Look Mom....No Hands!!!

Well, I don't know if she could have done more on this 8th month birthday! We had quite the busy body today. Sophia had her baby aquatics class that she loves this morning. She did great and is the best kicker ever. She really likes the "Humpty Dumpty" rhyme we do before she gets to "fall" off the side of the pool and go for a little "swim". Later this afternoon we had our Little Pepers group meeting. She just loves being around people and other babies! I swear, they have their own language or something. I really wonder sometimes if they can understand one another. Why not, right?! Well, earlier this week, she had figured out how to crawl backwards, yet today, there was a bit of forwards motion. Shes really creeping a lot more now too. More of a slider really. But, just today you could see her get her knees under her and really try crawling. Paul has been training her to be a bit of a dare devil! He had her stand up and then tried letting go a few times, with his hands near by of course in case she started to fall. She stood, by herself, for a full 5 seconds! You should see the look on her face...she is concentrating so hard, yet is so proud of herself and excited that shes on her own!!! Then after she couldn't hold herself up anymore, she sat down!!! It was amazing, the other Peps parents were quite impressed with our little Sophia and clapped for her. I know shes going to be some sort of entertainer! She did it a couple more times, but not nearly as long. Lord knows it takes a lot of concentration and energy on her part to do such a thing!



And here she is playing with a "baby"....she's already nurturing!



She's truly a gifted little lady. We're so proud of our daughter and can't wait to be wowed by her next "talent". It's just so remarkable what she has accomplished in a few short months. Seems like she was born just yesterday, and how shes close to walking! Soon, I'll be running after her like mad! Thank God we have baby proofed the home already! Good luck to us! Here comes the calorie burn for sure!


A few pictures from earlier in the week....

Feeding her Granddad with her spoon! It was absolutely adorable!!!





We are truly blessed! Thank Heavens for Little Girls!!

Amazing little Sophia

I am so excited today! Sophia has done so much just today! So, I have a friend who has been putting his son on a little potty since 6 months old, usually after he wakes and naps to see if he'll do anything. He's now 11 months old and will now communicate to his parents that he needs to "go" and they'll take him to the potty and he goes! When I heard this, I was astonished and thought that I could try it with Sophia!

Well, our 2 baby bjorn potty chairs came yesterday and this morning, she started her little grunts, which is normal right before she'll go #2. I took her to the potty, which is kinda difficult to prep for since you have to undress her and take the diaper off. But, once we got all that situated, she sat there with her toes barely touching the floor and did her business!!!! She stood up afterwards, I held her there, and she took a peek in the pot and saw what she had done. A huge smile came across her face. I really think she understood the purpose of the potty chair! I was over the moon and still am!

We're going to keep at it and hopefully it will become more of a habit for her! Im hopeful that if we teach her now, early enough, then pull ups wont be something she gets too attached too. I think when the get to the point where they know its easier to just go in the diaper than to use the potty, then its harder to train them, but if we do it early enough, maybe she will learn before she knows any better =)I took pictures even, me being the overly proud mother that I am, but won't post them for all you're sake and Sophia's too!

This afternoon I went to have a shiatsu massage and Paul watched Sophia. He calls me while Im on the road and tell me that Sophia just crawled backwards about 4-5 feet! I was so excited and bummed that I had missed it! I hear babies will crawl backwards before the crawl forwards, so maybe she will try the other direction soon? Paul got it on video, its pretty cute. She seems to be complaining about it while shes doing it, but then smiles once shes done it. I guess one of the times she ended up underneath her play pen! Her little head was sticking out and her body was underneath.

Well, we're pretty proud parents over here in Bellevue! Its so exciting to watch our little baby grow and achieve new skills! Soon she will be walking!! She's napping right now...Lord knows shes a tired girl after all the energy used this morning/afternoon! Yay!

Christmas and New Years

Phew! I can't believe its 2009! Didn't we just celebrate 2008?! I know years go by quickly when you get older, but man, what's it going to be like 10, 20 years from now?! Don't even want to think about it!

So Christmas was great. Sophia got a lot of fun toys from Santa! She had fun with the bows and had her siblings to help her open her presents. We definitely had a white Christmas! Bing Crosby wouldn't have known what hit him! We were quite worried that we wouldn't be able to get out of our driveway for San Diego on the 27th, but luckily, thanks to my poor husband who had shoveled the driveway 5 times prior, we got out!



The flight down was great, Sophia is always a pretty good traveler when it comes to airplanes, thankfully! She seems to make "friends" on the plane rides too. Always checking out who is sitting around her, makes eye contact and gives them huge smiles. She seems to win over their hearts. Such a ham and social butterfly we have! She had a nice nap on the way down and up...and had fun playing with the curtain that covers us from the first class cabin. You can see in some of the pics, its adorable!



New Years was pretty laid back at our condo. Mommy fell asleep at 830pm with Sophia! Big party people we were! But, I must admit, I felt pretty good from all the sleep the next morning! I woke to the sound of fireworks at midnight. Since our condo is downtown San Diego, there were lots of hotels, etc celebrating the new year. Whispered a little "Happy New Year" to our baby girl and drifted back to sleepyland!
Paul and the kids stayed up for the New York blast off, so that was good at least! Someone saw something happen.

The next morning I put a party hat on Sophia while she was playing in her baby gym. She looked so cute! It's strange though, I dont feel like its a new year...seems just like a continuation of 2008, but maybe that's because all this snow keeps coming back! Cannot wait for Spring! Hopefully we'll have better weather and a real summer this year!



We went to Hollywood for a couple days and showed the kids around town. We took a picture of Sophia next to her favorite star! It was cute. Hasnt changed much there, but it does seem dirtier around the city than it used to! Blech! We stayed at the London hotel for 2 nights. Gordon Ramsay just opened a new restaurant there, so we had a nanny come to watch the kids and we enjoyed a dinner together which was something we hadn't done in a while. Gotta get couple time in too!




Hope everyone had a great Christmas and New Years and that all our new resolutions for 2009 are accomplished. I havent really figured out what mine are yet. I just want to continue to be the best Mommy I can to Sophia and accept that I'm not a perfect being and that I do make mistakes and its okay. I try so hard to make things perfect for her, in terms of napping and making sure that she's sleeping as well as she can, (it seems to be our only challenge with her) and its a lot of pressure. As soon as I think "Ah, ha! That's the problem, its not! And then Im racking my brain for another reason as to why shes not sleeping well at night. But hey, they are only this little once, and all I can do is enjoy the time with her and not focus on all the hard challenges so much that it takes over my motherhood joy! What truly matters is that shes happy and healthy and gets all the love and kisses she needs from her family! That's something I know I can do! =)




Happy New Year everyone!!! Love to all!

Another tooth!

Good grief....well I knew that her other bottom tooth wasn't too far behind since there was a huge mound on her gums...but didn't realize it would come just a few days after the first! So now we have two sharp little buggers on the bottom of her gum line! Its pretty exciting! Thankfully there hasn't been any biting yet! Knock on wood...and hopefully there wont be any either! Its amazing how sharp new teeth are with their small ridges and all! Sophia turned 7 months today! I was looking at some of her baby pictures from when she was just 2 weeks old. I just couldn't believe how much she has changed and how big shes grown! Shes so healthy and perfect and I am so blessed to have her in my life. Soon, she'll be off dating some guy and driving! Oh, I hope those days are slow to come!!! I think I'll be the one with the baseball bat to the boys rather than Paul! =)

Well we're off to a friends wedding tomorrow. Hopefully, anyway! With more snow coming tomorrow evening, we may be stuck in Seattle Sunday morning till it clears up a bit. Just as long as we can make it back down our driveway, we'll be happy! Went grocery shopping today! That was our big excitement out of our home. It was so busy, everyone was out stocking up for the hunkering down that will happen these next few days. Lots of things were out of stock too! It was weird seeing lightly stocked shelves in the store! I'm happy we got that done and now we have plenty to get us by the next few days.

All our Xmas shopping is complete! Yahoo! Just need Mr. UPS to come down our driveway somehow and deliver them! I hope that they get here in time....what impeccable timing! If we lose our power again this year, I'll be so annoyed. Its one thing when you don't have a baby, but another thing when you do! 2 years ago when that huge storm went through, it was nearly a week or so before we got back our power. Praying that something similar doesn't happen with all these wind storms that are due the next few days. Hope everyone stays safe and this difficult weather passes quickly. We want a white Christmas, but not this white! =)

Teeth, baby proofing, and snow oh my!

Well its finally happened!!! Sophia has cut her first tooth. Its her bottom left one...and the one next to it isnt too far behind. She was biting on my finger yesterday and all of a sudden I felt ridges.....then it occurred to me....she cut her tooth!!! Yay! Gotta love being a mom....things like your baby getting their first teeth are sooooo exciting! I'll be great once she has a few more and start actually putting them to good use! Can't wait till the poke up a bit more...babies are soo cute with those two bottom teeth peeping out!

So we also got our home baby proofed last week by www.safety4toddlers.com/ Its the only company in our area that will come to your home and check out what could be a hazard and will sell you the products you need to either baby proof your home yourself or they can do it for you. We did both. It gets pretty expensive with labor as well as the parts to buy, so we decided to have them do the hard work like the gates and drawer latches etc, and we're going to do the things like burglar bars and finger guards for the doors and outlet cover changing. I learned a whole bunch of stuff though, it was crazy all the items they showed me for proof-age! Phew! Anyway, we're all ready for her to start moving around! She's close to creeping....I'll put her on her back on her play gym and before you know it shes turned 180 degrees or so and facing the other way lol! We also got her one of those walkers made by Chicco. She LOVES it!!! Man, can she move in that thing now too. It is sooo incredibly adorable seeing her walking around the home. Only works well if you've got plenty of hardwood floors for the walker to move on though. I really need to take a video of her and post it, its hilarious!

We got pictures done a few days ago with our Bellevue wedding photographer. It was fabulous and she did so well. It helps that our photographer has 2 daughters himself, so it was easy for him to work with a baby. We got the proofs back, but waiting on the disk so we can post some images. Lots turned out really well. I wanted them originally done for her turning 6 months, but he was booked up so they are more like 7 month photos. Im really trying to find a baby modeling company for her. Our photographer mentioned how great her demeanor was and that shes perfect for modeling and how much a jewel she is! Of course, I'm biased, but its always great hearing something like that from someone and even better when someone who photographs babys often is giving you that kind of feedback. So I contacted the Seattle modeling guild and am waiting for some kind of response as to who to go to. There are so many sketchy places doing "baby modeling" now a days that take your money promising work, but nothing ever comes of it. Dont really want that to happen to us, so hopefully we get some kind of legit information for what to do next with our little lady and if its really worth it. Dont want to stress out the poor child!

We're off to San Diego after Xmas....so it'll be nice to have a little bit of warmer weather at least! Today was Sophia's first time seeing snow! She was like, "ok, guys whats going on here, everything is white?!" She looked all inquisitive, it was really cute! Hopefully our driveway doesnt become too treacherous. I have my car parked at the top of it right now cause I need to sing tomorrow at church for a concert. Hope I can get outta here at 645 am. YUCK!

Anyway....Merry Christmas everyone...hope Santa is good to you and your little babies! =) Im done with shopping, hallelujah!

1st Blog

My first blog on blogspot! Ok....this is gotta be the last blogging type site that I start! Im going to be overwhelmed soon...but my friend Heather convinced me to join...so here goes!

Sophia is just over 6 months now...shes sitting up great and almost ready to crawl. We're having the baby proofers come early December to do the home....Im sure it'll cost a pretty penny, but so worth not having something awful happen to baby! She already slid off the couch and bonked her head. I didnt realize how mobile this girl is...cant leave her in her cushion anymore byself....did I feel the guilt or what! She actually caught herself pretty good, but still...she cried...I felt awful.

What else...Sophia has been blabbing up a storm! Shes said a few new sounds good...I swear, shes trying to tell us a story sometimes! She's sleep better now too...she used to wake up every few hrs, but now its only 2 times a night or so which is a huge improvement! Shes taking longer naps during the day. She slept 1.5 hrs and then 1.75 hrs for her naps today....and then went down easy at 730pm for bed. Shes still in our bed though....I just need to get her back into her crib and we're perfect! I hope she sleeps well tonight!

We're getting our xmas tree tomorrow. Going to a local place that we go to every year. They have the cocoa, cider, and a cute train that you can ride. We'll have to take lots of pictures of Sophia's first tree pickage and trimming tomorrow night. Thanksgiving was fabulous. We went to my parents place and Paul's folks joined us as well. Sophia had some organic turkey and veg puree' for dinner...she loved it! Almost ate the whole darn jar! Some appetite that girl has. Me on the other hand....decided that I didnt want leftovers from my parents place, but then had a huge craving for more turkey the next morning, so Paul and I went to Whole Foods and bought everything to make another dinner....Im crazy, but it was soooooo good!

Anyway, thats about all for now. I'll write more later...need to figure out what else to do on here to make it look good!