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!

8 months!

Sophia is 8 months old! My baby girl is getting bigger and bigger every day!

This was a big month for Sophia. She is now officially mobile! She is crawling everywhere!! Once Sophia makes her mind up about something she is determined to do it! Crawling took about two weeks for her to figure out. She went from pulling up on her feet, to figuring out that she needed to bend her knees, to a crawl scoot thing to full out hands and knees belly off the floor crawl in 2 weeks. Now we can't keep up with her!

Sophia is at such a fun stage now. She is taking less naps so we are able to go lots of places and she is interested in exploring and seeing new things. We've taken advantage of this and gone to the county fair, a baptism party, the Garlic Festival, and the zoo! Sophia loved all of it!

At 8 months Sophia:

• is wearing size 6-9 month clothes
• nurses 4x a day and eats 3 solid meals a day
• sleeps from 7pm-7am and naps at 8:30 and 12:30 for about an hour or 2 each time
• loves yogurt, oatmeal, and fruit and is good about eating veggies and meats
• can feed herself cheerios and crumbles of meat
• says dada, ahda
• loves to shriek
• smiles and laughs a lot
• loves Thor our cat
• loves to read books

I could go on. and on ;)

Sophia you are bright, curious, and full of smiles and laughter. You bring so much joy to each of our days. We love rediscovering the world through your eyes. Your mommy and daddy love you sweet girl!

county fair

I apologise for the blogging hiatus. Blogger and I were not getting along. Plus, we've been up to lots of fun stuff! First I have to share some of the fun from Labor Day weekend!

Our holiday weekend was packed with fun, projects, and crazy weather! We started the weekend out with a trip to the local farmers market and the county fair!

The last time Sophia was at the Geauga County Fair she was just a little thing in mom's belly. This year she was able to check out the cows for herself!

Needless to say she was far more interested in dad's sunglasses then the animals that go moo moo.

Even the sheep that was baaing right by her face didn't phase Ms. S. Perhaps it was the 95 degree weather...

One thing Ms. Sophia did love at the fair was the ribbons! She loved the award ribbons hanging above the animals. She also loved hanging out with her Aunt Kristen!

Despite the hot weather we had a great time at the fair visiting the animals and spending time with family!

lessons in cloth diapering

I've spoken to several parents recently who had lots of questions about cloth diapering. Some said "I wish we talked to you all before we had so and so." Most people don't realize how easy and awesome cloth diapering can be! So, here are my lessons in cloth diapering!

First, Sophia has been a cloth diapered baby from the start. The first thing we learned is, even the most reluctant parent can love cloth diapering! That would be my husband. He was not convinced until we started using them on Ms. S and now he is totally sold. It's just EASY and CHEAPER.

Second, have a variety to start with. We started with some prefolds, some pocket diapers, and some all in ones. We found that prefolds (the old fashioned type) were the best when she was a newborn. Now that she sleeps 12 hours at night and has solid food poop we prefer the pockets (rubber type outside with microfiber insert to absorb wetness). All-in-Ones (sort of a combo of the 2) are on my list of, don't waste your money, but others may love them-you have to find what works for you and your baby.

Third, cleaning cloth diapers is very easy. Every two days or so we toss the bag of diapers in the laundry run a cold cycle and a hot cycle and dry them in the dryer. They come out looking and smelling brand new! and no our laundry machine is not filled with poop... I know some of you were wondering. ;)

There is so much more to know about diapers but the last thing I want to leave you with are some final thoughts on why I am totally convinced (even more so now than I was before!) that cloth diapers are better for Ms Sophia. We used disposables on a few trips this summer and found that 1. they smell awful 2. they gave Sophia diaper rash and 3. they leaked a lot! All problems that we don't have with cloth diapers!

Cloth diapering may seem...gross, a lot of work....only for the green, granola type....but it's not! Just ask my husband! :)