Day at the park...

Rarely do we get this nice of weather during the month of February in Oregon, so I had to take advantage of it. Yesterday, Sophia and I met my mother-in-law, Barbara, at a park about five minutes form our house in Milwaukie. It was so nice out and there were many kids playing at the park. First, we started Sophia out on the swing. She loved it! She was grinning from ear to ear and had a blast swinging! I also took her down the slide and up on the big jungle gym. Sophia also loved watching all the other little kids running around playing, and got so excited every time a dog would walk by. She must have pointed at every single dog she saw, lol. She now has her own way to say "hi dog" and will point and say, "hi-dah". She says this all the time at home when she sees Hurley or Shakespeare.
Sophia is also WALKING now! She was able to take up to 6 steps before,and she kind of ran and then would do a nose dive. But now she can walk from one side of the room to the other. And she does it in a controlled and balanced manner. When she gets tired, she just bends down and goes to crawling. She still prefers crawling, but I'm sure as soon as she figures out that walking will get her to where she wants to go faster, she'll choose walking over crawling. She did the same thing when she first learned to crawl. She would roll all over to get where she wanted to go, until she realized crawling was faster. It's so cute to see her toddling back and fourth between me and Jeff. She's still a bit wobbly, but she's getting the hang of it and is doing great! Pretty soon she'll be toddling all over the house:)

Little miss busy...

Sophia is all over the place these days, crawling up the stairs, getting into the cupboards and taking every single item out of my purse and spreading it all over the living room floor. It seems like, about the time that I get one mess cleaned up, she's on to something new creating another mess for me. And though, this can be a bit tiring at times, it amazes me the things she is understanding at this stage and I love watching how curious she is about life. Her new favorite curiosity has to be the bathroom.
She is so enamored with the toilet and toilet paper. We now have to keep the bathroom door shut or we'll find her in there pulling all the toilet paper off the roll or lifting up the toilet lid, trying to play in the water. She also loves opening and closing the kitchen drawers. I showed her how to close the drawers with out smashing her fingers and so far she has done a great job of keeping her fingers out of the way. Sophia shows a fairly independent and determined attitude towards everything she does and it is so exciting to see her trying to do something by herself and finally accomplishing it. As a mom its hard to keep myself from doing everything for her, but I want her to learn to be self sufficient. By staying in the background and observing her learning and playing, I know it allows her to problem solve and accomplish things on her own. This stage is so much fun and it is so neat to see her eyes light up as she learns and experiences new things.

Just like Daddy...

As many of you know, Jeff and my father-in-law love golf! They belong to a country club and if it were up to them, they would live on a golf course. This past Sunday Jeff and his dad went to a golf show down in Portland. They managed to find something tiny enough to fit Sophia at the show and came home with these. Sophia now has her first pair of golf shoes, just like her daddy! Jeff can't wait until he can get her a little set of her first golf clubs, which will be when she is three. This poor girl has no chance, lol. I hope she likes golf as she gets older, or she may just break her daddy's heart.

Sophia's One Year Birthday...

I can't believe it has been a year already since we brought home our 7 lb, 5oz. little girl, Sophia Sunshine Boss. The moment she was born Jeff and I cried tears of happiness and joy. It felt like we had waited forever to finally see our baby girl. Now after a year, I get that feeling all over again every time I see her face.
This past Sunday we celebrated Sophia's one year birthday (her real birthday was Wednesday the 11th).We had quite the full house complete with friends and family. We played a slide show filled with pictures showing how Sophia has grown and matured over the last twelve months, and watched her eat her giant cupcake I made her, and last watched her (or rather, me) open her mini-mountain of presents.
The crowd pleasing part had to be when I put the giant cupcake in front of Sophia to dig into and eat. She poked at it very cautiously with her pointer finger and licked off the frosting. She was so lady-like and dainty, that I had to actually take her fingers and stick them into the cupcake. She enjoyed it so much that she cried when we took it away. That was her first taste of sugar, and now I'm afraid we have a little sweet tooth on our hands.
It was such a nice first birthday for Sophia and she received many wonderful books, outfits, and toys. She will be very entertained for quite some time! Thank you to everyone for coming and for the sweet and thoughtful gifts for our little girl!
Sophia still is not interested in walking by herself, but we are hoping by the time we go to Florida in March, she will have tackled the task and will be walking by herself. My arms are hoping for this triumph more than anything. She is however, becoming a climbing machine and pushes anything and everything that will move around the house such as her highchair and our kitchen chairs, boxes, etc. She is also becoming very vocal and interactive. She loves music and will dance if she hears music playing.
She is also obsessed with anything with buttons such as our cell phones, remote controls and the microwave. She is constantly changing the channel on us when Jeff and I are watching a show. Sophia and Hurley continue to be buddies and roll around on the ground together and play. Hurley will sniff or lick Sophia, and she thinks he is tickling her and she just cracks up! It is so cute to watch them together.
Sophia has been such an amazing blessing and addition to our family. We look at her everyday and can not imagine our lives with out her. She fills our home with so much laughter and joy. She is a joyful little girl and we are so blessed to have her in our lives.

Almost One!

Sophia is only a few days off from her one year old birthday and she is doing so much these days! She now knows the following:

-the meaning of the word "no"/"be gentle"/"sit-down"/"loves"(gives us a hug)/"kisses"
-how to wave "bye-bye" by opening and closing her hand
-how to Velcro her shoes
-how to give kisses (they are open mouth kisses right now, along with some tongue and a little drool)
-how to give a high-five
-plays patty-cake
-can identify where someone's noes is by pointing/touching it
-can climb up and down the stairs safely
-can feed herself with a spoon
-knows how to open & close drawers using the handle so she won't smash her fingers
-knows how to point the remote at the t.v. and usually ends up changing the channel
-has developed her own "fake laugh" when we are laughing about something

She is still working on walking independently and has actually been more interested in crawling then walking these days. She pushes everything around the house such as her high-chair and our kitchen chairs, but refuses to let go and walk by herself. Last week, she took two steps, stopped and regained her balance and took another two steps, but that is about it for now.
She is also taking one afternoon nap at 1:00pm and sleeps for about 2-3 hours. She also sleeps 12-13 hours through the night, which is so nice for Jeff and I. It's so funny because I will rock her and sing to her and pat her on the back to soothe her. Well now, she pats my back and sings to me when I am putting her to sleep. It cracks me up!
She is quiet the little ham and keeps us very entertained these days! We are so in love with our little girl and feel so blessed that she is such a happy and content baby. She's always smiling and making goofy faces. We are so thankful!

My Two Favorite People...

There's nothing that melts my heart more than watching Jeff and Sophia play and have fun together. I couldn't help but capture these moments to share.