Sophia is a Preschooler!

Yesterday morning, Sophia had her first day of school. She is now officially a preschooler! Because she is just over a year old, she is in the Mother's Morning Out program which meets one day a week for 2 1/2 hours. It was a big day for Sophia and for mommy, because it was Sophia's first time being left with anyone that wasn't family. Before we left for school, we took a few pictures of Sophia with her backpack on.

I'm ready Mommy!




Let's go!


I was convinced I wasn't going to cry, but as soon as we pulled into the parking lot, I started getting teary eyed. I used to be a teacher at Sophia's school, so I know her teachers and know she will be in great hands. We walked up with Sophia's friend Lacey and her mommy Sarah, and when we got to the door I started to cry. Sophia was probably wondering why her mommy was so crazy! We went to her classroom, and she was excited to get down and play! She got hurt right before I left which made it even harder to leave her, but I waited outside the door until I knew she was fine and Sarah and I went shopping to take our minds off of leaving our babies.

Sophia playing with Ms. Julie


Checking out all the cool toys


When we went back to pick them up, we got great reports from Ms. Julie and Ms. Sybil! Sophia was exhausted, but had a wonderful time at school and we can't wait until next week! Hopefully I can hold it together next time :)

Her class, the Goldfish Gang

Fun with friends

A few weeks ago, we had a get together with a bunch of our friends and their kids. The babies have all known each other since they were born, and it's so much fun now that they can play together. We had play time, dinner, and then it was back home for bed time!

Zachary, Olivia, Brady, and Sophia


Pointing and looking out the window


Loves the ride on toy!


Mommy snuggles


Mmmm...food

13 1/2 months- Walking, talking, and other fun things

Now that Sophia is a year old, we have stopped our monthly updates and will do official updates and pictures every 3 months when we have our pediatrician checkups. However, so much has changed since Sophia turned 1 year old that I think we need a 13 1/2 month update. Sophia is at such a fun stage right now...there is never a dull moment. She is such a goofball, and loves to make us laugh. If she is not getting enough attention, she will yell or squeal, or do something to make sure we pay attention to her.

Swinging with Brady


Upside down!


Such a goof


About a week ago Sophia figured out how to use her walker to get around. At first she had a Frankenstein-like walk, but now she is getting much better at using her "walk along". She has been furniture cruising for a while now, and will go from one piece of furniture to another. I think it won't be too long before she starts walking on her own! She has been able to pull herself up to standing for a while now, but just recently started standing up without pulling up on anything.

So proud of herself!


Sophia has also started to say a few words. For over a month now, she has been pointing to things and saying "that". She has also been saying "yay" when we clap and cheer for her and "yummm" when she is eating...although it's sometimes when she's trying to convince herself that the food actually tastes good! When I tell Sophia no, she tells me "no no no" back. In the past couple of days, when I tell her something is hot, she says "hot" back to me, although I'm not sure that she understands the meaning of the word. I'm pretty sure she has been saying "dog" when I give her a toy dog to play with, but I'm not counting it as an official word quite yet. She understands so much that we say now, and understands new words after hearing them only a couple of times.

Sophia loves to dance and will bounce up and down when music comes on. She also swings her arms up and down to a lot of songs, like we do for the intro to songs at The Music Class. She loves when we say "How big is Sophia?" and she throws her arms up in the air to do "So big!". She is very loving, and loves giving kisses. She especially loves to kiss her baby doll and toys. She points to everything to show us, or to let us know when she wants something and loves to clap her hands. And she has finally cut one of her top middle teeth- #7!

Listening to music and reading Pat the Bunny


Snuggles with Mommy


Kisses

Playing with cousins and the aquarium

Last weekend, Ronni, Gioel, Luca, and baby Max came to visit us. We had so much fun spending time with them. Sophia loves her cousins, and had lots of fun playing with them.

Giving baby Max a kiss


Playing with cousin Luca and her friend Brady


Showing baby Max all of the toys


Before they left, we had an outing to the aquarium. This was Sophia's first time going, and we knew she was going to love it. She loved all of the exhibits, but especially liked standing at the big windows and watching the fish and sharks go by.

Riding on Mommy's back


Pointing to the red fish


So excited to be at the aquarium!


Looking at the fish in the tunnel

The giant zucchini

Our garden has been giving us lots of tasty vegetables, especially zucchini. They grow so fast it's crazy! We missed one hiding under some leaves for a few days and it was huge! So we decided to let the next one grow to see how big we could get it. This one made it to 4 pounds 2 oz! It's almost as big as Sophia sitting down!

This is one big zucchini Daddy grew.

















I'm going to eat it ALL when Daddy cooks this for us!

Walkalong....walkalong.

In the past week Sophia has started to stand on her own, without holding onto anything, for 5-10 seconds at a time. She finds it very amusing and will often laugh herself out of balance! Quite humorous.
In the last few days she also started pushing her Walkalong toy around the room and following behind it, doing sort of a Frankenstein walk, again, quite funny, and rather cute. She knows what her Walkalong is too if we ask her...she points right at it or looks around for it!.

Here is Sophia using her Walkalong:

And here she is on video using her Walkalong up and down our hallway.

Dinner at Olivia's

Last weekend Sophia had a play date with her friend Olivia. Now that Sophia is older and more mobile, the girls are able to play together a lot more. They enjoyed a yummy snack together and then played with some toys.



They thought it was really fun to look out the window at Daddy and Olivia's daddy cooking on the grill.





After a yummy dinner, the girls played a little bit more before we took Sophia home to go to bed. First Sophia pushed Olivia around in her grocery cart, and then Sophia got in and Olivia pushed her! Sophia is getting good at pushing things and walking around the room. They had so much fun playing together!



Here is Sophia pushing Olivia around:



And then it was Sophia's turn in the car: