Barely There Hair

Sophia seems to be ahead of the curve when it comes to most milestones, but she is definitely lagging behind others her age when it comes to hair. As a newborn, she had a full head of thick brown hair. In fact, she actually had too much hair - she had a dark layer of hair on her back, shoulders, and even her ears! Fortunately, the body hair fell out, but unfortunately, the hair on her head fell out right along with it, and is coming back at a snails pace.

I am so envious of all the little girls in her Kindermusik class who have been wearing hair bows and pigtails for months now, and some have even had to get their hair cut to keep it manageable. I was so excited when I realized I was able to make little pigtails in Sophia's wet bath tub hair. As soon as I got her out of the tub and dried off, I tried to put rubber bands in. I quickly discovered that her hair is so thin, I would have to twist them around at least 5 times, and there's no way a toddler is going to stay still that long.

At the recommendation of some of my online friends, I decided to go ahead a buy some bows for Sophia from a company called Bows2Cute. They specialize in hair clips for "fine, thin and barely there hair." I LOVE THESE THINGS!! Sophia hates them and tears them out after a few seconds, but I'm determined to get her used to these adorable little clips. Even Will admits that they "multiple her cuteness factor by at least 10!"

Here are the pictures I was able to snap before she tore them out:

(She doesn't use a pacifier, but she found an old one and decided to chew on it for a minute or two)

Here she is in the act of pulling one out:

(I think she looks like her Aunt Christy in the pic above)

And here she is being a goofball!!

14 Months

Sophia had her 14 month check up yesterday and she is doing great. She weighed in at 25 lbs 9 oz, so she is holding steady at the 90th percentile. Her height is 32.75 inches, which puts her off the top of the chart again. We've had several people comment lately on how tall Sophia looks, and I guess they know what they are talking about!
Developmentally, she's right on track too. Her vocabulary includes about 20 words now. The newest additions are "sock," "yum-yum," and my favorite, "poop." She points at everything in sight and asks "this" or "that," which can get tiresome, but as she gets older, I expect that the questions are only going to get harder. She's not running yet, but she's getting closer by the minute. She can get to her feet without help now too, but it's not exactly graceful and it usually involves using her head or mouth! She can point to 4 body parts, and she has also discovered how perfectly well her finger fits into her nose!



Her favorite toys include our cell phones and our computer. She has already learned to make phone calls, save new phone numbers, and even send text messages with Will's phone. I now have to keep the door to our office closed because if I turn my back for more than 30 seconds, I hear the pitter patter of little feet and can usually find her playing with the mouse on the computer. She has printed several pages and has put the computer on standby, so I'm hoping she doesn't do something to to it that I can't reverse.



Her personality continues to develop and she is so sweet and playful. She likes to blow kisses before bedtime and always gives kisses to her stuffed animals. She can't wait to see Trent in the mornings, and she squeals with joy when she sees her friends across the street. She also loves to wrestle with mommy and tickle daddy.
She's starting to do some of the normal toddler antics too, like testing her limits. When she's feeling naughty, she'll walk up to something she's not supposed to touch, then wait for me to look at her. She'll then look me straight in the eye, touch the forbidden item, and grin ear to ear. It takes everything in me not to laugh or scream! I haven't screamed yet, but I do admit to laughing a few times at the lil stinker!

A New Friend

One of the Easter presents Sophia got from her Gramma was a Lambchop puppet. It talks when you squeeze the nose, and it has quickly become a favorite of Sophia's. Here's a short video of a couple of the cutest things she does with her new friend:

Special Gramma Weekend

We've been terrible at taking pictures this week. Honestly, the only picture we've taken of Sophia has been when she was picking her nose!(It's her newest trick.)Since the last post was pictures of her puke, I wanted to follow it up with something more ladylike than nose picking! Luckily I found some good ones that I haven't posted yet.

During Easter weekend, Gramma was in town for a conference and offered to watch Sophia overnight. Will and I decided to take her up on the offer and we headed off to San Francisco. It was our first time leaving Sophia overnight, but she did great...and so did I!

While she was babysitting, Gramma put Sophia in an outfit that she handmade and took some beautiful pictures that I should have shared awhile ago.

What Is That??

I was getting Sophia ready for lunch the other day, and when I unzipped her hoodie, there was a splatter of color on her onsie. Any guesses at what it was?


Here's a closer look:





Answer:
My Aunt Sandi had filled up some plastic Easter eggs with Fruit Loops, and apparently they didn't agree too well with Sophia's stomach!! I don't know how she does it, but somehow, even her puke is cute!

Easter

We had a wonderful Easter Sunday. The weather was simply gorgeous, so as soon as we got Sophia in her Easter outfit, we marched her outside for pictures. Our wisteria is blooming and the tulips are still looking good, so it was the perfect backdrop.

We went to church and then went to Grandpa's house for Easter brunch. It was alot of fun hanging out with Grandpa, Joel, Caity and the McGoldrick family. Unfortunatley, Will had to leave early to go to work, but as he puts it, "it's good to leave early and keep them wanting more!" The food was great and Sophia displayed some of her Italian heritage by eating a ton of salami!

Grandpa had mowed a little path in his backyard and hid Easter eggs for Sophia to find. At first she just pointed at the eggs, but soon she got the hang of it and had a basket full of eggs. Some of the eggs had Cheerios in them, and Sophia thought that was the coolest thing! I'm thinking of putting some vegetables in the eggs to see if I can get her to eat them that way!

Since I was busy helping Sophia with the egg hunt and making sure she avoided stepping in Coolio droppings, we didn't get any pictures, but we practiced her egghunting skills when we got home and took some pictures.



Easter is so much fun when you have a little one to celebrate with. I can't wait to do it again next year!!

Be Careful What You Wish For

About 3 weeks ago, Will and I started becoming concerned about Sophia's development. She could not crawl, which wasn't too worrisome since she can walk so well, but we became aware of a collection of skills she had seemed to skip. In addition to not crawling, she rarely went from lying to sitting, she could not pull up, and she could not get up if she fell down. We decided to work with her daily on those skills, and if she hadn't improved by her next physical in April, we would talk to her pediatrician about it.
My instincts told me she was just fine, and my instincts turned out to be right. Within a couple days she was going from lying to sitting without a problem, and we would find her sitting up in her crib in the mornings and after naps. Within 2 weeks, she learned to pull herself up in the 2 places I didn't want her to: her crib and the bath tub. Here are pictures from the first time I walked in and saw her standing in her crib. She looks SOOO proud of herself!!


And here is a video of what I saw on the video monitor during her afternoon nap later that day:

She still cannot (or will not) crawl, but for the first time today, she got up by herself without any assistance from me or the furniture. Although I'm relieved she's doing so well, I'm already regretting our decision to help her out because now I'm not sure what to do with her while I shower!