Week 36: Happy Halloween and First finger foods

Sophia doing her John McCain impression. Where's your neck?

Udette visited for another day this week and we got to spend time playing and laughing. Thanks for this new pretty outfit! It is a little big but will fit soon enough...

Sophia has started to TRY and pull herself up to standing.

What a fun time she is having in the jumperoo. Thanks Kerrie,

We had a special pre-holiday Thurs playgroup at Janelle's house this week. Of course Sophie was scared of the pop up pumpkin.

Sophia succomed to peer pressure and had her first finger food at play group - a puff. Looks like she loved it!

I also let her suck on a piece of apple. I watched her carefully and she didnt really bite much of it and lost interest after about 3o seconds..

So I decided to try cheerios at home. She played with her first cheerio for about 20 minutes and then decided it was ok to put in her mouth. She missed her mouth the first time and hit her cheek which was so funny.

"Yeah, I can feed myself!"

Happy 1st Halloween! I think it is time to lower the crib before she escapes...










"Let me out of here, I want to go trick or treating!"

Getting ready to go out trick or treating, we made sure we had enough candy if any kids came to our house... Sophia prefers the Reece's peanut butter cups.

Out and about in town. It was a beautiful afternoon and we headed out early to enjoy the day.

She was very chatty at The Gap.

All dressed in her flower costume and ready to hit the town.

The first treat she received was of course Reece's pieces. She seemed to pick everything her mom likes, I wonder how that happened.

We walked around town with Amy (w/ her husband Elad and Noa) and Ali (w/ Layla).

Daddy joined us after work for the festivities.

We stopped at the park for a quick swing and a junior mint.

Some of the houses were really elaborately decorated.

At Jodi's halloween party, we were of course the Vader family.

Our little Princess Leia.

I was Padme, princess Leia's mom..

"Are you my father under there?"

Princess Leia had to fight the empire for a toy that wasn't even hers.

...be nice Miss Sophia.

All the babies got together for a group photo.. Sophia was thrilled to participate.

All the mommies and babies.

All the dadies and babies.

On Sunday, we went to our old church and saw Sophia's godfather (John)

and our friend Carol.

After church we met Kerrie (w/ Justin & toddler Ryan) and Shawn (w/ Andy & baby Alex) for lunch.

Sophie had fun playing with Ryan's toys again. Alex is almost as big as her at 4 months!












Yeah, we went to the park for playtime on the swings. There probably won't be many more beautiful weather weekends like this one for awhile!

Alex and Sophie back to back swinging away.

When we got home, we watched the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown to end the two weeks of Halloween events. All done with halloween and ready for thanksgiving in just a few weeks!

Week 35: Everything changes at 8 months!

We skipped mom's group today to go see our friends Kerrie and Ryan. What a little man he is becoming - walking all over the place and talking up a storm.
















There were lots of cool toys to play with at Ryan's house, she was VERY fond of this red spoon and had fun on the zebra rocker.












Kerrie suggested that I try a straw and much to my amazement, Sophia actually sipped from it. She mostly chewed it, but I saw a few drops go in.












We had our Wed playgroup at my house and things sure have changed. We used to be able to contain the babies on a tiny blanket. Now everyone wants to play at the activity table.













Rylee is crawling away and there is Sophie again playing with the bottom side of the piano.












She had a ball with her friends!













We bundled up on Thursday for music class since it was a cold day - she got to wear her wool sweater from Great Aunt Denny.














It was bring a friend day, so Stephanie from church came along with Caitlin. The video below was from class.









Kerrie was able to lend us her jumperoo (thank you!) and Sophia is having the time of her life jumping up and down. It is better at containing her since she can drag her activity center across the room.



















Sophia's tupperware lid was a big hit at Friday's playgroup at Yana's house. First Pike was after it and there was a big fight, but Riley was able to grab it and the others gave up. It was such a nice day that we just sat on the front lawn and played outside. It felt like it was in the 70s again.








And then Ana came out all bundled up for winter!










So we decided we better bundle up and get ready for winter in Layla's snowsuit..











She can't wait to play in the snow..








On Saturday, Sophia turned 8 months. Happy Birthday Lil Boo!

At 8 months Sophia:
-is creeping.. and just started Crawling today!
-is taking 2 long naps instead of 3
-is eating 3 solid food meals a day
-has 4 sharp teeth
-sips from a straw (even if it is just a drop)
-goes to sleep around 7pm with hardly a peep
-loves to play with cubes, balls, stuffed animals and buttons on your clothes but most of all her tupperware lids
-still loves her Ocean's aquarium and turns it on first thing when she wakes
-brightens my day every day with her smile

At 8 months, she is still not:
-taking a bottle
-sleeping through the night
-saying Dada or Mama.....
but who cares, she is absolutely perfect and I wouldn't change a thing (well maybe the sleeping:)!



This is a dark video, but she is crawling on her knees!















We had a baby halloween party at the rec center. Sophia arrived in her cobra cai costume (Karate kid reference) and then added her lady bug outfit. The antenna was confusing to her because she couldn't grab it.
















The babies were too cute in their costumes- Rylee was a strawberry, Ryan was a dinasour and Layla was Pebbles.















"Hello Ryan. I am not phased at all that you look like a dinosaur"


















Caitlin arrived in her flower costume.




And the Dads got to have playgroup time as well.











All the papparazi Dads took group pictures of the moms.










That night Princess Leia, Darth mom and Darth vader went to a halloween party. She did great staying up until 9pm. I thought she would maybe sleep in after going to be late, but unfortunately she still woke up at 6:45am.

Udette and George came to visit on Sunday. What a treat to have them all the way from California!

Kristin came over as well to spend the day with us. Nick cooked a great meal and we all had a nice time catching up.