17 Months Old

17 months old... who would have known that we're already there!?! Sophie is busy, busy, busy! She rarely sits still and is trying new things out all the time. She runs around the house and is working on climbing up on more things. She's a bit timid, but I imagine that timidness will end soon!

By far, Sophie's favorite thing to do is read books. She will bring book after book until Matt or I practically finish them all! We thought we had enough books, but we had to go and buy more because we're getting tired of them, she isn't! She loves pointing out the words she knows, and I imagine her vocabulary is getting closer to 50 words now. She also has worked on saying the sounds of animals too.

We're looking forward to spring and summer when Sophie can be outside more. We went to the park yesterday, and she had a great time climbing on the big toys and running around with the dog. Rain, rain, go away!!

16 Months Old

Now that Sophie is walking, she is all over the place! She enjoys carrying her toys and books from room to room, causing a great mess wherever she goes! She loves that she can walk everywhere now. She still tumbles quite a bit, but she gets right back up and keeps moving.

Now that Sophie is a toddler, she is learning some of those dreaded behaviors... She has started to whine when she doesn't get her way, she has thrown a few mini tantrums, and she says "me, me" (her version of "mine"). She also is becoming more of a picky eater. The things she does not like end up on the floor, and she really wants all of her food to be placed in a bowl. Goodness... :)

Even though some of those behaviors drive us crazy, she is such a joy to watch. We love hearing her new words come out (she has about 25 words right now) and seeing her get excited about the little things. My favorite new word she has learned is "Ameh," her version of Amen after her bedtime prayer. She is constantly amazing us and constantly making us smile. We are truly blessed!

Digital Scrapbooking

15 Months Old

Sophie continues to learn new things everyday! Her recent adventure is walking! A couple of weeks ago Sophie took her first steps and hasn't slowed down since! She still prefers to crawl, but is making more efforts to walk. She loves the satisfaction of walking to mama or dada and seeing us cheer for her. Before we know it, she'll be running across the room!

Sophie also has expanded her vocabulary. She says about 20 words now with her favorites being attle (apple), Elma (Elmo), hi, and uh oh! She loves to mimic words, so we have to be extra careful with what we say and we're so thankful that she hasn't learned the dreaded "no" yet!

Just before Christmas, we experienced a large amount of snowfall which was strange for Washington. We missed three days of school, so Sophie and I got a lot of quality time together to play, play, play! I was getting anxious for Christmas so we could get new toys to play with! :)

We had a wonderful Christmas despite the fact that not all of our family could be here due to snow. Sophie enjoyed all of her new gifts and it was a joy to watch her experience the whole thing! She finally learned how to say "anta," but it was a week after Christmas! Go figure!

Merry Christmas from the Jones's!

Sophie's First Birthday!

1 Year Old!

Sophie Grace has turned a year old! It is hard for Matt and I to believe and to deal with because our little girl is growing up!

Before Sophie's birthday, our family took a trip to Boulder, CO for my Grandma Holman's burial. This was Sophie's first plane ride, and she did great! She slept through the take offs and played and ate through the rest of the ride (luckily it was a short flight because she sat on our laps!). We enjoyed getting to see all of our little family for a reunion. My brother flew in from Kentucky and he hadn't seen Sophie since she was 2 months old! It was precious to see them together!

Sophie had a wonderful first birthday party full of family, friends, presents, and cake! Sophie had taken a three hour nap before her party, so she was in a great mood the whole time and didn't get overwhelmed once! She enjoyed playing with the other kids, and started to get the hang of the whole present thing. She didn't quite know how to open anything, but once she saw that a toy was inside, she would get excited! As for the main event, the cake, Sophie played with it more than she ate. She only tried a little bit of the frosting, but didn't seem too enthused.

So, what is Sophie doing? I should probably say, what isn't Sophie doing? Now that she can crawl, she is crawling everywhere. Once she gets to where she wants to be, she pulls herself up and cruises the furniture. She loves following us around the house and is starting to get the hang of being "chased." We always have to keep our eye on her so she doesn't get into things she shouldn't and isn't terrorizing the cats (which they don't mind a bit!).

Sophie still remains a happy little girl, who rarely fusses. She sleeps perfectly at night, but is making some changes with her nap routine. We believe she's trying to get herself used to one nap a day instead of two. She eats pretty much everything now that is still soft and not nut or honey based. She is totally off of formula now, and drinks her whole milk out of a sippy cup. No more bottle! She is growing so fast, but we're excited to see her learn to walk soon!

11 Months Old!

Eleven months and counting down to a year old! I keep telling Sophie to slow down and stop growing, but like a typical girl, she has her own mind! :) We had such a fun summer spending the majority of our time playing on the floor and just enjoying our time together. I reluctantly start back at school next week, so Sophie will be back to daycare full time. She has gone a few mornings a week during the summer to keep our spot and to give me much needed "Me" time.

Sophie loves our pets, Guster, Max, and Nikki and makes loud noises when they are around. She also loves looking at pictures of animals in books. So we decided to take her to the Thurston County Fair to see more live animals. I believe her favorite was the goats. She would squeal at them, and it was so funny to watch how excited she got. We met up with Aunt Lauren and Uncle Andy on the hottest day of the year to go to the Portland Zoo for another chance to fill Sophie's love for animals. We were all hot and tired, but seeing her smile at elephants, giraffes, and sea lions was priceless.

It's hard to keep up with Sophie now! She is continuing to roll around a lot, is FINALLY getting the crawling thing down, is pulling herself up, and is cruising the furniture. She is not an expert yet, so we do have some tumbles, but she keeps going! She has learned how to open drawers, push buttons on everything, and to make a mess! I guess she's just preparing us for toddlerhood!

Sophie is no longer eating jar food, instead she eats what we eat! Sometimes that is a challenge, since she can be picky, but we can't go wrong with turkey, cheese, fruit, and tortillas! She is getting much better at drinking out of a sippy cup as we hope to graduate her from the bottle soon!

Sophie's great grandma, my grandmother Roberta Holman, passed away this summer. It was extremely difficult for my family and I, but I was so happy that grandma met and loved Sophie. As a result, Sophie gets to go on her first plane ride to Colorado in September for grandma's burial. There will be more on that next month.

Summer fun!

10 Months Old!

My how time flies! Sophie just turned 10 months old and is letting her personality come out more and more each day! She still loves to smile and will let out a loud belly laugh when we tickle and play with her. She says both "mama" and "dada," but we're not sure if she associates the words with us yet. She babbles endlessly and speaks at a variety of volumes.

She loves her toys, especially ones that make noise, sing, or flash lights. She also is enthralled with books (the teacher in me is thrilled!). She will open and close books and will point at certain things she sees. Daddy still reads to her every night before bed and she enjoys that time. Her favorite books (or Daddy's rather) are "I Know a Rhino" and "Are you My Mother?"

Sophie is learning how to move about in her world now. She rolls all over the room and doesn't seem to mind the hard wood floors. She can pseudo crawl or "slither" to get things she wants, but doesn't want to pick her tummy off the floor in order to really get to crawling. I of course stress about her not crawling yet, but we keep working with her. She is standing really well now, and she can hold onto things without falls usually. She's not cruising the furniture yet, but we're working on it!

Sophie is eating more and more solid foods now. We want her to try bits of what we're eating to start merging her over to more people food. So far, she's liking most of the things we give her, but she'll only have a few bites. Her favorite solid foods right now are string cheese, blueberries, and refried beans. She still loves her jar food, but we'd like her to try more and more new things!

This summer, Sophie has been going to Baby Gym which is a class that is provided by Olympia Parks and Rec. She is in the class with about 10 other 6-12 month old babies, and they all play! There are fun toys that she doesn't normally get to play with at home or at daycare, so she has a ball! In fact, there is a small ball pit (like the kind at McDonalds) that she enjoys getting into. We sing nursery rhymes and do all the hand motions, and it's a lot of fun. She especially likes "parachute time" and bubbles at the end of class.

We took a quick trip to Snoqualmie Pass with Sophie last weekend. That was her first time in a hotel, and she did pretty well. We did some shopping (for her of course!) and did a short hike at Snoqualmie Falls. She got to ride in the backpack on Daddy which she really loved. It's so fun to experience new things with Sophie!!