2011 looking back

Happy New Year!!!

I can't believe how much has changed over one year.

We rang in 2011 waiting for our baby girl to arrive.

and just a few weeks into the new year we welcomed sweet little Sophia.

We celebrate the beginning of 2012 with a very busy, almost toddler keeping our days full and filled with smiles.

We can't wait to see what 2012 has in store for us!

Christmas!

Christmas morning arrived and we ran downstairs to check out what Santa brought. Sophia wanted to bring one of her favorite books with her ;)

Sophia still had a cold but it didn't bother her one bit. She was very excited to get her hands on her stocking that has been hanging by the fireplace for weeks.

We helped Sophia unwrap her gifts. She enjoyed exploring everyone's new things. She loved these little egg balls that rattle and daddy's hand lotion.

After we had our little Christmas just the three of us, we had my family over for brunch (no one took pictures!) and then went to Nana and Pappy's for a few more gifts. We spread the unwrapping out some because it was too overwhelming for Sophia.

She received lots of wonderful toys (more pictures to come). A favorite was the doll she received from Nana and Pappy. She loves this doll. Nana told her to "kiss the baby" and she put it right up to her mouth with a great big grin on her face. Love.

We had a wonderful Christmas day. Unfortunately, that night Sophia's cold turned into Croup. Poor thing was so upset and couldn't sleep until midnight (after a walk around the block in her snowsuit...). We're just thankful she was able to enjoy her first Christmas!

Christmas Eve- Part 2

After her nap Sophia got all dressed up and ready for Christmas Eve services (she was wearing shoes....she preferred bare feet. ha). Sophia wore my Christmas dress from when I was just a little older than her.

We went to the live pageant service at our church. Sophia loved being in church. She hasn't been to a service since she was just a few months old, as she is far to noisy for a normal church service. The pageant service was the perfect one to take her to. There were lots of kids and even live animals so no one minded that Sophia was a chatterbox. She enjoyed pointing out everything to mom and dad. "Look mom lights!" "look a donkey!" "look windows!" "look people!" or at least this is what I imagine she was saying.

After the service we headed to Nana and Pappy's for dinner.

Pointing to the Christmas tree. Making sure everyone sees it.

Pappy Clark showing Ms. S a few special ornaments on the tree.

Sophia enjoyed every minute of Christmas Eve despite her cold. I am pretty sure her favorite part was throwing her sippy cup on the floor and watching Pappy pick it up all through dinner. After an early dinner we rushed home to get Ms. S in bed so Santa could come! (with hopes that the cold would be gone by morning)

Christmas Eve-Part 1

We had a very busy, fun filled, first Christmas with Sophia! Unfortunately, Ms. S woke up on the 23rd with a cold that only got worse until it turned into Croup on Christmas day :( Despite that we still enjoyed our Christmas!

The morning of Christmas Eve we had our Christmas with Carl's parents. They were heading to Virginia to be with Carl's sister on Christmas so we got together a day early.

Sophia doesn't "get" gifts quite yet and really is not very interested in the unwrapping process at all. So with a little help from mom and Grandma all of her gifts were opened.

Inspecting her new shopping cart. She was very interested in the little girl on the box.

We then spent some time with the salin spray so our sweet girl could take a good nap before church and Christmas Eve dinner at Nana and Pappy's. Sophia loves the salin spray bottle (don't worry, she's always supervised when holding it ;)). More on our Christmas Eve and Christmas day to come.....

first snow

We had our first real snowfall last weekend. We've had light sprinkles once or twice before but never anything that stuck. On Saturday we got a few inches, so we decided it was time to introduce Ms. S to the wonderful white stuff!

Looking cute in her snowsuit.

I think it's safe to say that Sophia wasn't sold on the cold white fluffy stuff....

Probably didn't help that mom was behind the camera and not with her. We lasted all of one minute. haha We plan to take her out a few more times to help her get used to the white stuff and hopefully one day turn those tears into squeals of delight! ;)

11 months!

11 months! Only one more month until Sophia is 1, oh my! Sophia is becoming less and less of an baby each day. If I thought I had trouble taking pictures of her before...these days I'm lucky if I get a picture of the back of her head!

I bribed her to sit still with an empty applesauce packet (anyone know how to photoshop that thing out?!)....


It worked for all of two seconds...

but I got some cute shots anyways :)

Sophia at 11 months:

• wears size 6-9 month clothes and some 12 months



• eats 3 solid meals a day of all table food (ground turkey, peas, carrots, blueberries, rice cakes etc)



• nurses 3 times a day and gets a bottle at bedtime



• takes 2 naps, sometimes very reluctantly and sleeps from about 7-7 (though we've been having some early mornings the last few days!)



• loves to point at things so we can name them for her



• can stand very briefly on her own



• loves to walk around using furniture or her push toy for support



• loves to play with the toys at the library



• is busy busy busy!

Sophia, you are so curious! From the moment you wake up in the morning you are pointing at things and "asking" mommy and daddy to tell you what they are. You are on the move and going places fast! We love watching you grow and learn new things each day. We love you sweet girl!

O Christmas Tree

Last Saturday we kicked off the Advent season by cutting down our Christmas tree!

Cutting down our tree is a tradition my dad and I started when I was in high school. I am so excited to share this family tradition with Sophia!

Pappy Clark and Sophia trying to find 2 perfect trees (one for Nana and Pappy and one for Sophia).

The Carter family (I have to hunt down last year's picture, lets just say things have changed! and we love it!)

Sophia taking a ride in the tree sled before the tree was cut. She was far more interested in the pine needles than the fact that she was in a sled that was moving...

Daddy doing the hard work cutting down the tree.

Once we get the tree up (it is still in our garage....baking 6 batches of cookies and night classes have postponed that part of the story) I will post pictures!

future drummer?

As long as we can keep the drum sticks out of our mouth...

We may have a future as a rock star...

mommy's little helper

Sophia loves 'helping' mommy out lately.

Folding laundry...

She is an excellent basket emptier....

Doing dishes...

Cutest helper a mom could ask for!

sick

I thought I would follow the posts about the day of food with a post about vomit. You're welcome.

A few weeks ago Sophia came down with a yucky stomach bug. I was at a conference when I got a call from my mom. Sophia had vomited all over her! Poor Sophia.... Poor Nana...

So I rushed home and in my worried, new mom state decided Sophia must be thirsty and nursed her. Well, can you guess what happened roughly 30 minutes later? Yep, she vomited all over me. Duh. I learned my lesson. We canceled our plans to visit Carl's sister and called the pediatrician. Pedialyte was purchased and we got ready for a long weekend.

Needless to say Sophia was not a fan of Pedialyte. It's basically a really gross, kid version of gatorade. The Pedialyte Popsicles went over a little better but we could still only get about an ounce or two in her :/

All in all though, Sophia was a great sick baby. She slept really well (16 hours on Sunday) and was her usual happy self accept while vomiting. Her parents on the other hand... well we both got it a few days later and were really crabby!

turkey day fun!

Sophia's first turkey day was filled with lots of fun and some turkey too :) After a nap, we started our day with a nice walk around Horseshoe Lake with Nana and Pappy Clark.


After another nap (life of a baby :)) we headed out to Grandma and Grandpa's for turkey!

Sophia enjoyed playing with the spoons and a butter knife until mom declared it not safe and took it away. It's true, we get away with more when just dad is around.

There was some playtime with Nana.

Getting a little help from Aunt Kristen.

Playing with Grandma's horse that we weren't sure whether we wanted to laugh or cry about.

Sophia enjoyed some turkey and her first ever mashed potatos too but mom forgot to take pictures! It was a nice day with family and Sophia did a great job with all the commotion and "new" faces!

Happy Thanksgiving!

We hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving! We enjoyed our first Thanksgiving with our sweet Sophia!


Isn't her turkey shirt the cutest thing you've ever seen?!!? Thanks Emily for making it for Sophia!

10 months!

What a busy month we have had! Sophia is growing fast and learning new things every day!

Sophia's favorite activity these days is chasing the cat! She is working on saying kitty. Whenever she sees Thor she makes a k sound and chases after him. He is getting better at letting her pet him briefly, as long as she contains her shrieks of excitment.

Sophia is understanding more and more of what we say. She understands no, even if it's hard to listen to. Her babbles have started to resemble speech patterns and it's clear she is telling us something we just don't understand it yet.

My favorite time of the day is getting Sophia up from her nap. She is always so excited to see us when we come in!

At 10 months Sophia:

• wears size 6-9 months and some 12 months
  


• weighs 18lbs 4 oz (lost a little weight because of a stomach virus :()



• eats 3 solid meals a day and nurses 4x a day



• takes 2 naps a day, sometimes we play a lot before we sleep!



• loves finger foods especially peas! she's transitioning to more and more "table food" and only eats a small amount of puree a day
  


• says dada, mama, nana, yea yea, kkkk (for kitty)- so far the only one that means anything is the kkkk sound
  


• crawls, pulls up to standing, and cruises
  


• loves books
  


• still hates being put in her pajamas



• has the sweetest laugh and smile

Sophia, you are just a joy! You are so bright, curious and on the go! You love playing, hugging your mama, and exploring new places and things. Your mommy and daddy love you and love watching you grow!

Happy Halloween!

Our little cow hopes your Halloween was filled with fun and treats!

apple picking

I am playing a little bit of catch up this week since we've been so busy over the last few weeks. We actually took Sophia apple picking a few weeks ago. We had a great day and got some sweet pictures of our little lady that I had to share.

The farm we go to always has great pumpkins so we spent some time checking out the giant orange things. Sophia was very interested in climbing on them.

Sophia also helped pick out some apples. She was surprisingly not interested in the apple trees. Normally Sophia gets very excited about trees and wants to eat the leaves. She was having a bit of a serious day though. Well, until the wagon ride, more on that in another post.

We did manage to get some smiles out of her :) It was a lovely Fall afternoon and we came home with apples, pumpkins, and maple donuts. Yum! I love Fall foods!

proceed with caution

A word of caution, if you decide to take a picture of Sophia prepare to be chased....

and tackled....

She may be tiny but she always wins.

wordless wednesday: no sock is safe

first trip to the zoo

A few weeks ago we took Sophia on her first trip to the zoo! Carl had never been to the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo either so it was a fun first outing for both of them.

Sophia is a little young to appreciate the animals and only seemed to notice them if there wasn't anything more interesting, like a leaf or sweatshirt string, in between her and the animal.

We had a lot of fun anyways and enjoyed see the adorable bear cubs and the orangutans. The orangutans really enjoyed showing off for the crowd. Unfortunately I wasn't fast enough with the camera to capture one of them waving, smiling, and sticking out his tongue.

Sophia enjoyed being out and about exploring some place new. She shrieked so much that she scared a few other zoo guests.

We finished off our trip with dinner for Sophia and Honey Hut ice cream for mom. Mom did a better job keeping her food off her face...

It was a great day and we can't wait to take Sophia back next year!