Say Cheese!

When Sophie turned a year old I wanted to take her in to Portrait Innovations (as I had done in the past) for her big 1 year pictures! I made the appointment, dressed her up, and drove to Crestview Hills with my mom, grandma, and brother in tow who happened to be visiting that weekend. We didn't even have to wait long, which was a blessing in itself. I was excited when our name got called for our turn! We even had Chuck as our photographer. Chuck did Soph's 3 month pics and those turned out great! However, all went down hill when Sophie sat down on the white mat and started screaming. She was not fond of Chuck, nor his clicky mouth noises, nor his iphone with the videos of Elmo he was trying to show her to cheer her up. She was not fond of anything that moment. Needless to say, nothing worked, and we left picture-less that day.

It turned out to be a blessing in disguise however. The wonderful world of Facebook came through for us. I found out that an old co-worker of mine from P&G did photography on the side. I had seen some of his work through Facebook and thought we could give that a try. We met at Ault Park last weekend and had a great time at our "photo shoot" (not too mention it was extremely reasonable!) Here are some of our high lights:

A Hint of Fall

I realize that it is technically still August and that tomorrow it's going to be sunny & 85, but today is the perfect reminder of how wonderful fall is. Slightly overcast & cool. Long sleeves, pretty leaves, cool nights, and my favorite: pumpkin pie! I can't wait for pumpkin pie season. I have a really easy & delicious recipe that I will share when the proper time for pumpkin pie gets closer. But not yet, because after all, it is still August.

Persistence

Sophie's new favorite activity is stair climbing. In the video below I tried to block her from going up the stairs by putting the ottoman in the way. She tried really really hard to go up.

Well, she may choose to ignore me telling her no, but at least she's persistent! Hopefully that trait will be used for good as she gets older.

a case of the mondays

First of all, I am so un-tech savvy that when I tried to get a cute blog background -- this happened. If I have time and the patience I'll try again later but I might need some help!!

Onto other news:
So, gloriousness came and went. We are back to a perky wake time of 6:30am. And I checked, gloriousness is a word. It is the noun form of glorious. I hope to be able to use it as a blog title again someday.

Sophie started PT for her toe standing/walking. She has tight heel cords and will most likely need some braces. They aren't terrible looking and fit well into shoes, but it will still be a change! Please pray for us as we need discernment and wisdom on knowing exactly what to do, how much to do, etc.

Other than that, we are doing well and Sophie is starting to relate some sounds with things. For example in the video below, she makes doggie noises (woo woo), kitty (mow - it wasn't her best this morning but she's done it well before), and duck -dat dat is quack quack. She also started to say umm umm for yum yum but of course wouldn't do it the video.
Anyways, enjoy!

Oh, and if you're wondering why she's wearing a bib in her crib - it is because after 2 offerings of breakfast (in her high chair) that she refused (mind you I pureed fresh fruit for her cereal and she still refused), I decided to give her some yogurt but didn't feel like getting her out of bed and bringing her downstairs. A case of the mondays.

Gloriousness

I'm not sure that that's a word, but that is the only way I can describe this morning. I felt that it was my responsibility to blog about this morning since I had griped a while back about Sophie waking up at the crack of dawn. Not today! Actually the past few days, she has woken up a little later than usual, and each day a little later than the previous. We did have a busy fun filled weekend so Sophie ended up going to bed later at night, and was probably more tired than usual. Last night, she fell asleep around 8:30...and guess what time she woke up this morning??? 7:50 my friends. This is why gloriousness describes it so well. This has NEVER, I repeat, NEVER happened to us before. All I can say is that I hope it continues...

the last of the celebrations

Sophie's Party at Orleans Park

Bill at the grill...we had some issues but managed to feed everyone :)




Sophie is still not a huge fan of cupcakes, she just wiped the frosting all over her hands but really didn't eat any of it

Our 1 year old!

Can it really be true that we have a 1 year old, a toddler, not a baby anymore!?!?! It is crazy how time has flown by and how big our little pumpkin has gotten. Sophie turned 1 yesterday, July 31st and here is how she/us celebrated:

- Woke up at 5:15am (who needs a rooster when you have a child?) to get the party started
-Found goldfish in the diaper bag and ate those for breakfast on the kitchen floor
-Took a rather short morning nap considering the fact that she had awoken so prematurely
-Ran errands with mama to get things for her party
-Fell asleep in the car, did not make a successful transfer to bed, was awake all afternoon
-Decided that screaming is the best way to get our attention, for anything and at anytime (i thought we were through that stage but not so much)
-fell asleep in the car on the way to pick up dada but woke up during the transfer
-bought a car (well sophie didn't but we did)
-had dinner with some friends (dinner as in a kiwi, and a piece of a cookie)
-finally fell asleep in the car at 9pm on our way home
- woke up at 11pm screaming...stayed up for about a half an hour....went back to sleep
-couldn't find her paci so woke up again at 1 screaming, got her the paci and went back to sleep and slept til 6:30am
ahh what a first birthday!

Some cute & fun things she has been doing lately
- when she plays with a phone (specifically my cell phone (i know, i know) she puts it up to her ear like she's talking to someone
- she tries to brush her own teeth - she has 11 of them
- she tries to brush her own hair
- she knows what to do with a wipe -- if i hand her a wipe she no longer tries to eat it, but tries to wipe herself! how productive!
- has been pulling up on furniture and can walk around a few things
- trying to feed herself with a spoon
- says mama, can say dada but when I ask her to say dada she always says mama instead, silly girl!

That is our little, lovable babe! We are so blessed and so thankful for her in our lives! And yes, we bought a car, and no it was not the Rav4. That did not work out, to say the least. We did however find a nice, used Highlander for a great price from a really lovely older couple! God is good.