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.

Fleet Week

Fleet Week has become an annual tradition for the California Skeeters clan, and this year Nana and Pops were able to join us all the way from Texas. Fleet Week is a celebration of San Francisco's naval history. There are several events that take place over the week, but the most notable are the parade of naval ships and an airshow held right over the bay. Sophia was excited because not only was this her first Fleet week (out of the womb), it was her first trip to San Francisco. She couldn't wait! We started the day by heading over to the Buena Vista which is an old bar made famous by their Irish coffee. Everybody agreed that there was more "Irish" than coffee, but Pops liked it so much that he decided he should start every day with an Irish coffee!


While we watched the parade of ships and waited not-so-patiently for the airshow to begin, we enjoyed the beautiful view of the bay and the gorgeous weather.

Once the airshow began, Sophia made it clear that she was not a fan of jet engines screaming overhead. We had tried to modify some ear plugs to fit her, and we tried to hold our hands over her ears, but I ended up having to take her back to the hotel. It was actually her nap time, so all in all it worked out pretty well. Here are the pictures the rest of the family took of the show.

Notice the Golden Gate Bridge in the background...


Can you spot the plane in this one? We met up after the airshow and despite our best efforts, we ended up at Pier 39 to eat dinner. The food actually ended up being amazing and we got to watch the sun set over the water. On our way there, we saw at least 10 police on motorcycles come flying by with their sirens blazing. We looked around to see what was going on, and noticed several men in tight blue flight suits waving from a rental car. It was the Blue Angels getting a police escort! I felt like that was a great use of our tax payer dollars because, as we all know, happy hour ends at 7pm!!

Sophia did not sleep well at the hotel (so neither did mom and dad) and at breakfast the next morning, she actually fell asleep while eating! Her eyes would open just a crack, she would put her cracker in her mouth, and then her eyes would shut as she lazily chewed the bite. Our waiter said he was jealous because eating and sleeping were his two favorite things, and Sophia somehow managed to do both at once!

Computer Games

When I'm on the computer and Sophia has tired of her toys, she has found a new game to entertain herself with. She tips over the trash basket, pulls out used kleenex, and sticks them in her mouth. It's so gross!
I gave her the kleenx box to see if she might find unused kleenex just as tasty.
Nope - she's got a distinguished palate and prefers the used variety of kleenex!

7 Months

We didn't think it was possible, but somehow Sophia has managed to get even cuter during the past month! She has also started to figure out just how cute she is and has turned into a total ham in front of the camera.
Sophia is still a champion eater and now literally eats more for breakfast than I do. I have attempted to make my own baby food to save us a little money, but so far Sophia is not a big fan of my cooking. We have started feeding her finger foods, but at this point Trent is getting more of them in his mouth than Sophia. He now dutifully sits by her highchair to catch any goodies she decides to toss.
Sophia has also become a little thrill seeker. She loves to be surprised, thrown in the air, and hung upside down. You're probably thinking we may have a future pilot in the family, but she screamed nonstop the last time we flew, so I'm not so sure. She still loves music and squeals with joy when she gets to "play" with other kids (by "play" I mean pull their hair and yank on their ears!)

The biggest change has been her new ability to babble. She says dada, doodoo, doedoe, googoo, gaga, and various combinations of all these sounds. I took a short video of her saying dada. At the end of video she begins whining because she was teething again. She now has a total of at least 3 teeth. I'm pretty sure she actually has 4 now, but her gums are still a little sore so she hasn't let me take a peak yet.

She still shows no interest in crawling but is getting better and better at standing and just today she took a step while holding onto the furniture. I have a feeling she'll be walking by 9 or 10 months, so I'm trying to enjoy the little time we have left before that adventure begins.

Labor Day

This entry is a little late and out of order, but I had to get all the pictures from Gramma. She came up for Labor Day weekend and brought Aunt Traice and Moses with her. My cousin was having an engagement party at his parents house here in Sacramento, so it was a great excuse for Gramma to make the long drive up from Los Osos again.
The party was small, but we all enjoyed ourselves despite the triple digit temperatures. Sophia got to meet a few more members of her extended family, and as usual, she was the center of attention.

Aunt Traice hadn't seen Sophia in months, but the two became quick friends again. Aunt Traice made up several games that had Sophia just squealing with laughter, which isn't always easy to do. I don't know if it was a reflection of her studies as a child development major, or just her innate ability to remember what it's like to be a kid.
Gramma brought a book for Sophia back from her helicopter hiking vacation in Canada. We thought the book might be a little too advanced, but it quickly became a favorite of Sophia's and we now read it every night before bedtime.

And here are a couple more of my favorite pics from the weekend....

I just can't get enough of those sweet Sophia hugs and her beautiful baby blues!

(In case you're wondering, Sophia's sitting on the "monkey rug" that Aunt Traice gave her)