Blessings

In light of it being Thanksgiving week and the baby shower I attended yesterday and all, I've been doing a bit of reflecting. In my musings, I reminded again how truly blessed I am in my life. I have a job that I (used to) love where I know that I am making a difference in people's lives everyday, a roof over my head, an amazing husband, a beautiful daughter, the best friend a girl could ask for in my sister, great parents...my list could go on an on. I have friends that inspire me and challenge me everyday. I have friends that I have known since I was 7 (Jana), 9 (Erin), 12 (Andrea, Jamie, Christina). I have reconnected with dozens more over the last six months thanks to the magical world of virtual networking. I don't think many can say that their group of friends--the ones that are invited to all the major events of their life and their kids' lives--consist of people that they've known since you were in elementary and junior high school. There's not a day that goes by that I don't smile at the idea that Sophie and Ryden will grow up together the same way that Jana and I did, or that I can get parenting advice from Kristen, who was in my preschool class, or that Sophie's aunt was also one of my good friends from high school.

I am a bit ashamed that I complain at all about the things that I don't really like about my life, as my worst day is the best day that someone else could ever aspire to. So in honor of it being Thanksgiving week, I am just going to enjoy my blessings, and be glad for all the amazing things I have in my life. :)

Pictures

Because I STILL haven't uploaded anything to snapfish (I have like 4 months of pictures. Ugh)...




~I'm 7 months old!~








~Modeling her new hoodie. She's pretty fired up about it.~











~Rocking the excersaucer~















~The early stages of a toothy grin. There's 4 teeth in that little mouth of hers. She's cutting 2 more as we speak!~
















~Do you love the tights as much as I do?~
















~Checking out the view from her tummy.~

Cruising and Ladybugs

Bean and I are playing last night, which is pretty typical for a weekday evening. The dinner has been had, the jammies are donned, and really we are just enjoying ourselves until it is time for bed. Lo and behold, what does my daughter do, but hitch herself up, and start crawling across the living room floor (it might not have been quite as effortless as that, but that's pretty much the gist). She looks like a drunken sailor right now, and it takes some time to move a few feet, but crawling is crawling, and my kid is officially mobile!

In other news, Bean had a great first Halloween. Tony and I drove down to San Diego on Friday night, and actually got to spend an ENTIRE weekend with his family (I should probably clarify that Tony FINALLY has weekends off! It is amazing what two days off in a row can do for a person!). Anyway, the drive down was a little bit rough. For those of you familiar with SoCal, and the area known as "the crush", you know how terrible the traffic can be. Minimal lanes, no median, and everyone and their brother is all trying to travel through about a 17 mile stretch of freeway. But I digress. In this section of freeway, there is also a huge costume store that is literally spitting distance from the freeway (my SoCal people, I'm sure, all know which store I am talking about). Apparently, Friday was the single best day in the history of the world to buy a costume, and the entire population of Orange and LA counties were piling into this establishment doing a little last minute shopping before heading off to whatever party was planned for the weekend. The only reason why I mention this is that Tony and I were caught in this poop storm. We spent over an hour trying to make our way past this store. From Dodger Stadium to the store is about 20 miles...it took us well over an hour to drive this stretch. I mention this only because Sophie has never been much of a fan of traffic. Thankfully, she slept through the worst of the traffic, leading Tony and I to believe that we were in the clear. No sooner had we passed the exit to the store (literally, hundreds of cars and people spilling out into the parking lot...it was ridiculous), then we started hearing the first squeaks and murmurings from the backseat. After a 10 minutes of fussing, she fell back to sleep again, only to wake up 20 minutes later and cry. For at least 40 miles, she cried, wailed, whimpered to be let out of her carseat and be put to bed for reals. She was pretty miserable by the time we reached Tony's parents' house, but after a bottle and some cuddling, she was sound asleep.

I bought her a costume over a month ago, even though I knew how silly it is to take a seven month old trick or treating. She isn't going to last for more than a few houses, there were no guarantees on the weather (which was beautiful, by the way), she's an armful which would make carrying her a challenge after awhile. At any rate, I bought the costume anyway, because it was too stinking cute not to. I dolled her up after dinner, with this as the result...



...Seriously, how CUTE is she? Tony and I went to maybe 3 houses with her, just so I could feel like I got some miles out of the costume, and then took our niece and nephew to another half dozen before we headed back home. I'm pretty sure that she'll be a ladybug again next year so I can feel justified in buying her costume in the first place.

The rest of our weekend was lazy, relaxing, and much needed. Our nephew, Max, celebrated his first birthday last week, so we had a small family party for him on Sunday. Max, by the way, was a lion this year...



I hope everyone else had a great Halloween. I can't believe that we are a little more than three weeks from Thanksgiving! Where does the time go?! Stay tuned for more updates!

Half a Year...

Sophia is 6 months old (well, truth be told, she's almost 6.5 months old, and I am just slow on the pick up...). I can't believe my little bean is already a half a year old! Tony and I marvel constantly how much she's grown and developed since March. Truly, when we look at pictures of her from when she was first born, we hardly can recognize that baby! In 6 months, Sophie has:

* learned to roll front to back, and back to front.
* decided that tummy sleeping is the greatest thing in the entire world.
* started eating cereal (rice and oatmeal)
* started eating pureed yams, squash, green beans, peas, apples, and avocado. She LOVES the yams, apples, and squash. The jury is still out on the other stuff.
*cut three teeth. She has two on the bottom, and one on the top. We think the second one on top is moments away from making its debut.
* learned to drink from a sippy cup. She drinks water now like her life depends on it.
*started hitching her back legs into a crawling position. Tony and I are going to be in for it when she goes mobile...
*learned to sit up on her own. She also thinks playing while laying down is for babies.
*learned that standing is the greatest thing ever. She balances herself (with help still) against the coffee table, the couch, us, and gets the biggest grin on her face when she does so.
*started saying "dadadada", "mamama", "cahcahcahcah", and "dahdahdahdah". The last 2, I think, are "cat" and "dog". It might be my overactive imagination, but she seems to say those only when Sappho (the cat) and Lucy (the dog) are nearby. Our friend, Julie, is also convinced that Sophie says, "ok, bye bye", but I haven't heard that one myself.
*gotten this close to sleeping through the night. She has a night every 10-14 days when she makes it all the way through. Unfortunately, I started back to work 3 weeks ago (I am SO NOT a fan of working mommyhood), and hanging with various babysitters has thrown her off her game a bit. I'm sure once her permanent nanny starts (a week from today), she'll work it all out. Getting a full night's sleep again is a dream that Tony and I feel like is still too good to be true.

6 months. I think its going to take me at least another 6 months before I am going to be used to this!..

6:15

That's what time Sophie woke up this morning. 6:15. Am I complaining? Heck no! She slept for the entire night! 6:45-6:15. The end might be just around the corner! Cross you fingers, everyone!

Milestones...

It seems that I have proved myself a liar. I find that it is almost a month (longer???) since my last entry, and I still have not posted new pictures, let alone keep anyone current on the life and times of Sophie Bean. The highlights from the past month are:

1) We had Sophie's four month check up on July 14th (jeez! Can I be any later in my blogging?). She's healthy as a horse, according to her pediatrician. She is in the 95% for height, and 80% for head circumference (her body is FINALLY catching up to her noggin. I was afraid I had given birth to a bobble head). My little dumpling also came in in the 100% for weight. The doctor assures me that there is nothing to worry about, and she will burn all of her thighs (I mean, weight) off once she's more mobile. He also said that the reason why she wasn't rolling all the way over yet was because of her weight. Well, I never!

2) Sophie is slowly stretching her night in hour increments. Now, she pretty consistently makes it until 4-5 before she's up and ready for a feeding. Tony and I can ALMOST see the light at the end of the tunnel. Sleeping the entire night might not be a distant memory after all!



3) We definitely have a talker on our hands! Sophie has about a million interesting things to talk about now that she's found her voice. She babbles to Tony and I, the cat, the dog, the trees, her feet...pretty much anything within her sight line is going to get an ear full. Now, if we could just understand what she's talking about!

4) In the last three weeks or so, Sophie is also much more interested in standing. I think buying her an excersaucer might have had something to do with it (practicing being vertical or something...), but she LOVES standing on laps. She gets a huge grin on her face...she KNOWS that she is the smartest one in the room.

5) Just this past weekend was a virtual trifecta of important events. As we sat on the floor and played on her mat on Friday afternoon, low and behold, what does my little girl do but flip herself over onto her tummy. She looked up at me as though to say, "what's the big deal?". Now that she's figured it out, she won't stop, even though she still hates to be on her tummy. it seems as though I've officially become the baby flipper until she works out how to turn from front to back. By yesterday, she seems to have decided that if she was going to roll over to the right, she might as well learn to go left as well...so she did. On Saturday, Tony walked into our bedroom with Bean and announced that she had cut her first tooth (seemingly overnight, as there was no tooth on Friday). She is moderately more fussy as a result, but I have to say that the first tooth wasn't too bad (I hope I can say the same when her molars come in!). Finally, on Sunday, Tony and I gave Bean her first rice cereal breakfast (her doctor wanted us to start at four months, but I felt like that was too early). Her first attempt was, well, messy. Since then, however, she seems to really take to it. Last night, she was even leaning forward to get to the spoon sooner it seemed. Cute!

In other news, I have about five weeks left before I am officially a full-time teacher again. Tony and I were this close to having the perfect nanny. Terisa started last Monday, and worked last Wednesday as well. She unfortunately called this past Monday to tell us that her engine blew up...and she has no way of getting to Santa Clarita otherwise. It was like glimpsing Paradise and then having the doors shut in my face. So now we are back to square one. *Sigh* Its stressful knowing that we have to have someone sorted out in the next few weeks, as after September 8th, Bean will have to hang out at home by herself. Wish us luck!



Otherwise, we have been laying low and trying to stay cool. Two of our very good friends from San Diego are both due to become parents shortly (actually, our friends, Brian and Laura, already did. Now we are just waiting for Brian's sister, Becky, to have her baby). We both couples give us the word, we'll make another trek down to San Diego to welcome the new babes. The beach weather in Carlsbad will be a nice change from the Hades-like conditions of living Mojave adjacent. :)

Well, there are literally a TON of pictures that I need to post now, and I will make no promises anymore of when that might be. Stay tuned!

Where Does the Time Go?

Ah! Sophie is almost four months old already! I can't believe it! I also can't believe that I missed posting anything about her three month milestones entirely. What kind of mother am I?

Well, as of this Saturday, my baby girl is going to be 16 weeks old. July 14th marks her actual four month birthday. I keep tabs on both because I think I might be a little bit crazy. Ce la vie. But where to start? We had a great first Mother's Day. Tony made a great picnic and we headed up to the local park for the afternoon. Sophie loved sitting in the shade and watching the trees in the wind, Lucy sniffing at the grass, the clouds, everything. She is so observant and never seems to miss anything. Father's Day waas equally wonderful. Tony's awesome parents drove up the Saturday before and surprised him so that they could be there to celebrate Tony's first Father's Day with him. Sunday was spent visiting with his brother and wife. He also bought an Iphone, which has pretty much changed his life. :) Tony wanted to spend his day just hanging out with his family, so we stuck pretty close to home. He gets so few opportunities to just be with his daughter, that he couldn't think of a better way to spend Father's Day. I think he was in heaven all day!

Not too long after Mother's Day, we reached another big day...well, night, to be exact. We put Sophie to bed at her normal hour, fully expecting to be up with her at 10-11 like usual (which would be about 4ish hours of sleep...). Low and behold, we wake to hear her crying at not 11, but 2 am! Yay! The difference of sleeping for 7-8 hours instead of 4-5 is like night and day. We almost feel human again! And aside from a pretty hairy week while we housesat for some friends of ours (Sophie did NOT like sleeping at Diane and David's...AT ALL!), she has pretty consistently stuck to her new schedule. What is even better is that my amazing husband has been taking the first night feeding with her since she was five weeks old. Now that there is only one feeding, momma gets to sleep pretty much all night! We might work out a rotation, as Tony is still pretty tired when he gets up for work, but he loves the private time he gets with her each day.

What else? During our housesitting week, she also started laughing. Baby laughter is one of the sweetest sounds ever, but when its coming out of your own kid, and its the FIRST TIME you are hearing it, your heart just melts. She still only laughs when mommy or daddy are being REALLY (I mean REALLY) goofy, or she's loopy-tired, but its certainly a start. Last Monday we also snapped this photo...




...of her. I can't believe how quickly she's growing! She's also moments away from rolling over. Coordinating her arms to get out of the way when she makes her move is her biggest hurdle, but with a little help from Tony or myself, she can pretty much work it out.

In other news, Tony and I had a great Memorial weekend (except for the almost 4 hour drive we made down to San Diego...Sophie was not a fan). Tony also finally took a five day "paternity leave" last week which was awesome. He was able to stay home with Sophie last Monday while I went back to work for one day. He had a great day, and LOVED getting to have one-on-one daddy/daughter bonding time. We are also in the process of interviewing nannies, which is stressing both of us out. We've met with six women, and 2.5 of them are contenders. We have another interview this afternoon, and we are hoping to have a decision by this Friday. While (almost) all of the interviewees are nice enough, with varying levels of experience, both of us are realizing how very much WE want to be the ones staying home and raising our daughter. Currently, that doesn't seem to be an option, but we are DEFINITELY looking for opportunities that would allow one or both of us to be home with Sophie all the time. We are headed down to San Diego for the fourth, and are looking forward to some QT with his family. Our good friend, Nicole, will be in town from Texas so that she will finally get to see Sophie, and her husband (also Tony's best friend), Tim will hopefully be making an impromptu trip to meet up with us as well. In the midst of the driving and visiting, we'll also be celebrating our nephew, James', fourth birthday. Talk about time flying!

Photos will be up on snapfish in the next week. There will be TONS, as I think there is half of May and all of June to post! Hopefully, I will learned a lesson about procrastination from this! Probably not... :) Happy 4th, everyone!

A little preview, to tide everyone over...