Week 53: Happy 1st Birthday!

Got Milk? Sophia does. Since she is turning ONE, I am turning to whole milk. Luckily, she likes the taste of it and it should be an easy transition.

After a year of not taking a pacifier, this week Sophia has decided that this plastic key is now a good pacifier. She runs (scoots) all around the house with it in her mouth.

Happy 1st Birthday Sophia! She was up bright and early (around 5:45am these days) - ready to open presents. We let her open her Little People Birthday Party so that she could play with it all day. At One Years Old, Sophia is:

• Standing alone for minutes at a time
• Taking her first steps
• Using everything as a walker around the house (chairs, boxes, whatever moves)
• Pointing like crazy to things she wants
• Playing appropriately with toys instead of just chewing on them
• Taking her toys out and putting them away
• Babbling all the time
• Always dancing to her favorite tunes
• Eating everything including all dairy and eggs now
• Throwing everything off her highchair when she is done (early sign of tantrums to come)
• Finally tolerating me brushing her teeth since I bought yummy toothpaste
• Very social and loves other babies, kids and adults (as long as she has napped)
• Taking two naps a day, but can be pushed to one in the middle of the day (I am not ready)
• Calmed by the TV when nothing else works (especially if not feeling well)
• Such a happy baby with a smile that brings me happiness everyday
  

The birthday balloons were intriguing and frightening at the same time.

Sophia wore her "Hurray, I'm One" Elmo shirt in the morning. Her hat stayed on for about 2 seconds, but she liked playing with it!

Sophia wore her birthday party dress one more time for (Ash) Wed playgroup.

Rylee was the first to arrive and was ready to party with her ashes.

Layla and Eliza came over as well and we had a small playgroup.

She loved hearing Grandpa's voice all the way from Colorado. The cell phone is very intriguing to her. She doesn't quite understand how the people fit in it.

I hung all of her cards up and she would point at them and say Oooh everytime she passed by.

Sophia enjoyed her first taste of pizza on her first birthday.

What is going on? Why do they keep trying to make me eat cake??

She enjoyed the pizza so much so that she had no room for cake. Oh well, that is more cake for mommy and daddy to eat.

Time for more presents. What a fun 1st birthday celebration, but it is not over...

On Friday, we hosted another playgroup for Sophia and Riley's birthdays.

It was a ton of fun and quite a change from our first playgroups when the babies would just lie on a blanket and not move.

We celebrated the babies first birthdays, as well as Ana's, who was turning 29 again. I made special avocado cupcakes with cauliflower cream cheese frosting. I know it sounds strange, but I liked them.

Sophia doesn't seem to like cake -- whether it is chocolate or vanilla... she would rather eat pizza or pasta.

Noa, Syd and Olivia enjoyed the cupcakes...or perhaps they just like to get dirty.

Pike is one of only 2 boys in our playgroup, but luckily he doesn't mind when the girls play dress up with him.

As the party was winding down, Sophia took a quick nap and then was back into the action. Her and Noa had fun playing tag. Sophia showed off her preferred method of moving this week -- the newly perfected butt scoot.

Sophia was very cute in her new Star Wars shirt, which she wore on the weekend, spending time with her Daddy. Unfortunately, most of the babies got sick (yes, again) following Fridays playgroup, but all seemed in good spirits for the most part.

Sophia is officially taking her First Steps (enough that we can get it on camera). It is so much fun to watch her walking. She gets happy about it too! What a great First Birthday...

This is my last post for awhile. I am going to make a book of the first year and then I will likely update every month or when something blog worthy happens. This has been the BEST year of my life and I had so much fun sharing it with everyone. I am sure it only gets better from here...stay tuned.

Week 52: First steps for a First Birthday

On Monday, we went to meet Udette for lunch since she was in town visiting family. We all had Squire's burgers, which even Sophia enjoyed the sweet potato fries. This would have been an even better picture if I had the flash on!

Look mom, no hands! For the past week or so, Sophia has been letting go (for seconds) when standing. On Monday she let go and took 3 steps! What a big girl getting ready to walk on her big 1st birthday.

Here she is in action putting rings on the ring holder.

Sophia loves to cuddle with blankets (and pose for pictures)...

..and act all crazy while playing peek-a-boo. She can entertain herself for a good 20 minutes.

We went to Ali's house on Tuesday after a special concert at the library. Layla slept the whole time of course, while Sophia had fun playing with all her toys with Noa and Leah.

Here is Sophia practicing her standing alone while stacking blocks skills again.

On Wed, we had a visit from Nick's cousin Becca. Thanks for the birthday gifts!

On Friday it was time to celebrate more birthdays, next up was Maddie and Evie.

The kids had lots of fun playing with a tricycle, Elmo and bubbles. Sophia found an extra special toy and became very attached to two plastics pink spoons.


Then it was time for some seriously good cupcakes. Sophia was more interested in yogurt than cake. Hopefully all this practice will help when it is time to eat cake on her birthday.

Daddy brought home Star Wars toys tonight..for himself. Sophia can appreciate keeping toys in their packages too since she prefers the packaging most of the time..

Sophia was all dressed and ready for her big 1st birthday party on Saturday! Grandma was the first to arrive and Sophia gave her a special Valentine's card.

Sophia opened her first presents from mommy and daddy -- a new purse filled with a cell phone, compact and coin purse.

We crowned Sophia a birthday princess for a day! The crown only stayed on 30 seconds and the bow didn't last long either.. Her wand was her accessory of choice.

Shawn, Andy and Alex were the first guests to arrive.

Nick's cousin made the cake (with an edible crown) and it was delicious!

There are triplets here, but where is Patrick? Hiding behind his Dad.

Ayden and Isabella were BFF!

Sophia motored around the restaurant...

... stopping only to socialize with all the party guests.

or to take a picture here and there. Here are some pictures of friends and family enjoying the party:

Towards the end of the entertainment (yes, we had a parachute), Sophia got a little tired..

She didn't want to eat her cake no matter how hard I tried. Ok, we will save it for later.

Sophia's baby doll was a stand in for the mommy and me picture.

Before the party ended, we had to make time for a pinata. The little ones got to use a special bat.

I guess the pinata did the trick because Sophia got a second wind and started motoring around all over the place. .and then crashed on the way home.

After a short nap, Sophia picked one present to open and it was an animal sounds farm from Chuck. It was a perfect end to the day!

On Sunday, Sophia got a chance to open up all her presents and really enjoy each and every piece of tissue paper and packaging.

Her new play house from the Braffs and Katsanos families was a big hit. Even the box was a blast!

Nick particulary enjoyed this gift from Karen.

Baby Giggles was a big hit as well.

Sophia even liked her bond from Tyler and Ayden too - she actually played with the piece of paper for a good 20 minutes at least. She had such a fun time opening presents- thanks everyone for the gifts and sharing in this special time!