Halloween

 Sophie, the owl.

 Sophie refused to wear the hat, but made Mommy wear it instead.  Not sure about the crazy face I'm making.

 Dancing in the driveway.

Sophie wasn't really interested in going to people's houses to get candy.  She preferred to run up and down the sidewalk.  She did really well in her costume.  We only went to three houses, but we all had fun.

Aunt Sarah & Uncle Mike's House, Part 3

This was Sophie's first experience playing with piles of leaves. She had a blast! Playing with Uncle Mike & Ben made it extra fun!

Aunt Sarah & Uncle Mike's House, Part 2

The guys watching the Buffalo Bills game.
Maddy is such a sweetheart. She was just chilling on the floor while the guys watched the game.
Sarah was playing a game with Maddy and Sophie thought it was too funny.
Sophie was in heaven with these stairs. She doesn't get much opportunity to practice getting up stairs in FL so this was a special treat for her.

Aunt Sarah & Uncle Mike's House, Part 1

We recently went up North to help my sister & brother-in-law move into their new home. Ben loved Brian right away (it had been a couple years since they last saw each other). Maddy is in the stranger anxiety stage, so it took a little time for her to warm up to us. She wanted us around as long as we didn't try to pick her up!
Maddy was very interested in Sophie.

All 3 of the kids loved crawling through this tunnel. This picture is a little blurry but Maddy has such a sweet smile that I had to post it!
The 3 of them also loved to play in the sunroom together; especially, with "Double Ernies." Before Sophie met her cousins for the first time this summer, I showed her videos that Sarah had posted of the kids. There was one were Maddy was playing with an Ernie doll. Sophie thought it was so cool that she grabbed an Ernie doll out of a bin at a toy store. It is now one of Sophie's favorite dolls. She usually carries it around with a stuffed owl (Sophie likes to pair things of similar size or color). Well, she found Maddy's Ernie doll and Owl was quickly tossed aside.

September

Sophie loves to dance in front of the mirrored closet doors.

She has never used pacifiers, but she found some and decided to play with them in front of the mirror. Sophie thinks they're hysterical.

Sophie started climbing recently. Now she can climb onto low chairs.

Getting Dirty and the Aftermath

Not thrilled about coming back inside, and also wanting the onion on the counter.

3 seconds to meltdown!

Playing

Sophie decided to play in the rain one day with Daddy. Combine water with the outdoors and you get one ecstatic toddler.

Sophie has been cyber-stalking Maru, the cat, on youtube. Maru likes to jump in boxes. I think Maru inspired Sophie to start stomping and sitting in boxes.
Ty joined Sophie for a bath. Fortunately, neither one of them pooped in the tub... this time.
Desperate to get to that waterfall in the middle of Chocolate World.

Mini Donahue Family Reunion

Staring at her beautiful cousin, Maddy. This is not unusual. Sophie stares at most people who are unfamiliar to her.


Sophie had a lot of fun playing with her cousins, Ben and Maddy (well, at least playing near them.) She's not quite at the age where she's playing with other kids.
The mooch (one of our nicknames for Sophie). Pap was talking while holding a quesadilla in his hand & Sophie tried to take a bit out of it. Once Pap realized what was going on, he was kind enough to share. The quickest way to Sophie's heart is through her tummy (must get that from her daddy!).

Fun with Maw Maw

Sophie loves to play with rocks!
Maw Maw put some balls in this cooler for Sophie to play with. She decided to carry the whole thing around instead.

I tried and failed to get pictures of Maw Maw with Sophie; however, Sophie is quite the quick one and easily evaded any photo op that presented itself. She had a great time stomping around and drumming an empty coffee container. It was so nice spending time with Maw Maw. Sophie had a ball!

Random, Part 2

Sophie loves to watch the fan spin.
Pancakes are so yummy!!
We had a playdate at our house with a friend and Sophie took his ball away and refused to give it back. They had fun anyway. I was surprised Sophie let him play with her toys.

Random Cuteness

Chatting with Mommy.
Sophie loves to watch Sprout, which is PBS's toddler/preschool channel. No, really... she does!
Peas! Sophie's favorite vegetable.

Funny Cat

My apologies for the Blair Witch camera work.

June 2011

A very tired little girl.
That's not a 5 o'clock shadow... it's remnants of black beans & rice.
Helping Daddy play the guitar.

Sophie has been sleeping great lately (knock on wood). She is on a 2 nap a day schedule, the first of which is right when our playgroup meets so we haven't been able to go for a month. We've also had to stay inside because of the smoke from all the wildfires. So that means we are both a little lonely. Sophie is slowly adding more words to her vocabulary. She is saying "up," "down," "mom," and "owl." However, she says them infrequently and refuses to speak when we ask her to. We know she understands us because we can ask her to point objects out to us and she will most of the time. We sing her a song that involves opening and closing our hands and she will open and close her hands with us if she is in the mood. Sophie only does things on her terms.