Tired Out after Christmas

Sophia was a trooper with all the travel for Christmas this weekend. Normal schedule, sleeping and meals have all gone out the window. It's a good thing someone once gave me the tip that no toddler will starve if there is food available, because she is existing solely on applesauce, yogurt and some Annie's Mac & Cheese (did I mention her 2 year molars are also coming through? Merry Merry.)
Anyway, without a lot of out door time today, she needed to burn off some energy.
Here's a quick video (about 30 seconds) of a 10 minute race she was running...She is happily sound asleep now.

Merry Christmas!

The start of Christmas Fun

Sophia opened one of her first Christmas presents this evening - from our friends Mark, Morgan and Frances. It was her very own backpack, in anticipation of the sleepovers we're anticipating the girls to have (though from every parent I've talked to, the word "sleep" in sleepover is highly overrated!)
She was so excited she ran around the house wearing it (and not much else) for a solid 5 minutes. Here's a quick video snippet (and please excuse the coughing fit at the end - she has this cold that the rest of the world, including Mom and Dad are trying to get rid of!)

Merry Christmas and Thanks for the hours of entertainment!

Captain Obvious

At a little over 2 years old now, Sophia has taken on the role of "Captain Obvious" and likes to point out everything we do (sometimes it's pointing out, other times it's instructing us exactly what to do).
Examples include:
"Mama Sit." Yes, Sophia, Mama just sat down.
or "Dada Fart" Yes, Sophia, that's exactly what that sound that emanated from your father's tuckus was. (She often likes to follow this one up by walking over and pointing directly to Dave's behind, which I find highly humorous.)
"Mama go potty" Yes indeed. I'm going potty.

It's all very entertaining, and very helpful for the other adults in the house who can now be sure they know exactly what the other is doing.

Sometimes, though, she repeats what she thinks you'd like her to say, such as the time I walked in when she was supposed to be napping but rather was performing a series of "Big Jumps" onto her crib mattress. I stood behind her and watched for a moment before clearing my throat and saying, "Sophia should be sleeping, not jumping." Her response, "Sophia sleep. No jump." and then she proceeded to do a final "Big Jump" and cruise off to nap time.

Recently, she's figured out that her finger fits perfectly up her nose. I know that all kids pick their nose and she's had a particularly rough cold lately, but we've been trying to discourage her none the less. Her translation, "No Poke-a-nose" as she attempts to restrain her finger from making its way up there.

I love this stage.

Bath time Giggles

Whenever Dave travels, which isn't that often, I try to capture some funny photos or video to send him so he can see Sophia. If you can't quite tell, she has figured out how to make the duck sounds like he is passing gas. We knew she was talented, but this is impressive. (Really - is my two year old actually a 13 year old boy??)

What are you up to these days?

An update on Sophia at 2years (I have fully decided while my best attempts to keep a written baby book are sincere, it's much easier to type it all in and add pictures for effect.)

Sophia seems to have two speeds - running and dawdling. Rarely is there an in between. As long as there is someone or something to chase, she'll run. Otherwise, she much prefers being carried and lets you know with an insistent "Up Momma. Pick Up." She also likes wearing mom & dad's old sports clothing, just to have fun!

(Web- this shot's for you!)

She is fully attempting to test her limits, preferring to eat her dinner on the stool at the counter with me on my stool (which she proudly pushes over). We're edging her back into her booster chair, but some nights, well, the fights just aren't worth it! And it's a nice change of scenery.

Her vocabulary has totally exploded. I've lost count of all the words - she basically repeats most everything you say and she has a great recall for animals (Dogs are actually dogs now and not just woofs!) as well as numbers. We do lots of counting with her, especially going up the stairs at Whole Foods, so she can actually count to twenty. She really takes delight in the word twenty, too - she says it with flair! She also is getting pretty good with names of our neighbors and friends - the roll call list is growing!

Dogs and monkeys are still her favorite animals, though kitty-cats are fun and Mice (all of them except Mickey and Minnie) are "Eww" (thanks to Lidiana, our nanny, who desperately hates mice!) :)

She loves little babies - her baby doll is a huge favorite and comes everywhere with us. She does not like, however, when I am holding a baby. She gets insanely jealous and immediately demands a pick up. Clearly, we're working on this one (ahem, T-3 months...)

We're working on the potty - no action yet, but she does enjoy it.

She clearly is taking after her dad though with the reading room concept:

She's growing tall (over 3 feet now!) and is a very healthy weight. Most of all, she is happy - full of laughter, loves to be tickled, to give hugs and kisses to all. We are so lucky...can't wait to see what the next year has in store!

Celebrating the Big 2

As I've mentioned in previous posts, Sophia & her friend Frances were both born on November 7th, about 8 hours apart, both at Mt. Auburn. We like to say they were first friends (there were only 3 babies in the nursery during their stay!)

So what better way to celebrate 2 years than an ice cream date with your best friend. We chose Christina's in Inman Square - everything is homemade, it's in walking distance from the house and the flavors are amazing! (we went with pumpkin)

Apparently, 5pm is the perfect time to take your young child for ice cream - no one else is there (hmmm, maybe the good parents are feeding their children dinner at this hour? Oh well, birthday's are only once a year!)

Here's Frances thoroughly enjoying herself:

And Sophia delighting in her pumpkin ice cream (She gave up on the spoon and licked it straight out of the cup)

And finally, after returning home to open her presents from Mom & Dad and having all the neighbors come by to visit, a very happy Birthday Girl!

The Cake that never was...

Ok - so it wasn't really an extravaganza, but it was quite the celebration of family for Sophia.

We are graced with having lots of friends with birthdays all within 3 weeks of each other, so we took the opportunity to have a small, intimate gathering with just family for Sophia's 2nd birthday on Sunday the 6th. (Her actual birthday was the 7th - more on that day shortly.)

I had great hopes to make her a wonderful monkey shaped and frosted birthday cake. My mom always made these phenomenal cakes for me. I borrowed an awesome monkey pan, read directions online for frosting (though, admittedly, was still a little flummoxed how it was really going to happen) and set to baking. It was going to be the best monkey ever! Alas, the pan just didn't cooperate and at 11:30pm on Saturday night, after trying to frost together the

broken pieces, and then refrost again into an entirely different monkey design, I crumbled.

Here's a shot of the cake with batter heading into the oven.

And through the tears, the cake (which was made from scratch - a really tasty Buttermilk one!) went into the garbage. Sadly, I didn't have the heart to document the pain of the cake. Looking back, I totally should have, because I can definitely laugh about it now!

And thanks the sanity of my husband, I went to bed, took advantage of the Daylight savings and baked Sophia a wonderful, round cake with chocolate frosting the next morning that she enjoyed to no end. And we bedecked the room in Paul Frank's monkey stuff, and a Curious George from Nana, so she couldn't have been happier!

The birthday girl and her cake!

The highlight of her day was seeing her annual picture poster that Dad creates for her. It's a 4.5'x6.5' sheet covered with pictures of the prior year of Sophia. It was amazing to see the difference in the her from the Christmas time pictures of last year to the photos from the week before. She clearly was entertained by herself!

Finally, to top off the day, her friend Frances (who's birthday is also the 7th) celebrated with her in true style. It was a good day and despite the lack of monkey cake, fun was had by all!

It was a great day for celebrating year 2.

Growing, learning and practicing

And wow - I couldn't be loving the development any more!
Sure, we have our moments of battle - generally when one of us hasn't had enough to eat or sleep, but if I somehow keep that in mind (sticky note to the forehead, magnets on the fridge maybe?) then we can make it through.

Besides those rare occurrences, I really have nothing to complain about. Sophia is a happy, healthy and super-vibrant toddler. She is in the wonderful phase of discovering people and their names (as well as non-human things too) so she is constantly asking for "Frances" and "Zac" and "Baby Evie" as well as many of our neighbors.


We had our first trip to the pumpkin patch this past weekend which was an adventure. Sophia kept insisting they were apples, but slowly came around to pumpkin. She also has developed her nana's love for the beach as every time we drive by in Newport she points out the beach, the water and the "Nay-Nay's" which is the carousel at First Beach.

She is also getting much better (relatively speaking) at sharing me, which is good being that she is going to be a big sister in February. During previous instances, she would often get quite bent out of shape if I held another baby, demanding to be picked up. As long as there are other folks around to play with or if she can look at the baby and happily point to it's "eye" (without causing permanent damage :) or "nose" then she is good.

We are very excited about our soon to be expanding family and have no doubt that Sophia is going to make an amazing big sister - though I have doubts if the poor little guy will ever get a word in edgewise and I'm quite sure she'll happily boss him around instructing him where to sit and how to make a good mess.


And I'll love every minute of it!

2 Year Photo Shoot

We went to the wonderful women at Two Mamas Photography for our semi-annual photo shoot and wow - did they capture some great shots of Sophia. They actually manage to get her to sit still long enough for the camera to catch her (though I will admit, she's a total ham once you point in her direction!) I can't recommend Renee & Mandy enough - they have watched Sophia grow and captures some of the best moments with her.

Enjoy the photos!

Kisses for Mama

Happy & Clappy

I'm a big girl in a chair!

And my personal favorite!!

This one is framed on my desk and makes me smile every time I look at it, even through the roughest, crappiest work days. Happy almost 2 year birthday Sophia Morgan!!

Words are flying around...

And so many of them are coming out of Sophia's mouth! Her vocabulary has really hit the "explosion" point that everyone talks about. She will mimic whatever we are saying, especially the last 2 or 3 words in a sentence. It's amazing (and really, really scary) to listen to. And she's started having "conversations" with us. Communication is an amazing thing, albeit still a little frustrating when she can't quite get the right word out.
Here she is seasoning her father - Sophia likes to "cook" while I'm cooking or baking.

Dave have been practicing her numbers with her a lot - while climbing stairs for the mail and on the swings and she's really picked up on them. Not a big fan of Seven, but otherwise, she's all over it. Especially when "1, 2, 3" is followed by "Wheee" and 2 people swinging her in the air!

What could be more fun than Nana & Poppa?

She also really enjoys sitting on her potty seat. Not actually using the potty, but it's a first step. She's been running around announcing poopy and pee pee for awhile now (whether there was any in there or not) so this was the logical next step. It'll be great, but I have to say, it's going to take a new found patience to go through the process of the entertainment value of climbing up the stool, on to the potty and back off again for about 20 minutes as we're trying to head out the door, clearly late for something! :) In due time, I know!

Sophia can also clearly say her name now. We started really sounding it out with her about a month ago - So - FEE - A - which is how she said it for awhile. Or we'd say the So and she'd chime in with Fee and we'd finish with the A. So now, during "Roll Call" (what we currently call her winding down for bed) we hear "Mama. Dada. So FEE A." it's adorable, and usually followed by the "A-Ca-Choo" sound from the Bear in the book "The Mitten".

She's also become hyper-aware of friends and playmates. It's great now - but look out- her and her best friend Frances are sure to cause trouble!


I can't believe we're less than a month away from her 2nd birthday! She's such a big girl now.

A Bath timeVideo for Nana & Pop Pop

Love, Sophia

Getting Closer to Two!

I'm going for a record 3 posts in a month, but this one will actually have some content as opposed to the normal ones! :)

It's been great being home in Boston the past few weekends. We've really taken advantage of a lot the city has to offer - the Stone Zoo, The Boston Garden, The Swan Boats and The Fells. And Sophia is getting to the point where she is really starting to verbalize what she is seeing. And in terms of exploring, she'll happily walk (on her terms) to explore places. Though I often still get "Up! Up!" if she feels like she can get me to carry her. We're working on this - I actually think she's inclined to walk and run the tougher the terrain. Boring old sidewalk - forget it. Trails at the Fells - bring it on! She can also jump and get both feet off the ground.
Here are some shots from the Boston Garden today. We made it on the Swan boats for the last ride of the season! (And Sophia's first ever.) But first we had to feed the ducks.





Sophia is getting so many new words each week, it's quite hard to keep track. In addition to stringing two and three words together, some of her new ones are:
- Apple
- Fork
- Cook
- Pillow
- Duckie (which is an upgrade from "Ca Ca" which is what she was previously, and often still does, call a duck.)
- Puppy
- Kitty Cat
- Bless You
- Aaa-choo (from the book "The Mitten" when the big bear sneezes.

Our nanny, Lidiana, has also been teaching her lots of Portuguese words. Some of the ones I've caught/understand are:
- Boca (mouth)
- Beju (kiss - not sure about the spelling)
- and whatever the word/phrase is for "eat all your lunch" :)

I can't believe she'll be two in 6 weeks. The time has flown and she is growing and learning so much every day.

Labor Day Visit in Newport

We spent our last weekend in Newport on Labor Day weekend. Unexpectedly (but happily) the house got rented out for the next three month.
Grandpa Ahouse & Aunt Hayley (Dave's dad & little sister) came up for a visit and helped us out around the house. Hayley is awesome is Sophia - ah, to be 16 and have a ton of energy again :)
And Grandpa shot some wonderful pictures of Sophia. Here are some of our favorites.

Sophia and the Hurricane!

Sophia got to experience her first hurricane this past weekend. We headed down to Newport to batten down the hatches late Friday afternoon, in preparation for Hurricane Irene.

Because our house is located closer to the Harbor (vs. the Ocean) we weren't as concerned about wind damage, but rather flooding. We're in a low lying area and evacuations were already being recommended on Friday evening when we arrived. Our basement is about 5ft above sea level, so if something was going to get wet - it was there.

Ready for the storm!

After lots of prep work Saturday and not much storm to show for it (luckily!) we decided to head out and explore the storm.

On the Cliff Walk aiming towards First Beach (the photo doesn't do it justice).
Ready to explore:

Family Shot on the Cliff Walk (about 35ft above sea level):
A video shot with some good wind in the background.

Happy Birthday!!

Last weekend, we surprised my parents for their 60th birthday! (Mom turned 60 on the 21st and Dad turns on the 30th).

They knew we were coming down to visit, but I arranged it with their best friends to drive up from Virginia and show up right after my mom got home from work on Friday.
We arrived Saturday and it had been previously discussed that Sophia wanted to take Nana and PopPop out for a birthday drink at the restaurant down the street. We strolled down there around 5 so we could make it back for dinner (My poor mom had a big meal planned at home to cook!!) Little did she & dad know, until they walked in, that 15 of their friends and family were waiting to celebrate! (excuse the Blair-Witchiness of the video - I'm not the best videographer!)



Sophia entertained herself by looking at the birthday banner:

A great time was had by all - Happy Birthday Mom & Dad/Nana & PopPop!

Sophia at 21+ months

The big news here (besides the ridiculous height growth!) on Sophia is words. She's getting a lot of them. Some kids have more, some kids have less, but she is definitely mastering language left & right.

We hear a new one close to every day - and it's so much fun (albeit a little scary) to see what she picks up.
Newest include:

• Sit (which the first few times sounded shockingly like something else!!)
  
• Poop
• Mess
• Up
• Off
• Hat
  
• Hiss (like a snake - which sounds a bit like buzz from a bee)
• Coco (our neighbor's dog, which Sophia proudly announces every time it yaps.)
• Bike
• Hat (often said together, as one wears their hat - helmet - while on the bike)
• Door - which she has been saying for a bit, but definitely with more emphasis now

She will repeat most any word we say for her, but this list is what she will come up with on her own.
She also will repeat the alphabet - each letter after you say it to her. She gets probably 23 of the 26 letters - the tough ones are g, q, w.

She likes wearing any piece of our clothing she can get on. Example A (Dave's pants):

And even some of her own:

All in all - she's doing great. She loves running and jumping and has no fear when it comes to climbing. She'll hike up the green chain climbing thing at the park without any help. It's pretty amazing...we've been so lucky to have a great summer for her to enjoy a ton of time outside.
Here's the latest of her and Frances on the horses in Newport together - pure enjoyment!!

Sophia on a running spree!

A quick video I took of Sophia running around our courtyard, with a quick fly-by for kisses. :)

Canoeing in Concord!

The post got started awhile ago, but has been awaiting pictures!!
At the end of July, we had a great summer weekend in Boston - it was a busy and fun one!
Dave had the brilliant idea we should take Sophia canoeing in Concord and do some exploring around the Old North bridge. We invited our friend Mark, Morgan and Frances to come with and it was an awesome day!


We rented 1 big canoe for the 6 of us and the boys did all the paddling at the front and back end while Morgan, the girls & I sat in the middle. We qualified the day as a success, being that no one fell out of the canoe!
The girls loved seeing all the birds (herring, geese, and the scariest looking turkey ducks I've ever seen!), turtles and of course, fish (most of which were being caught by fisherman, but it was still cool!)Despite her dubious look, she really was enjoying herself!!

We paddled (a collective we!) up to the Old North Bridge, parked the canoe on the shore and went exploring up to the Old Manse which was very cool to walk around. The girls were mostly excited by the stones and pebbles in the lane, but it was all good.
Of course, there was snacking and running too!
Then we all walked across the Old North Bridge. On the other side were some beautiful gardens where we stopped for snacks and diaper changes (hey, when you gotta go...)

After all the excitement, we headed back to the canoe to round up some lunch. Sophia decided she had kind of had it with sitting in mommy's lap, so she and Frances got to sit on the edge of the boat (yes, they were wearing their life preservers) and dangle their feet into the water. No pictures were taken as both Morgan and I were holding on rather tightly so they didn't fall in!

Lunch in town afterwards was a great free for all of french fries, sandwiches and Mac and Cheese. Great discussions were had and a lovely car ride nap home.
All in all - quite the success!