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!!

Happy Fourth of July!

9 Months Old!

WoW! Sophie is 9 months old, the same amount of time that I was pregnant (or close to it!)! It's amazing how much she has changed over these several months that I see my little girl is growing up! She sits up very well now and only has a tumble or two backwards once in a while. She loves sitting up and playing with her toys. She also enjoys rolling around on the floor to reach toys that are out of reach. She rolls both ways and always seems amazed when she can roll to different areas! As a result of all this rolling, she is now able to sleep on her tummy. When I get her up in the morning, she's always in a different position! She isn't crawling yet, but is making progress towards it. She gets into the "Superman" pose and tries to scoot her legs, but end up moving backwards instead of front. She gets frustrated easily, but she'll be moving before we know it! She also is getting much stronger at standing. She can hold on to the coffee table (with some assistance) and loves being pulled to standing position from sitting. She gets a huge grin on her face as if to see "see, look at me!"

Sophie still enjoys saying "da da da" but she's added more sounds to her repetoire.
They're hard to describe, but are oh so cute sounding! She is starting to learn sign language, and can tell me when she wants to be picked up and when she's "all done." We're still working on other signs.

Sophie has gotten her first bad illness this month. She developed the hand, foot, and mouth virus. It is nasty! She started out with a bad fever (103.6 degrees), loss of appetite, and irritability. When we got to the doctor, she had horrible blisters in her mouth which accounts for the loss of appetite. I wouldn't want to eat either if it was extremely painful each time (sounds like a good diet, though!). After a few days she developed a non itchy rash on her arms and legs. She has been pretty needy and upset, but luckily I'm done with school, so we are spending a lot of quality time together at home!

Other than Sophie's virus, she is a happy go lucky little girl! She smiles constantly and enjoys the world around her. She is a joy to watch and I thank God for her every day! How could you not love that face? :)

Summer Fun!

Family Visit

8 Months Old!

Sophie just keeps growing! As much as we want her to stay small, she keeps on truckin'. Sophie now sits up easily and grabs for everything in sight! She hasn't gotten to the crawling yet, but we're hoping she starts to pick that up soon. She definitely acts like she wants to get moving but just doesn't quite now how to do it. She loves her solid food and will probably start working on more finger foods soon. Her two front bottom teeth have poked through and I imagine the top two are on their way as well. They don't seem to bother her, but she sure loves sucking and biting on everything!

We had a great visit with Nick, Jen, and cousin Holland! Holland and Sophie hadn't met before and they really hit it off. Sophie was enamored by everything Holland did and Holland wanted to take care of Sophie! It was very cute! We sure wish they could be around each other more often.

Summer is upon us, and I'm so excited to spend more time with Sophie. She learns new things everyday and it's so fun to experience that!

7 Months Old!

Sophie has reached 7 months! It's amazing how time has flown and how much Sophie has grown! She is now eating solid food like it's going out of style but hasn't made it to finger foods. Her little chubby fingers aren't quite ready to pick up little bits like Cheerios. She'll be there soon I bet. She loves eating fruit, and has decided that chicken and turkey aren't too bad (even though they're pureed and make me want to puke!). She definitely has put on some weight since she started the solid food. She's in 6-9 month clothes now, but won't be for long! I love her little chubby thighs! She also has learned how to drink water out of a sippy cup and she loves it. She wants to hold the cup, but has difficulty getting anything out of it on her own.

She also is almost sitting up on her own. She is behind on this milestone most likely because she wore that brace for the first 4 months of her life. She loves sitting in her boppy playing with various toys. She can pass them from hand to hand, and when she drops a toy within her reach, she'll pick it up. She has her favorites and will start to whine when she can't get to them.

Sophie has become more vocal. She loves to hear herself talk and she's recently started babbling "da da da da" which thrills Matt to no end. Sometimes when I pick her up from daycare she will "tell" me about her day from the backseat, just babbling away! It's so fun to hear her little voice.

There's so much more to say about our wonderful child, but I'll save some for later!

A Trip to the Capitol

6 months old!

Sophie is 1/2 a year old! All I can say is WoW!! She is changing so much everyday and it's fun to see what she is learning. She can now officially roll over from her tummy to her back without any assistance. It took her longer than most babies because of that darn brace! He is still not a huge fan of tummy time, but she's improving. She can push up on her arms pretty high, so crawling may come soon!

Sophie is eating solid food right now, which is a treat for her and a mess for us! She has tried rice cereal, peas, green beans, sweet potatoes, and squash and hasn't turned anything down. Sweet potatoes are her favorite by far! I'm sure once she tries fruit, there won't be any turning back! After she is given a spoonful of food, she shoves her fist in her mouth to help get the food down. It's the funniest thing!

She is also doing a great job handling her toys and playing with them. She can pass toys back and forth between her hands and she gets mad when she drops toys. She loves things that rattle and she's discovered that she can make a few of her toys sing. I don't think she knows she's doing it, but she sure enjoys the sounds! We are gaining quite the inventory of toys, something I think we both thought we wouldn't have so much of! It's really fun to play with her with them of course!

Speaking of sounds... Sophie has discovered her voice and it's so fun to hear her! She makes all sorts of sounds and sometimes it seems like she's telling us a story. I can't wait for her to make real words, but baby language is the cutest!

Sophie is still doing well at daycare. In fact, she sleeps there much better than she does at home on the weekend. It's probably because we're on the go so much and aren't on as good of a schedule. The ladies at daycare love Sophie to pieces and we're very fortunate to have her in such good hands!

Sophie's First Solid Food

5 Months Old!

Sophie is growing, growing, growing! She had her 4th month appointment (a bit late) and she weighs 13 pounds, 11 ounces (50th percentile) and is 26 1/2 inches long (90th percentile). She must be taking after her daddy in height along with looks! Now that Sophie is out of her brace she is working hard to roll over and is improving with tummy time. She still has a long way to go but the doctors are not concerned. She'll get there in time and will be moving before we know it! She really enjoys being tickled and giggles a lot. She also is getting better at holding and playing with her toys. We're going to start Sophie on some solid foods in the next few weeks which is exciting! I'm sure I will have some messy looking Sophie pictures to post soon!

No More Brace!

Today we got the official word from Dr. Silas, Sophie's orthopedic pediatrician, that she only has to wear her brace at night. Matt and I are so excited because now Sophie can work on rolling over and eventually get to crawling! She is a bit behind right now physically, but we'll help her get caught up! She really enjoys kicking on the floor now with all of her freedom, and it's a joy to watch her! She also is jumping like crazy in her Jumperoo, which is something she hadn't done before. It's been a long 4 months, but it was worth it! Sophie has strong hips that won't impair her later in life! Yay!!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Hugs and kisses from Sophie, Matt, and Sarah!

More pictures of our darling girl!