Lincoln City...

Over Memorial Day weekend we went to Lincoln City and Newport. We had a wonderful time spending the weekend with Jeff's family at the beach house they rented overlooking Licoln City beach.

We spent time browsing the outlet mall in Licoln City (sooo fun!), took a trip to Historic Newport Waterfront, played at a nearby park, and walked along the beach. While in Newport, we were able to see the huge sea lions that hang out on the dock and love to show off for visitors. Sophia enjoyed watching them and hearing them make their loud noises! We couldn't get over how enormous they are up close! We were blessed with wonderful sunny weather, though a bit windy. We had such a wonderful, relaxing Memorial Day weekend, we didn't want to come back home. Here are just a few of the pics from our wonderful weekend:)

Grandpa Boss and Sophia checkin' out the ocean together

Daddy and Sophia looking at the sea lions

Our little family at Newport

Sophia taking Monster for a walk (who's walking who?)

Sophia enjoying her first time eating corn actually off the cobb

Rock-a-bye Baby...

Ever since we moved Sophia up to her own room to sleep in her crib, we have rocked her to sleep every night. This routine would consist of us giving her a bottle, and then rocking her for about half an hour, sometimes even longer until she was sound asleep before we would lay her in her crib. Though, Jeff and I love rocking her to sleep, putting her to bed at night was becoming quite the timely task and I would even sometimes fall asleep in the rocking chair with her. A few days ago, I was asking myself at what age is she going to start soothing herself to sleep, so that we can give her hugs and kisses and simply put her in her crib to go to sleep? So, four nights ago, I thought I'd attempt rocking her for about 5 minutes, giver her a hug and kiss and put her in her crib completely awake. She cried for 2 minutes and then was completely out. Then, the second night I did the same routine and again she cried for about a minute, and then it was the same on the third night. Well, tonight (the fourth night), I went through the same routine with a short 5 minute rocking and a hug and a kiss and when I put her in her crib she rolled over and snuggled her blanket and didn't make a peep! This new routine will make it easier when we go on trips or travel to see relatives, because not everyone has a rocking chair and rocking her in my arms until she's completely asleep at this age is just not an option. She is way too heavy for me to hold in my arms for a half hour, so this new bedtime routine is quite a relief for me. I am really hoping this is our new bed time routine and it is here to stay.

Juggling two...

Friday, I watched my cousin Michelle's 6 month old little girl, Evelyn. I forgot what it's like to keep an eye on more than one child, since has been 11 years since I helped my parents with my triplet siblings. I only babysat her for about 6 hours, but it was quite the juggling act due to the fact that Sophia is so busy at this stage and Evelyn isn't crawling yet. At first Sophia was really excited about having her cousin over, but by the end of the day, she was done sharing me and was ready to have my undivided attention once again. Probably, the biggest task was trying to put Evelyn down for a nap while Sophia was just waking up from hers. However, I was lucky because Friday turned out to be a nice day, so we went in the back yard and I held Evelyn while Sophia played in the grass for quite a while, and that passed the time fairly fast.
It was fun to have a baby in the house again, because I don't really consider Sophia a baby anymore, kind of more like a toddler. Evelyn is just starting to sit up by herself and was focused on Sophia and what she was doing the whole time. She smiled every time she saw Sophia and it was so cute watching them interact and have their own little conversation between themselves. I had to act fast, but actually captured a couple pics of them together.

Hide and Seek...

Sophia has become quite the 'clepto' lately and will take off with our car keys or the T.V. remote, and go hide them in one of her 'famous spots', which leaves us searching all over the house trying to find them. It's pretty hilarious actually. This week I found my car keys in our hamper in our bedroom, and for two days we couldn't find the T.V. remote, until I opened one of our kitchen drawers, and found it in there along with the dishes. At my mom's house, today, while I was working Sophia hid a few jars of spices in her Elmo airplane. It's so funny, because I'll being doing laundry or picking up, and I'll find random items in the strangest places. It's like she leaves little reminders of herself around the house for us to find. She is such a crack up and grows busier and more independent every day! But she's still such a snuggle bug and will be so busy playing and then stop and come over to Jeff or I, and lay her head down on our shoulder and give us a hug. She melts our hearts!

Little Nature Girl...

These days all Sophia wants to do, is go outside to play and run around. When you ask her if she's ready to go, she doesn't hesitate to get up, go stand by our front door and put her hand out waiting for us to hold on to hers. It is so precious! Her favorite new discoveries have been picking flowers and rock collecting. I can't wait until summer so we can enjoy the outdoors even more with our little girl!