18 Months of Sophia

My Mother's Day weekend has been truly wonderful. It coincided with Sophia turning 1.5 years old!
It's hard to believe that she is well-ensconsed in toddler hood, but spend about 5 minutes with her and you'll quickly realize that is the case. She is starting to work on two word phrases (currently we have "No Way" as the leading contender.

She also has started to dip food (I never knew this was a milestone, until I saw her doing it and someone commented on it!) Yesterday it was chips and guacamole. We definitely have to teach her about the no-no's of double dipping.

She's definitely prefers salty foods to sweet. If given her way, she'd compete with her parents for the entire bag of salt and vinegar potato chips. It's hysterical, but she enjoys them so much!

We finally got her a rain coat, courtesy of my mom. This was actually my rain coat as a kid that my mom had preserved in her hope chest. It fits her perfectly and clearly, she's all about the home team!She's perfected her downward dog pose:


And, glory upon glories, 3 of the 4 molars are through and the last one is making a big push. Hooray! That makes all the teeth except for the two bottom incisors.

She really enjoys giving hugs and kisses. Her kiss is a combination "zerbert" and lip smack all in one. She will also blow kisses to people when we're leaving places (the bank tellers get a big kick out of it!) She also has taken to emphatically pointing and screeching when there is something she wants (many of my friends have been going through this since about 8 months, so all I can say is thank god for the late blooming in this department!) What's funnier is when she uses her periscope like hand to grab for that "something" on the counter.

Finally, she'll spend a good part of each morning checking out the neighborhood (with a running commentary on all the "woofs" that go by.


Not bad for 18 months. Happy, healthy and funny - that's our Sophia.

Party Tricks

As Sophia approached 16 months, she has developed a lot of what I like to call "Party Tricks".
In the word department, she's had Dada/Daddyyyyy nailed for a few months now. No Mama (despite our best efforts). She does say something resembling Nonni - so we'll chalk it up to her Italian heritage.

"Fa" and "Woof" are her current obsessions - any dog or anything dog related is Woof. We have the Sandra Boynton book "Doggies" which she absolutely adores. In fact, I can now ask her to go get it from the shelf in her room and she'll bring it out to me in the living room to read and say "woof" when she hands it to me.

She also has her little cabinet of fun. It's where we keep all our water/juices. I have a stack of seltzer cans that Sophia like to take out, roll around the floor, and put back in, all quite methodically. (I think she has a little bit of my anal organizational tendencies. Lord help us all when she's a teenager!)

Her baby doll is clearly her best friend. We got it for her as her Christmas present and she loves "Baby" to pieces. If you speak too loudly when "baby is sleeping" she shushes you with her finger to her lips. (Apparently she did this to a rather large man when she was out at the playspace the other day and he just giggled.) Baby also gets a bottle and wrapped up in Sophia's fuzzy blanket. It's adorable to watch. The only thing Baby will be ditched for is...

Cheerios. Yup, she is her father's daughter. She loves her little snack trap of Cheerios every morning. She'll obviously drop a few, but she then goes to find them and either puts them back in the trap (or her mouth) or throws them in the garbage (which is actually more than I can say for her father when he eats them! :)

We also just got her a basketball hoop - one of those that you hang on the door. She is starting to get the gist of it. I think Dave & I actually have more fun with it, but she definitely is working on her dunking technique.

More to come - Sophia & I are off to London in under two weeks to visit some friends. It should be quite the adventure. Can't wait!