Sophie's First Christmas

This Christmas has really been the best yet. Sophie had so much fun and was so spoiled by our family and friends. On Christmas Eve, we visited for a while with my dad's side of the family. We weren't able to stay too long (and I forgot to take any pictures), but we were able to meet two of Sophie's new cousins! I'm excited that she'll have two cousins (well, 1st cousins once-removed according to Danny) close to her age that she can grow up with. Her cousin Brynn was born in September and her cousin Baron was born about a month ago. After our short visit there, we went to Danny's aunt and uncle's house. we had a great time visiting with the family, eating great food and opening presents! 

Sophie had fun opening her presents and playing with her cousins. She did pretty well considering we were out way past her bedtime!

Christmas morning, Danny, Sophie and I exchanged gifts with each other at home before leaving for a busy day. Sophie got a few new books, a shape sorter and a music table. She loves the music table! Danny surprised me with a new pair of earrings. I was shocked to say the least! He also got me the first season of Modern Family and a new FM transmitter for my car. I got him the newest Transformers movie and the Comedy Movies Scene It game. Today, he got his new phone, which was his big gift. 

We then headed to Danny's sister's house for Christmas brunch. The food was of course delicious and Sophie again loved watching her cousins play. She cannot wait to be able to run around with them!

We finished the day at my mom's house. As always, it was so great to visit with my Mamaw....we miss her so much and wish we could have spent more time with her.

We had such a great Christmas weekend. Sophie was quite a little trooper...missing naps and staying up past her bedtime. I think all the good food and presents made up for all of that. We'll be celebrating the New  Year quietly this year. Sophie will be sleeping and Danny will be working. It will be my first New Year by myself in many years, but I'm sure I'll survive! I'm definitely looking forward to short work weeks this week and next!

9 month check up

We took Sophie for her 9 month check up this week. She was so good at the doctor's office! In fact, she cried when the doctor left the room. I think she really likes him! All is still going well. She's growing like she should and there were no concerns at all. The doctor said she can eat anything now except for fish that is high in mercury, raw honey, and nuts. Otherwise, she is free to go! He also said that we need to start practicing more with a sippy cup because she'll stop using a bottle in just 3 short months. It is really unbelievable that my baby has grown so quickly!



She now weighs 20lbs, 4 oz (75th percentile) and is 28 and 3/4 inches long (90th percentile). Her head circumference is 44 1/2 cm (60th percentile). She did have to get a finger prick to be sure that she's not anemic and the last in the series of Hepatitis B shots. She was not happy when we left. Here she is once we got home.

 Last night, I decided she could have some cheese pizza for dinner. She loved it and got very messy in the process! She had a good bath afterwards! 
 

I feel like I always have to mention how fun it is to watch her grow and change, and it still is! She is such a funny little girl and she knows it. She knows how to make her daddy and me laugh and melt our hearts. She's also quite a sassy little child, but can be so sweet and lovey. We are so excited to celebrate her first Christmas this year and soon after, her first birthday!

Christmas decorating

We took Sophie with us this weekend to pick out our Christmas tree. Here we are checking out the trees!

After decorating the tree, we thought it would be a good time to try to get a cute picture of Sophie for some Christmas cards. Things didn't work out so well...

Maybe a little overwhelmed?

Sleepy for sure!

This picture is so funny to me! We thought it would be cute to lift Sophie up by the tree and crop Danny out of the picture...easier said than done. Plus, where's the smile!? 

9 month pictures

This month was even harder than last month trying to get Sophie to sit still for any pictures. It was close to her bedtime, but I wanted to try anyways. Here's what we got:

We go to the doctor Friday afternoon for her 9 month check up. I'm interested to find out how much she has grown!

Thanksgiving 2011

We had a really great time celebrating Thanksgiving this year with our families. Of course, we have so much to be thankful for. We had three Thanksgiving feasts this year...one with Danny's immediate family and two with my mom's side of the family. We ate more than we should have and spent a great deal of time just relaxing. We went to my Mamaw's house on Sunday, but I forgot to take any pictures. Ashley's birthday also fell on Thanksgiving this year, so we were sure to celebrate that as well. 

A brief Sophie update...

We've been struggling for more than a month with Sophie not wanting to sleep in her own bed. A lot of it is probably our fault because we're tired and just don't feel like fighting with her. I've been reading a lot and trying to find a solution and one thing that I've figured out is that she's probably overly tired when we're putting her to bed. I like to spend as much time as possible with her in the evenings, but find that it only makes things worse if I keep her up too late. That being said, I've tried to start a new bedtime routine - getting her to sleep between 7:30 and 8 p.m. as opposed to 9 p.m. or so. Things have been a little disrupted with Thanksgiving, but last night, I gave her a bath around 6:30 and turned all the lights off in the house. I made sure things were quiet, gave her the last bottle of the evening and just spent some quiet time with her. I sing her her favorite songs and enjoy those sweet moments so much. She was asleep last night before 8 p.m. I laid her in her bed, and even though she was up several times before 8 p.m. and midnight, I didn't get her back out of the crib. I patted her back, rubbed her eye brows (which always worked for Vannah), and just said "Shh..." It was frustrating at times (especially when it was after 9 and I hadn't had any supper), but it paid off. She woke up the last time around midnight (but had slept from 10:30 until then) and then I didn't hear a peep from her again until a little after 7 this morning, when she was just babbling away in her crib. I was so proud of her!

And, she FINALLY has two bottom teeth coming in. You can feel the very tops of them, but can't really see them just yet. I am hoping that getting the teeth in will help with her sleeping as well.

She will be 9 months old on Friday. It's crazy to think how close we are to her first birthday. Even on the hardest days, I love seeing that little smile and knowing that all is right in our world.

Here's a picture of her from this weekend. We got some more clothes from Melissa and I'm loving the overalls. You can't see Sophie's hands because she was so excited!

I'll have to post more pictures from Thanksgiving (hopefully tonight). Last night, I used the quiet time that I had to clean the kitchen and pick up around the house. Tonight, I'll use it to relax. :)

8 months!

Sophie is now 8 months old (as of this past Wednesday). I had a heck of a time getting her to sit still for her pictures with her monkey. A lot of the pictures look like this:

Or this:

She is constantly on the move, which makes things like changing diapers very difficult. She is crawling everywhere. Last month, she was close to being able to crawl, but now she definitely has it down. She loves to pull herself up to standing and cruise along the table, couch or anywhere she can. Several times, she will stand up and then let go of whatever it is that she's holding onto and stand for several seconds on her own. She continues to be a great eater. She loves sweet potatoes, carrots, and peas. She also really loves apples and applesauce. She'll eat pretty much anything. We went to El Nopal last night and she loved eating the rice and flour tortillas. She really is a good girl (although hasn't been sleeping too well recently). I'm wondering if she's really finally going to cut some teeth, but it seems that she always wants to be close to Mommy and Daddy. Here are her most recent pictures:

And Sophie's first Halloween costume: 

Now it's time to gear up for the holidays! Things will be much different this year with this ball of energy...and I just really can't wait!