sliding position, with a little guidance from Daddy.

Sliding down, all by herself. Last time we went to the park she played on the slide for 20 minutes and was very sad when it was time to go.

Since there are no rocks to be found, Sophie makes do with bark dust and always has a piece fisted in her little hand.

And of course, one of the great things about the playground is all the room to run! I have a feeling we will be going to the playground in snowsuits this winter.

Bye Bye Bottles

Sophie has finally given up bottles! In truth, she has been ready to give them up for a couple of months now, but we just got around to it. How did she finally give them up, you ask? Well, it was actually an idea that was genius at first, and is now our undoing. You might recall that the first time I presented her with a sippy cup filled with milk, she screamed, cried, and flat out refused to drink out of it. All she needed was a little distraction we thought, so Barney came to the rescue. Now she will scream, cry, and flat out refuse to drink from her sippy cup unless we are watching Barney. We watch Barney 3 times a day, and Carl and I could easily win a Barney Karaoke contest, if one should ever come to town.

In the picture above, Sophie could not decide if she wanted to drink juice or water, so she was taking sips from each. It was pretty cute.