Movin' and Groovin'

This little lady is making some big strides these days. Last weekend she went from crawling to sitting on her own, all the sudden. Her daycare note last Monday said "went from her tummy to sitting all by herself for the first time here." I like that they are sweet enough to include the word "here", which indicates she's done it at home and we've seen it. It's very, very kind. There are lots of struggles with being a working mother, but one of the toughest is knowing that your babe may be doing some of her firsts away from you during the day. Luckily, Sophia's had the manners to show us her moves before putting them on display for daycare. Such a polite little lady!

Little miss sits like a big girl all the sudden!

This used to be one of my favorite ways to sit!

We got her to really crawl (instead of the army crawl she's been doing) last Sunday....just a few scoots...by leaving her in only her diaper on the wood floor. The girl (understandably) does not want that cold floor on her bare tummy so she decided to give the real crawling thing a try. She made it a little ways, and it gave her the courage to try it again the next night and the next and the next. (I was going to upload a video, but the blogger app is not my friend, and I'll never get this post up if I wait any longer....already been waiting entirely too long. It's not even that great of a crawling clip...more something silly parents like to watch over and over.)

When we took her 8 month pics on the eighth of the month (right....I was an entire week behind. Her eight month "birthday" fell on a Monday. I knew I should have taken the pictures over the weekend, but that would mean I was aging her by an entire day, and this momma does not like to age her babies a minute more than she has to so I decided to wait until Monday to take the picture. And, wouldn't you know, Monday was crazy and busy. And so was Tuesday and Wednesday, and then eight days after she really turned eight months, I finally got it together enough to take the pictures. It's funny because I felt bad if I was a few days late taking Aiden's monthly pictures. This time around I'm just aiming to get it done at the first half of the month before she's at the 0.5 mark...i.e. 8.5 months. So I'd say this month was a success.)

This is literally the face she wakes up with. Diva Sophia has come
a long way from her early days.

Anyway, serious digression. Soph weighted in at just over 14lbs at the beginning of the month....14.1 one day, 14.3 the next. So, really pushing the scales.....We will do a real weight check next month when we go for our nine month appointment. She moved into size 2 diapers solely because I ran out of size 1 and have boxes of 2's from my showers last year. One of the nice things about not knowing baby's gender is that you get plenty of diapers....allowing me to spend money on some of the more fun things. 

We dropped Soph's "late night" feed this month, where I get her still-sleeping self out of bed when I'm getting ready to go to sleep, and I nurse her before putting her back down. It's a little sad....those were some of my favorite snuggles because she was snoozing and so cuddly and I could just stare at her precious baby self. But she was ready....and part of this parent thing is letting go of things when the time is right....even if I don't like it. 

Since about a month ago, every week seems to present something new and exciting in this little lady's life. Hopefully I can keep the blog adequately updated without writing a novella every time!

A Few of My Favorite Things

The fact that Aiden loves to wear our shoes around the house. 

That Sophia props her legs up on the front of the stroller like it's her footrest. 

Aiden's enjoyment of Saturday morning trips to the doughnut store....and his consistency in ordering at all places. (He'll take the pink one.)

Clapping....Sophia's newfound trick. 

But most of all....snuggles. Nighttime snuggles from my girl and morning snuggles from my boy. Soph and I sneak in a few minutes of alone time every evening at bedtime to sing and nurse and pray. And on the best of those days she falls into a deep sleep in my arms and let's me snuggle her until I have to force myself to do something besides rock and cuddle for the evening. Then in the morning Aiden wakes up like me...slowly. So he'll crawl into my arms and just let me hold him...and I'm reminded of how big he's getting and how I'll snuggle him every morning as long as he'll let me. He can be 18 and I'll still let him sit in my lap.  Yeah, snuggles are my absolute most favorite. They are the entire reason I started writing this post...but then I thought of a few other things that regularly bring big smiles to my face, plus I don't have any snuggle pictures...just the mental ones I've stored away...but since you can't see those and a post with no pictures isn't all that fun, I figured I could perhaps include a thing or two that fills up all the storage space on my phone...

Love Us Some Christmas Jammies

They might fit a little differently but we are still rocking the family Christmas jams around this house (and, in case you are wondering from an earlier post, yes, we are still singing Christmas songs on a regular basis. Pretty sure my kid has the best song selection ability ever.)

A little bit of this, a little bit of that

So this is happening around here these days:

And Sophia finally sat nice and steady, all on her own, for her 7 month pic. (I actually walked away from her today, without leaving her surrounded by pillows...We were at pillow stage two weeks ago when I took this picture. What a difference a few weeks makes!)

I also found a pretty little curl, right in the back of her head, while we were taking 7 month pictures. Am I holding out hope that when locks come in she'll share some of the beautiful color and curls that her brother has? Sure am.

Totally random, but while looking through photos, I remembered that last month this moment happened, I just didn't get the picture up.

We did a walk/run and Aiden really loved the cheering when
people crossed the finished line...so he crossed it a couple of
times. Hands up! I laugh every time I look at this picture just
replaying the moment in my head.

In other household news, Sophia and Aiden are no longer roommates (told you I shouldn't have blogged about it...). In fact, they quit being roommates about a week after I said they were. But guess what? We are going to pull the crazy card and try again, probably after our Memorial Day trip to NY. Aiden struggled for a good two months with sleep issues....(oh, I mentioned that a few times? Right, because it was slightly consuming.) But we finally got passed the nightly meltdowns, holding hands under the door, getting a new night light so bright it was essentially like leaving the room light on, and all other antics we tried. The solution? Leave the bedroom door cracked. Yup, took us two months to find that creative solution. The kid does still sleep on the floor, but we gave up that battle many, many moons ago. These days he peacefully spends his nights snoozing on the floor. (I mean, that's as long as there's no thunder. The poor boy is terrified of thunder. And God has blessed us with abundant thunderstorms at night this spring so my poor little boy screams and sprints into our room, his entire body shaking. But besides that, all is well in the sleep department.)

In non-kiddo news, my handsome hubby started a new job today, and I am so proud of him! It was a good day - encouraging in regards to his future career. He feels like he may have finally found a company worth sticking around for the long haul. Woo-hoo! Only downside? The location is at the crossroads of two beautifully busy Dallas highways. I mean, who doesn't love a 16 mile commute that takes an hour? If this turns out to be a good place for the long haul, maybe we'll scoot a little bit closer and improve that trip. We shall see....

First pony!

It's not long enough to get it all up...but we made a tiny little ponytail today. And then there was the aftermath....Both made me smile. 

Birthday (half and real!) Excitement in April

Brace yourself for a lengthy post - it's been a meaningful few weeks!

At the beginning of the month, Sophia turned six months old. An entire half of a year has passed since Soph made her speedy arrival into this world! Little miss is still trying really hard to sit up on her own with no success. Maybe if she'd chunk up a bit, she'd do a little better. Her little self is holding steady at the 3rd percentile at 12lbs 8oz. She's a solid 40th percentile for height, though. Her weight may not show it, but she really loves real food. These days her favorite thing to do is "play" tag with her brother (which looks a lot like us holding her and chasing Aiden around the house). She does the same belly laugh as when she's watching Aiden jump on the trampoline. She adores that kid.

For as much of a diva as she was the first three months of her life, she has become a pretty chill babe these last three months. There are just a few areas (read: most) where that "second kid is completely different from the first" thing has come into play. For instance, Aiden fell asleep all the time when he nursed, Soph looks up at me with eyes wide open. Aiden also fell asleep when he was tired, regardless of where he was. Sophia will stay awake for hours, so many hours, if she's not in a place intended for sleep (bed, crib, pack and play). She can be totally exhausted and have been awake for 8 hours, but she's not sleeping if it's not the place for it. She definitely prefers females, if Mom or Dad isn't holding her - she even cried at both of her grandfathers this last month. Aiden didn't care who held him. She sucks her dang thumb....couldn't get her to take the pacifier like her brother no matter how hard I tried.

She gets around by rolling and rolling and rolling some more. Then she lifts her little head up off the floor with the biggest smile...the same big smile that she wakes up with on her sweet face in the morning. I'm smiling just typing this and thinking of her sweet self and happy smile. Teeth are moving into that smile.....on Saturday I found her first tooth trying to push its way through! (Turns out it was actually both bottom teeth at the same time....and poor little miss had bloody gums for a few days. So sad and ouchy.) I'm going to miss toothless grins around this house!

Then, as if Soph turning six months wasn't enough for momma's heart for one month, Aiden decided to turn 3 YEARS OLD just a few days later. The nerve of that kid!

His birthday was actually on Good Friday so we had the day off work to celebrate him. Perfect! We started the day with the traditional birthday cupcake and opened some gifts. Auntie M, Mimi and Daddo all came in town to celebrate our little man so we spent the day playing - inside, outside, with family and friends. One funny story from the morning - Aiden blew out his candles so well that I wanted him to do it again. I lit the candles again, with the intention of him just blowing them out...he of course, thought lit candles meant we should sing all over again. And so he led us in Happy Birthday, Round 2. I thought I had the video, but I think it's on Mal's phone....phooey.

On Saturday we had all the family over for a brunch birthday celebration and a special visitor made his way by - Mickey Mouse! We prepped Aiden that morning and told him Mickey was coming to his party and that Mickey was going to be big like us, not little like him. Mickey rang the doorbell and Aiden opened the door for him....and gave Mickey a big hug! Success! I didn't know which way his reaction would go so I was happy he didn't burst into tears at the sight of Mickey. Aiden was cautiously excited about having Mickey at his party....happy for him to be there but wanted a little distance. We played games with Mickey (during which Aiden decided he was hungry and just left to get some food...typical Aiden), sang happy birthday, opened presents and drew on the easel. Fun times with Mickey!

This year we got The Birthday Blessing box and spent the days leading up to Aiden's birthday celebrating him. It was fun hearing his answer to questions like "what do you want to be when you grow up?" (We asked him 3 times and his response only got better.....a boy, a kid and a girl....at least he can definitely achieve one of those things....)

Oh my sweet baby boy! You've brought us so much joy over these last 3 years. You have such a curious personality and a growing sense of independence. You love being silly and laughing, learning new words, and "cleaning" around the house. You love your sister like crazy, even if you sometimes get a bit envious of her getting attention. Some of my favorite moments are when you crawl up in our bed in the morning and Sophia joins us and the two of you lay there just laughing and laughing.

Ah, my heart is full! Full of love and joy for these precious darlings God has entrusted to me. Now if only I could bargain with God to slow down the clock (or add hours to the day!) so that I can enjoy more time with them.

Case of the Mondays

Sophia perfectly embodied all things Monday this morning....sleepy and startled at the thought of the week ahead.