Here are a couple of her master pieces. 
This one is my favorite. I could easily picture it hanging on the wall at the museum of modern art.
And here is a piece of performance art that I like to call "Tantrum in Red and Brown"
Shortly afterwards I convinced Daddy once again that the markers really are washable.
And the view from the balcony
And if you look closely, you may recognize a few people in this one
We weren't sure if Sophia would enjoy the ocean or be scared by the waves, but it was immediately apparent that this little water baby loves the ocean.
She would do her little shimmy-shake dance every time a wave came up and would exclaim "bubbles!"
The kids (and adults too) and had so much fun at the beach that we spent all of our free time there. Sophia learned quickly how fun and how annoying sand can be. She had a blast helping to build some sand castles.
Since Ella Ratigan's hands were covered in sand, Sophia helped feed her some goldfish crackers. I'm not quite sure how a 17 month old and 26 month old communicated, but somehow they figured it out.
And here is Luke Linnell offering Sophie a bite of his mud pie. At this point in the vacation, Sophie had ingested enough sand to know that it was not a good snack!
We were having a blast spending all day every day at the ocean, but we finally tore ourselves away to go to Sea World. We started off at the dolphin show, and although Sophia was watching the show, her face was pretty expressionless, so we're not quite sure if she actually enjoyed it.
We also went to a Cirque de Soleil type acrobat show, and Sophia seemed a little more interested in what was going on.
Her favorite part was the aquariums. She pointed out all of the sea creatures she saw and would protest every time we pulled her away from a tank.
She got a little scared as some of the bigger fish approached and pulled her little finger right back in!
She also enjoyed the flamingos, although she kept "quacking" at them. I'm not really sure how to teach her to squawk like a flamingo, so I guess a "quack" is good enough!
Sea World also has the best playground ever! I actually have vivid memories of playing on that playground when I was child. I wasn't quite sure if they would have anything appropriate for toddlers, but they had a whole section that was "toddlers only" and Sophia loved it!
And here are my favorite pictures from the vacation:
Jack Ratigan 4, Alaina (Lainy) Linnell 3, Ella Ratigan 2, Luke Linnell 20 months, Sophia Skeeters 17 months
And here's another cute game she likes to play:
I'm so thankful that summer is only half way over. We've been having waaaay too much fun to have it end now!
One of the best holidays of the year! It started out with the annual parade around the neighborhood. Dozens of kids, with their parents, decorated bikes, wagons, a strollers to march to patriotic music. Their were some patriotic dogs, too.
Later that day, we went to the neighbor's party for LOTS of swimming, BBQ, and drink (not necessarily in that order...). Sophia took some good swipes at the pinata, and was the center of attention from all the young boys. Daddy's watchful eye was on them.
Sophia wanted to play some ping pong with us, although she can barely see over the table. She grabbed the paddle, and repeated one of Daddy's favorite lines: "Here, I'll play left handed against you to make it fair!" Okay, she didn't really say that, but daddy has got her in training early!
often as we can. Sophia is so much bigger than last year, and she is really starting to enjoy the outdoors. 
What with daddy's baby backpack, and mommy's hammock, she really is the queen of the house!
Once Sophia hit the 12 month mark, I thought it would be easier to do these updates every other month rather than monthly. Boy was I wrong! I had no idea that the rate of change would grow exponentially! So, there are probably a ton of things I'm leaving out, but here are some highlights.
She now likes TV, which is dangerous as a parent. It can be very tempting to keep the TV on all day since it keeps her still and happy, but we've been holding up pretty good and she usually only gets to watch a show about 3 times a week.
She still loves music, and actually, her favorite thing to watch on TV is a series on HBO called Classical Baby. It's animation set to classical music that incorporates art and dance as well. It's probably not any better than letting her watch MTV, but it makes us feel better! She was very intrigued with the piano while we visited my mom and asked to play it again, and again, and again. She's the fifth generation to sit and play at this piano, so perhaps some lessons will be in her future.
Sophia now knows 15 body parts and is learning a new animal sound daily. She has said several phrases, such as "there it is" and "here you go." She is ALWAYS saying "that there," as in "duh mommy, what I want is that there!" She has a rotating vocabulary, so she'll say a word frequently for a week or two, then she seems to forget it and learn a few new words in it's place. Her latest words are button and potty. 
We are so proud of this little girl and feel so privileged to have the opportunity to spend so much time with her. As she ventures deeper into toddlerhood, it'll be interesting to see if this changes!
