9 months!

Dear Sophie,

This month has been a little crazy but a lot of fun.  You're still clapping all the time, but now you're also waving "hi" and sometimes "bye"!  You even make a sound that sounds a little like "hi" so the cuteness is almost unbearable.  You're also starting to associate words.  Mama isn't exactly me yet, but you definitely realize it is the thing to say when you are upset, angry, frustrated, or want something.  Although I guess that is me and likely will be for the rest of our lives.  At least I hope that "mama" is who you call for those things.  I won't always give you what you want, but I'll always help somehow.  You're having a little bit of a clingy phase right now too.  In some ways I love it, but it's pretty inconvenient when I have to do something important...like go to the bathroom.  No peeing for mama this month.

"Dada" has been coming out a bit more, but it seems that you actually prefer the word "papa" over "dada".  You don't necessarily say it towards daddy on your own, but when we say it to you, daddy is who you look for.  You are also well aware of what "kitty" is and you are making a sound like "key! key!" when you see Zoey up to no good (which is almost all of the time).  You also say "key!" when you see grandma Linda's dogs.  They are smaller than our cats and much more annoying.

You are pulling yourself up to stand on EVERYTHING.  Sometimes even on nothing, but that is a bit harder.  I thought you were doing this before, but it's got nothing on how much you do it now.  You're thinking about crawling, but mostly you act like crawling is super inconvenient when you can just pull yourself up to stand and take a few steps that way.  I almost wonder if you are going to skip this step altogether.  You've started dancing when music plays on any of your toys.  I use the term "dancing" loosely, but you start rocking your head and hips a little bit and get the cutest little half-smile on your face.

Speaking of smiles...your top two middle teeth and the one to the right of them broke through, bringing you to a total of 5.  3 more look like they will be making an appearance in the near future too.  You're using these teeth very well now.  You eat everything, but the more grown-up the food, the more you like it.  Pulled pork, tofu with teryaki, pasta with pesto sauce, eggs in any form - we might as well hand you a shovel because you can't get them in your mouth fast enough.


Last month you started nodding your head "yes" at the funniest and/or most appropriate times but I somehow forgot to mention it.  At your 9 month doctor appointment with your new pediatrician, as we were discussing things you would nod your head once in awhile as if you were totally following along.  The doctor looked at you and said "You've got mommy and daddy wrapped around your finger, don't ya?" and you (of course) gave a VERY enthusiastic nod "yes".  Smart girl!


This month also brought your very first plane ride.  We headed to California to visit grandma Lori, grandpa Tim, auntie Alexis, and auntie Bailey for a week.  You were pretty fascinated by the people watching at the airport and on the plane.  You were so good and many people told us so.  I don't think any mom will ever get tired of hearing how good their baby was on a plane.  By the time you are reading this stuff I'm writing for you, you will probably have had an experience with a screaming baby on a flight.  They are a dime a dozen.  The flight attendants may have been your biggest fans.  On every flight we sat in one of the first few rows and you would just smile and wave and make cute faces at them constantly.


You were good in California too, for being in a strange new place and a couple time zones off.  Your grandma and grandpa and aunts had lots of fun spending time with you too.  Auntie Alexis wasn't around much, and she's not a big fan of babies, but she promises to be a bit more into you when you can walk and talk and don't poop your pants.  She's 16 years old, so we're all a little glad babies aren't her thing just yet.  Bailey, on the other hand, could hang out with you all day.  Auntie Bailey and grandma Lori also really love shopping for you, so we headed to Babies R Us and you got a bunch of cute new outfits.  Bailey also picked out a big for you that says "My aunt is hot and single" (or something close to that). 


Hopefully they will be able to come visit us in Wisconsin soon.
Til next month, Little Bear.

Love, Mama

Your first time in church.

Dear Sophie,

Tonight is Christmas Eve - your first! We aren't regular church-goers - though sometimes I think about becoming more active in church.  I felt like tonight was a good night to try out the Lutheran church here in our little town. 

You were in awe of the big room and the big stained glass windows and candles and, of course..the ceiling fans.  Have I told you about your love for ceiling fans yet?  I will.  Soon.  In another post.

We sat near the back.  We weren't sure how you were going to be since it was past your bedtime and kind of a long day for you, but you were in great spirits.  Smiley, too.  You kept staring at and pretending to be shy with the lady sitting behind us.  I think you made her day. 

Anyway...at one point in the service the pastor had all the little kids come up to the front.  They were going to sit and talk about the scene in the manger the night Jesus was born. 

The pastor says, "Ok...so there were some animals there...can any of you make animal sounds?"

Right on cue, you let out the biggest, loudest, funniest squeal you had in you!

The pastor exclaimed, "OOH! There's one!" and of course you drew a whole room full of eyes and smiles.

If you've seen any videos of yourself around this age, by now you probably know how loud and cute you can be. 

For now though, you are tucked in to bed in your red & white striped Christmas jammies with the reindeer feeties and reindeer butt with visions of sugar plums dancing in your head.  Mama and daddy can't wait for tomorrow to spend our first Christmas morning with you and in our new house.

Love you, little bear.
Mama

6 months!

(Whoops!  I wrote this months ago, but forgot to hit "publish")

Dear Sophie,

Happy half-birthday!  You continue to amaze and amuse us every day.  It's been a pretty exciting month!

You started playing peek-a-boo with us!  It's hard to stop once we start, too...just because it's so darn cute.  Your favorite place to play this is on the changing table.  We keep a clean cloth diaper there just for this purpose.  You grab it, cover your face, and then yank it down really fast and smile.  We act surprised and yell "Peek-a-boo!" and you think this is the most hilarious thing ever. 

We borrowed a jumperoo from a friend of mine and you think that is pretty great too.  I love watching your little feet kick like a ballerina when you get going.  You started tripod sitting too - so now it's only a matter of time before you master this without falling over and discover all kinds of freedom and independence.  Don't be in too much of a hurry, ok sweet girl? 

You've re-discovered your hands and the cool stuff they can do again. You think its really fun to lay down and wave them back and forth and laugh at them and move them in weird ways.  Your feet and giraffe continue to be your favorite things to play with and eat...with your new teeth!  Yep...you have your two bottom front teeth now.  Remind me to tell you someday how fun the couple days leading up to those suckers popping out was.  Actually...I think I'll wait and let you be surprised with your own kid's teeth before we have this conversation.  Let's just say I'm not looking forward to the rest. 

Last, but definitely not least - your great-grandpa Les & great-grandma Marge came to meet you.  I think you are just as much in love with them as they are with you.  It was so fun to watch you all interact together and for all of us to spend time together. While they were here, we went the fish fry (your first!) at Lakefront Brewery and you got to see a live polka band for the first time.  You LOVED watching everyone dance and were kicking your feet non-stop along with the music. 

Til next month, Little Bear.
Love, Mama

Your first Brewers game

Dear Sophie,

Tonight we took you to your first Brewers game!

You did great! I, on the other hand...

It was 80 something degrees with some ridiculous percentage of humidity. I couldn't stand it and was sitting in a pool of my own sweat. And since I was so hot, you were getting hot, and I didn't like that you was so hot and sweating too. I also will probably feel guilty forever at how loud it was in there. I kept covering your ears. You don't notice just how loud stuff is until you have a baby I think.

You didn't make a peep - just loved looking around at people. Eventually, you just fell asleep.

We did end up leaving early though. Besides how awful it felt in there, the game sucked and was moving SO slow. TWO hours in it was only the top of the 4th. Screw that.

It was a learning experience for all of us, and we'll definitely do it again soon.


Random fun fact for you...Growing up in Portland, Oregon, we didn't have a baseball team.  Most people rooted for the Seattle Mariners, but I was a Brewers fan, as was your Grandpa Tim's entire side of the family.  Tom Trebelhorn was the manager of the Brewers at the time, and he is your Grandpa Tim's 2nd cousin, so a lot of us on that side of the family would head up to Seattle anytime they played there.




There will be many more games.

Love, Mama

Mama

First dinner out.

Dear Sophie,

Tonight we took you to your first sit down dinner.  Granted, it was only a pizza place - but a good one!  You were SO good.  You were so tired, but all you wanted to do was hang out in the moby wrap and look around at the people.  You were particularly fascinated by the bar.  You didn't make a sound the entire time we were there and we were so proud of you.

We are staying the night at your grandma Linda and grandpa Andre's tonight  This is the second time we've done this (the first time you slept 20 out of 24 hours we were here - much to the dismay of your grandma).  After we nursed (aka "had the sleepy noms") we curled up facing each other in the bed.  You are getting so good with your hands and wanted to just explore my face with them...so that's exactly what you did.. As you drifted off to sleep, you did so with one hand on my nose, and one on my cheek.  It pretty much melted my heart.

Sweet dreams little bear.