Life with Sophia

Life keeps on keeping on. Sophia is growing and learning at an amazing rate. Her latest stats (from Friday's doctor's appointment) are:

Height: 30 inches
Weight: 20lbs (8.5kgs)

I thought I would share some of the most recent photos we have of Sophia and give an update that way...

Sophia still enjoys her baths...currently, her favorite way to bath is on her tummy, kicking and splashing around. Occasionally she thinks its fun to try to catch her toys with her mouth, which usually ends up with her sputtering water and a little red in the face. It's kind of funny but she keeps on going, no crying or complaining.

These pictures show Sophia in her after bath glory. She loves sitting around without any clothes on. The other thing that brings her pleasure is ripping apart my magazines. I am not sure what it is that is so attractive about them, but on that day she ripped the back cover and pages off my most recent Chatelaine.

I am grooming my girl to be a shoe lover. Currently that means that she shows her affection by giving her shoes a good chewing. These little shoes are Adidas runners that her Uncle Todd gave her. They're great and look fabulous on her. And apparently, they taste good.

My two girls. Sophia and Haley continue to get along really well. Haley has her own pillow in the nursery and likes to hang out with us whenever we are in there. Aren't they sweet?

A potential soccer fan? Sophia likes to kick this ball around when she's walking around with her adult assistant.

Would this count as physiotherapy for Grandpa's knee? Yet another male family member bending to the whims of this little powerful girl. Grandpa and Grandma Mantel were here for Easter and we all had a good time. David and I even got the chance to go for High Tea together without Sophia. It was a great treat.

Who's here? Can you see who's here? Is it anyone important? Did they bring toys, food? Sophia and Haley both love looking out of the upstairs window. Usually, Haley watches for our return from this window, and was willing to share her space with Sophia just this once!

We had an absolutely glorious spring day yesterday (ut was about 17 degrees), so David and I decided to have a family outing. We packed a lunch and headed out to Wascana Lake. The Geese were out and Sophia enjoyed checking out the wildlife (both two legged and otherwise). Haley enjoyed the opportunity for a nice long walk (about an hour). We had such a wonderful time. We plan to do this regularly, especially during the good weather (you never do know how long it will last!)

Haley (the white fuzzy one, if you haven't met her), Sophia (in the hat and sunglasses (which she kept on)) and me. We took a break to tease the geese. What a good looking group, hey?


The battle of the food seems to be lessening. Sophia has taken to eating solids and seems to be enjoying them. We have moved into more complex tastes like broccoli, potato and cheddar. These pictures (taken tonight) are the remnants of the prunes she had with supper. Dark brown seems to be a food colour that spreads easily...it was up her arms, up her nose, all over her face, and down her shirt (she did have a bib on, but it seemed to have a hole! yikes). I think she enjoyed making the mess.

Only 5 more sleeps

Only five more sleeps until Tanya and Sheliza arrive in Regina for a visit. I am thrilled and excited to have them come, and I am sure that if Sophia knew what was going to happen she'd be happy too! I can't wait till they are here. It's going to be interesting having two babies in the house!

Unhappiness

Little red rimmed eyes, running snot, pitiful and heartbreaking chest cough, and teeth. These things all add up to a somewhat sorrowful looking little girl. Sophia is still struggling with the cold she had last week. I thought she was getting better, but I was mistaken. Even though she has all these symptoms she continues to smile and play, particularly with Grandma and Grandpa Mantel, who are here for a visit.

She is daytime cheery and night time frustrated. Last night was the worst we had had in a very long time. She went down at her normal time of 8:30 pm, slept for two and a bit hours and got up for her top up feed. Firstly, she wasn't expecting her daddy to come and get her, so that made her unhappy. Then, finally when the food supply dragged her butt out of bed, Sophia ate and tried to settle but for some reason couldn't. This lead to a two hour full on meltdown... tears, sobbing, gasping, snot, drool and red face. We tried everything: tylenol, ovol, new pjs, diaper change, water, and playing. Eventually, she started rubbing her eyes and calming down to the point where I could cuddle and rock her, getting her to fall asleep and stay that way for several hours.

Now, all the books I have read on sleep issues say that parents shouldn't get frustrated or angry or upset when their baby can't or won't sleep. It's nothing personal, the experts say. But what parent can keep from feeling completely helpless and mildly frustrated when their precious little one is crying non-stop and can't tell you what is wrong. Yes, I was frustrated, angry and definately helpless feeling. All I could do was try to comfort Sophia as she cried and try to make sure that she knew that I was trying my very best.

It was a humbling experience, one that I know will repeat itself a couple more times, but deep in my heart I know that the little life I hold in my arms, no matter how red her face may be, loves me and looks to me for all that she needs. In the end, the cuddling of a completely trusting sleeping baby is reward enough.

Floor to Ceiling Squash!

On this evening's menu for Madame Sophia was strained strawberries, custard with apples and strained squash. As a dutiful mother I took the amounts I needed out of the baby food jars and placed them into individual microwave safe containers and zapped them for 15 seconds. Sophia does prefer her food warm. When the buzzer went off, I grabbed the three little containers from the microwave and proceeded to move toward the highchair. I really should have known better...

One of the containers escaped. I watched in horror as the squash container fell from my hands and hit the floor with a determined "splat". I took a moment to survey the damage. David came over to see if I needed help in the clean-up. It was then that we both discovered the "Splat radius" of squash. It didn't just get on the floor, but also on the cupboards, the pantry door, the counter top, the cookbook, the toaster over (on the counter), the wall behind the toaster, the upper cupboards, the teapots on the ledge over the cupboards, the wall behind the teapots, and the ceiling. Yes, the squash got the ceiling! There was nothing to do but laugh and then sigh about the clean up process. But because our dinner was on the table and Sophia was sitting in her chair, we left it. Well, we left Haley to clean up what was in licking reach and I would get the rest of it later.

Note to those of you who happen to have reason to clean your plaster speckled ceilings... squash shows up from far away (darn that bright orange) and using a damp cloth to remove said strained staining veggie will not only remove the orange, but also the plaster used to create said speckled ceilings. Oh the things you learn when you have an infant!

Celebration

Happy nine months, little one! So many things to Celebrate, and so many things to look forward to.

We love you to the moon and back.