Swinging on a Star

What started as an occasional visit to watch her cousins play volleyball has quickly evolved into Wednesday night date night with G-ma and G-pa. Like most good dates, dinner is alwasy the beginning - normally at IHOP which is my folks' favorite restaurant lately. But on nights when there isn't a game, or the game is past Sophie's bedtime, Gma and Gpa have scoped out different spots to take Sophie. On rainy days, it is often a toy store. But on sunny days, they hit one of the many local parks. I got to meet up with them for one such date and Gpa provided me with some pictures of the event.

Here's Sophie and Gma trying out the toddler jungle gym behind our library.

But soon the Toddler side was small potatoes for her and she wanted to cross the parking lot for bigger and better things.Like SWINGS!! There is nothing like the joy in a kid's face when they are on swings....

Next, we hit the big-kid slide. This was much taller and a bit scarier for her (and us). She had more fun trying to climb back up it.

As game time neared, we headed back to the parking lot so Sophie and I could pack up to go home. Gma had to show off the new toy they got Sophie.Hopefully Eliot can work his way into date night once he gets here and gets a little bigger. They say that little ones don't have much memory, but when we tell Sophie she's going to see Gma and Gpa, she runs to the door and waits there for them. She gets so excited when they get there that we can hardly contain her.

I'll leave you now with my favorite picture of our library park adventure.

Sophie's First Slumber Party

My sister, Sophie's Aunt Michelle, LOVES babies. Not like a normal person, cause let's face it, who doesn't like to hold a baby? But she's crazy about them. My parents take Sophie to watch Michelle and her daughters Tara and Brooke play volleyball together, so you'd think she'd get her Sophie fix every Wednesday night. You'd think. After some coaxing, Aunt Michelle convinced me to let Sophie spend the night at her house. In addition to Michelle's girls - who are teenagers now in high school and are beautiful little ladies - Sophie's cousin Lauren (also starting high school in the fall and becoming quite a looker herself - Congrats on ditching the braces!!) and another little girl from the volleyball stands were coming over, too for a pool party. I made Michelle promise to take lots of pictures so that I could commemorate the occasion of her first slumber party.

The exchange happened at the weekly volleyball game. Michelle and the girls went to get ice cream with G-ma and G-pa afterward. Sophie sure loves her G-ma...and ice cream.

Aunt Michelle's air conditioning was on the fritz, so the majority of the time spent in the house was spent unclothed. The girls all slept together in the living room to keep Sophie company...and cause that's where the fans were.

The night went pretty uneventfully, thank GOD, and she woke up in good spirits. After breakfast it was time for the pool. When they first put her in the pool she looked a bit apprehensive.... But warmed up mighty quickly to the situation! Since my daughter is so fair skinned, Aunt Michelle decided to put her jammie top on her after a while to make sure that her little shoulders didn't get burnt. She came home un-pink, so good job Michelle! Here she is with Brooke, lounging on a float... And noodling with cousin Lauren....

Finally, Aunt Michelle gets into a picture. Yes, she's the only one in the family who got the tanning gene. Sophie practically glows next to her!

They had to fight to get her out of the pool. Clearly, they wore her out.Revived from her nap, Sophie was ready for the next adventure. Sophie would you like to go to the park?I've been away from home for as much as four days at a time for business in Sophie's 17 months, but nothing was harder than roaming around our house, seeing her toys, smelling her blankies, and folding her clothes while she was away. It was even harder on Daddy who had only spent one night away from her (and that was when she was really little and didn't sleep through the night so he was glad for the break). Thanks for taking such good care of her Aunt Shell. I may just tag along for the next slumber party....

A Lot Can Change in a Week....

....Especially in the life of a 17 month old. This week Sophie has started:

• Saying words we had know idea she knew. Like balloon, puppy, black, white, purple, yellow, grass, etc. She strings them together into incoherent sentences and tells us stories. It's ridiculous and adorable.


• Calling my growing belly 'Baby'. She kisses the baby, pats the baby, and even places her mouth against my belly to talk to the baby. Eliot, I hope you appreciate all of the love now, cause I don't think she'll be nearly as excited once she figures out what 'Baby' really means.


• Eating with a spoon. She successfully ate more than half of a bowl of cheerios with milk using a spoon. Of course, when it got hard toward the end, she resorted to the good old standby fingers, but it's a step into littly ladyhood. She did much better which a fruit and jello cup, if you don't count the jello that I'm still pulling out of her hair, even after a bath.

I'm enjoying our time together more and more, and, while I'm anxious for Eliot to arrive and my pregnancy to be over, I'm going to really miss this Sophie-time. I feel like I don't get enough time with her as it is after working full time, and soon I'll have to split that time with her little brother.

Stinky Toys

Stink Bug, Stink Bug. What are you trying to do to me?

Last night after dinner for Uncle Ted's Birthday, we brought you home for bath and bed time. You were playing so good with your bath toys that Mommy felt free to put away some toiletries that were acquired earlier in the week but hadn't yet found their home. In the 30 seconds that Mommy was out of the room, you decided that your harmless plastic toys just weren't enough, so you created some stinky toys of your own. 30 seconds. That's all it took. But it took another 30 minutes to drain the tub, remove your deposits (including the ones you had thrown on the floor), give you another scrub down, and get you ready for bed. And it was not exactly easy to do with Mommy's super sensitive pregnant nose, cause they (and you) were extra stinky.

You have earned your nickname.

...And you're lucky you're cute...

Rooming In

Last night, Stink Bug, while you were trying to fall asleep in the nursery, some jack*** in our neighborhood let off some fireworks. You were so scared, you didn't want to be alone. Mommy has always been firm in letting you cry it out when you were frustrated or angry, but these were tears of fear and screams of panic. Three times we tried to calm you down and get you to go back to sleep. Three times we failed. I couldn't let just let you be that scared.

Daddy offerred to sleep on the couch and you snuggled up with Snuffles, Glowy the Glow Worm and me in the big bed. I was so afraid that you'd fall out of bed or I'd roll over on you because I am such a sound sleeper that it took me hours to fall asleep. How silly of me to worry. Did you know you kick your feet in your sleep? Did you know that it doesn't matter to you what you kick, like mommy's face or your baby brother in mommy's belly? Did you know that mommy loves you so much that, although there was definitely an internal struggle, she decided NOT to pick you up and carry you to the bed at 2 a.m. so she could finally get some sleep?

Do you remember waking up and climbing up on my pillow to kiss my forehead and wake me up? Do you remember giving me a big hug when Daddy came in to start our day and bring you some milk?

So it wasn't all bad....but next time I may just try sleeping on the floor of your room for awhile instead. Or closing your window the entire months of June and July. I love you Stinky. Tonight you are sleeping alone.

Farewell Ragamuffin

Just as a frame of reference, here's what Bug's hair looked like last week.

Yes, the curls were cute....but only right after washing her hair. After a few hours she quickly became this.... ...What I can only classify as a Ragamuffin. Well after a lovely evening at Miss Lizzie's house, Sophie came home looking like this....

With a little inverted bob kinda like Mommy's. It is so cute and so much easier to manage. And we can go back to bathtime once or twice a week, which is saving my patience and my back. I tried to get her to model her new do on a trip to Home Depot this weekend, but she didn't quite get what I was going for at first. The little Ham.

For the 4th of July, our family band was playing a festival at Ault Park. Sadly, it rained all day and our only audience was people that we were related to. At least that made up about 40 once you counted all the siblings, cousins, nieces, aunts, uncles, etc. Luckily, Gma Jane and Aunt Fay brought their canopies so we could all stay somewhat dry. Of course, Bug, in her love for all things water, HAD to run around outside. Gma Jane had also brought along Aunt Nikki's 20+ year old raincoat (why she kept it, even she doesn't know). It was a little big, but that made it even more adorable. After a struggle to get her to understand this yellow contraption, off she went into the great wide, wet open.

Looks like Mommy's going to have to go slicker shopping!