Crouching Dragon, Hidden Pacifier

If I ever felt any guilt about skipping baby yoga classes, it's gone! We snapped this picture when Sophia was sleeping last night. She's a natural!!

Baby on Board

Sophia had another first last weekend - her first boat ride. Our neighbors have a houseboat which is docked just a few miles away on the Sacramento river. They've invited us on the boat several times, but this is the first time we've actually been able to join them.
We motored up the Sacramento river for about 45 minutes and anchored just past the confluence where the Sacramento and American rivers join. The two rivers are totally different colors, so you can vividly see where they meet.
During the ride, Shannon and Riley took turns holding Sophia and giving her lots of hugs and kisses.

While the rest of us enjoyed the view from the deck, Ian and Elizabeth stayed inside the cabin watching Barney videos and munching on Doritos. They peeked outside frequently in the hopes that they might see the Ice Cream Boat cruise by, and to ask us repeatedly when we thought the Ice Cream Boat would come by.
After we anchored, the guys threw out several fishing lines. Our neighbors fish almost every weekend, but this is the first time I've ever seen Will fish. He just used a hotdog as bait, and several minutes later, he reeled in the biggest striped bass our neighbors had ever seen anyone catch on the river.
Gary reeled in the only other fish caught that day using one of his expensive lures.

Will, Gary and Riley swam over to a nearby beach and took turns jumping off a rope swing. Will was confident he swung higher than everybody else, but a guy from another boat did a backflip which was impossible to beat.
We had so much fun spending the day together as a family. And Sophia even took a 2 hour nap in the Pack n Play, which was icing on the cake!
Has anyone ever heard that you should rub a beer bottle on a teething baby's gums?
I haven't either, but it seemed to work for Sophia!

6 Months

Happy half birthday Sophia!

Daddy took her to her 6 month doctor's appointment and she weighed in at 18 pounds 3 ounces. It's not quite as heavy as we had guessed, but she's still at the 90 percent mark. Her height is 28 inches, which officially puts her off the top of the chart now! I finally wised up and started buying PJ's without the feet in the hopes that they'll fit for more than 2 weeks!

Sophia is still nursing, but she can now drink out of a sippy cup without our help. Her favorite foods are oatmeal and blueberries, and her least favorites are green beans and peas. She can now stand for several minutes holding on to something, and she can "walk" if we hold her underneath her arms. She still hates to be on her stomach and shows no interest in crawling, so my guess is that she's going to be one of those kids who skips crawling all together. She can't or won't roll over anymore, but her doctor said it's nothing to be concerned about.

Her favorite toy is Trent, and I can't tell you how grateful I am to have such a patient, tolerant pet. She has made him yelp several times after grabbing his face, ears, and tongue (ewww!), but he has never even flinched in her direction. He loves to give her big wet kisses and is always on alert if she starts crying at night.


Sophia is such a sweet heart. She loves to give big bear hugs and she'll give "kisses" to Mommy, which are pretty gross, but sweet none the less. And after 2 long weeks of sniffles, fussing and fitful sleep, Sophia is now the proud owner of a tooth! Another tooth already seems to be making it's way to the surface, so hopefully it'll make it's appearance sooner rather than later so we can all sleep a little better.
We started Kindermusik last week, which is a music class for infants and toddlers. It's so fun to watch her interact with the other kids. Last week she had a blast trying to grab another little girl's pigtails, and this week she had a great time even though an older kid decided to use her head as a drum!
Everyone talks about how much fun this age is when babies are so interactive, but still immobile. We're trying to enjoy every minute of it since we know it won't last long, and it's been so much fun, except for maybe the teething part! How many is she supposed to get??

Swingin in her Skivies

Sophia's been fighting a little cold and has a tooth coming in as well, so I've been having to get creative trying to entertain the little fuss bucket. Today I decided to walk to the park and see if she liked the baby swings. Since it was a pretty hot afternoon, I put a shopping cart cover on the swing to protect her delicate little thighs. She was a little sleepy from the stroller ride and wasn't quite sure what to think at first...

...but she quickly started smiling and giggling.


Yeah! I have another weapon in the Battle Against the Fuss!

Later in the day, Sophia had a sippy cup malfunction and ended up drenched in grape juice. Rather than dress her in a another outfit, I let her spend the rest of the day hanging out in just a diaper. She looked so cute playing in her skivies that I had to take some pictures and share them.

Splish Splash

Now that Sophia is sitting up, she has learned how much fun splashing in the bath tub can be. After she drenched me and the kitchen floor a few times, I realized we needed to move her bath from the kitchen counter into the real bath tub. We're still putting her in the baby bath, but she's quickly outgrowing it. Now her favorite thing to do in the bath is chew on her wash cloth.
I asked Will to take a picture of her and it was hilarious to watch her expression change from startled, to curious, to happy. I was a little concerned that her little private parts would show, but her belly has gotten so big it covers her right up!

"Oh my gosh. A man just walked into the bathroom!"
"Oh, it's just Dad. But why does he have a camera in his hand."
"Oh well. If you got it, flaunt it!"

What Is She Thinking?

As Sophia gets older, we're starting to get more glimpses of her personality. Overall she's a very sweet mellow little girl, but she's developing a few traits that are a little bazaar.
When she plays, she'll laugh and smile and squeal. Then, for no apparent reason, she'll squish up her face and start snorting through her nose. A few seconds later she'll return to squealing and playing. I have no idea why she does this. I got a picture of her making the face, and I have a feeling we're going to see her make a similar face when she's older and we tell her she can't take the car out!For the last month or so, Sophia's favorite game has been peekaboo. During the last week, she has decided she likes the peek more than the boo. She'll cover her face with anything she can find and start wiggling her feet and arms with excitement. When you uncover her face, she now looks irritated instead of happy. She'll then cover her face up again and start wiggling around. It scares me a little because I'll look away for just a minute and turn back around to find her smothering her face with a stuffed animal, burp cloth, etc. I'm hoping she'll outgrow this soon.

Let the Spoiling Begin!

Sophia's grandparents are scattered all over California and Texas, so it was pure luck that she got to see all four of them within the same week.
Gramma came to visit for the weekend baring lots of new outfits for her "little tiddlywink." She just couldn't get enough of Sophia's sweet face, so at least once an hour, she would go and peek at Sophia asleep in her crib. Sophia quickly discovered how much Gramma loved to see her face, so she started playing the cutest little games of peekaboo. She has yet to repeat the game with anyone else.
During her visit, Gramma taught Will how to use a chainsaw and they cut down two trees in the backyard. This picture was taken right afterwards.

Nana and Pops came out to visit 3 days later. They were headed to a bible retreat in Santa Cruz and decided to come to California a few days early to visit with us. Will's old ankle injuring was really bothering him, so between his injury and having an infant, we weren't able to do anything too exciting. We still managed to have fun just hanging out. And Nana bought Sophia her first airplane toy.

Pops got to feed Sophia her breakfast of cereal and apples. It's the first time he's fed a baby in at least 30 years, so we're glad we caught it on film!
Here's Sophia spending some time with Nana. Please excuse the wardrobe malfunction!
While Nana and Pops were visiting, we went out to breakfast downtown and decided to drive by some old Victorian homes that Grandpa has been renovating. As we rounded the corner, we just happened to see Grandpa walking down the street! He gave us a tour of the two buildings and went over all the incredible plans they have for the historic homes. Unfortunately we didn't get a picture, but we were all really impressed by the homes themselves and the creative renovation plans.

Since Sophia's grandparents live so far away, it will probably be one out of only a handful of occasions that she gets to see them all at once. It also gave us an opportunity to go on two date nights, which may be few and far between now that I'm back to work.