"I Wuv Bubbles!"

Sophia has always been a bubble fanatic, so when she saw a toy called the Bubble Windmill, she just HAD to have it. It's basically a hand held bubble machine. She carried it in her lap throughout the store, threw a fit when I had to hand it to the cashier, then carried it with her on the car ride back home. As soon as she got out of the car, she sprinted to the backyard to give her new toy a try.
At first she tried to use it the old fashioned way

After a quick demonstration, she figured out how to work it, but she pointed it straight at her face!

The next attempt was a success, and she spent over an hour playing with the Bubble Windmill (while I did some studying for my recertification exam).

She even blew some bubbles for her baby sister!

In two days, she's gone through 3 bottles of bubbles! I ended up buying a gallon of bubble mix, so hopefully that will get us through the rest of the week!

Sophie-isms

Sophia is making the transition from toddler to little girl at an alarming speed, but there are a few cute toddler traits that she is still hanging on to. She still has several vocabulary words that are unique, and I've meaning to write them down so I don't forget.

water - "mo" or "marlow"

baby - "mamy"

oranges - "ernies"

raisins - "raineys"

bathing suit - "mamy suit"

blanket - "meek" or "mick"

crib/bed - "night-night"

food - "num-nums"

horse - "neigh"

cow - "moo"

Trent - "da" or "puppy-da"

Gramma/Grandpa - "ee-ma" or "ge-ma"/ "ee-pa" or "ge-pa"

Katherine - "kathy"

Elizabeth (our neighbor) - "bee"

Traice - "tee-cee"

When she wants to ask where something is, she'll say the first syllable of the object she's looking for, followed by the object. For example "Where's Daddy?" sounds like "da Daddy?" and "Where's the ball?" sounds like "ba ball?"

Since she was an infant, she has had a fascination with covering her face, and the fascination continues with a few new twists. She now calls the game "night-night" and likes to have us participate with her. Her favorite place to play "night-night" is on her trampoline. She also likes to play "night-night" on our bed, but she likes to go through our dirty laundry first and find one piece of my clothing and one piece of Will's instead of a blanket.

Sophia at 6 months

Playing "night-night" with our dirty laundry

Playing "night-night" with Mommy and Trent under her favorite "meek"

And she still puts a hand over her eye and sucks on her wrist when she's tired. It'll be interesting to see when she finally grows out of it, but until then, it's so stinkin cute!

6 Months

I am officially 6 months pregnant, and I am so thankful that I'm two thirds through this pregnancy. It has definitely taken more of a toll on me physically than my pregnancy with Sophia. I have had ongoing issues with sciatic pain and low back pain, and have tried yoga, chiropractic care, massages, and taking it easy, without much improvement. I hate to admit it out loud, but it has finally gotten better this week and I have no idea why, so hopefully it continues to mysteriously improve.

I have also had problems with headaches. I haven't had a migraine in over 3 years, but I have had 2 this pregnancy. I've also had regular tension headaches, and have actually had a headache for 6 days straight now. I have medication that helps, but I feel guilty for taking it while pregnant, but I also feel guilty when I lose my patience with Sophia because I have a pounding headache.

I had my 24 week appt last week, and my weight and blood pressure look great. I had another ultrasound and the placenta has moved a couple millimeters, but it is still less than a centimeter from my cervix. It needs to move another 20 millimeters for me to avoid a c-section, and although I still have plenty of time, the odds of it moving get lower the further along I get. I was surprised to learn that my cervix shortened from 5 cm to 3 cm since my scan 4 weeks ago, but the length is still within normal. The tech also saw a synechiae (a band of scar tissue) that stretched from the bottom of the placenta, across the cervix, and attached to the other side of my uterus. I'm not sure why it has never shown up before, or why it is there in the first place since I've never had any surgeries or infections, but my OB said it shouldn't effect the pregnancy or delivery. The baby is also measuring about 1.5 weeks smaller than my due date, but again my doctor said it's nothing to be worried about. I'm concerned about all these changes, but I trust my doctor and will have another ultrasound in a month or so to follow-up on everything.

The good news is that we're still having a girl, and according to the tech, she is a "wild woman!" She was kicking and moving like crazy during the scan, and she even waved at me! Unfortunately, she was moving so much that we didn't get any good pictures, but it was fun to watch her in action. I am also overdue for a belly picture, but we can't find our camera. I'm hoping that it's hiding in one of our suitcases and that we didn't lose it in the middle of Disneyland over the weekend.

Daisy Chains

Gramma came up to visit this weekend, and since it was such a gorgeous day, we decided to spend the afternoon at McKinley park. While relaxing in the shade, Gramma started to make Sophia a little daisy chain. Sophia watched Gramma's work closely....

...and was thrilled when Gramma handed the comnpleted daisy chain to her.

She showed off her new gift proudly.

She counted the daisies.

She swung them around.

And then she decided to smell them, although with her runny nose, she had to sniff extra hard to get a whiff!

"No, I am not a monkey bar"

I said that today as I struggled to get Sophia in her pants while she was attempting to swing from my outstretched arm. I had to laugh because that's a sentence I never thought I'd hear myself say!

Spring is Here!!

And to celebrate we bought Sophia her first kite. It was a cheap little Elmo kite, but it easily out-flew the expensive fancy kites our neighbors had.


We've been spending every afternoon outside enjoying the fantastic weather. We walk to the park daily and spend time enjoying the gorgeous flowers in our backyard. I'm trying to take advantage of this great weather before it gets hot and I'm too pregnant and swollen to enjoy it!

I planted daffodil bulbs this fall and was excited to see them all come up this year.

And the tulips and calla lilies look gorgeous again this year.

The wisteria is just starting to bloom, so the yard smells amazing. Hopefully Sophia will cooperate once it's in full bloom for some pictures.

Poor Girl!

Sophia has had a rough time since her birthday. It started when she got a "boo-boo" right smack dab in the middle of her forehead. I have no idea how she got it, but she LOVED to pick at it. When we would get her out of her crib in the morning, we'd find blood smeared all over her head again, and again, and again, and she would proudly state "Sophie pick boo-boo!".
We didn't use a bandaid because she has had a reaction to them in the past, but I decided to go ahead and use a latex-free little circle bandaid to keep her from picking at her boo-boo. The next morning, I took off the bandaid to find a perfect circle of red itchy bumps on her forehead, so I guess she's allergic to all bandaids. The poor kid will have to miss out on the fun and comfort of getting her favorite cartoon character bandaids stuck to her boo-boos! Sophia also came down with a nasty cold this month. She's normally a real trooper when she's sick, but this time she would whimper "runny nose, runny nose" and start crying every 3-4 minutes. She even fell asleep on the couch, which she hasn't done since she was an infant. I took a peak at her ears, and it turns out she had her first ear infection. Fortunately she LOVED the antibiotics and would exclaim "I like this! I like this!" everytime we gave it to her. Unfortunately, she passed her cooties on to me, and 3 weeks later, we're both still running for the kleenex box throughout the day. Daddy was awesome at taking care of of his sick pregnant wife and even sicker toddler, so we thanked him by making him a card and bringing him some of his favorite dessert: key lime pie.

Sophie still has some fluid behind her ears, and she had fluid behind her ears at her 2 year check up as well, so it's been at good 6 weeks. We're giving her Claritan everyday and hoping it clears soon. We pray that she doesn't take after her Daddy in the ear department.