...and we all fall down (alot)

Now that Sofia can crawl, it's no longer good enough. She wants to stand and pull up on everything. I bet we all know the outcome of that...bruises. I feel bad for her, but falling doesn't seem to deter her from using the coffee table as her own personal cruiser. Today she took two dives, one caused a small, bloody chin and the other caused a bruise on her cheek. I just hope someone doesn't call child protective services. (It's actually not as bad as it sounds.) I feel so bad letting it happen, but at the same time I want her to learn and get better, and that's not going to happen if I never let her practice. Don't get me wrong, I would never let her do anything that is unsafe or very dangerous, but still. Anyone have any suggestions of how I could change things or make it better?

Anyway, Sofia and I had a nice full day. We went for a walk to the mailbox this morning (not our personal box, but the blue one for outgoing mail, which is down the street.) After Sofia's first nap and lunch we went to Kohls where I found a couple of cute things for Sofia, including a stuffed chicken. (See picture) Then we went to the "poor man's zoo," otherwise known as Petsmart. Sofia got a big kick out of the parakeets and kittens. I tried to get her into the bunnies, but she could have cared less. We finally stopped at Panera for some takeout and as I was ordering, one of the cashiers asked to hold Sofia. Okay, she didn't so much ask as reach out her hands and take her, but whatever. Then tonight, after a very yummy dinner made by Ryan, all three of us took a couple of laps around the apartment complex. Sofia was fascinated by Ryan's skateboarding. She wouldn't take her eyes off of him. We met a couple of ten year old boys along the way who were equally as fascinated. So much in fact that they followed us a little way and kept calling out tricks for Ryan to do on his skateboard. All in all, a very fulfilling day.

Ouch!

Tonight, while I was attempting to cut Sofia's nails, I accidently nicked her thumb. Out came the tears, and out came the blood. It seemed to bleed forever for such a small cut. Whoops. We finally put a bandaid on the cut (Sofia is admiring it in the second picture.)

Well, I had to work today while Sofia and Daddy went to Hoover Dam and walked around in the sunshine. Not fair at all! At least they had fun together. Sofia got to talk to her grandma tonight too (my mom). The webcam has come in really useful and Grandma even got to see Sofia crawling, all the way in Phoenix!

Going to the Mall

As you can probably tell by the title of the post, Sofia and I went to the mall today. I was very good, I only bought a couple of candles and some lunch. Sofia was awesome, of course. We strolled around and window shopped. After a while we played in the play area of the mall. I was afraid Sofia would be trampled by a rampaging toddler, but all was well. Sofia really enjoyed staring at the other kids and slapping the fake rocks. As we were getting ready to leave, we saw Sarah, Tim and Isaac. Even though Isaac is twice Sofia's size, he was afraid she was going to get his sucker, and she did get close to swiping it from him!
I am so happy that she is so good out in public. It makes my life easier!

Sleep Strike!

As most of you know, Sofia has been a super sleeper since she was about 2 and a half months old. Well, things have been going well so far until this past week. Sofia doesn't want to sleep. When you put her in her crib, she stands up and talks to herself. Last night she was up at 11p.m. and then again at 6 a.m. When I went into her room at 6, she was happily sitting in the corner of the crib, smiling at me. I was not smiling (mainly from the hangover I was suffering and the three hours of sleep I was working on.) I took Sofia into bed with me and she went right back to sleep until 8:30 a.m., thank god. Lately she's been pushing her morning nap back and back, which sucks for me because that's when I get things done. In the afternoon, she just plain fights sleep. I know she's tired, Sofia knows she's tired, but she just doesn't want to lie down and sleep. And the crying! You would think I was forcing her to do the most horrible thing in the world. I'm hoping this is just a phase or teething or something (I can blame everything on teething right?), but I guess I'll just have to wait and see.

P.S. Thanks Kate for being the only one to write captions for my pictures (see previous posts). If no one else enters (by posting a comment) than she will be the winner by default. I'm giving you all until Sunday...

Get Me Out of Here!

Check out the foot!

Will Sofia's teeth please come in! The poor girl has been drooling for over five months, has a horrible rash on her face and arms (I'm assuming the rash on the arms is caused from all of the excess drool), and chews on anything she can get her mouth on, including mommy and daddy. Today she was extremely cranky, but I'm trying not to over-medicate her. Hopefully a little tooth or two pops up soon.

We did have some fun today, we made it to the last storytimeof spring. Sofia had a blast. She loves looking at the other babies and dancing to the music. I love it because it gets me out of the house. Ryan and I think we have the only baby who acts better in public then she does at home. She could be crying her head off and as soon as we go out where there are other people, she's a ham. No stranger anxiety from this one.

Long Time No See...

Well, maybe it hasn't been that long, but sometimes it feels like forever between blogs. You would think I have been extremely busy or something, but no, just lazy. Well, that and I haven't had anything exciting to write about. Unless you find drooling, baby poop, and spitting up appealing (and I'm sure some of you do.) I didn't see Sofia for practically 24 hours and I swear she grew up just a little during that time. I left for work at 4:30 p.m. yesterday, and by the time I got home she was in bed. I saw her twice during the night. We have this ritual where she turns herself around and smooshes her body into the head of the crib, then whimpers and cries, and I come in and move her back down towards the bottom. Sometimes she does this a few times during the night. I'm sure she would be fine, but I still can't help and worry that she's going to suffocate herself against the crib bumper. Anyway, this morning I left for Dayton before she was awake (and before I like to be awake too.) 6:45 a.m. to be precise. I had a big library conference to go to. That's right, I'm hitting the big times now baby! Anyway, I got home around 6 p.m . to find Sofia and Ryan in her room, staring at themselves in the big closet mirror. Okay, so Ryan was staring at himself and Sofia was making out with herself in the mirror. We're talking big wet smooches, lots of tongue. I think she was practicing because when I picked her up, she put her arms around my neck and gave me one of those smooches she had been working on. Love it and love her! She and I continued to play the evening away and by the time I fed her dinner, Sofia was about to pass out from exhaustion. I guess she didn't sleep too much at the babysitter's, plus Ryan had to wake her up an hour earlier than usual so that he could take her there in time for him to make it to work. Anyway, after a quick bath and some book reading (in Sofia's case some book chomping) I put her to bed...or so I thought. Not ten minutes later I hear her crying. Usually she's really good and goes right to sleep. What can I say, Ryan and I have it easy when it comes to her sleeping. Anyway, I walk into Sofia's room to find her sitting up in the corner of her crib, looking a little bewildered. That's when Ryan said, "I think it's time to move the crib mattress down." I couldn't agree more. So, out of her bed she went, down went the crib mattress, and back to bed. My baby is growing up! And now...after that long speech, here are some cute pictures I recently took. Enjoy!

Ryan finally got to change the floor gym into a tunnel, his sole purpose for wanting it in the first place. (Sofia is showing off her talent, clapping.)

Okay, so she looks a little like a boy, but you can't say that the drool and green bean mouth isn't feminine!

Create your own caption contest. Just post a comment with your caption and I'll post the best one with the picture in the a future blog...you'll be famous! (At least in my small circle of blog readers.) So please do it, it'll be fun.

Insert Creative Title Here

I'm sorry about the title, but I'm really running dry on cleverness. Finally, we have a beautiful spring-like day in Ohio, and I have to work. I slept late, until 10 a.m. and by that time, Sofia was ready for her morning nap. I went and worked out for about an hour (I'm trying to lose the last of the baby fat, even though I didn't gain a lot and I actually weigh less, I still jiggle in places I don't want to juggle.) I came home and took a shower and then it was time to leave for work. I only got to see Sofia for a brief window of about 20 mintues. By the time I get home tonight, around 9 p.m., she will already be asleep. Oh well, at least it's not like this everyday. I'll just have to play with her extra long tomorrow!

Monday is Fun-day

I would just like to thank Sofia for being one of the best sleepers I know. She woke up at around 7:30 a.m. this morning, so I took her into bed with me, which I do sometimes. Well, this morning, we both fell back asleep until almost 10 a.m. Can you believe it? It worked out so that we could make it to storytime at the library. Sofia had a blast. She loved watching the other little kids crawl and run around. I'm hoping she'll learn from them and improve her crawling. She also loved watching Miss Gabrielle, the librarian doing storytime. After some visiting with the library ladies, we came home and she napped. After her nap and lunch, I decided to take us to the park. It's still only in the mid forties and quite windy, but the sun was shining, the sky was blue and I just had to get out of the house. I strapped Sofia in her stroller and we made it one lap around the paved path, a little over a mile. In the end, the wind won. Sofia got to try the swings today, which she loved! Did I bring a camera? Of course not. Did I think about it before I left? Yes. Next time, I promise I will take pictures. After walking, swinging and visiting the nature center, it was time to go home because Mommy was hungry! So that brings us to now. What an awesome day!

Lazy Sunday

What a ham! Russ, Vanessa and their little girl, Genevieve, came over so we could all go out to lunch today. Sofia thought Genevieve was a human jungle gym. She tried to grab her hair, pull up on her, grab her face. Genevieve was a good sport. We all went to COSI (yum) and pretty much took over a corner of the restaurant. My, how things have changed from a year ago! We all used to go to bars until 2 a.m., now we go to lunch at 2:30 p.m. At least we all get to hang out together and we both understand what each other is going through. So, when we all trek out together, it's not a big deal.

By the way, Sofia really is a crawling machine, kind of. She works her way around the floor, it just may take an hour for her to make a complete turn. Now she's able to go from her stomach, to sitting, which helps me because now I don't have to go over, put her on her tushy and then watch her fall back on her stomach. And repeat. She's just growing up so fast!

And she's off!

Daddy Day Take 2

Sofia and Ryan got to hang out all day while I was at work today. Our babysitter was on vacation, so after a little switching of schedules, Ryan was able to get the day off. I think it's good for Sofia to spend the whole day woth daddy every once and a while. I'm assuming everything went well, because when I got home Sofia was happy, had clothes on and was fed. Only flaw? Her shirt was on backwards, but I can overlook that. From what Ryan told me, they went to the music store and the grocery store. I'm glad Ryan's getting comfortable enough to take her out and about. That let's me have a little break!

Party Girl!

Sofia went to her first grown-up party tonight and boy, did she have a blast. She was on her best behavior even though it was an hour past her bedtime. We got to meet Kate and her little boy Colin and Heather and her husband (fellow mommy bloggers). Sofia really got a kick out of Colin, she loves other kids. Sofia is such a ham. I don't know where she gets it because Ryan and I are pretty shy sometimes. But she cooed, smiled, played, and let anyone who wanted to hold her do just that. Even if she doesn't always act that good, I'm glad she does it in public. Wow, what good parenting we must do! (Sarcasm, just slightly.) I wish we good have stayed longer, but 9:30 was the cutoff. I'm just glad I got to meet everyone after reading so much about them!

Ready, Set, Crawl!

Okay, so this is a little premature, but Sofia is ready to crawl. Yesterday she was able to get up on all fours and rock back and forth. Then, today she moved forward a couple of steps before falling flat on her face. (I'll admit, I laughed, but then I picked her up and hugged her.) I guess I should break out the baby proofing kit we got a few months ago. Start plugging up all the outlets, putting the cabnet door doohickeys on, putting all wires out of the way. Seems daunting. Although, I guess we could have started a few months ago. But where's the fun? Even though everyone tells me that once Sofia starts crawling, that it's going to be trouble. Maybe I'm crazy, but I can't wait. (I promise I won't complain when it does get rough.)

Not much to Report

I wish I could say exciting things have been going on since I last posted, but alas, not too much has been happening. Easter was uneventful. We elected not to get an Easter basket for Sofia (I know, bad parents) but we will next year. She'll be more aware of what's going on next year, which will make it more fun. Sofia's been showing more signs of teething, ear rubbing and general crankiness, but no signs of little teeth erupting. Poor thing's been suffering through all of this for months. I keep hoping something will pop up soon. Today Sofia and I had fun playing in my bedroom all day. I've been getting bored of just hanging out in the living room day after day, as I'm sure she is, so we spent almost the entire day in my room. It was a lot of fun and Sofia was very good the whole time. She played on the bed while I was able to get some pictures into albums, watch some Anne of Green Gables (one of my all-time favorites) and just chill. We did have one little accident. As I was talking to Ryan on the phone, Sofia took a slight header into the wall. And it was the corner or the wall too. My poor baby has her first bruise on her forehead. It was bound to happen sometime with all of the reaching and grabbing she does. Just another milestone, I guess. We ended this exciting day with a trip to Tuffy's to drop off my car (brakes need to be fixed), then dinner at Damon's, and finally a quick trip to Target for more diapers. Until next time...

Sofia's favorite new thing to do...clap!

Happy Birthday to Me!

I know this blog is supposed to be about Sofia, but if I wasn't born, then she wouldn't be here either, so Happy Birthday to me! Everyone at worked asked what Sofia got me. I told them she woke up at 9:30 instead of 8:00, which I was very happy about that. Since she woke up later, we were able to race around and make it to storytime at the library. I was literally feeding Sofia her bottle while I was brushing my teeth. We made it with one minute to spare. I'm glad we went because Sofia had the best time. She loves to see other babies and kids. She even got into the songs and rhymes. We came home after it was over and Sofia took her nap. When she woke up, she had another surprise for me. Sofia learned to clap. I think it had a lot to do with watching everyone do it at storytime, but it was still awesome. She just sat on the floor and clapped, clapped, clapped. Later in the afternoon she was even clapping while crying. I couldn't help but laugh. What a nice little birthday present.

Is Winter Back?

Come on Ohio weather, what the heck is up? Two days ago Sofia was in shorts, now we're back to sweaters. I thought this was April. Anyway, I just wanted to right a quick post to go along with the picture. I walk into Sofia's room to check on her during her nap and as I get closer to her crib, I notice the funny way she is sleeping. As you can see from the picture (or not) both of her legs were sticking straight up in the air. I knew I had to run and take a picture before she woke up. How can someone sleep like that? She's very talented, what can I say.

Love this Weather!

It is beautiful outside! Sofia and I relished the warmth since by the end of the week it's supposed to get cold. That didn't stop me from buying a bunch of flowers to plant in pots for our back patio. I was a little overzealous and bought a few too many flowers and not enough pots. But, they look pretty and that's all that matters. By the way, as you can see in the picture, Sofia is getting closer and closer to crawling. We haven't had liftoff yet, but any week now it should happen. Then it'll be "watch out world, here she comes!"

April Fools

Today Sofia and I went to a playdate at my friend Mandy's house. Emily and her daughter Abigail, as well as Vanessa and Genevieve joined the little get-together. Mandy doesn't have kids, and after today, I'm not sure if she'll want any! (I'm just kidding. All of the little girls were very good.) Sofia had a lot of fun seeing other babies, especially Abby. When we put those two on the floor by each other, it was hilarious. They both just grinned and then reached for each other. I got to see a glimpse of what Sofia will be like in 5 weeks (that's how much older Abby is compared to Sofia) and all of the crawling she'll be doing. After Vanessa left, the rest of us went to Gibby's and had a late lunch. I kept expecting major meltdown from Sofia, especially since she went from noon until almost 4 p.m. without a nap. But, as soon as we got in the car, she was out, and even stayed asleep for a little while at the restaurant. Again, I don't know if it's just me, but our service was just not good. Usually I don't complain, because I understand what it's like, but this guy was pretty bad. Other than that, the day was enjoyable and the food was really good. After Sofia and I got home, we grabbed daddy and all went for a walk. It was too beautiful outside to stay inside, especially since it's supposed to go back into the forties by the middle of the week. That's Spring in Ohio for you.

Emily and Abagail enjoying lunch.