Warning - contains LOTS of cuteness

Here are a few recent videos I wanted to share. The first is a classic: Sophia versus the Tickle Monster!

I realized that we hadn't taken any movies of Sophia walking since those first few steps in December, so I filmed her on the go this morning. This was taken right after I finally convinced Sophia's Daddy that she was steady enough on her feet to have access to the kitchen. (You can hear her worried Daddy in the background.)

This last video was taken before Christmas. Sophia's not really into peekaboo much anymore - she's way too mature for that now!

Birthday Bruise

I was really excited today because Sophia got invited to a birthday party for our friend's 3 year old boy. She had a blast with the other kids. She ate pizza, watermelon and birthday cake, and was in a great mood despite being sick earlier this week.
Everything was going great until we lined the kids up to take a picture. For some reason, the 3 year old boy standing next to Sophia decided to grab the back of her head, and shove it straight into the ground! I was horrified and it took everything I had to fight back the tears! Sophia falls daily, and gets accidently knocked down all the time by Trent and other kids, but this is the first time anyone has deliberately tried to hurt her. It just broke my heart!
The good news is that the little boy apologized and so did his parents. Sophia cried for awhile, but quickly perked back up and had fun the rest of the afternoon. Unfortunately, it quickly became evident that Sophia's poor little nose and forehead took most of the impact. My poor baby!

11 Months

As Sophia gets closer to the one year mark, it is getting harder and harder to keep track of how much she is learning and changing. She had a physical this month and measured 23 pounds and 29 1/2 inches. That puts her at the 90th percentile for both. She was previously over the 100 percent mark for height, but they used a new gadget to measure her this time so I think that may have made a difference.
Sophia still turns red with rage when we try to encourage her to crawl, but she has started scooting around on her butt a little, which is pretty cute. She is getting more steady on her feet and we have had to start baracading her in the family room with her large toys. When she is in an unfamiliar environment, she still prefers to hold our hands, which makes it easy to keep her out of trouble. When at home, she loves to pick things up around the house and walk room to room with them. For some strange reason, Will's boxer shorts are one of her favorite items to carry. I hate to say it, but she digs them out of the dirty clothes hamper in our bedroom, so no, they are not clean!
Unfortunately, the increase in walking as led to an increase in falling, and Sophia ends up with a bruise or mark on her noggin about once a week. She seems to be a pretty tough kiddo so far and gets back on her feet quickly.
The biggest change this month has been her speech. She now says duck ("duh"), Daddy, and Mom (yeah!!). She whispers "dah" whenever she sees Trent, but I'm not quite sure whether she's trying to say dog or Trent. I think she is saying "night-night" too, but I'm not 100% convinced yet. She is constantly talking jibberish rather than babbling. Her doctor, the staff at the doctor's office, and the staff at the church nursey have all commented about what a chatterbox she is. She must get that from her Aunt Christy!!
She has learned to "give me five" and she giggles everytime we pull our hand away because she is "too slow!" She was pointing to Mommy's nose and ear (it was actually more like pinching than pointing!) but she seems to have tired of that game. She mimics some of our daily activities by putting our chapstick up to her mouth and sipping from our empty coffee cups. She also claps everytime we sing If You're Happy and You Know It.

As each day passes, I'm finding it harder and harder to believe that less than a year ago she was a tiny infant. Amazing!!