Girls Only!

This week Will was in Dallas for a check ride and training session, so Sophia and I were home alone. We're used to being without Daddy a few days each week, but this week we were by ourselves for one day longer than usual, so I decided to do some extra fun things for both our sakes.
We started by going to the zoo for the first time. Sophia quickly spotted the first animal: some sort of large grey bird.


Next we stopped by the primate exhibits. Sophia was a little freaked out by the orangutans, so we moved on pretty quickly to see the other monkeys. There was a smaller monkey that kept running in and out of it's little house. Sophia thought this was hilarious and would wriggle and squeal with delight every time it ran out!


It was a pretty warm afternoon, so although we both looked really hard, sometimes the animals were tucked away in the shade where we couldn't see them.
The giraffes were out, but Sophia wasn't too impressed.
And since she's a big girl now, she spent a lot of the afternoon pushing her stroller rather than riding in it.
She thought the fish were really cool, as did several other kiddos.

And last but not least, we went to the play area. Sophia has been going through a very shy stage lately, so I was proud that she ran right over to the playground without holding my hand.



And she was almost tall enough to poke her head through the cut out!
Believe it or not, our day didn't end there, but I need to go eat dinner. Stay tuned for the rest of our Girls Only fun!

Smartie Pants

Every time we try and get Sophia to show off her newest skills to our friends and family, she gets shy and just stares blankly at us. As a parent, it can be frusterating, so today while we were relaxing in the backyard, I got proof that she really does know a lot of body parts. The video is pretty dark, but hopefully you can see most of it.

In the next video, she shows off one of her newest quirks that we're not quite as proud of. She now calls everything that resembles any sort of fruit "apple." She used to say "banana" but it's now been demoted to "apple" along with the rest of the fruit!

Backyard Fun

As the weather has been warming up, the lawn in our backyard has been getting a little brown. In order to get it looking green again, Will scheduled our automatic sprinklers to go on 3 times a day, and when he's home, he hand waters it once or twice a day as well.
The other day, Sophia and I were playing in the backyard, and what do ya know, the sprinklers come on. Sophia instantly runs over and starts playing in them, which I don't mind because it's only water. Once they turned off, I took her shirt off and started trying to ring it out. When I turned around, she wasn't behind me anymore.
It didn't take me long to find her happy as can be splashing in one of the many mud puddles in our yard. This was the first time she'd ever played in the mud, and as a rookie, I have to say I was impressed at how quickly she covered herself from head to toe in the stuff! Once I pulled her out of the puddle, she started rubbing the mud all over her belly. I guess it probably feels pretty good - some people pay a lot of money to have that done at spas!


Showing a little modesty in this picture

I stripped her down and cleaned her up as best I could. As I was washing her shoes off, I turned around and noticed she had opened the screen door. She's never done that before, but I wasn't too worried because she's usually hesitant to go down the step to the backyard without holding my hand. But that was before she had discovered how much fun mud puddles are. She dashed out that door so quickly I could barely snap a picture of her!
So now our days of leaving the sliding glass door open are over.....sigh.....

A Vocabulary Quiz from Sophia

Name the following objects:

1.

2.
3.
4.
Answers:

1. bubble

2. bubble

3. bubble

4. bubble

Disclaimer: This idea was stolen completely and shamelessly from the Cautero's blog, Amateur Hour.

A Day at the Fair

Since we didn't have any plans for Memorial Day weekend, we decided to go check out the county fair. We usually go to the the state fair every year, but I had never even realized there is a county fair. The weather was kinda icky, but we decided to go anyways thinking that Sophia would have fun.
The first stop was at the corn dog stand, and next we headed off to the petting zoo. I was kinda scared of some of the larger animals, but Sophia wasn't scared at all. She got to pet some goats, sheep, llamas, deer and even a wallaby.






Next we decided to try some rides. Sophia has always loved being hung upside down, spun around, thrown in the air, etc, so we thought she'd really like the rides. She thought the carousal was really cool... ...but once it started moving, she looked pretty scared.

We weren't sure if she really liked it until it stopped. The tantrum she threw was pretty similar to the reaction we get when we take her off the swings at the park.

The next ride was the exact opposite. She cried when we first got on...
...but once it started moving, she thought it was pretty cool.

By the time we got to the third ride, she was a seasoned pro and there weren't any tears at all.

(I love the matching father-daughter hairline in this pic!)

We then went and looked at the exhibits. There was a science demonstration for kids that had all sorts of magnets, balls, blocks, and other things for kids of all ages to play with. Sophia had a blast playing with all the toys, but some of the older kids didn't think it was very funny when she would destroy their magnet creations, lift her hands up and say "oooooooohhhhhhh!"

She became obsessed with the balloons that were tied up to a booth and we could not pull her away without making a huge seen, so the nice people gave Sophia a balloon of her own. I think it was definitely the highlight of the day for her.

It was so much fun doing all these new things with Sophia. Now we can't wait for the state fair to start so we can do it again!

Round and round she goes...

That is my favorite new Sophia trick!

We were on our way to a family get together, and before we left I had her model her dress for me. I'm glad I did because she ended up playing in a fountain and spent most of the afternoon in just a diaper!

This Is The Way....

This game was a HUGE hit on our flights to and from Tennessee. It's difficult to see, but she is clapping her hands at the end. And I have no idea what the scrunched up face is about, but it made me smile!