My Favorite Hiding Spot

Recently Sophie started hiding behind our recliner/rocker in our living room.  It is the perfect little nook for her to crawl into and take a book, monkey, lambie, or other toys.  She sits in there and just giggles and has a blast.  

 There have even been a few times that I've tried to change her clothes and she's ran to hide behind the chair in just a diaper.  Priceless.

17 Months Going on 17

At 17 months Sophie can build with blocks, put together the peg puzzles, and is doing more interactive play with her baby, farm animals, and her house. She is also more interactive with family and at the sitter's house with the other kids.  She has started singing La la la...which I believe she got from the Muppet Christmas Movie.  Recently she has figure out how to slide down the stairs on her belly- the safe way of course. 

She is starting to try to form sentences when she talks, some sound like sentences others are her own little language.  The first sentence I've heard her say is "I did that!"  She is also starting to assert her independence by saying no.. so far we are able to curb that by counting to 3.  Funny thing is she has learned how to count to three herself..I say "one", and then she says "two"..hard not to laugh...but when I get to three if she has not calmed down or came to me, she gets to sit on my lap and be restrained until she cooperates..normally only takes about two minutes.

As far a food goes the newest development there is dipping her hot dog and meatballs in ketchup. She has also started eating cereal with milk, and is able to get the spoon to her mouth pretty much by herself without making too big of a mess.  She still loves mac n cheese, veggies, and fruit.

The few warm days we've had and been able to be outside she's had an absolute blast...she loves swinging..riding in the jogging stroller and wagon, and playing in our yard and at the park.  Hard to get her back in the house afterwards.

Sophie also had her first official play date last Sunday with our friends from work's daughter Teagan.  Teagan is about six months younger than Sophie, so in another few months they will be more at the same level activity wise and be able to interact more... Sophie loved her though and just called her "baby."

What a zoo...

So the last few months have been a bit of a zoo at our house hence me not posting as often....We have all had sinus infections, Bob had strep throat, Sophie has had a few ear infections.   To say the least we have all been under the weather for nearly a month and with three rounds of antibiotics I think we finally have nipped all of it in the rear.   My job will be changing in August due to some outsourcing, however I will still be working part time in accounting but with every change comes a bit of stress of the unknown.  I am trying to remain positive and look at it as a new opportunity.   We have also decided to put our house back on the market, so lots of upkeep and cleaning weekly, we are wanting to move closer to work, church, and our sitter so we have more time to spend with Sophie.

Last Saturday since the weather was sunny and in the lower 60's we decided to venture out of our own zoo and head out to the real zoo to check out the animals and let Sophie do some playing outside.  She loved the little playground bug area....The slide was her favorite part.  We also got to see the polar bears dive into the water and play with barrels up close.  What an awesome day!!

Eddie The Monster

Recently we DVR'd Imagination Movers in Concert for Sophie to watch.  She loves them in general but during this concert this monster came on stage. His name is Eddie and she was so engrossed in him it was not even funny.  She can even say "Eddie."  The song they sang about Eddie is called "Friendly Guy."  She seems to think he's a friendly guy.  Daddy seems to like the song too...and Sophie gets so excited she spills her milk twice

Pretty Pretty Princess

Last weekend some family friends of Daddy's, along with Grammy and Poppy came to visit the three of us and see our house since they live out of town and we've lived here five years and they never been down our way.   We had a nice lunch and visited and then we took them to see where we plan on building our new house and we went out to dinner.   They brought Sophie a sweet little pink teddy bear and this cute little pretty princess dress.

When I tried it on her to make sure it fit, she twirled and got all excited to have it on.  So daddy grabbed the camera and we got a few snap shots of her.  We think she's going to love to play dress up as she gets a little older.

Sweet Sixteen Months

 Time sure does fly when you are having fun.  Sophie is now sixteen months old and is still showing us how much of blessing she is in our lives.  She is such a sweet fun loving girl most of the time.  With each day she is into or doing something new that amazes us.

She is definitely getting taller or her shirts are shrinking length wise cause we are having to go up another size just so her belly does not hang out the bottom of her shirts.

Some of her favorite things include playing with her baby doll (feeding it with a spoon, giving her a bottle, covering her up and rocking her in her bed or in the rocking chair).  She is reasonably gentle giving the baby hugs and kisses, however when it comes to laying her down she's a little rough.
She also loves her stuffed Kermit the frog that sings and talks, as well as her Fraggle Rock Puppet "Red."  Recently she has learned how to build with her blocks and still loves reading books with Mommy and Daddy.

The newest development was about three weeks ago she stopped taking her night time bottle and is now drinking strictly out of a sippy cup.  She was not so sure about it at first but after a few nights of a new routine she's fine with it.

We have also had a lot of fun this month.  She has had her second round of ear infections in one month, which has made for several unpleasant trips to see the doctor.  In addition to the ear infections she has been cutting about five new teeth total, most of them being molars.  We have seen enough drool and snot to last us a lifetime. She has been quite the trooper considering!

Some new words she's is saying this month are Poppy (Bob's Dad), Grammy (Bob's Mom), Mam Maw (My mom) and Paw Paw (My dad), Grey (one of Lisa and Mike's Dogs), and Aaron (her cousin).  Cakes (Pancakes), Please, Thank You, and walk. Yesterday she said "Maybe" when I asked her a question, and a lot of her other words are becoming more fluent.

She has started laughing at more specific things in books, things we say, and things she has seen in movies or on TV.  She also stayed her first night overnight with Bob's parents and had a blast.

The funniest thing we have seen her do is when she is tired she goes and gets her lambie and soothie monkey and grabs one of our hands and heads for the staircase...like she is tired and wants to go to bed.  Who wouldn't love a kid that is on such a schedule she is asking to go take a nap or go to bed for the night.  Pretty sure this will not last, but we can always hope.

BANKS RYAN YOSS

Over the weekend we got the opportunity to meet Banks.  He was born on the 4th of February to our friends Ryan and Carla.  They are doing great as new parents and he seems to be a very happy baby.  Congratulations to them and now Sophie has another playmate.  We had a great visit with them and can't wait to watch all of them grow together as a family.  Congrats Ryan and Carla!!!

Here he is with his Daddy at the hospital

Just a few days old

Banks all snuggly in his warm blankie

Of course I had to hold this cute little guy...who would pass up a chance to hold a baby...

FIRST OVERNIGHT

This past weekend Bob and I left Sophie overnight for the first time at his parents house with his family.  We headed up to Kent for the afternoon and evening to walk around Kent State University where Bob got his bachelors degree.  

Then we met up with several of his friends from college for dinner at Ray's Place.. This was a favorite of Bob's and his friends back in the day.

Forf

Stephanie and Liam

Devo and Liam

Later in the evening we went to the Zephyr to see Patrick Sweeny play and met up with some other friends that could not make it out for dinner.

Rob, Forf, Devo, Stephanie, and across the table Gene, Mary, and Ryan

We called it a night at about 11:30 and headed back to our hotel room.  We had a great time together and seeing all of his friends from college.

The next morning we headed back to his parents house to find that Sophie had slept well, ate well, and was having a blast with her grandparents, Aunt Becky, Uncle Eric and her cousins.   Thanks to all of you for keeping Sophie for us.

While she took a nap Bob took Aaron for a walk....looks like they found a hydrant

COSI

A few weekends ago we decided we needed to get out of the house.  So we thought we'd try taking Sophie to COSI.  We were super excited when we got there and found out there was an huge place for kids her age.  It couldn't have been any more perfect of an afternoon.  COSI is such an amazing for kids and adults of all ages to learn and explore...which is exactly what all three of us did.

First we played with the baby dolls at the hospital area.

Next we played in the kitchen/restaurant area

"Ma Ma want a nana"

"Da Da sit with me"

"Let's Make Muffins"

"This is so much fun"

Now onto the balls and the playhouse

Here's a ball for you Daddy

Where to next Mommy?

To the house to learn how to turn off and on the light switch, ring the doorbell and wash our hands.

Off to do construction with Daddy and Mr. Elephant

This was neat you place your hands on the metal hands to make music..she loved this one....

However, This had to be the most appropriate thing there since Sophie has recently discovered the light switches at home and has learned how to turn them on and off and say on and off.

We finished the day at the Atlantis exhibit and the special Gecko exhibit.  However by this point she was so tired she did not care all that much, but thought they were neat.

15 Months Old

Sophie turned 15 months old last Tuesday.  Wow it is sure hard to believe and she sure has grown.  I took her to the doctor last Thursday which she just loves from the second we hit the white paper, to the scale, from the examination to getting her shots....she normally does not calm down until she is fully clothed and in the car asleep from wearing herself out.

Here are her stats to date....
22.6 pounds ( 43 percentile)
30.5 inches tall (52 percentile)


She's pretty average for a toddler that is 15 months.


Foods she's eating...
She is a wonderful eater...
Blueberries, Kiwi, Raspberries, Pears, Apples, Oranges, Peanut Butter Sandwiches, Chicken Nuggets, Spaghetti, Mac N Cheese, Pancakes without Syrup, hard boiled eggs, cucumber, peas, carrots, green beans, corn, raisins, Yogurt, cereal, granola, granola bars, goldfish crackers, pasta salad, cheese, bananas.

We've tried- Grilled Cheese, Hotdogs, Oatmeal, Pizza. Wraps and many other foods that we eat.  She is willing to try just about anything....but if she does not like something it returns to her plate.



Fun things she's saying....
She is definitely becoming more fluent in her speaking abilities.  She repeats nearly everything.  Her words now include....diaty (diaper), more, thank you, daddy, mommy, paw-paw (my dad), maw-maw (my mom), Aaron, baby, doggie, book, wa-wa (water), cup, juice, snack, help, mine, me, door, out, down, up, off, on, bath, nana(banana), ogurt (yogurt), cookie, lambie, monk (monkey), done, bye bye, ouch, good girl, poop, pee, potty, ocks (socks), all done, yesh (Yes), and is now shaking her head no, hello.


Fun things she's doing....

She also goes to her high chair when she is hungry and stands and waits for me to put her in there.

Before bed or nap she looks for lambie and monkey....she says "lambie, lambie"   Bob and I say "lambie where are you?"  But she's saying her part in the same tone as us.

She also loves playing in her tent and has decided that is her dumping ground...by dumping I mean going poop.  She heads in there and when she's done she comes out and holds the back of her diaper and says poop...it truly is hard not to laugh, but she is starting to understand.  In addition to this she follows us into the bathroom and wants to see what we are doing...hopefully that means potty training won't be too big of a challenge..we'll see.

Just recently my parents watched her and now when we turn the porch light on at night she points and says Paw-paw.  No sorry Paw-Paw isn't out there and neither is Maw-Maw.

We don't let her watch much T.V. but occasionally she gets to watch a little.  I bought around Christmas time the Muppet Family Christmas and it was one of my brother and my favorites as kids...she has become a bit addicted to it....and dances to the music and points out Miss Piggy, the dog, and laughs when they fall on the icy patch...

She's starting to take an interest in putting puzzles together, and still really loves reading books with anyone...she backs up if you are sitting on the floor with her and plops herself a seat right in your lap, there have been a few times she's sat on one of our faces.

She loves to go to the store and sit in the cart and wave to everyone in the store and say hello and bye bye to people...

I have to say the one thing that put Bob and I both back a little bit is at the sitter's house she has those little chairs and a little table for the kids to sit at and eat breakfast, snack, and lunch at...one day Bob saw her sitting in a chair through the window with the other kids.....and I saw her sitting there eating lunch with the other kids one day I picked her up...just hard to believe she's a big girl now doing things just like the other kids...she also has one little friend Charlise that she plays quite a bit and tells bye bye when she leaves.

Snow Bunny

So this past weekend we decided we could all use some fresh air from being cooped up.  So I gathered up all the clothes we all needed and got myself dressed, Bob got dressed and then we tag teamed Sophie.  She didn't seem to care about putting all those clothes on.  We just kept telling her that she was going outside which apparently sounded great to her.

Once we had her all dressed she could barely move...in fact she fell over...and then could not get up.. 

Finally we made it outside after about 15 minutes of getting dressed.

Now the real fun can begin...we have a small hill in our backyard perfect size for her to sled on...Bob stood at one end and I stood at the other.....wee!  She loved it..lots of laughing, giggling and smiling...and definitely curiosity!

After sledding she decided to sit in the snow because it was far to hard for her to move and walk in her boots with all of her clothing on...

At this point she decided to take her mittens off  (10 mins into being outside)

We called it a day and went in because it was much too cold for all of us!  Well worth our time though we had a blast.  Hopefully we will get a little bit warmer weather with the snow still on the ground one more time to take her out again.