McDermott Family

Let it Snow!

2012-01-22T15:56:00.000-08:00

It finally snowed! We have had an unusually dry winter until last week. Sophie has been thrilled with the snow in our backyard. Every night when Carl gets home, Sophie runs to him and asks if she can put on her snow clothes. (For some reason, in Sophie's mind playing in the snow is strictly a daddy-daughter activity. I'm fine with this.) Carl is usually happy to oblige, and out they go. Sophie never cares about being cold or what the temperature is outside. She will happily play outside as long as you let her- even if it's only 5 degrees. Brrr!
Daddy has a lot of games that he plays with Sophie. In this game they make snowballs on top of the hot tub and then throw them at the fence. Or Sophie throws them at Carl. Also fun.

Carl has a course set up that he pulls her through. There is even a small hill, which she always screams with delight everytime she goes over it. I have a cute video of it, but for some reason it plays sideways. I am still trying to fix it.

After being outside, Sophie runs to her chair to get "comfy, cozy." We're not exactly sure why she calls it this, but it requires getting wrapped up in 2 blankets. We're hoping that it will stay snowy for a while, because it is such a great activity for her- and she loves it!

Big Sister!

2012-01-12T13:51:00.000-08:00

Sophie is very excited to announce that she is going to be a big sister! We are expecting a baby boy on June 8, 2012. Right now, Sophie is excited for the new baby to arrive. She really has no idea that her whole little life is about to change. Since we talk about babies a lot, Sophie has just started playing with baby dolls, and acting like a little mommy. When I see her play so nicely with her baby I feel hopeful that this will all go smoothly. However, when I see her chuck her baby on the floor in favor of a different toy, I get a little nervous.

So far the pregnancy has gone really well, actually it has been pretty easy. I did not have any morning sickness this time and made it through the 1st trimester pretty much just feeling sleepy. If I had not been pregnant before, I would wonder what all the fuss is about. However, I do know better, I also know that the easiest half is behind me- and I still have the much, much tougher part ahead. Since I have a strong nesting instinct when I am not pregnant, I am officially driving Carl carzy with all of my to-do lists. I want to get things done and get things ready NOW. He of course, is much more laid back and does not see what all the hussle is about.

Here are some of the things on my to-do list:

*Potty train Sophie

*Move Sophie into a big girl bed

*Finish Sophie's scrapbook

*Buy baby boy clothes

*Pick out a baby boy name

*Get baby room entirely ready-months ahead this time

*Clean entire house and take lots of items to Good Will

*Clean spare room- also known as dumping ground

*Paint deck

*Eat large amounts of cake- because really, after doing all those things you would need cake. We'll see how much stuff gets done.

Merry Second Christmas!

2012-01-09T14:02:00.000-08:00

We had another wonderful Christmas in Portland! Sophie, of course, got way too much and completely spoiled- but seemed to enjoy every minute. It was a very relaxing trip, filled with many meals out and visiting family. It was great to see everyone, and leaving always makes me wish that we lived closer to family. But we are extremely lucky that we get to fly so often! We are looking forward to Nana coming and visiting us soon! Here are some of our favorite pics from the trip:
Nana and Sophie made a gingerbread house. I was completely prepared for Sophie to cover herself with frosting and gorge on candy, but this was not the case. Sophie took the task of making a gingerbread house VERY seriously. She added each and every gum drop with precision and did not attempt to eat a single candy. Sophie and Daddy on Christmas morning.

Sophie is just starting to become interested in potty training, so we bought her a Dora seat. She was thrilled and carried it with her everywhere. She did not use it as intended, but decided to sit down on it whenever she needed to sit. Of course, sometimes she wore it as a hat, so we’re not there yet.

Even Dora got in on the act.
Sophie and Rosie delivered presents to the neighbors. Sophie was thrilled that Rosie was a Reindeer.

Merry First Christmas!

2011-12-18T14:45:00.000-08:00

We had our first Christmas yesterday, and had a wonderful time. We came out to the cabin bright and early in our pajamas and found Sophie’s cousins excited and waiting for her. We had a quick breakfast and then prepared for the whirlwind that is opening presents with kids. Sophie needed no encouragement or help opening presents this year. She charged in and had to be reminded to slow down, and wait her turn. She received many, many gifts that left us wondering how they might all fit in our little house. Sophie loved every second of it, and will be thrilled to learn she gets to do it all again next weekend.

Uncle Ry looks on as Sophie and Kyle build blocks.

Santa brought Sophie a Dora backpack and map. Sophie was thrilled and has been carrying it around ever since. Santa also brought Dora underwear, we get the hint Santa- it's time.

Grandma and Grampa got Sophie and Elly Princess Chairs. They both loved them!

After all the presents were opened, we bundled the kids up and headed outside into the snow. All the kids were thrilled to play in the snow, and played outside at least 3 hours. It was a wonderful day!

Carl and Sophie out on the frozen lake.

Sophie and Elly in their Snow Chairs that Val built for them.

Kyle escorted Sophie and Daddy around in the golf cart.

Grandpa braved the cold and built a snowman with the kids. Sophie is adding a finishing touch. By the way, the clump of snow on top of his head is a hat.

All the kids posing by the finished product! They worked great together!

Christmas Cookies

2011-12-14T19:38:00.001-08:00

It's probably some rare form of child abuse that we have never let Sophie have her own cookie before. Certainly not one with frosting. But, we decided that since she has reached the age of 2 1/2, it's probably time. So while Sophie had "quiet time" in her room, I baked the cookies and let her frost one after dinner. She was, of course, thrilled- and kept saying that the cookies were "yummy", and "tasty". We then gave her a nice long bath and put her to bed, where she literally bounced off the walls for about 45 min. Perhaps she will have her next cookie when she is 5.

As you can see, Sophie's frosting skills mirror my own, the more the better!

Yummy, Yummy cookie!

It's Beginning to Look a lot Like Christmas

2011-12-07T15:07:00.000-08:00

Sophie was Thrilled to help us decorate for Christmas. Thrilled. She especially loved helping us put our tree up. She could hardly stand all the excitement and had to be part of every step.

Coming to investigate what exactly this giant box was in our living room.

Carl and I had never set the tree up this fast before- Sophie kept bringing us more and more branches and did not seem to care that they were supposed to go in a certain order.

Christmas lights are very exciting.

Daddy was moving a little too slowly while putting the lights on the tree- Sophie had to come help.

We decorated the tree later, it's a good thing we have lots of non-breakable ornaments.

Happy Thanksgiving!

2011-11-26T21:15:00.000-08:00

We just returned from Portland, and had a wonderful time! Sophie absolutely loves being with her Nana, and I greatly appreciated all the extra help (since Sophie is in a Sassy stage). It was a lot of fun to be able to shop, run errands, go see movies, take naps and relax while Sophie was being well taken care of. In fact, usually when I returned, Sophie would cry because her special time with Nana was over. The only downside to being in Portland? Sophie demands to do the same thing, in the same order that we did the last time we visited. Mom and I had to rack our brains to remember exactly which games we played, where we played them, and even where we were sitting. I can’t believe that Sophie remembers all the details about everything we did on our last visit, but she does. It was hard to take pictures of her doing different actives.

Wearing Jewelry is still very exciting. What’s better than wearing 1 necklace? Wearing 20.

Reading books with Nana- a favorite activity still.

Having a tea party with the kitty. Sophie was quite pleased, the kitty- not so much.

Nana gave Sophie an early Christmas gift of a table and chairs, which she loved! Here she is with cousin Claire having a tea party.

Sophie introduced Claire to Dora. Apparently, it was a very interesting episode.

We are looking forward to going back at Christmas!

Me and My Car

2011-11-14T14:11:00.001-08:00

The moment Carl walks into the door, Sophie runs to him and never looks back. She is thrilled everyday to see her daddy, and of course he feels the same way. Carl has lots of games that he plays with Sophie, which last from after dinner till bath time. One of Sophie's favorite games is playing on her car. For this game, Carl gets our little toy dog, and essentially chases Sophie around the house while she rides on her car. This game usually lasts at least a half hour. Sophie never bores of this game, and will happily play all night.

Sophie has gotten quite good at riding her car. She zips around the house, never slowing for corners or turns. Every once and a while, she will go so fast that she crashes into a wall, which only makes her laugh. She is quite content to sit on her car all night, preferring to ride around everywhere instead of walking. I believe that she is a future city girl.

Stopping mid-chase to play in her kitchen.

Pausing to watch tv- never getting off her car.

The video has an annoying high pitch sound, which is the lovely music the car plays. But, what is great about the video is that it shows how fast Sophie flys down the hall. When she is going really fast, she flings her head back and tucks in her toes, for maximum speed. I'm not sure what she says at the end, but I think I can hear a "booyah" in there. Oh dear.

Halloween 2011

2011-11-01T13:16:00.000-07:00

We had a great Halloween! This was the first year that Sophie really got what was going on, and new exactly what to do. Well, almost- she had saying "trick-or-treat" down, and after receiving candy she would say it again instead of thank-you. This resulted in laughs from adults, and more candy for Sophie. We started our trick-or-treating adventure in the afternoon in Whitefish. All of the Main Street shops open their doors to kids, and pass out free candy. This means that there are hundreds of kids walking around in costumes, which is really fun to see. After that, we came home, had dinner and then hit our neighborhood. Once we were done trick-or-treating, we came home and passed out candy. Well, we thought that Sophie was done, but every time our door bell rang, Sophie would run past Carl, through the front door, and stand in line to trick-or-treat at our house. She is a trick-or-treating genius, and her daddy is a sucker as she got a new piece of candy each time.
By the way, if you are wondering where our pictures of pumpkins are, we did not carve any. I had brought them inside 6 hours before we intended to carve them, but they were still frozen solid. When I tried to cut into the pumpkin, it literally bent the carving knife in half. Living in Montana is super fun.

Trick-or-treating on Main Street with Daddy.

Stopping to see all the goodies mid-teating.

I realized that it was too quiet on the way home, and turned around to find Sophie eating a candy bar. She was a chocolatey mess!

Enjoying some candy after Halloween- notice that she is already a pro, double fisting with a sucker in one hand, and Snickers in the other. Carl and I are very proud.
*Sophie woke up the next day, put her costume on over her jammies and asked to go trick-or-treating again. Unfortunately, she has a long wait.

I Like to Bake!

2011-10-26T14:16:00.000-07:00

Sophie really enjoys helping us bake. As soon as we tell her that it’s time to make cookies, she runs and gets a chair and pushes it up to the counter to help. She is a great helper! Sometimes we get less of the ingredients than required, because Sophie samples as she helps. Other times we get more of the ingredients than required, because Sophie has so much fun adding things to the bowl that she keeps going. So far everything has been edible. Perhaps she has superior cooking knowledge and is already changing recipes for the better. We shall see.

Helping add the marshmellows. Sophie was able to count to 10 for us 3 times to make Halloween Rice Krispies. She then, of couse took some out to sample.

Helping cut the butter.

Yum... peanut butter!

Hmmm, pretty tasty!

Pumpkin Patch

2011-10-18T14:57:00.001-07:00

It has become an annual tradition to visit the pumpkin patch. It was a lot more fun to visit this year, because Sophie is able to do so much more than last year. When you look back, the difference between ages 1 ½ and 2 ½ are really astounding. Aside from being extremely cold, we had a great time!

They had a small hippty hop that Sophie was able to do by herself. I have many a fond memories of hippty hops from when I was young; we might have to get this little lady one too!

They had lots of animals at the pumpkin patch: donkeys, llamas, chickens, roosters, and bunnies. Sophie went up to each animal and said, “Hello donkey, Hello chickens" ect. In Sophie speak it sounds like hey-yo. She then proceeded to try to climb into each of the cages- hopefully this will change for next year.

The recycle tire/horse swing. Always fun when it's 35 degrees outside.

Bounce, bounce, bounce. In traditional Sophie style, we cruised through each of the stations in 1 minute or less. Except for the jumping station, where she stayed put for 45 min. We had to bribe her off. It's hard to say what she liked best.

Portland Trip

2011-10-01T21:41:00.001-07:00

We had another great trip to Portland! Flying to Portland is getting easier and easier since Sophie now gets her own seat, and will sit and watch a movie. Sophie always has a great time at Nanna's because she loves all the animals and- let's face it-Nana never says "No" so Sophie gets away with everything. This time Nana had tons of art projects for Sophie to do, so she glue sticked, play-dohed and colored till her heart's content.

One of our big activities was going to the zoo. Sophie loved going, and tried to climb into the cages- again. Here is Nana keeping a firm hold of Sophie while she tried to climb into the zebra's grasslands.

Nana and Sophie bonding with the orangutan. Future zoologist?

The petting zoo- Sophie walked in and said," Hello goats!" This prompted several to trot over to her, which made her a little scared and resulted in my holding her. I am not a fan of the petting zoo, there was literally goat feces everywhere, so I just held her and waited for our time to be over. Ugh... never again.

Sophie proving that if there is something that could possibly be climbed, she will climb it.

Playing the giant drums, always fun.

At a local park- Sophie showed Nana her climbing ability and Nana got a little scared. This activity was supposed to be for school age kids, and apparently sassy 2 year olds.

Dancing to a band at the local farmer's market.

Sophie loves to walk around in other people's shoes- Nana's were of course, a favorite.

New Trampoline

2011-09-14T13:07:00.001-07:00

Sophie loves to jump. She spends much of her day jumping- jumping across the floor and jumping off things she isn't supposed to. The other day I caught her trying to jump off our kitchen table, which is when I decided that since she insists on jumping she needs a spot to jump. I ordered a trampoline and Carl's parents came over to help set it up. Sophie is thrilled to jump on her very own trampoline. She jumps for at least 1 hour every day. The only down side- she does not like to jump by herself, which means that I too get to jump an hour every day. Hooray! Oh well, at least this little lady is keeping me in shape.Carl and his parents putting our tramp together.

Sophie "helping" putting it together. She could hardly stand to wait so that she could jump.
Finally, let the jumping begin!

Jump, Jump, Jump! By the way- I have full intentions of putting her in her snowsuit and using the tramp all winter. This little lady needs to move and get energy out!

Rocks, Rocks, and More Rocks

2011-09-07T13:39:00.000-07:00

We made sand castles at the library today. The lesson was supposed to be on the beach, but I doubt Sophie picked up on that. If you ask her what she did today she will tell you "Sand castles and ROCKS!" The librarians had all kinds of things to decorate the sandcastles- starfish, shells, flags and rocks. When Sophie saw the rocks she ran right over, grabbed a BIG handful and poured them over her sandcastle. She then clapped her hands and said, "Yea!" I was, of course, mortified that my child had taken a huge amount of the shared supplies instead of the allotted 2. Thankfully, the librarian just gave Sophie a big smile and said, "She must really like rocks." To which Sophie echoed, "Rocks!" and then hopped up and down. We left soon after, I carried the 10 pound sand castle filled with rocks and we snuck out the back. I was afraid if we stayed any longer Sophie would push her luck and add another handful. Moral of the story- little girls in pig tails can get away with a lot.

Sophie almost always has a rock clutched in her hand when we are outside. It is also lots of fun to sneak them inside. I find them in all sorts of places. Today I decided to gather them up and see how many I could find. After 15 minutes of looking I found 13. These were hidden in plain sight- it's no telling how many are hidden throughout our house. In little spots that only 2 year old's can see and little fingers can reach. If anyone is interested in going on a scavenger hunt, let me know.

Hiking

2011-08-24T14:26:00.000-07:00

We have taken a couple of hikes this summer. She is of course, an outdoors girl, so anything outside is wonderful. She also loves to sit in the hiking backpack and we think it’s funny to count how many times people comment on this- “Now, that’s the way to hike,” or “Do they make that in my size?” ect. So far the record is 15 comments.

We had Carl’s friends from college come visit us with their wives and families, (Dave and Sean) and we had a blast catching up and watching the kids play. We were able to enjoy a couple of hikes with them too. Carl is excited for Sophie to be able to hike by herself, as carrying 30 pounds on your back gets a little tiring. But for now, it was great to get out and hike as a family.

Sophie took off her socks and shoes to dip her toes in the water. By dip I mean wade out into the freezing glacier lake up to her shins.

So many rocks to jump off of, so little time.

Love my backpack and my daddy!

Berry Picking

2011-08-24T14:12:00.001-07:00

Sophie loves to go berry picking. LOVES it. For the record, none of Sophie's berries ever end up in a bucket, she eats everything she finds. This is probably why we never end up with enough berries to make anything or enjoy later. We have had fun finding strawberries and huckleberries. Sophie thinks it’s great fun to forage through the forest-it does not bother her in the slightest to end up with scratches and covered in mosquito bites. As long as she is eating berries, she is a happy girl.

The berry picking crew, cousins Kyle and Elly.

Daddy helping Sophie find another tasty berry.

Carl and Sophie , Mac and Elly go off to find the perfect berry patch.

First Ice Cream Cone

2011-07-20T14:25:00.000-07:00

While we were at the beach, we took Sophie for her first ice cream cone. Sophie loves sweets; she seems to have gotten her sweet tooth from her mama. Even though she rarely gets treats or dessert, it seemed about time that she actually got an ice cream cone. So we took her to the ice cream store and surprise- she loved it. For the record, she ate the entire thing.

Not sure how to eat it at first, Sophie tackeled it with a spoon

Hmm.. like this guys?

She's a pro now! When she was finished her nose was bright red from the cone pressed against it.

Beach Trip

2011-07-20T14:08:00.001-07:00

After the wedding we headed towards the beach and had a wonderful surprise- nice weather! We were shocked that the beach was actually warm, and you could actually wear shorts-gasp! However, the ocean remained shockingly cold, and so most of us only braved the water with our toes. Everyone except Sophie, who proved to have no fear of the ocean and would suddenly run towards it, jump in, and get herself all wet. Carl was assigned the job of watching Sophie in the water as there was no way I was getting in past my ankles. Brr! We all had a wonderful time at the beach, and left with many fond memories. We will have to do it again!

Bekah, Carl and Sophie put their toes in the water

Jonas got a kite and impressed us with all of his tricks that he could do!

Carl running to catch Sophie before she went too deep in the ocean

Jonas and Bekah were so nice to let Sophie play with them. All three worked together to build a sand castle.

Family Picnic

2011-07-12T13:50:00.000-07:00

The day after the wedding- and I'm kicking myself because I left my camera at home and did not get a single picture of the wedding-ugh-we all got together for a picnic. Everyone had a wonderful time and it was great to see all the kids playing together. For the record, Sophie ran all of her cousins into the ground and demonstrated how she is busy, busy. In the picture above Meghan is blowing bubbles which was a big hit with all the kids- Austin 18months, Sophie 2, Claire 3, Ali-Lu 4, Bekah 6, and Jonas 9.

Ali-Lu and Sophie coloring together. Ali-Lu was very excited that they were wearing the same dress and kept telling everyone that they were twins.

The boys played a quick game of football, and of course, Sophie wanted to join in. Notice her perfect 3 point stance. Carl is so proud, while I have nightmares that she will be the first girl football player at the high school. Seriously, worried.

Uncle Ralph got a new horse for the kids, and Sophie quickly turned it into a buckin' bronco. She was quite proud that she could get on and off by herself.

Riding around in Uncle Ralph's fire truck. It was a perfect day!

First trip to the Zoo

2011-07-12T13:27:00.001-07:00

I have been trying to take Sophie to the Portland zoo for over a year now. However, every time we are in town it rains. Every time. But finally, it happened! We were all in town for Sam's wedding, and so all of Sophie's cousins got to go together. It was exciting and exhausting at the same time. For the most part, Sophie did extremely well and thoroughly enjoyed the zoo. I was a little nervous because waiting in line is unacceptable for this little lady and she will demonstrate how much she hates waiting to everyone in a 30 mile radius. But again, she loved the zoo and aside from trying to climb into the animal cages, did a pretty good job.

Getting up close to see the monkeys.

I brought the stroller with me, and enjoyed pushing it around empty for Sophie was much to busy to sit and relax. Those feet are made for walkin'.

Watching the seals- I could not believe how big they were!

Sophie and Carl watching the Polar Bear. I am excited to go back to the zoo and next time I won't bring the stroller- although I might need it for myself. I wonder if they make adult models?

Playing at the Cabin

2011-06-13T13:59:00.000-07:00

We spent our first official weekend at the Cabin. Sophie, of course, did great and seemed to have no problems getting used to the guest house again. She napped, ate, and played great all weekend. Sophie's favorite things about being at the cabin are getting to boss around her grandparents and playing with her cousins.

Here is Sophie and her cousins playing with bubbles with Uncle Ry Ry.

Part of the construction still taking place. I think only Sophie will be really sad when it's over.

Bossing around Grandpa on the tramp. She told him when to jump, when to run, when to stand up, and when to sit. She thought this was so much fun that the next day she made Grandma do it. She's a bossy little thing.

Throwing rocks at Lake McDonald. This of course was such fun that she wanted to get in the lake- and very nearly did. Everyone within a 50 mile radius heard how upset she was to leave. The benefit of having a sassy 2 year old? I like to think she's keeping the bears away.

More Blankie Lovin'

2011-06-13T13:45:00.001-07:00

Sophie has taken her blankie lovin' to a whole new extreme. She now wears it on her head. She has two fashionable and lovely styles of wearing her blankie-
1) the pink, frilly nun style where she holds it at her neck. This is a preferred style as one can still have a free hand to play with, and be able to talk and see.

2) the over-the-head Cousin It style. Unfortunately this is her favorite style as it renders her blind and she has to feel her way around the house. You would think that walking into walls would be a deterrent for this little lady, but it is apparently part of the fun.
Since she sleeps with her blankie, and plays with her blankie it is getting harder and harder to sneak it away to wash. Perhaps it might just crawl out the door...

Play-Doh Time

2011-06-13T13:33:00.000-07:00

We have had a wet, rainy month. We have been stuck inside for days at a time. It's awful. What do you do to pass the time, you might ask? Play-Doh. Sophie loves Play-Doh and it easily takes up a half-hour or more. We do this a couple of times a day. I am pleased to say that she has not swallowed any yet- although she does try to sneak it into her mouth every now and then. Luckily her pickiness is paying off, because she just spits it back out. My Play-Doh skills are awesome in Sophie's eyes- I can make a snake. I'm very talented.

We got a bag of toys that helps extend the playing time.

Daddy gets in on the Play-Doh act

I love to sweep!

2011-05-19T12:54:00.001-07:00

Sophie got an Elmo broom for her birthday- she loves it. It combines her 2 favorite things, Elmo and sweeping. For reasons that I'm unaware of, Sophie loves to sweep. It must be genetic because apparently I used to love to sweep too. Having her own broom is a BIG deal for this little lady. Now when I sweep, she will run to go get her broom and sweep with a passion that would make a hockey coach proud. (Although she might get panelized for high sticking.) While she sweeps she says constantly "Elmo sweep" it's pretty cute.

2 year Professional Pictures

2011-05-05T19:13:00.000-07:00

We recently had Sophie's 2 year pictures taken. It was a total disaster. The photographer actually recommended that we reschedule for another day. The main problem was that Sophie refuses to sit still-and smiling while being forced to sit still just didn't happen.There were many tantrums, most of them from Sophie. When we rescheduled I came armed and ready- with lots of cookies, suckers, and marshmallow things that Sophie NEVER gets. She was quite pleased with her treats, and we got some decent pictures. Of course, most of the pictures have her with some type of food, but she was happy so we were happy.

Quite pleased at getting a giant cookie

Seriously, you want me to wear this?

Happy girl- but not for long

Happy Easter!

2011-04-25T19:02:00.001-07:00

We had a wonderful weekend at the cabin. Much to our surprise, the weather turned nice. The 50 degrees outside felt like summer as it had been snowing all week. Sophie got to spend lots of time with her cousins, and Grandma and Grandpa. Sophie especially loved seeing her cousin Elly, who is almost 3. Sophie followed her everywhere, including- much to our embarrassment- into the bathroom. Oh well, maybe it will motivate her to potty train. I think Sophie and Elly are going to be great friends this summer- most of the time- they are 2 and 3 after all.

Dying Easter Eggs was a new experience for Sophie, one that she did not quite understand at first. She kept trying to reach in and grab the egg, or dump the water out of the container. It took a couple of tries, but she finally got it.

Unable to resist touching the eggs.

It was also Sophie's first Egg hunt. She did not understand this concept either and got 2 eggs and decided she was done.

Stopping mid egg hunt to pick some Dandelions.

Grandpa was kind enough to show Sophie how to unwrap her chocolate candy. After trying her first piece of candy she said, "mmm."

The beach at the cabin is being redone, so there are lots of big dirt piles in the driveway. Grandma gave Sophie an icecream scoop and she happily played in the dirt for hours. Literally, she was outside for 3 1/2 hours, and came inside filthy but had a wonderful time.

2 year Update

2011-04-20T19:06:00.000-07:00

Sophie recently had her 2 year checkup and here are her new facts:
Height- 36 inches, this puts her at the 95th percentile. If you believe in the "double the height at 2 philosophy" she will be 6 ft. tall.

Weight- 30 lbs, this puts her at the 70th percentile, which I think is the lowest percentile since she was 6 months old.

Favorite Foods- Sophie is still very picky, and we still dream to order her food off of a menu. In the meantime, she eats oatmeal, any fruit, yogurt, crackers, cottage cheese, mixed veggies in her applesauce- yes, its gross but she eats it- and now toast! We are very excited that she is eating some kind of grain.

Favorite toys- puzzles, balls, books, little people animals. Her favorite activity to do with these toys is to move them to one area, then move them to another, again and again. Sophie also loves music and singing. She is now starting to request favorite songs by name, and when I sing those songs, if I stop she will fill in the word that comes next. Carl thinks we should take our act to Vegas.

Speech- Sophie is starting to talk, which is really fun. It seems everyday she has a new word. We are officially entering the age where we have to watch what we say around her, as she repeats everything.

Dislikes- She still hates getting her diaper changed. I was hoping that this would translate into being potty trained easily and early, but alas that has not been the case.
Another major dislike is being forced into doing something that is not her idea. Sophie has definitely entered the "terrible twos" and will let you know if she does not want to do something. The neighbors probably also know. My mantra lately has been, this stage will pass. Hopefully soon. Very soon.

Aside from her sassyness, Sophie is a pure delight. She has a sense of humor, she gives great belly laughs that make everyone around her smile, and in general is a wonderful little girl. It's hard to stay mad at her for too long when she smiles at you, or comes to snuggle in your lap. I am anxious to see what this next year will bring.

Birthday!!

2011-04-11T14:07:00.000-07:00

Sophie had her 2nd Birthday this Saturday. It was a Barney themed birthday party with everything purple and green. Carl decided that this year we were going to make her cake, which proved to be a little stressful and time consuming. After 3 hours of decorating the cake, we didn't really care what color Barney's eyes were supposed to be. But, when it was all done Sophie seemed pleased with all the Barney decorations- or as she calls him- Marney- and we were glad to say good-bye to Barney. Since the party Sophie has refused to watch Barney, she is now onto Elmo. I think she's Barneyed out. At Last!! By the time it was over, Carl and I were exhausted and very thankful that birthdays only come around once a year.

Carl decorating Barney the night before. Finished product.

Sophie with her cousins Vivi and Elly watching Barney after her nap.

Nana flew out for the big party! Sophie was thrilled to see her again.

Sophie opened her presents in a manic crazed speed that only a 2 year old can do. At one point, she was literally taking gifts out of bags so quickly, that they sailed over her shoulder and up into the air. Poor Elly was sitting behind Sophie had a couple of gifts fall on her head and in her lap. Luckily she didn't seem to mind. I hope that next year Sophie will calm down enough to stop and see her gifts and thank everyone. I can dream anyway.

Sophie with her cousins- Vivi, Kyle, and Elly.

Eating cake. As you can see there was no time for forks and spoons- she had to pick it up for maximum pigging out. For the record, Sophie ate all of her cake and ice cream. Every tiny morsel and was the last one sitting at the table.

Sophie has only had ice cream a few times before and did not know how to scoop it into her mouth. She tried picking up the entire scoop of ice cream and sticking it in her mouth, but it was too cold. Luckily Grandpa was on hand to assist. He made sure Sophie had the proper cake-to-ice cream ratio.

Even though she did show it at the time, Sophie was thrilled with her new toys and gifts. She has played non-stop with all her new things. Thanks everyone!

Material Girl

2011-04-01T13:15:00.000-07:00

Sophie is turning into quite the Material Girl. She loves to accessorize. She has a small collection of jewelry that she wears everyday. No outfit is complete until she is wearing a necklace- or rather-several necklaces. Sophie has yet to learn that sometimes less is more. In her case, more is always better. Note the ever so fashionable pink shoelaces that Sophie wears as necklaces, most of the time they hang sideways like a sash. She must be practicing for Miss America.

Random Pics

2011-03-08T13:51:00.000-08:00

Time has been flying by! I can't believe that in one more month Sophie will be 2! This blog is pretty much just random pics that I have and never posted. I caught Sophie reading to Pooh Bear last month, and ran to grab my camera. Yes, she really is that cute.

Sophie finally uses a straw! I realize that most children can master drinking from a straw around 10 months. Not Sophie- she has always steered clear of straws, and refused to try drinking from them. But the other day she sat down and just started to drink from one, as if she had known all along how to do it. Sophie is a little stubborn- she unfortunately got a double dose from her parents- to get her to do something it has to be her decision. I am a little concerned how potty training will go. Hopefully she will decide to do it before kindergarten.

I should preface this video by saying the first 5 seconds is the only part that you need to watch, I unfortunately don't know how to edit my videos. Anyway, Sophie is still extremely picky and on some days even more so. She still enjoys being fed, and a lot of times Carl will do the "airplane spoon" to get her to eat. This time she decided to do her own airplane.

Nana Visits

2011-02-28T13:55:00.000-08:00

We have been very fortunate to have Nana here with us! Carl was out of town all last week, so Nana came to help! She is staying with us for almost two weeks, so by the time she leaves Sophie will be thoroughly spoiled. Sophie loves having Nana here with us, for many reasons:

*Nana always wears jewelery, which she lets Sophie wear

*Nana has snacks, which she lets Sophie share with her

*Nana is always ready to read or play any game

*Nana lets you play forbidden games like climb on the bed, or play in the pantry

*Nana will sing any song you like, over and over again

It's been great having Nana here with us, it will be very sad to see her go.

Happy Valentine's Day!

2011-02-15T13:10:00.000-08:00

Happy Valentine's Day! Sophie has been sick the last several days with a nasty cold and even worse cough, so our Valentine's Day was very low key. In honor of the big holiday, we decided that she should enjoy a piece of cake with us. This was a BIG deal, as Sophie does not get any sweets, and the last time she had cake was at her cousin's birthday in June. Even though she was out of practice, she tore into the cake with no hesitation. She did a great job eating her little slice and got cake all over her cheeks and in her hair. The best part about this- the late night snuggles when she still smelled like cake. Mmm... cake...

So pleased with her cake. She has some fisted in her hand for later.

Eating her cake- and notice- still holding on tightly to the piece in her other hand.

Out With the Old, In With the New...

2011-02-07T19:44:00.000-08:00

A couple of weeks ago I took Sophie's passie away. She still gets it when she sleeps, but during the day she does not get it any more. After several days of protesting, she stopped asking for it and I felt quite proud of myself. Alas, my almost 2 year old outsmarted me. She now sucks on her fingers- usually her pointer finger, sometimes her thumb. She sucks on them when watching Barney or when reading a story. Now I have to decide which is worse, thumb sucking or passie? At least you can take away a passie, but you have fingers where ever you go.

ABC's

2011-01-29T12:44:00.000-08:00

I will be the first to admit, Carl and I are pretty easily impressed. We, like all parents, happen to think our child is smart. But now we are even more impressed. Sophie appears to know her alphabet. Really. She loves the alphabet puzzle, and we still do it about 3 times a day. The other day I asked her to hand me a certain letter, and to my disbelief she found it and actually gave it to me. We then made a game out of pointing to different letters and she seems to know them all. By the way, if you thought this game would be a quiet, sitting still activity-you would be mistaken. Sophie does not sit still quiet or any other way. Future Rhodes Scholar? Perhaps...

Swimming

2011-01-24T18:54:00.001-08:00

Sophie loves going to the pool. Having her comfortable in the water was one of my main

goals, as she is around the lake all summer. I think I can safely say, mission achieved! Sophie has no fear of the water-never has- and plays in the water with a certain reckless abandon that frightened her swim instructor. I was told that she was not the most dangerous kid in the water, but was up there. Darn, we really do strive to have her be the best.

Here is Sophie swimming in the water- Carl has his hand under her keeping her afloat. This is an accurate picture of what she looks like in the water- she just takes off in a certain direction and is unconcerned if you are going with her or not. Needless to say, having her head underwater is not a deterrent for this little lady. I think she thinks she has gills.

Sophie saw some big kids jumping in the deep end, and not to be out done, wanted to do it too. She showed them!

Sledding

2011-01-19T14:58:00.001-08:00

We had a TON of snow- and then it rained for an entire week making most of our snow disappear. Before it was gone completely, we got Sophie dressed in her snow gear and voyaged to the backyard for some sledding. For the record, getting her ready for snow is a good 10 minute process. Not surprisingly, Sophie loved the sled. Carl dragged her around the backyard for a long time until her little nose turned bright red. She also loved going fast and didn't mind falling off- she just climbed back on and wanted more! I am sure that we will get more snow, and Sophie will be waiting with her snow boots on- literally, she loves the boots and clomps around in them all day. I have even resorted to hiding them.

Carl refers to her passie as her "mouth guard." It turned out to be a good thing, she tipped over a lot!

Carl shows Sophie the finer points on how to make, and throw the perfect snowball.

Clapping, because making snowballs is such fun!

Puzzle Mania!

2011-01-13T13:01:00.000-08:00

Sophie has a new favorite activity- puzzles. She will work on them several times a day.
Usually once she has completed the puzzle, she dumps it over and starts again. She cycles through different favorites, this week it is the alphabet puzzle. I am pleased to say that she can place over half of the letters in the right spots by herself. Carl's mom told me that he used to love doing puzzles too, so she must get that trait from him. It is certainly not from me- puzzles rank right up there with Scrabble and getting a tooth drilled at the dentist. If she starts to like to spell and play Scrabble then Carl will have to stay home with her, because I will no longer be able to play with her. I will have other fun things to do, like go to the dentist.

Christmas Part 2

2011-01-05T12:31:00.000-08:00

We made it back from Portland, and are glad to be home for a while! Sophie was very pleased to be back at Nana's house- and succeeded in destroying the place in under a day. A new personal record. Since she had just a Christmas, she knew exactly what to do and was able to focus on opening her presents. One of her favorite gifts, a new Barney stuffed animal that sings. This gets played a lot. Thanks Nana-can you sense the sarcasm?

My mom has a Latin CD that Sophie loves. LOVES. She asks to listen to the song at least 6 times a day. We all took turns dancing with her. Here is Uncle Sam striking his best pose.

We waited in line Christmas Eve to see Santa. Carl and I knew ahead of time that this would not be a pleasant experience for Sophie, and that she would be screaming in the picture. What I did not anticipate was her super strong arms and her amazing ability to cling to Carl in order to get away from Santa. After about 30 seconds of trying to pry her off, Santa looked at Carl and said, "Let's do a family picture instead." So now we have a family picture of Sophie looking dazed and worn out from her scream fest and Carl and I happily smiling at the camera.

We had a wonderful Christmas, and are adjusting to being back home. For Sophie this means not having 3 adults and a dog chase her everywhere she goes, and for me this means not having desert after every meal. No small square of fudge after breakfast, how am I to face the day?

Christmas- Part 1

2010-12-21T14:20:00.000-08:00

We just celebrated Christmas! Doesn't everybody celebrate Christmas twice? We do. We had the McDermott Christmas first, and are flying to Portland to have my family's Christmas on the actual Christmas. Sophie is going to grow up thinking that everybody gets to have 2 Christmas celebrations. McDermott Christmas is truly like Christmas day. We wake up and do stockings, open presents, eat entirely too much, and watch the kids go crazy on sugar highs and new-toy excitement. Sophie spent most of Christmas running around and watching what the other kids were doing. She could not be stopped to worry about what she was getting, she had to see what the big kids got! We are very lucky that Mac and Emily's children truly care for Sophie and don't mind her following them around everywhere. Even, to our dismay into the bathroom. We had a wonderful Christmas, and are now resting up to prepare for Christmas (again).

Sophie stops to focus on her new toy. Mainly I just like the picture because I think her pigtails are so darn cute. The stick straight out of her head like Pippi Longstocking.

The big kids could hardly stand that the littlest one had the biggest present under the tree. They kindly offered to open it for her. As you can see, Uncle Ry lends a helping hand to keep Sophie in one spot. It was not long before she took off again!

Finally, after all the gifts are opened, Sophie pauses to look at her new toys. Now we just have to find room for everything.

Children's Museum

2010-12-14T13:51:00.001-08:00

While we were in Portland, we visited the Children's Museum. It was wonderful, and we could have spent all day there. I took a couple of pictures of Sophie's favorite rooms- we will definitely have to go back!

The grocery store- Sophie shopped and shopped! They had everything that a real store has, including scales to weigh fruit, and a checkout that beeped when you slid your food across the scanner. I loved that everything was reachable for little hands!

The water room- it was lucky they had waterproof aprons for the kids to wear, because Sophie had a great time splashing! She loved watching the water shoot out of pipes, and collecting all the rubber ducks. It is unfortunate that they did not supply aprons for the parents to wear.

The dig room- Sophie spent a lot of time here- and was one of a few girls to do so! She loved playing in all the rocks, filling her bucket and watching the little boys. I am sure that we will visit this museum again, maybe even at Christmas!

19 Months

2010-12-06T14:41:00.001-08:00

We just got back from Portland, where we spent the last two and a half weeks. It was great to spend a longer amount of time, and I am pleased to say that we got everything ready for Christmas! Sophie had a wonderful time, of course, and enjoyed spending lots of time with family. She is now getting to a fun age where she is starting to pretend- we had many tea parties! It was easier to leave knowing that we will be back soon.

Sophie was very fortunate to be able to see her cousin Claire almost everyday! They spent a lot of time playing together while the mommies got to sit and chat. It was fun to catch up!

This trip, I was able to meet up with my high school friend Heather and her son Marek. We enjoyed a nice lunch while our kids stared at each other, and of course, wanted what the other was eating.

Rosie and Sophie are still best friends and played a lot together. Seriously. Their favorite game was chasing each other around the house. This was great as it wore Sophie out. Sophie loved to give Rosie pats-very firm pats. It's a good thing Rosie is a kind-tempered dog.

Nana brought out some classy jewelry from the '80's which Sophie loved. She spent many days walking around looking like Mr. T. Her favorite necklace- a thick gold chain. It completed many outfits.

Oh Cristmas Tree!

2010-11-17T12:41:00.000-08:00

It is very Christmassy at our house. I realize that it is a little early to decorate for Christmas, but since we are going to be in Portland for a couple of weeks, now seemed a good time to decorate. We only put out about a third of all of our Christmas things- no glass- and have yet to put up our Christmas Village. Village= lots of glass, small items, things lost forever. We did however put up our Christmas Tree. The tree is strategically decorated. All glass and fragile items are on the top, all ornaments that can be handled with grimy little hands are on the bottom. Or at least they were. Sophie loves to take down all the ornaments that she can reach. She has surprisingly long arms. Throughout the day she takes the ornaments down, and now will put them in a box under the tree. This took a bit of training. At the end of the day, I decorate the bottom half of the tree, again, and the fun begins another day!

Sophie's box filled with ornaments.

Looking at the lights on the tree. Notice how the tree does not have any ornaments left.

Professional 18 Month Pictures

2010-11-07T18:24:00.000-08:00

We recently had Sophie's 18 month pictures taken. Sophie loves the bright flash of the camera and thoroughly enjoyed every minute! Due to all of her excitement, she was dancing around on the table and happened to fall off. This brought lots of tears, not because of the fall, but because she was upset that her picture session was over. So, we put her back on the table where she promptly got back into position and smiled at the camera. I'm sure she was thinking, "Ready for my closeup!"

We brought her trick-or-treat bucket and placed an enticing mint inside. She could not wait to reach in a grab it!

Clapping, because taking pictures is such fun!

Sitting on blocks and smiling after her big fall.

Halloween Weekend!

2010-11-01T13:20:00.000-07:00

We had a wonderful Halloween Weekend! It started Friday night, where we braved the cold and went to Whitefish to trick or treat on Main Street. This was really fun, although we had no idea that it would be so crowded, it was literally shoulder to shoulder walking. Sophie loved her first trick or treat experience. She held onto her bucket and proudly walked the streets with the big kids. When she got candy in her bucket she would grin. She enjoyed it for a total of 10 minutes, and then decided to sit down in the middle of the crowded street and look at everything in her bucket. We carved pumpkins on Saturday, which Sophie thought was very fun and interesting for about 10 seconds. Then she was off, with better things to do. Finally on Sunday, we enjoyed Halloween for the entire day. We decided that since Sophie is a celebrity at church, and celebrities can get away with anything, she would come in her costume. She was, of course, a big hit. Later in the day, we went trick-or-treating around the neighborhood and then Sophie helped pass out candy. She was one busy butterfly!

Sophie and Carl trick or treating in Whitefish. You can tell it's cold because Carl is wearing a sweatshirt.

"Stirring" the pumpkin seeds.

Enjoying the pumpkin for the final 2 seconds. By the way, Carl dressed her in this lovely outfit. If you squeeze your eyes tight, it almost matches.

Getting ready to trick or treat. Note the matching passie. A girl must plan her accessories accordingly.

The back of Sophie's costume with her wings.

Sophie and I trick or treating.

Looking at all the candy.

Sophie's favorite part of the night was taking her candy out of the bucket and putting it back in. And out again, and in again.

My Favorite Ball

2010-10-25T18:41:00.000-07:00

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

2010-10-19T14:18:00.000-07:00

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!

2010-10-10T15:10:00.000-07:00

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!

2010-10-06T13:13:00.001-07:00

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

2010-10-03T13:51:00.001-07:00

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.

Blankie Lovin'

2010-09-21T18:39:00.001-07:00

We have known for a while that Sophie has formed an attachment to a particular blanket. It's soft pink with a satin trim, and overall very girly. Her blanket attachment has gone to a blanket obsession. She takes it everywhere with her-drags it around the house, and never lets go of it. I so far have successfully been able to keep blankie in the house, but I am sure that one day, this too will come to a battle. And really, who am I kidding, she will probably win. For now, I have been trying to keep the floors really clean and sneak the blanket into the wash often. That is until this morning, when she caught me sneaking it into the dryer and then proceeded to pound on the dryer while sobbing. I had to remove her from the laundry room kicking and screaming. I'm not kidding. Now I am on the hunt to find an identical blanket for backup purposes. Again, not kidding. I took some pictures of Sophie last night with her blankie-

Wrestling with Pooh Bear, and of course blankie. Yes, Pooh Bear wrestling is still a nightly activity. She now goes into her room and drags poor Pooh to the living room by his t-shirt. He is looking slightly worse-for-wear.

Here is Soph's being a rascal and trying to touch the cable box buttons. She knows that this is a no-no, perhaps it was blankie that made her do it?

Stopping mid wrestling match to give blankie some lovin.

It's always nice to have a blanket at hand- er, foot- while reading some of your favorite books.

Dancing Queen

2010-09-12T19:47:00.000-07:00

Sophie has always loved music, and loved to dance. Her dancing normally consists of bobbing up and down to the music. While we were at Nana's house, Nana decided to play some Spanish Flamenco music and danced around the kitchen. Sophie thought that Nana's dancing was great, and decided to join. She was quite pleased with her new dancing ability, and ended up dancing around the kitchen for a good five minutes. We will have to find one of those CD's to play for her here. Enjoy Sophie's dancing!

Nana's House

2010-09-12T18:37:00.001-07:00

We just got back from Nana's house, and had a wonderful time! Aside from the flights, Sophie enjoyed each minute. In Sophie's defense, she probably would enjoy flying more if I would let her run down the aisles, kick the chair in front of us, and eat continuously for 3 hours. But again, once we got there, Sophie had a blast. Nana's house has a lot of great things- Nana, of course, and pets! Sophie loves animals, and since we do not have any, they are a BIG treat. Unfortunately, this trip I did not get any pictures of Sophie with Rosie- the dog. I am not exactly sure why, because they literally followed each other around the house all day. Rosie especially loved having Sophie during meal times, because she has the unfortunate habit of dropping food onto the floor when she no longer wants it. Rosie never missed a meal.

Feeding the animals was very exciting. Here, Sophie is feeding Twinkie, the neighbor cat, who adopted my mom for a new owner.

Sophie is trying to scale my mom's gigantic bed in order to give Suta a pet. If you look closely you will notice that their feelings towards one another are not mutual, as Suta's ears are going flat and to the side. This is cat speak for "get away little human."

Those of us who know Sophie well know that she loves an open fridge. She loves my mom's fridge the best as it has a little spot for her to sit inside. Whenever we opened the fridge, she came a runnin'. We had a great trip!

Orange You Glad I Didn't Say Orange?

2010-08-29T18:31:00.000-07:00

Picky eating has gone to an entirely new level. Sophie now refuses to eat anything orange. This includes her previous favorite foods- carrots, sweet potatoes, cheese, and goldfish. All of these items are now cast aside. Carl thought that I was kidding about her new anti-orange rule, so we did an experiment. We took rainbow colored goldfish- which come in purple, green, red and orange- and placed them on the table. She ate each one, except the orange. Repeatedly.

To banish all orange objects from her tray, Sophie has a special system. All forbidden orange food is segregated into the cup holder portion of the tray. If we take an object out, and place it back in the middle of the tray- this item is picked up and tossed to the floor. Since we do not have a dog, this is not acceptable behavior, and so we put up with her segregation system.

What does she eat now, you might ask? It is tricky. She still eats oatmeal for breakfast, with a banana. She will still eat yogurt and cheerios for a snack. But lunch and dinner times are proving difficult. She is down to white cheese, mixed veggies- corn, peas, beans- and fruit. That's it. I may possibly have gray hair by the time she is 2.

Picky, picky, picky!

2010-08-25T12:51:00.000-07:00

The unthinkable has finally happened. Sophie is a very picky eater. It's very sad. It seems as only last month Carl and I were patting ourselves on the back, thinking that we were such great parents, our Sophs would eat anything! Then, seemingly overnight, Wham! Pickiness arrived. She is now strictly on a veggie, fruit, dairy diet. That's it. No bread, pasta, meat of any kind, nothing with a sauce- or wet texture. No eggs, beans, or anything combined. Everything must be in isolation. It is very stressful finding foods with protein that she will eat. Now she is very much like Sam-I-am, she will not eat meat on a plane, in the rain, on a train- it's driving me insane! Every book that I read tells me that this is only a phase, she is just showing her independence. I am hoping that this phase is over very quickly. Very, very quickly.

Sprinklers are fun

2010-08-09T19:53:00.000-07:00

Sophie just recently discovered the fun of sprinklers. One was set up at the cabin, and Sophie's cousins were running through it. Of course, as soon as our backs were turned, Sophie ran through it in all her clothes. Not wanting to spoil her new fun, we stripped her down to her diaper and let her loose! She had a great time and continues to have no fear of anything water related.

It's important to get a good running start before you go through.

Sharing a quick laugh with Daddy.

Looking at her cousins, as if to say, "Hey guys, come on in- the water's fine!"

Oh, the Joy of a Spoon!

2010-08-09T19:38:00.000-07:00

Sophie has just started to become interested in eating with a spoon. As you will see from the pictures, she pays no attention to which side she is using. This is (of course) due to the fact that she is a genius, and is inventing new ways to eat. It's messy, but really fun to watch!

Here she is placing Spaghetti O's individually on the spoon in the bowl.

Using the opposite side of the spoon- this provided a fun fling action when she took it out of the bowl- which resulted in the wall behind her being scrubbed clean during nap time.

And finally, forgetting the spoon and just using her hands.

15 months

2010-07-28T18:35:00.000-07:00

Sophie recently had her 15 month check-up, and we have some new stats to report:

Height- 32 1/2 inches- 90%

Weight- 25 lbs-90% (yes, she is officially a quarter pounder)

Teeth- Still those same blasted 8 that she has had since she was 8 months old.

Favorite foods- Any kind of fruit, any kind of dairy but particularly cheese, goldfish, and juice

Disliked foods- the only foods that we have found her to dislike are broccoli, cauliflower, and asparagus. These foods are fine with us, as we do not eat them either. I am desperately hoping that she will hate pickles as well, as I can not stand the sight of them. I have yet to let her try any for fear that she will love them and I will be forced to touch them (shudder).

Words- She currently says parts of words for words- ba (ball) bah (bath) buh (bear) nah nah (no no) mah (more)

Naps- She is still taking 2 naps, which I love as it gives me a couple of breaks in the day, but I fear they are coming quickly to an end. Sigh...

Favorite Activities- Swimming in the pool, and anything outside. Sophie can spend literally hours walking around outside, picking up rocks and collecting them in buckets, and just exploring. She will be very upset when it is winter and we are inside.

Here is Sophie at her water table, as you can see, she is trying to get in it.

Here is Sophie on the tramp at the cabin. Carl and I like it because she is in an enclosed space, and we can actually sit down and rest.

Cabin Activites

2010-07-14T09:06:00.000-07:00

Summer has been flying by and I cannot believe that it is already the middle of July. We have had a relaxing summer so far, doing our normal routine during the week and going out to the cabin on the weekends. It has finally gotten nice here, so we have been able to spend a lot of our time outdoors. This is mainly Sophie's influence, she loves being outside and will often go to the door and sign more. At the cabin, one of her favorite outside activities is walking around on the driveway and picking up rocks. She will easily do this for 45 minutes or more. We have quickly learned that she is a tough little lady as she falls over repeatedly and does not cry when landing in the gravel. She is however starting to look like a tomboy with skinned up knees.

In this pic, Sophie is running away from me as she fears that I will try to pick her up and take her inside. Now that she is walking, being picked up and carried is something that she hates. I am certain that her first words will be "by myself." She is a very independent little lady.

Another of Sophie's favorite cabin activities is following the big kids around. She wants to be wherever they are, and doing whatever they are doing. Although you cannot tell from the picture, Sophie had followed a group of boys over to launch rockets, and of course wanted to do it too. Luckily, her daddy was there to lend a hand.

Of course, one of the highlights of the cabin is the lake, and Sophie has proven to be tougher than her Mama by going underwater already. In my defense, the lake is cold. Really cold. Sophie has gotten in several times with her daddy and then loves to play in the sandbox- and proceed to get covered in sand. By the way, sand that is stuck onto sun screened legs is really hard to get off.

When we are inside, Sophie loves to play with the Leggos. We are not sure why she loves to get inside the Leggo box, but this is another favorite activity. All of these fun cabin activities means that she will be very sad when fall and winter come.

Vacations!

2010-06-29T14:04:00.000-07:00

We just got back from our vacations to Oregon and California, where we had a wonderful but exhausting time! Sophie and I went to visit Nana for a week, flew home and then left the next day for a wedding in California. Sadly, I did not take any pictures when we saw Nana- not sure why, and kicking myself now- but took plenty in California. One of the highlights from our CA trip was going to the Pepperdine campus. Full of nostalgia, we toured the campus and decided that we should try to go back to college. It was unbelievably beautiful, and we could not believe that it's been 10 years since we graduated. Carl and Sophie walking in Alumni Park.

While we were at the hotel, we had some time to kill so Carl took Sophie for a swim in the pool. She was a little shocked by the cold temperature of the water, but happily played until her lips turned blue. Below is a video of her fantastic diving skills. We are certain that she will win a college scholarship for her belly flop skills. Prepare to be impressed.

This last picture comes from the mall. Sophie was thrilled to find a playground in the mall, where she could play with other kids. She was very cute to watch as she wandered around to all the different kids and watched them play. She then became fascinated by this blue car- of course blue- and thought that she was such a big girl driving it. We had a blast!

I Love the Sandbox!

2010-06-13T19:39:00.001-07:00

We spent our first weekend of the year at the cabin. This was an especially exciting weekend, because Sophie got to have birthday cake! Oh boy, does she ever love cake and ice cream. It is lucky that she does not get it very often, because she did not take a nap due to all of the sugary goodness. Instead of a nap, we decided to take her down to the lake and let her experience the sandbox. This may have been just as exciting as the cake. After she had been in the sandbox for a few minutes it became apparent that she needed to be stripped down. She had sand everywhere! Even, we discovered during bath time, inside her belly button. She played for a straight hour, and cried when we took her out. We foolishly thought that she would try to take a nap again. Silly, silly, parents. With birthday cake and the sandbox, who has time for naps?

Happy Father's Day!

2010-06-13T19:28:00.000-07:00

We celebrated Father's Day a week early because Sophie and I will be gone the following weekend. Carl got to plan the entire day- he slept in (till 7:30 wow!) then we went on a hike to Avalanche Lake, and went out to the cabin for a steak dinner. It was a gorgeous day- finally no rain, and we got to experience a Montana rarity- short sleeves! Sophie Loved the hike, she babbled to each person we saw, pointed and babbled at different things , and kept patting Carl on the back of the head and saying "Da Da." She absolutely loved the backpack. We were hoping that she would fall asleep on the hike, but no such luck. It was way too much fun. Here are some of our favorite pictures from our hike:

Nightly Activities

2010-06-09T08:45:00.000-07:00

This is Sophie's new favorite nightly activity- walking back and forth between objects. She will start this right after dinner and do it until it's time for bath. I'm sure you're thinking that this must wear her out and she goes right to sleep, but no. She is so impressed with her walking ability that she can take up to an hour- or more- of playing in her crib before she finally goes down. Walking is just way to exciting. Also- notice the Pebbles hair-do, it's a BIG hit with all the old people at church and at the grocery store. She's kind of a big deal around here.

My Walker

2010-05-31T19:14:00.000-07:00

Our little Sophs has all the sudden really started to wanted to walk. She does it now from object to object- table to chair- with out being prompted or bribed by the cell phone or remote. Ah, what would we do without the phone or remote? Sophs would never have learned how to crawl or walk with out them. She now really enjoys using her walker- although she is a terrible at steering, so she requires Carl or I to follow along behind her as she is constantly running into walls.
Here is my latest video of her- Warning- do not watch on a full stomach as much shaking occurs. The Blair Witch Project might have nothing on me.

Trials and Tribulations of the Sippy Cup

2010-05-23T18:50:00.001-07:00

Upon turning one, all the parent books recommend that you switch formula for milk and stop giving a bottle. This is supposed to be done cold turkey, and apparently babies have no problem with the switch. Well, this seemed rather harsh to me- you turn one and you suddenly have to give up the one thing that has been comforting to you since the day you were born. On the upside, you get a piece of cake. Let me just say- the guide books were wrong. I decided to go slow- I added an ounce of milk to her bottle each week and thought that I would switch her to a sippy cup once she was drinking all milk. The switch to milk, even an ounce at a time, was horrendous. Sophie had a horrid diaper rash for the first 3 weeks- it even cracked and bled, poor baby. And I don't know who these babies are that don't seem to notice or care that they have cow's milk in their bottles, because Sophie let me know- very strongly- that she noticed and cared about the extra ounce. After 5 long weeks though, she is finally drinking all milk. Hooray!

Now the battle to give up the bottle began. I had an inkling that this was going to be a fight as well. The prior weekend we were at the cabin and I forgot her bottle. No problem, i will just put it in her water bottle- exactly like her milk bottles, except it holds 4 ounces instead of 8. She flat out refused to drink her milk from this bottle. I still charged ahead and decided to make the switch to the sippy cup. It did not go well. She refuses to drink from one, no matter what is inside it. Everyone kept telling me to try different kinds, she will find one that she likes. I am now the proud owner of 12 sippy cups that she refuses to drink out of.

I thought that I had a genius idea and decided to try some role playing. I brought out pooh bear, he drank from the sippy, then I drank- all the while she is laughing and smiling- and then I gave it to her- nope. Now I have apparently traumatized my child because even the sight of a sippy cup makes her scream or cry. Perhaps we will skip the sippy cup phase and go from bottle to cup. Hopefully this will happen before kindergarten. If not, good thing she's cute- they can get away with anything.

Happy Mother's Day!

2010-05-09T19:16:00.000-07:00

I would like to say that Sophie was aware that it was Mother's Day and decided to sleep in for me, but she was up and at 'em at 6:15. She did however give me the best gift- she took 3 steps! Hooray! Carl and I are so proud of our little muffet that we feel the need to tell strangers about this amazing ability. I am trying to get pictures of her standing and walking, but the camera is so distracting that she immediately stops what she is doing and comes right at it. But I will keep trying!

Sophie on Mother's Day this year-

Sophie on Mother's Day last year. What a difference a year makes!

One Year Updates

2010-04-29T08:54:00.001-07:00

We recently had Sophie's one year photos taken. I was very pleased to find a photographer to come to our house to snap the pictures, where we have an endless supply of Cheerios, puffs, and other enticing baby food to keep our little one happy. Here are her current stats:

Height- 30.5 inches- 90%

Weight- 23 lbs-80%- yes, she is taller than she is wide, phew!

Teeth- Still 8, I say still because it seems like she has been teething her back molars forever. Still waiting for those suckers to pop up and make life less painful for everyone.

Sleep- We have entered the good life, Sophie now sleeps from 7:30-7:00. She is still not a very good napper, she takes 2 naps and we are lucky if each nap lasts an hour.

Food- Meals are the highlight of her day, she often cries when the food is gone. Bananas are her favorite food, and she can easily wolf down the entire 'nanner. She often will give me a glare if I try to share her nanner with her. Right now we are trying to wean her off formula, which is proving difficult as she does not like milk. I have been sneaking a little into her bottle everyday, we are now up to 2 ounces of milk per bottle. Sophie now stops drinking from her bottle at the last 2 ounces. We can't really sneak anything past her.

More one year photos:

Mommy's Helper

2010-04-20T18:48:00.000-07:00

Now that Sophie is very mobile, she follows me everywhere I go. It is like having a little shadow, a messy shadow who creates mass destruction wherever we go. Good thing she is so darn cute. Right now her favorite thing to do is to take things out of places. Laundry out of laundry baskets, items out of purses or diaper bags, things out of drawers. When I am of positive mind, I like to think she is helping me reorganize. I am lucky to have such a good helper!

Sophie helping in the kitchen. Tupperware is very exciting and fun to put all over the kitchen floor!

Sophie helping me sweep. For the record, I don't get much cleaning done since she is constantly trying to grab the broom. I am thinking of inventing cleaning pads that attach to babies knees, and when they crawl around they magically clean the floor. Yes, I am a genius.

Ah yes, the laundry basket. Sophie loves to help me fold laundry- but she often runs off with a sock in her mouth. We are now missing several, I suspect that she is hiding them in mysterious places that only little fingers can reach.

Happy Birthday!

2010-04-14T08:53:00.001-07:00

It's official- Sophie turned one on April 9th. We celebrated in style with balloons, streamers, party hats and, of course, the highly anticipated Birthday cake. Up to this point, I had resisted giving her any type of sugar. Yes, the person who had a whole desk drawer dedicated to all kinds of candy and chocolate somehow turned into her mother upon having a child. (Although I still have chocolate, I now sneak it during nap time). But I digress, the birthday was a great success, and Sophie thoroughly enjoyed her cake- thus proving that she is indeed my child. Here is some pictures of the big event:

Opening presents, she is just starting to figure out what to do- and yes, I did make her wear a birthday crown.

Trying out her new princess car- thanks Uncle Mac and Aunt Emily!

The big moment. She took one finger and tried some frosting, and then went back immediately for a fistful.

One handed feeding proved not fast enough, so she had to use both hands! Yes, we are so proud of her ambidextrous skills.

Here is Sophie using the baby approved method of packing in food with your fist approach.

And finally, Sophie stares at her cake in extreme sugar shock as she ponders whether she should have eaten that last bite.

Happy Easter!

2010-04-04T17:45:00.000-07:00

Sophie had a wonderful Easter weekend at the cabin. She got to spend lots of time with her cousins- Vivi, Kyle, and Ellie, and get lots of lovin' from her Grams and Gramps. Sophie had a great time watching the big kids play, and they had a great time watching her cruise around the living room. They were also impressed by how much she ate, and watched in awe while she opened wide for broccoli. This was apparently something they had never seen before. Here are some of our favorite pics from the weekend:

Sophie and Daddy sharing a laugh before church. By the way, the dress was a big hit with the little old ladies at church. She also had on sparkly pink shoes, which they all adored.

We all know that Sophie is a professional passie thief, but she can now add Easter basket thief to her resume. She decided that the big kid's baskets looked much more fun then hers.

Instead of joining in the Easter egg hunt, Sophs decided to sit on the sidelines and eat a plastic egg.

Here is a picture of Kyle playing with Sophs. He is asking her where she wants to go. He soon found out the answer, Grandpa's shoes. Kyle quickly realized that Sophie just can't pass up an opportunity to pull laces, especially with an easy target like Grandpa.

Kyle, Sophs, and Ellie playing in the mirror. A great time was had by all.

New Activities

2010-03-29T08:37:00.001-07:00

Sophie has been very busy lately. Very, very, busy. She now has no time for toys. She is far to busy to stop and play as she is constantly on the move. We have now baby proofed our entire house, so she can pretty much roam free. I do however close the doors to the bedrooms and bathroom, as that is just asking for trouble. In all of her busyness, she now has a couple of new favorite activities:

Circling the coffee table. She will do this many times to get what she wants as we constantly move it out of her reach. Her record so far is seven laps.

Crawling in her room to take books out of her book basket. This activity is especially fun when the books have just been put back.

Tackling pooh bear. Carl started wrestling Sophie with Pooh bear a couple of months ago. I never dreamed she would enjoy it the way she does. She will even crawl into her room and go over and push Pooh bear over, I think assuming that he will spring to life and start to get her. She laughs, giggles and lets out little screams when she is getting Pooh bear. I now have fears that she will be the lone girl on the wrestling team. Here she is eyeing Pooh, and deciding how best to attack him.

And here she is successfully pinning pooh. Yes, I am very proud.

Since she has been so busy, she has been eating us out of house and home. She will eat just about anything- except cauliflower, this is the one food that we have found that she does not like. I have read books that tell me that babies stop eating when they are full, we have yet to reach that point with Sophie. She will just keep eating until we stop giving her food. Last night for dinner she had an entire pancake, half an egg, two tablespoons of peas, Cheerios and puffs. We think that she is in training for a baby hot dog eating competition.

In other news, Sophie has started sleeping better at night! Hooray! Some nights she will wake up to stand and move about, but we are able to lay her back down and she has been falling back asleep. Thank goodness, only getting a few hours of sleep did not work for anyone.

Why sleep when you can stand?

2010-03-08T12:40:00.001-08:00

Sophie is currently obsessed with trying to stand. It is all she wants to do. Toys are not very interesting right now, unless she is holding one while trying to stand. Even sleep is now secondary to standing, which is very upsetting to Carl and I. She now wakes up every night and tries to stand and crawls around in her crib, waking herself up. Unfortunately it then takes up to two hours for her to go back down. We are hoping that this is just a phase and will pass very, very quickly.

Sophie blowing berries at me from her crib, quite pleased with her standing self.

This is her main toy that she likes to play with right now, as she can try to stand to play with it. It has a lot of annoying songs that she can listen to happily for hours. I have woken up singing them in my head. The batteries are now starting to die, and I am trying to decide if I should replace them. Hmm...

Pneumonia

2010-02-25T12:55:00.001-08:00

Our sweet little baby has had pneumonia this past week. It all started with a cold, since Sophs has had colds on and off since the middle of December this was not a big deal. The cold then turned nasty and we made our first trip into the doctors. She was given an antibiotic and we were sent home. Four days later she was still not any better so we went back to the doctor, told it was croup, and given a different antibiotic. She seemed to be getting better but then got worse seemingly over night. Sophie was now having trouble breathing, not eating and no longer wanting to play. We went back to the doctor- third times a charm- and were told that she needed to go into the hospital to receive oxygen and that she now had pneumonia. We spent 24 hours under an oxygen tent, Carl and I taking turns every couple of hours, holding Sophie on our laps. By the way, there are several things that Sophie did to entertain herself while under the tent: try to escape the tent; stick your fingers in the unsuspecting adults ear, eyes and nose; try to grab and pull down the tent; eat the tent, as it made a delicious crinkly noise.
Sophie now is much better but still requires breathing treatments every 6 hours for 2 weeks. The breathing treatments are not fun and they require us to hold Sophie on our laps for 30 min. This was impossible at the beginning, but we have now found the secret to having her sit quietly and still for a half hour- simply watch basketball on TV. Yes, it is sad but true. Sophie is riveted by basketball and will even shift around in her seat to get a better view if you happen to block the TV. We have tried Sesame street, and Barney but she could care less about them. Carl is of course thrilled. Sigh.

10 months!

2010-02-16T13:24:00.001-08:00

Sophie just turned 10 months, and here are some new stats: she is 30 inches tall and a whopping 21 pounds 12 ounces. She currently has 8 teeth and 2 more are on the way- sigh. Now that she has so many teeth I decided that I should let her start finger foods. She is very pleased with her new ability to gum peaches and bananas, although these are very slippery and hard to pick up. She also loves Cheerios, and these are much easier to eat!

She is now trying to pull herself up on everything, which absolutely scares me to death. She is also trying to open cupboards and drawers and merely smiles and goes about her business when we tell her "no." Sophie is demonstrating that she will make a fabulous 2 year old, because when we take her away from these forbidden things, she throws a magnificent tantrum. Carl and I are now starting to worry that Sophie inherited both of our stubbornness, in which case we have definitely met our match.

Sophie is in the "mommy phase" where hysterics ensue if I attempt to leave the room without her, or heaven forbid, try to go to the restroom by myself. Yes, privacy is now a thing of the past. Hopefully this phase will not last forever.

Busy, Busy, Busy

2010-02-01T13:44:00.000-08:00

Sophie has been very busy trying to crawl. She is now attempting to do the "army crawl" and this exhausts her. Hurray! She is mostly motivated by the remote, and once again, Carl's cell phone. Interestingly, she does not seem to care for my phone, only Carl's. Now that she is becoming more mobile, she is starting to get bumps and bruises from her new adventures. Carl tells me that this will make her tough, but I feel bad when I am not quick enough to catch her.

Sophie has also begun to realize that her mouth is a great place for holding things while keeping her hands free. She often has her froggy chewy toy in her mouth as she roams around the room. Every so often she will stop, take out the frog, play with it, and then stick it back in and roll some more. The froggy toy is her favorite toy right now, she will sift through her entire toy bin until she finds it. This is most likely because she sprouted 3 teeth this past week- yes, 3- and the toy feels good on her gums.

We're not sure why we find this funny. Sophie has a very large head right now, and her onesies often get stuck when we attempt to pull them off. She is very good natured about it, in fact things on her head do not bother her one bit.

9 Months

2010-01-19T18:53:00.001-08:00

Sophie recently turned 9 Months, and we have seen a lot of changes lately! She is still growing (both up and out!) and is now 29.5 inches and 20.6 pounds, and continues to be in the 95%. This means that she has grown 11 inches and gained 15 pounds since birth. Everyone who sees her comments on what a big girl she is. New likes and dislikes:

Likes:

1. One of Sophie's favorite things to do is pull all of her toys out of her toy box. This can entertain her happily for 45 minutes or more, as she chews and plays with each toy as she pulls it out. Now, I am sure that you are thinking that it is great that she plays independently for so long- but she likes me to sit right behind her. She often stops, turns around and pats my leg- as if to say,"isn't this fun Mom!" She then turns back around and continues pulling out toys. If only she would put the toys back in the box after she pulled them all out.

2. Sophie loves to roll and is becoming increasingly mobile. After dinner we clear everything off the living room floor and she happily rolls around for almost an hour. She can make her way across our entire living room. She is just starting now to move backwards on her tummy, and can pretty much go anywhere she wants. The video is shotty filming at best- do not watch on a full tummy.

Dislikes
1. Being burped! This has been her major dislike since birth, and it continues to be. She now has taken it up a notch- not only does she simply cry or scream when the bottle is removed, she now thrashes about- kicking her legs, arching her back, and waving her arms wildly about. Her tantrums are enough to make a seasoned 2 year old proud.

2. Being confined. Now that she can move around, she does not want to be confined in any way. The once loved exersaucer is now neglected to the side. When I try to put her in it, she holds her legs straight out, much like a gymnast on the rings, and I have to put her down as I cannot hold 20 pounds with straight arms for very long.
We have had a lot of fun with our little Sophs, and she brings us a lot of joy. It will be fun to see what's next!

Blueberry Girl

2010-01-13T14:24:00.001-08:00

Sophie has always been a good eater, from the very first bite of rice cereal. It has been a lot of fun to feed her, and to let her try new food. Since she now has officially 4 teeth, we have been giving her chunkier foods. She has recently tried cantaloupe, yogurt, broccoli, and tofu. There is nothing that she does not like. She now has a new favorite- blueberries. I cannot feed them to her fast enough- eventually she gets fed up with my slowness, and grabs the spoon herself. This is great fun. It does not matter if the food does not make it into her mouth, it is also a lot of fun to smear the food onto the tray, pound it with her fists, and then try again to get it into her mouth. Blueberries, by the way, are especially fun to pound and crush in your hands, as they have excellent smearing capabilities. The clean up, however is not so fun. Sophie finds this process completely unnecessary. So far I am winning the battle as I refuse to let her go around blueberried. I am though looking for long-sleeved bibs and a drop cloth, and perhaps a fireman's hose.

Merry Christmas!

2010-01-05T13:32:00.001-08:00

We just returned from our Christmas Extravaganza! It was 2 full weeks of celebrating, opening presents, being with family, and eating big meals. Did I mention that we returned a bit larger then we were before? Our first Christmas started off in Shelby with Carl's family. Sophie had a great time playing with her Grams and Gramps and cousins. We also quickly learned that opening presents is not a skill that needs teaching- it is purely instinct. Sophie loved to rip open the presents- and then of course- sample the wrapping paper.

Opening presents with Daddy

Playing with her cousins Vivi and Kyle

Playing with Gramps

Once we got back from Shelby we left the next day for Portland, on Christmas Eve. Sophie was extremely excited to see her Nana and Rosie the dog. Rosie quickly became Sophie's best friend, and they spent a lot of time together. Sophie loved to watch Rosie and would often smile and laugh at her.

Sophie playing in her exer-saucer with Nana and Rosie

Sophie playing on the floor- under the careful watch of Rosie

Eating dinner and stopping to give Rosie a pet. Rosie knew right away that this was the place to be.

Baby Boot Camp

2009-12-16T12:24:00.001-08:00

Sophie recently had her 6 month (gestational age) NICU appointment. This appointment was for preemies to see if they were developing normally. There were 6 specialists; including a speech path, a gross motor specialist, a fine motor specialist, a nutritionist, a well baby doctor, and the general pediatrician. They watched Sophie play for a half-hour, and interact with us while they made many notes. Needless to say it was a little intimidating. I asked if we got the biggest preemie award and they all laughed. I think they thought I was joking.

When the results were in they told us more tummy time. Ugh the dreaded tummy time. Sophie has always hated tummy time, before she could roll over she would almost always spit up within the first minute of being placed on her tummy. Now that she can roll over, she does so immediately. So we have had to do a little baby boot camp. We have been putting her on her tummy over, and over, and over- and even blocking her from rolling over. We have used many "forbidden" objects to entice her to stay on her tummy, like remotes and cell phones. Sadly, Carl's cell phone was recently drooled to death, and he became yet another parent whose child destroyed their phone. This of course is incredibly ironic, because we swore (before we were parents) that we would never let our children play with cell phones and remotes. Ha! But Carl's cell phone did not die in vain, as she can now get up into all fours, and stays on her tummy for up to a minute! She is still a long way from crawling, but we have hope that one day she will!

I love books!

2009-12-06T18:55:00.001-08:00

I started to read to Sophie every day before naps when she was 6 months old. She liked books immediately. I've then discovered that some of them are too exciting to read before trying to sleep- such as Feely Bugs. Surprisingly, at this young age, she has favorite books. Right now her favorite book is Good Night Moon. (She will keep reaching for this book until I read it to her.) This is especially neat because it used to be one of my favorites. It has been a lot of fun to watch her discover new things about each book- a flap here, a bumpy part there. I look forward to keep reading to her, there are so many great books out there!

Oh yes, our Sophie is so advanced that she can read books while holding them upside down. We are quite proud.

Happy Thanksgiving!

2009-11-30T14:20:00.001-08:00

We had a terrific trip to Portland, and were lucky enough to spend 9 days there. Sophie once again proved that she is a great traveler, and had no problems with any of the flights. (Although the man whose hair Sophie pulled while waiting in line might disagree.) Sophie had a wonderful time at Nana's house. She greatly enjoyed playing and reading books with Nana, and playing with Rosie the dog. Every time Rosie would walk by her she would give her a big smile and greet her with a laugh. She did not care much for the cat Suta- and the feelings were mutual. We are looking forward to going back at Christmas.

Sophie had lots of fun playing with Nana

Reading books is one of her favorite activities

Sophie and her new friend Rosie

Sophie Laughs Again!

2009-11-17T11:39:00.000-08:00

Back by popular demand! Sophie was finishing her lunch today- licking the bowl clean- when I sneezed. She started to laugh so I quickly grabbed the camera to catch her laughing again. Enjoy!

Food, glorious food!

2009-11-15T18:57:00.000-08:00

In honor of Thanksgiving coming up, Sophie thought that this week's entry should be dedicated to food. Sophie has loved eating solid food. It is very exciting. When we put her bib on her she starts kicking her little feet and waving her hands. She has been a very good eater, she sees the spoon coming and opens wide. I have enjoyed making all of Sophie's food and feel strangely impressed with my new found ability to boil, puree, and freeze. Yes, I am a true wonder in the kitchen.

We have been surprised at how much she likes her veggies! She eats all the things that Carl and I won't touch- squash, green beans, peas, carrots, and sweet potatoes. Shockingly, the food group that she does not like is fruit! I don't know if it's the texture or the tart flavor, but so far she does not like peaches, applesauce or pears. This does not mean that she will not eat them- oh no, she will just make a face each time the offending fruit is placed into her mouth and then proceed to finish the bowl.

Here is Sophie making faces while eating peaches:

Sophie Laughs

2009-11-08T12:41:00.000-08:00

Sophie has given us small chuckles here and there, but just recently she has been doing big belly laughs. It usually happens when a certain sound strikes her as funny. On Saturday night we were getting her ready for her bath, and Carl was squeezing out the last bit of baby shampoo from the bottle. We luckily had the camera close and were able to catch it!

Happy Halloween!

2009-11-02T14:52:00.000-08:00

We had a great Halloween! We dressed Sophie up as a bunny and took her to three of our friends homes. Three stops was perfect, she did not enjoy getting in and out of the car seat after the third house. Of course everyone thought that she was the cutest bunny ever- I think her cheeks really helped complete the costume!

I love this picture because you can see Sophie eyeing the candy. We ended up holding her up over the candy basket to see what she would do. She immediately grabbed a piece of candy and started chewing on the wrapper. We took it away and put that piece aside... We did not know who else would appreciate Sophie's drool of approval. For the record, Sophie chose a Butterfinger. Looks like she inherited her mom's sweet tooth!This picture is great because Sophie was trying her hardest to chew on the stem of the pumpkin. I caught her in the act!

Here is our pumpkin with the pumpkins! Yes, it's the best I can come up with for now.

Two Little Teeth

2009-10-26T12:47:00.000-07:00

During Sophie's sickness she sprouted two little teeth! Finally! Over the last two months, whenever she was fussy or had trouble sleeping we kept blaming it on her teeth. (Those poor teeth were blamed for everything!) Now that it has finally happened, it is very fascinating for Sophie. She is constantly putting a finger or two in her mouth to feel her teeth. She seems to just sit there and try to figure out what is happening inside her mouth. Now that she has her teeth she is like a little puppy, she will chew on anything! She will grab for your fingers and put them in her mouth, you have to be careful- those little teeth are sharp!

During the last few weeks, Sophie has been trying hard to sit up. She is finally getting the hang of it- but you still have to sit close by as she will often topple over to the side. She seems to really like shoes, that's my girl! and will often make a lunge for your feet. We are hoping that this excitement of shoes and reaching for them might interest her in crawling. Currently she does not like to be on her tummy, no matter what sort of items are in front of her. She will simply roll over the minute you place her face down. We will have to see what happens.It saddens me to say this, but Sophie loves watching football. Were not sure why, but whenever it is on TV it gains her interest. She will even stop drinking from her bottle to watch the game- and this is a big deal because eating is Sophie's favorite thing to do. This picture was taken when Sophie was watching football and I thought her expression was funny, almost as if she had placed a bet on who was going to win the game, and was anxiously awaiting the outcome.
Sophie is now starting to stand, but she is very wobbly. It is kind of like watching someone hula-hoop, without a hoop. Her little hips swing forward and back as she tries to balance. We of course think that this is very cute, and keep telling her that we are laughing with her-not at her.

Sick Baby!

2009-10-19T17:04:00.001-07:00

Sophie has been very sick this last week with the RSV virus. RSV is basically a bad cold that settles into your chest and lungs. She sounds like a mini Darth Vader when she breathes and has a nasty cough. We are going to go in and get breathing treatments and shots to help prevent her from getting this again. In the meantime, the doctors have advised us to build her a tent- yes, a tent- so that she is breathing in humidified air when she sleeps. Carl built the tent, and was strangely excited to do so, around her pack-n-play. She does not seem to mind being in it, but it is kind of sad to kiss her goodnight, and then cover her up. Hopefully we will be out of the tent soon!

Sophie's tent

Inside view of tent

Sophie inside her tent- she has to keep her head elevated while she sleeps, so she sleeps on her boppy, but usually wiggles off of it by the middle of the night.

6 months!

2009-10-19T11:59:00.001-07:00

Sophie recently turned 6 months old. We can't believe that she has been here for half a year already! We took her into the 6 month check-up, and were excited to find out how much she has grown. Boy were we surprised! Sophie now weighs 18.10 pounds (yes, I am getting seriously toned arms) and is 27 3/4 inches long. This puts her at the 90th percentile for weight and 95th percentile for length. At least she is proportionate! We had suspected that she was growing at a fast rate, as pants that I had bought 2 weeks ago are now capris. Oh well, I guess that means more shopping!

To Bozeman we will go!

2009-10-11T18:57:00.000-07:00

This weekend we traveled to Bozeman- which is five hours away- and met up with Carl's family for the Montana State football game. Sophie had many "firsts" on this trip:

*First road trip

*First time in a hotel

*First time in a pool
*First time in single digit weather- yes, freezing in Montana is not just a clever name, it was 6 degrees outside

*First time watching a football game

*First time being a disappointed Bob Kitty fan

For all these firsts, Sophie did extremely well and proved to be an excellent traveler. She also proved to be her mother's daughter as she only lasted the first few minutes of the game, before wishing to leave. All of the screaming and clapping scared her, and she could not understand why people were doing these things during her nap time. We lasted a total of 15 minutes before Carl took us back to the hotel.

Here are some of our favorite pics from the weekend:

Sophie's first dip in the pool. As you can see from her expression she is saying, "this pool is cold!"

After the cold pool experience, Sophie played in the bath tub with her Daddy to warm up.

To get ready to go to the game she wore a fleece outfit, a fleece bunting outfit, and was covered in a fleece blanket. Yes, lots of fleece! By the time we got to the game her cheeks were rosy red. Thanks to Uncle Ry Ry for getting her this cute bunting outfit.

Favorite Things

2009-10-06T07:47:00.001-07:00

Sophie is quickly becoming a big girl. She now likes to hold her own bottle. Although she still struggles with the weight of a full bottle, she can now hold it for several seconds by herself when it is halfway full. Our little lady is growing up quickly!!

Who needs toys? Sophie's new favorite thing to do every morning is to play with my cereal bar wrapper. What's not to love about a shiny, crinkly wrapper? It provides fun for easily a half hour and has the extra benefit of a fruity smell.

Let's eat!

2009-09-27T17:56:00.000-07:00

Lately Sophie has really been interested in watching us eat. She follows the food from the plate to our mouths and back to the plate again. We figured that since she is now 24 weeks, it's time to start rice cereal. Here are the pictures from her first cereal experience. For the record, I don't think that any cereal actually made it into her mouth, but when we tried it again the next day she ate the whole bowl!

Hey, wait what's going on?

Hmmm, what is this?

I can do it myself, thank you very much!

All done! Oh, do I have a little something on my chin?

5 months old already!

2009-09-09T11:46:00.001-07:00

Today is Sophie's 5 month birthday. We've seen a lot of changes in her this past month, her little personality is starting to emerge! She is smiling a lot more, and is generally a happy baby. As you can see from the picture, she is a drooly mess! She now always has to wear a bib, sometimes several, throughout the day. She has mastered grabbing near by objects and loves to chew anything in sight! Her favorite chew toy is currently her burp cloth- this can entertain her happily for 45 minutes. She has also started to "talk" and will look right at you and babble and coo, as if she has something important to tell you. She also loves blowing raspberries, and I will catch her doing this over her monitor in the middle of the night. Right now she is trying very hard to sit up, and has just discovered her toes. One of her favorite toys is her excersaucer where she can practice sitting/standing up and now refuses to play in toys where she lies down, like her once loved bouncy chair and swing. It has been very fun to watch her grow, we will have to see what happens this month!

Let's get together, yeah, yeah, yeah

2009-08-31T12:10:00.000-07:00

This past weekend, my 3 good friends from Pepperdine got together in Searchlight, Nevada. We have all had babies within the last year and a half. We had visions of going out to eat, swimming and playing in the lake all afternoon, and possibly doing some shopping. Well, needless to say the babies ruled the weekend and we were lucky to get out the door in between all the nap times. But we did manage to go to the lake- and stayed for over a half-hour! Which I thought was extremely good since it was 110 degrees outside. Most importantly though we got to sit, catch up, and watch our beautiful babies.
Here is a shot of all the babies- as you can see Sophie is the chunkiest. From left to right is Sophie, 5 months, Haiden- Jamie's baby, 9 months, and the man of the house for the weekend, Charlotte- Rebecca's baby,17 months, and Rori- Ashleigh's baby, 12 months. We all had great intentions of taking lots of pictures, but somehow our hands were always full. We look forward to doing it again sometime.

Baptism

2009-08-31T11:55:00.001-07:00

The last month of summer was jammed packed and flew by extremely quickly. While my family came to visit, we had Sophie's baptism. This event brought quite the crowd, we had 20 people come and filled up 3 pews. It was quite a big event for our church, and I still have people come up to me and tell me what a wonderful baptism it was. I think that Sophie's outfit helped, although Carl thought the hat was a little much.

Let's go for a swim!

2009-08-04T14:51:00.000-07:00

This past weekend was really hot, so hot in fact that I thought it was time for Sophie to experience her first swim. We filled up the pool and then let it bake in the sun for a couple of hours. It was still not hot enough, so we added boiling water and got it close to bath temp. I was hoping that she would splash around, like she does in her bath, but she seemed pretty confused. You could almost see her thinking, this is not my bath, and why am I wearing this silly swimsuit? Carl saw that I was preoccupied with the camera and saw his opportunity to swoop Sophie out of the pool and into lake. To my utter surprise, she did not cry and seemed pretty content until the water splashed onto her back. I have a feeling we have a little lake girl!

100 Days!

2009-07-20T12:37:00.000-07:00

On Saturday, Sophie was 100 days old! Aside from growing 5 inches and gaining 7 pounds- oh yes, she is our big girl- we have seen a lot of changes in her. Here is a new list of likes and dislikes:

Likes

1. She still likes to be held, but her favorite position has changed from laying on your chest with her head tucked under your chin to being cradled. Sophie would be perfectly happy being held all day, it has been quite the challenge to get her to sleep in her crib and not on us.

2. Eating. Eating is a very serious activity and should not be delayed in anyway- see dislike number 1. In addition to being held all day, Sophie would like to eat all day as well. She is now on a schedule but still tries to convince us that she should be eating more, and more often.

3. She likes anything that moves. This includes her swing, bouncy chair, stroller, and even her car seat- she knows that the car seat goes in the stroller or car and both of these things move.

Dislikes

1. Being burped. Being burped is a major flaw in her joy of eating. She will do anything to get out of burping. This includes whining, crying, trying to sit, even trying to stand, and arching her back in a dramatic 2 year old temper tantrum style. We may have our work cut out for us in a couple of years, as she is already executing this tantrum tactic quite well.

2. Being cold. Sophie still loves her bath, and is starting to splash around in the water which has been quite fun, but the 5 minutes after the bath are a race to get her diaper and pajamas on as quick as possible as she will scream until she is toasty warm again.

3. Cold water. The first time Carl dipped Sophie's toes in the water she fussed, but did not let out a major cry. Carl then proceeded to dip her little toes in the water every weekend until she let him know that this would not be tolerated any longer by letting out a couple of big screams. The score so far stands as Sophie 1 Carl 0.

First Hike

2009-07-15T15:25:00.001-07:00

We went on our first hike with Sophie this past weekend. We hiked up to Avalanche Lake, which is one of our favorite hikes, and were pleased at how well Sophie did. Carl carried her in our front pack, and the combination of the motion while walking, with the body heat from Carl knocked her out both ways. Sophie was quite the hit on the hike, everyone we passed made a comment about our youngest hiker. It made me think that people went home and told everyone that they saw a cute baby on the hike, and oh some glaciers too. It was such a successful trip that we will have to do it again!

Sophie's new trick

2009-07-07T16:42:00.000-07:00

Sophie has a new trick! We are as proud as can be to show off her new set of skills. Keep in mind, she can only do it when she is positioned just right. But I still say it counts!

A dip in the lake

2009-07-07T15:04:00.001-07:00

Carl has been wanting to dip Sophie's toes into the water ever since summer began. I have repeatedly said no, as the lake is very cold and I myself have yet to put my toes in the water. However, we had a beautiful, hot 4th and I ran out of excuses. Here are Carl and Sophie right before the big moment. As you can see, he is very happy because he finally got his way.

The big moment

A hug and kiss from daddy when the big plunge was over

So big!

2009-06-24T12:48:00.001-07:00

Sophie has just started to like sitting up. She will sit propped up on a couch or chair for at least a half-hour, just looking around and watching everything. In fact, sitting up is so exciting that when she is fussing and waiting for me to make her bottle, if I sit her up the fussing magically stops.
Sophie recently had her 2 month check up. At 10 weeks she is 22 inches long and 11 pounds. She is our big girl!

Trip to Portland!

2009-06-09T19:09:00.001-07:00

Sophie survived her first flight when she visited Portland this past weekend. She actually did exceedingly well on all fights, she slept on the way there, and ate all the way home. Apparently, leaving Portland made this little lady very hungry. We had a great weekend, mainly visiting family. Here are some of our favorite pics:

Meeting GG (Great Grandma) for the first time. We also had lunch with GG at her retirement home. It was the first time that I was afraid that Sophie might be kidnapped. She was a hot item!

Meeting Aunt Booie and Clarie, we soon learned that little Claire is quite the ham and will pose for each picture. But I still prefer to think that she is happy to see us.

Spending quality time with Nana. As you can see, Nana is singing away. When she has a captive audience she cannot be stopped.
Meeting Aunt Kerry and Uncle Dick. Aunt Kerry became quite distracted by our little Sophie. here she is playing with Sophs while she is supposed to be getting ready for Uncle Dick's 50th high school reunion. Whoops, they were a little late!
We had a great time and look forward to going back!