Far Behind

Since Sophie has started walking around the house with our help, it has been difficult to get photos of her. She is almost constantly on the move. Really the only times she'll sit still for an extended period of time is when she's eating puffs or reading books. She is very affectionate. She loves to give kisses. She will kiss favorite pages in books, her reflection, pictures, stuffed animals, the cat, and Mommy & Daddy. Sophie is friendly with younger babies. She likes to pet them like she pets Ty. But she's a little more reserved with the older kids. She will walk right up to them but she tends to watch what they are doing rather than interact with them. Sophie's still not consistently sleeping through the night. Apparently, a small percentage of post-colic babies are terrible sleepers and nothing can be done about it. I spent $10 and a couple hours of reading a book by a pediatric sleep expert to find that out. She's doing a great job of pulling herself up to stand. I suspect she'll be walking in the next couple months.

Cute Videos

Yes, that's a laugh. This was taken during the late evening so Sophie's a little fussy. Sophie usually loves what Daddy calls "baby curls."




Sophie's eating chicken and rice for the first time and is not sure about it. She stopped eating to sing a song to Mommy & Daddy.

Paw Paw's Visit

Sophie had a great time reading with Paw Paw when he came to visit. She would turn the page when he told her to. We also went to the park and had fun playing on the slide. Sophie liked to walk (with some assistance) and dance.

Sophie & Ty

Sophie has been paying a lot more attention to Ty lately. She shrieks with happiness when she sees him. Though she still grabs his fur a good bit, Sophie is getting better with being gentle when she pets Ty. One day Ty was wagging his tail and Sophie thought it was hilarious. She watched him for a good five minutes, giggling.
Don't worry; Ty is in mid yawn.
Up close and personal.
Making the face I call the "Marlon Brando"
Sophie knows she's a cutie.

Grandma (Maw Maw) Abram's Visit

Sophie loved playing with her Grandma. Here, they are playing with a stuffed raccoon. Sophie laughed and laughed.
Grandma was nice enough to buy a toy for Sophie. Sophie loved the box just as much as she did the toy.
We went to the beach one day. It was a beautiful day, although the tide was the highest we've ever seen here. The water was a bit too cold to dip Sophie's feet in, but she had fun just sitting outside. Sophie loves to be outside. I take Sophie to a park once a week with a mom's group I joined. We usually hang out on a blanket in the backyard during the late afternoon.

We all had a great time with Grandma and can't wait to see her again in November.

The Snozzberries Taste Like Snozzberries

Sophie started crawling backwards a couple of weeks ago. She gets very frustrated because she wants to go forward instead. She can go quite a distance backwards. (Don't worry, we've babyproofed.) Sophie has a habit of licking the floor while she is crawling backwards. It makes me laugh and cringe at the same time. The video is of her blowing raspberries, which she loooves to do, sometimes while she's eating baby food.

Goofy Girl

Sophie has been so much fun lately. She's definitely making up for the hell she put us through when she had colic. As long as she's not super tired, it's pretty easy to make her laugh. Sophie loves the silly faces and sounds we make for her benefit.

Daddy can almost always perk Sophie up when he comes home from work. Sophie can't take her eyes off him.

Sophie's been making silly noises herself lately. These are some quiet noises. I'll post a couple more videos later that demonstrate her loud noises (which are much more frequent).

Sitting Up All By Herself

Yeah, so we're really behind on the blog posts. Sophie has been sitting on her own for a couple of weeks now. It took her awhile because she had wanted to stand instead of sitting. Eventually she gave in.

The following is a series of pictures I thought were pretty funny.


The camera got a little slobbery shortly thereafter.

Long Awaited update

We've been giving her baby food & rice cereal for several weeks now. Thankfully she eats pretty well. We've only had a few occasions where she really fights it. I believe this day was carrots. She's also had peas, green beans and squash. The green beans were the least popular, but she ate them.

She also seems to have taken to the sunglasses we got for her. She doesn't mind wearing them, and looks so stylish.

Fun with Nana and Pap

We had such a ball with Nana and Pap when they came to visit. Sophie had big smiles for Nana and Pap. Nana's silly faces elicited a few belly laughs from Sophie. Sophie loved all the attention! It was such a huge help to have the grandparents here while we first started sleep training. The company (and the ice cream) helped relieve my anxiety. They also babysat a couple times so Brian and I could go out to dinner and have a beach and spa day together.




We miss Nana and Pap very much. It was hard to see them go.

Finally Videos of Sophie Talking

Sleep training has been so hard but I think it is paying off. Sophie is doing much better at falling asleep at night. Naps haven't been going so smoothly, but we're still making some progress. She still wakes up at night though.

Sophie has been blowing bubbles and babbling up a storm. One day a couple of weeks ago, Sophie practiced making a high pitched shriek ... all day long. Sophie and I have long conversations sometimes. She prefers when I make noises that are similar to hers. We go back and forth for a while.

Sophie is so proud of herself for standing. Standing is usually accompanied by "hoo"ing, laughing, and lots of drooling.

Looking all around. Sophie's new thing is to look at things upside down.

Her frog blanket is her best buddy. She also loves Sophie the giraffe (seen beside her). It's a ridiculously expensive teether, but was worth it since a lot of the other teethers are too wide to fit in her mouth. It's also easier for her to hold and control it. Her motor skills are coming along nicely. Sophie grasps objects with both hands at the same time, can hold two objects in each hand at the same time, and can lift them up to her mouth most of the time.

We think she will soon roll from her back to her stomach. She cannot wait to crawl! I know she'll have me running around after her. Thankfully we don't have stairs to worry about.

Growing Up So Fast!

This is Sophie loving her exersaucer. Playing in the exersaucer is serious business.

Sophie also loves to read books. We lay down beside her to read since she often flails about (I've been punched in the face many times). Sophie likes the cadence of Dr. Seuss; but she also likes board books, especially those with flaps. She enjoys trying to turn (and eat) the pages.

Super Sophie hanging out with Daddy. This activity frequently results in puddles of drool accumulating on the floor.

So happy to be awake after a good night's sleep! Sophie is a morning person. Morning often involves big smiles and loud shrieks of delight.

Sophie is in the stage where she is putting anything and everything in her mouth. Just her thumb won't do; she needs to have at least two fingers in her mouth.

Like I said before, it is exceedingly difficult to get a video of Sophie talking. Since she quiets as soon as she sees the camera I had to hide it from her view (hence the angle of the shot). Sophie has been much more vocal lately. She talks to Mommy & Daddy, herself, and inanimate objects. The books say to respond to her like you're conversing; however, Sophie tends to dominate the conversation.

More Cuteness

I've been trying for days to get a video of Sophie "talking" but once she sees the camera she ends up silently staring at it. Here, at least, she is smiling and laughing. BTW, I changed the setting so everyone can post comments. Hopefully it was successful. Please let me know if it wasn't and I'll try to fix it.

Standing Up

Sophie loves to stand. She can support her own weight but needs assistance to hold her steady. Sophie's very proud of herself. We bought her an exersaucer since she likes standing so much. She only goes in it for a few minutes a day (and not everyday). It's for 4 months and up so I don't want to push her too fast. It's difficult to gauge when Sophie's ready for new things and activities since she's so big for her age and she's been hitting milestones on the early side.

Just Being Cute

Sitting Up

Sophie can sit with assistance, but she would rather stand.

Tummy Time

Sophie hated tummy time at first. However, after several sessions, Sophie started to like it (or at least tolerate it). These photos are a couple weeks old. She no longer uses the pillow for tummy time. These days tummy time doesn't last very long. Sophie pretty much immediately rolls over so she can play with the toys hanging from the playmat. She's much more interested in developing her grasping skills.

Brian's First Fathers' Day

Here are some photos and a video in honor of Fathers' Day. Yeah, I know I'm a little late but y'all should be used to that by now :)

Sophie loves her daddy so much. She's already enjoying playing with him. They like to play peek-a-boo and standing up. She likes to test his patience at bedtime though. Sophie still does not like to fall asleep. Once she's asleep Sophie does really well at night. We bought a couple sleep training books. I think we'll implement some of the ideas, but the books say not to do intensive sleep training until 4 months.

Sophie has reached a couple milestones recently. She can support her own weight while standing. We have to hold her steady though and she can't do it for more than a few minutes at a time. Sophie also consistently rolls from her stomach to her back. She dislikes tummy time so I think it will be a while before she rolls from back to tummy.

The teething isn't that bad right now. She's still drooling a lot. I bought her a couple of teethers that can be chilled and it seems to help. I'm dreading the acute teething period (when the teeth are cutting through).

Anyway, Brian is a great dad. He dances with Sophie for hours while she is fighting sleep. Hopefully she will be easier on him as she gets older.