Happy....

364 days, 51 weeks and 6 days, day before you start a new year, however you like to label it. In a few hours we will celebrate the big ONE....but that's hours away....

A size too small

Sophia and I are on our first girl's trip visiting my college roomie in South Carolina. It is a tad bit chillier here than the balmy 90 degrees TX is experiencing and when I went to pack long sleeves for Soph, I might have discovered that everything was in the 6 months size range (3-6 month pants count as being in the 6 month range, right?) So I might have packed the slightly small clothes  and I might have dressed Sophia in them....who doesn't love capris and three-quater length sleeves on what was previously a dress. 

It's also entirely possible that I told someone on the plane yesterday that Sophia was 51 weeks old...long live September!

One Year Later

The day of my Sophia shower, I was one day shy of being 36 weeks pregnant (3 weeks and 4 days shy of meeting our little girl!). My sweet friend Mandy volunteered to take maternity pictures before the shower, and those pictures are such an incredible gift that I'm so grateful to have. I've entered sappy mommy mode and will remain there for the next few weeks as my baby turns a year old so prepare yourself. 

Ba-bye

Heard that word for the first time out of Sophia's mouth as we were walking away from a group of friends this evening. My heart melted! Slow down September, slow down!

That moment when....

...you go to change the laundry over and you realize you just washed a disposable diaper. In case you were wondering - yes, they can hold a lot of liquid; no, they are not a match for the washing machine. 

Beach, Almost Not A Baby, and Then Some

We've had a change of pace (cue the laughter) and things have been busy around here. We spent a week at the Biloxi beach with the Ruth fam, came home to some time with the Schweizer grandparents, and had friends in town this last week. Oh - and Ryan turned double 3's in there and Sophia turned 11 months old.

So the quick rundown on all of that - vacation was wonderful. We got off to a rough start - jellyfish stings, followed by an allergic reaction to oysters, followed by more jellyfishes stings. (Mallory and I were trading off days/issues - she took all the stings, I went for the allergic reaction.) By Tuesday we decided to stop playing that game and settled in to a more enjoyable time. We walked the pier, went to the lighthouse, visited Jefferson Davis' last home, went on a shrimping tour where the dolphins swam right next to the boat (awesome!). Read a few books, spent time at the pool/beach (really just playing in the sand because it ended up being jellyfish season....hence the stings), dusted off my old tennis skills with Ryan (you can chuckle again). Enjoyed lots of time with lots of family - loved on the kiddos, had a "big kids" night out, and hung out with the parental units. Oh - and enjoyed lots of amazing food. Mmm, mmm!

Grandma and Grandpa Schweizer closed on their Texas property while we were out of town (yay for them moving to TX in the coming years) so they were waiting for us when we got back. We had birthday dinner/pumpkin bar cake for Ryan and celebrated Sophia's early birthday as well (which was way harder for me to do than it was when we did it with Aiden, on almost the exact same timeline).

Ryan's birthday was also Sophia's last "monthly birthday", as she turned 11 months. Big girl is tipping the scales around 17lbs. Mimi and Aunt Brooke thought they should help teach Sophia is walk on vacation, but I might have had slight opposition to that plan. The poor girl is going to have to figure it all out on her own. Hah. We would hold Aiden by the fingers and walk him around, when he was Sophia's age. Little Miss might have taken a handful of strolls like that, which generally end with me taking her from Ryan and putting her back on the ground. Do I want her to walk? I guess....Am I completely okay with it taking longer than the 13.5 month mark that it took Aiden? Absolutely.

Here's to hoping for the longest September on record (to keep Soph little just a tad longer)!

Stopped to meet Buc-ee the Beaver on our
drive to the beach. 

Auntie M rode down to the beach with us. She
sat in the back with the kiddos....and was
an amazing, incredible aunt/sister...so helpful!
 She let Aiden do the "decorating" in this picture.

Tallest high chair ever at Shaggy's!

View of the pier from the lighthouse.

Sis pic, atop the lighthouse.

This is what Soph did during the lighthouse tour.
The main reason I posted this is because we
sometimes refer to Sophia as Trumpster....since
her hair she was born with never fell out and it's
so thin, she looks like she has a toupee these days...

Outside of Hard Rock Biloxi - he excitedly pointed
out every display item once we got inside.

Selfie stick pic!

Ryan's parents bought a chainsaw to help cut trees
on their new property....and they also got Aiden
one. He really loves it and "cuts" everything. 

At daycare they were studying ants so they had
ants on a log as a snack and this is the face Aiden
made for them. It pretty much perfectly captures
his devotion to food. 

Slow down September, slow down!

She finally has two more little bitty teeth on top
trying to join those bottom two. 

10 months and heading to the beach!

I didn't want the 9 month post (or the 8 month post...or the....) to feel lonely and neglected so I decided to make sure it had a friend who was equally tardy and am posting this a little later in the month. If it counts for anything, I've written pieces of the post in my head over the last 3 weeks.

We are excited around here about our beach trip. Aiden's been asking for weeks if we are leaving for the beach every morning when we left the house and I finally got to tell him yes! Happy camper. He's still working on his concept of time. Last weekend I told him one week to the beach. On Tuesday I tried to tell him four days until we left, but he kept insisting that it was one week....I think because one is less than four, and saying four days meant I was surely adding on time. So, we've spent the entire week saying 'one week till the beach.'

Aiden continues to expand his vocabulary from the last post (or not at all) and this week in the car while I was trying to teach Soph some words he chimed in, "Sophia, say poopy". Sigh. At least "poopy" will not be her first word. Her first official word was "uh-oh", at somewhere around the 9 month mark. (In second child-style, I can't remember if it was right after or before.) Just a few days after turning 10 months, she started saying "mama" and "dada" (but for the record, she said "mama" first).

She's a bundle of hilarious energy these days. She adores peek-a-boo and plays it so well. She also likes to play "chase" - where she crawls away from you as quickly as possibly and then charges back towards you at baby crawling speed, dives her head into your lap, and laughs the entire time while doing it. It's wonderfully awesome.

She's eating all table food these days....started that at the very end of 8 months. The abundance of time in my schedule was grateful for a little lady who could eat at the same time with the rest of the family so I was no longer trying to get two spoons simultaneously to two different mouths (hers and mine), which oftentimes ended with momma eating a cold meal long after everyone else had left the table. She loves food, just as much as her brother, which is nice.

I tried to take Sophia's 10 month pictures and this is how they went...

 

Aiden had a slightly better outcome...

Do I think she's going to give me attitude in life? What would even cause you to pose that question....:) Happy teenage days ahead!