Week 40: Happy 9 mo & Thanksgiving!

Great Grandma Penny stayed with us through Tues. and we had fun playing at home, shopping at Wal-mart and recuperating from the ear infection.

Sophia is standing with her walking toy (hand me down from Paul, thanks!) and taking very very small steps, but has not quite learned to walk around with it.

She is getting better at cruisin from the couch to the table and then on to me.

Happy 9 month birthday Sophia! What a happy girl she is after getting over her sickness.
At 9 months, Sophia is:

*Eating finger foods on her own and chewing- peas, corn, carrots, toast, blueberries, pasta shells, chunks of cooked sweet potatoes, apple, pear (in addition to her 3 jars of stage 2 foods and cereal)

*Standing alone holding on to something

*Pulling up in her crib

*Walking with assistance

*Cruisin on furniture a little bit
*Crawling army style when she feels like it (not often)

*Saying Uh Oh when she drops something (or just because)

*Saying Da-Da when Daddy is present (or just because)
*Sleeping through the night 12 hrs. (most of the time)

*Finally on a regular schedule with 4 feedings and 2 semi predictable naps

*Always happy to see her Daddy when he enters the room

*Raising her hands over her head "so big"

*So much fun that I look forward to every day we spend together

Sophia is picking up her veggies like a pro this week!

My friend from high school (Christina) was in town from Seattle and came up to the burbs for a quick visit on Tuesday before we went to Nonnie's wake. Chris is getting married in Jan in Mexico. Unfortunately, we cannot go but we wish her all the best!

Back from the funeral on Wed, we had a little bit of playtime before bed.

Sophia has been talking it up this week saying Da-da, uh oh and a lot of other fun babble.

Pop pop, Dorothy and Jonathan stopped by for a visit on their way back home. I remember when Jonathan used to be the baby, and now he is an uncle!

Happy Thanksgiving! Sophia must have been so excited for her first Thanksgiving that she woke up at 4am. Nick decided to start the turkey and his tradition of putting up the tree by the fire. This was her first fire out of the womb and she was mesmerized.

The new lights are on..We got multicolored lights this year instead of white. She liked the tree so much better than pumpkins for Halloween.

The tree is ready and so is the boo for her Thanksgiving party! It was so much fun to watch the boo play by the tree and we are looking forward to a whole new experience of Christmas.

"So Big" ..or does it mean "I have had enough, get away from me with that spoon. "

Chuck was over and brought his yummy pumpkin pie and airplane rides for Sophia.

We took some family pics by the tree, while relaxing and playing.

Sophie had a craft project and with some help made a turkey out of her hand print. She also opened her first Christmas gift, an ornament from her Daddy. We have a lot to be thankful for this thanksgiving. I did a poor job of saying grace at dinner but this is what I meant to say "thank you for all the blessings ... new and old..we have had in our lifetime... for the joy of watching our little girl grow up and for those who have passed who have touched our hearts forever."

Ahh, the joy of leftovers. Sweet potato chunks are yummy, but she was a little skeptical of the bits of turkey.

For once, we did not get up at 5am and go shopping on black Friday. Instead we slept in all the way to 6:30am and played all day.

Becki, Casey and Chance came over for a visit with Grandma before she has to head home on Saturday. They brought us Colony pizza which we quickly ate up.

Sophia hung her new ornament from her Great Grandma. I wonder if Nick realizes that he is sticking out his tongue just like Sophia does (see last picture on this page, how funny).

Strips of toast? That is what her doctor suggested.. and she loves it! Just spread some mashed banana, pear or apple as "jam."

Uh oh! I found her standing in the crib for the first time on Saturday. I should probably take the bumpers off now..

We went to visit Jenny, Gabe and Claire on Saturday - thanks for lunch and the fun bath time book! The guys thought I was crazy for waiting in the car while Sophia finished her nap, but Jenny got it. If she doesn't sleep she will be a cranky mess.

We also went over to John, Johanna and Paul's house to give Paul his birthday present and then we went to Trinity one of our favorite restaurants. Sophia just barely made it through dinner, but she did great considering it was a long day for her.
Sophia's first snow? It doesn't look like much, but it was enough to keep us inside for the day - not enough to play in but just enough to cause poor driving conditions. We lost heat Sunday night and thought we would just have a cozy fire and everyone could sleep in the living room.. well Sophia did not like that idea. She cried for hours and we could not do a thing to get her to sleep. Before we take another vacation we better have her practice sleeping in the pack n play or it will not be fun for anyone...

Week 39: Home Sick, Cruisin & Finger Food

This has been a rough week. I felt so bad for Sophia being sick all week and ending up with an ear infection. She was very unhappy and cranky all the time. Although I did manage to get a few smiles on camera, we stayed home and rested most days.
Sophia didn't feel like eating her pureed food, but she still liked to eat cheerios and puffs. She practiced eating finger foods with banana chunks, blueberries and mixed veggies but didn't really eat them well until the end of the week.

On Wed we went to a gymboree music class to get out of the house for one day. Timing was bad, naps were scarce, voices were off key, Sophia was very serious.. and crankiness soon followed...
Unhappy during free play, until the end when I showed her Gymbo the clown and she finally laughed. So I had to buy her one as a Christmas present (stay tuned for more laughs on Christmas day).

On Thurs we went to get our holiday pictures taken at the mall. Sophia was very serious. I brought Gymbo the clown to try and make her laugh, but we only got about 5 shots.

Sophia is just starting to cruise the furniture. She can ever so slowly move from her activity table to the couch if it is within reaching distance and then she can side step just a little holding on to the couch.

Use the fork (force) Soph! And she did.

Great Grandma Penny came to visit on Saturday and is staying a few days before going to Nick's cousin's house for thanksgiving. Sophia was so happy to see her and spend time playing..

...and finally eating. Grandma Penny has the airplane feeding trick down and a new one I have not heard of before called "make a cave." This helped me tremendously as I have been struggling all week to get Sophia to eat.

Sophia actually eating her veggies rather than just playing with them. Yes, we have been calling her Pooper. She lived up to the name actually right after this video when there was a little "message" in the crib.

SO BIG! Great Grandma Penny was doing So Big with Sophia and she started to imitate it.

I think Sophia sensed something was not right in the world this week. Her Great Grandma Mary (Nonnie) who has been sick for some time passed away Saturday night after a stroke the week prior. Pop pop stopped by on his way to visit with his family during this sad time. We will miss you Non. Rest in peace,

Week 38: Sleeping through the night?

At mom's group on Monday, Sophia rode around in a little wagon doing her favorite things: saying oh oh, waving her hands and pointing to little details like this flower on her pants.Group pictures was a little chaotic! Hopefully someone got a better shot than I did.

Grandma came over on Tuesday since she was off work for Veteran's Day. We had a fun time playing at home and catching up on Sophia's latest and greatest tricks and new toys.
More chicken please! Sophia loved her first taste of meat, chicken. It probably helped that it was pureed with sweet potatoes.

On Wed. we went to Ali's house for an afternoon playgroup. Yes, Sophia does dance like Elaine from Seinfeld.

Sophia was pretty happy today considering she didn't sleep well. I have started sleep training this week and was up for 2 hrs last night. Hopefully this is all worth the drama!

Noa had her first taste of avocado and absolutely loved it, can't you tell?

Sophia loves being able to stand at her table alone and play. ...

and going round and round and round in her activity center. She goes especially fast when Daddy comes home because she likes to show off her skills.

Friday's playgroup was at Amy's house where we had Israeli chocolate and jammed to the Putumayo kids.

Sophia is able to balance multiple toys on her head. What a skill!

I think Layla is going to be a yoga instructor just like her mommy.



Sophia is anything but bashful. She prefers to run around in her diaper and booties.





We went to Christina's baby shower on Saturday. Unfortunately, Sophia vomited on their couch but hopefully the scotch guard works. .they will need it with a new baby on the way!


Don't worry Christina won't leave her real baby in the fire place..


Happy Birthday Chuck! We celebrated with crab legs and a party roll and a belly dance from Sophia. Unfortunately, Sophia came down with a cold on Sunday, poor thing. Hopefully sleep training is over- by the end of the week she was sleeping 7pm - 7am!