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.