9 Months

Who knew having a nine month old could be so much fun?? Sophia is a whopping 22 pounds now and is full of energy. She sings, babbles and laughs nonstop with one condition - she needs to be walking! All this little girl wants to do is hold onto our fingers and walk. She can cruise around the furniture and walk behind her toys now, but after several steps, she stops and tries to grab our fingers again. Even when she's sitting on our laps, she'll search around for our fingers, and by the time we realize what is going on, she has already slid onto the ground and taken 2-3 steps. This is not the most ergonomically sound activity for us 30+ year old parents, so occassionally we'll use a towel as a harness.
Sophia has developed a great sense of humor and a contagious laugh that sounds a lot like her Pops. She has started a new dance where she bounces up and down, shakes her head "no" and then puts her ear to her shoulder. It's a litte unconventional, but I wouldn't be surprised to see it on MTV soon! She enjoys going to the playground, but if there aren't any kids to play with, she's happy to just sit and eat wood chips. She loves to play silly games with Mommy....


...and wrestle with Daddy.


She is no longer breast feeding at all anymore, so I celebrated by drinking waaay too much caffeine, having one too many cocktails, and eating really spicy thai food! Woohoo!! Sophia has done great with the transition, although she has developed an unusual habit of sucking on the palm of her hand when she is sleepy. We are working on getting her to eat more grown up foods, but she has been somewhat picky about it and will often shake her head "no" and spit food right out if we're able to get it in her mouth at all.

And of course, she is still ridiculously cute! Will and I have come to terms with the fact that we're going to have a kid that is way better looking than us, and we've already had to deal with some admiring boys.
Will says she will not be going on a date until she's 30.

Baby's Best Friend

Sophia and Trent are becoming great friends and it's so fun to watch. One of Sophia's favorite activities is chasing Trent, and he seems to enjoy playing along too. She'll hold on to our fingers and walk after Trent. As soon as she gets close, Trent will run away, and Sophia will squeal with excitement. Trent will then wait until she gets close before running off again.
I let Sophia "wrestle" with Trent the other night, and he was SOOOO patient with her. The poor guy just laid there while Sophia gave him wet slobbery kisses...

...pulled his ears....

...and then took his chewie away!

However, Sophia has also gotten very good at petting Trent gently, and of course, throwing him all the food she doesn't want, so I think they're both coming out ahead in this relationship!

This video is a classic!!

Liltte Drummer Girl

I swore I'd never buy a set of drums for my kid, but after only 8 months, I've already broken my oath! We went to a large consignment sale a few weeks ago and I bought a Leapfrog Learning Drum for Sophia. It has different settings so that when you hit it, it will make drum sounds, music sounds, say the letters of the alphabet, or count up to ten. The first time I put it front of Sophia, her face lit up and she grinned ear to ear. It has quickly become her favorite toy, and we'll often get bored waiting for her to finish playing with it so she'll play with us!

Bye Bye Baby

Today Sophia started waving "bye bye" to her reflection in the mirror, and it was nothing short of a miracle when she continued to do it after I turned on the camera! (I apologize because the angle is a little strange, but I needed one hand to hold Sophie and the other to wave.)

Happy Halloween

Sophia's first Halloween was so much fun. We started the festivities last week by taking her to a pumpkin patch just up the street from us. There were at least 25 other families there, which surprised us since it was a Wednesday morning. Sophia had fun picking out pumpkins, looking at the gorgeous sunflowers and watching all the other kids run around and play.


Here is Sophia and her Daddy proudly standing at the entrance of the corn stalk maze: I would have posted a picture of us at the exit, but we never found it! We truly got lost and actually had to cheat to get out!!
And here's our little baby bumblebee on the big day:

We went over to our neighbor's house for pizza before the trick-or-treating began, and we quickly realized when you have that many kids that are that excited, it's impossible to get a good picture!
Sophia decided to forego the trick-or-treating this year so she could help hand out candy. She loved seeing all of the kids in costumes, but she can't wait until next year when she will be able to toddle up to a few doorsteps with her buddies.

Jack-o-lantern Smile

For those of you who love baby teeth, I finally got some pictures of Sophia's toothy grin. Enjoy!

8 Months

Sophia is starting to make the transition from infant to toddler, and so far, this is my favorite age. She weighs 20 pounds 7 ounces and is 29 inches long. She has officially outgrown her infant car seat, which is a big deal because we can no longer tote her around in the carrier. That means she gets to sit in the grocery cart and get admired by every woman within 50 yards of the store. It also means she gets to sit in highchairs at restaurants, and she has somehow already developed an amazing ability to throw everything within arms reach onto the floor at a lightening quick speed!
Her tooth total is now up to eight ( 4 top, 4 bottom), which has helped accelerate the weaning process. She now just nurses at night and drinks out of a sippy cup during the day. You can see some of her teeth when she smiles now and it's really cute. Gramma calls it a Jack-o-lantern smile!
Sophia is beginning to communicate with us well by using her hands and body. She lifts both arms up when she wants up, and she started waving bye bye today. She babbles constantly and her favorite phrase is "goya goya." She still hasn't said mama yet, but hopefully that'll change soon. She still shows no interest in crawling and now won't even lay down unless she's sleeping. She LOVES to walk, but can only do it while holding our fingers. Her favorite destinations are to mommy and daddy, or to the windows. She likes to look outside, as does her brother Trent, and it's pretty cute to see them looking out the window together. Sophia is starting to develop some social skills as well. She always gets excited when she sees her neighborhood buddies Elizabeth, Ian, Shannon and Riley. I can't really blame her because she is definately the center of attention in that group. Whenever we step outside, we instantly hear screams of "baby Sophia!" coming from 3 houses down! She has also developed a sensitive side and will cry if you laugh or tease her too much. With the last name Skeeters, we're hoping she'll toughen up pretty quickly! Sophia has had a couple other firsts that we're not quite bragging about. She pooped in the bathtub for the first time (the picture can be provided upon request) and she also peed on me while I was putting her in the bathtub. With all the hollidays coming up quickly, I'm sure she'll have plenty of other firsts that we'll be more excited to share.