Nursing Home Walker Races

Sophie's first birthday, while a happy event that I am looking forward to, is causing me frustration as it nears (this Sunday!!). She still isn't walking. I know, What to Expect the First Year says that only some kids can walk by their first birthday, but my baby isn't just your average baby. She sat up early, she could roll over at 3 months, got teeth and starting eating table food at 4 months....she's always been advanced - exceptional even. Plus, I was walking at 8 months according to my mom...What's the big hold up!?!
I think it has to do with my daughter's stubbornness. She's so super quick with her walking aids (See January's Mowing the Hardwood) so I know she could go it alone if she really wanted to. On Superbowl Sunday, dressed in her Arizona colors, we took Sophie to visit G-G-ma Marge at the home. Within minutes, she had commandeered Marge's walker and was headed out the room and down the hall. Marge, of course was tickled pink at getting to see this. I think we need to find her a walker race to run.

She even managed to figure out how to turn the thing around. We had a hard time getting her to give it up, even after she tried pushing it with the middle horizontal bar and tipped it over. She walked so much that she slept through the good parts of the Superbowl. Here she is on our friend Vamsi's floor.

On another note entirely, I was in my co-worker's office a few weeks ago and saw a picture of his daughter in which she donned pigtails. The last picture I had seen of little Hailey showed hair not much longer than Sophie's, so I was inspired to give it a try. The next week we started with pigtails to daycare, and there's no turning back now. Isn't she the cutest??

Perfectly Pleasant Pancake Party

I'll admit it, I'm a carbie. Not just a lover of food, but a lover of carbs. Throughout the week I'm really quite an angel, eating my cottage cheese with mandarin oranges breakfast while I guzzle coffee sweetened with fat free hazelnut creamer, but when Saturday and Sunday hit, the first thing on my mind when my eyes open is my boyfriend Pancake. Occasionally his sexy exotic cousins French Toast and Belgian Waffle enter my fantasies, but mostly it's my Pancake, slathered in (lo fat) syrup with melty chocolate chips through and through. My husband has tolerated this love affair for years....initially he'd partake (oooh a threesome), but eventually he admitted that he's really not that hungry first thing and he'd rather saddle up to a hearty bowl of oatmeal or Special K instead, so we breakfast separately now. He has always, however, gotten out of making Pancake with the lame excuse that he's just not good at it. Not good at it?? It's a pancake. Take box of powder...add water....stir batter...put in hot skillet....flip. Not rocket science. I chocked it up to lazy in the mornings.

Well, a few weeks ago, he was feeling especially squirrelly and decided to make pancakes for all of us. Not only that, but we'd eat at the kitchen table - out of the reach of any television!! Sophie and I were truly so excited. Here's Daddy with his Giant Masterpiece (I guess we can call her Pancaka)...

....and Sophie with her GIANT pancake (Pancakette??)

She didn't mind the size, though. Pancakes are one of Sophie's favorite foods. Instead of breaking off little bites for her to feed herself, however, we decided to give her the whole thing and see what happened.

Not surprising. So, we took it away and cut it up like normal. She was so happy about the pancake that she kept holding her bites up in the air before eating them while dancing.

After breakfast, Mommy was on cleanup patrol. My little shadow decided that she wanted to help me. Here she is trying to figure out the bottom shelf of the dishwasher.

But Mommy didn't think that one all the way through. Although very strange to us at first, the fact that our stairs to the second floor are at the very back of the house off of the kitchen has been very advantageous for child rearing. Sophie is so enamored by everything else downstairs, she never makes it all the way to that back corner and has therefore never noticed the stairs. True, she goes up and down them every morning in Mommy or Daddy's arms, but she always forgets about them.

She found them, next to the dishwasher.

At least my deep-voiced "No, No" kept her just climbing up and down the one step, but I thought that I had created a monster. Luckily, she's forgotten about them since.

Lots more to post, especially about her trip to the hospital on February 8th, but I've got to keep things in order for my anal brain, so I'll leave you now with a picture of a game Sophie and Daddy like to play. He likes to fly her around the room and then bring SuperBaby down low for a fly-by snacking. Yes, that's popcorn being eaten with no hands. She's got some skills.

A New Look

Although I love the classy background that Meggie and Teresa picked for me initially, as I write more and more about my zany, crazy daughter and her shenanigans, I felt like black and white polka dots were a little too tame for the material. I have selected another background which, in my estimation, reflects the quirky life that we lead a bit more. Plus, since I learned all about color from Teresa in the first place, I knew she'd understand my struggle with the family picture being mostly in shades of blue on a black background. I don't know if this will be my ultimate background choice, but I'm trying it on for size.

Mowing the Hardwood??

Stinkerbell made out like a bandit this year for Christmas. And, at Mommy's request, quite a few of her toys were walking enticement tools. Her favorite of late is this lawnmower. When she's a little older, it transforms into a car, complete with ingition knob, but for now it's the perfect height for her to walk around behind. She's been mowing our hardwood floors nonstop for the past month!!

Sadly, it has not had the effect that we had desired. She is so fast with this thing that she practically takes off running. And when I take it away and we try to get her to take steps between Mommy and Daddy, she looks at me like I'm a crazy person. I guess I can't blame her. Who'd want to take their first slow wobbly steps when they could be mowing in style at Mach 3? We're hoping that she'll be walking by her first birthday, but with only three weeks, the outlook is quite grim.

In addition to the walking battle, the toll of my life is starting to wear on me a little bit, especially where Sophie is concerned. On the nights that I have class, I don't get home until 8:30 or 9:00. If Sophie isn't in bed already, she has way outlived her expiration date. Since I really can't bear the thought of not seeing her at all, I've been waking her up to spend time with me, or keeping her up until 10ish so that I can snuggle with the sleepy baby. This is what I came home to after my last Tuesday night class.

Poor baby could barely keep her eyes open. We snuggled on the couch a little and I got some pictures of one of my baby's weirdest quirks.

Yes, that's a fuzzy blanket hanging out of her mouth. UGGHHH!!! I can't imagine the feeling of soggy fleece being appetizing, but she can't sleep without it. And it isn't just nibbled on, either. She crams as much of it as she can in her mouth, kind of like I'd imagine a starving child in a third world country would with a Happy Meal (or like I'd like to with a box of HoHo's). I've heard of kids needing the feel of their blankie because they like the softness, and she does squish it in her little pudgy fists and pet it sometimes, but I've never heard of a kid liking to eat her blankie. And to add to the weirdness, it's not one particular blankie. Any fluffy will do: actual blankie's, a plush teddy bear, her winter scarves, mommy's shoulder when wearing a fleece jacket.....

I love these eccentricities that make her MY little Stinkerbell!!