Cheese Ball

What a cheese ball grin.  After opening up the Easter package that Grandma and Grandpa sent, I pointed the camera at Sophia and told her to smile.  This is what I got.  It wasn't a fluke either.  I pointed the camera at her a few more times and again told her to smile and she did the exact same thing.  This it true TROUBLE shining through!  

Mommy Journal: Something Special Every Day

Every day Sophia does something new to surprise me.  Today was no different.  Every evening around 7:00 the three of us go into her room to start winding down for the night.  The first thing we always do is 'make it night time' in her room by closing her blinds and turning on her lamp.  This is especially important as we are nearing summer and the sun is staying up later and later.  Next we change her into her jammies, read books, and play with quiet toys.  Tonight daddy had a soccer game to play so it was just baby and mommy to do the bedtime routine. 

After reading a few books to her, I laid down next to Sophia on the floor.  I knew she was watching my every move like she always does so I closed my eyes and pretended to fall asleep.  Next thing I knew my little girl, who moments before was surrounded by board books, had leaned over and laid her head down on my chest.  She snuggled her face into my neck.  Then she adjusted herself a couple of times until she was more comfortable and we laid there like that for a while.  She breathing her tired shallow breaths on my face and me stroking her back with my hand.  I can't quite explain the complete peace I felt as we both laid there cuddling and enjoying each other's company.  We had a moment and what a sweet moment it was!  

Bath time

It was only four days ago that I was telling you that I have four teeth.  Well guess what.  I have  SEVEN now!  Three of my teeth poked through over the last few days.  My smile is getting toothier as the days go by.  =)  Sorry, no close up pictures of my teeth.  I hardly let mommy or daddy get a glimpse inside my mouth, let alone a picture.  

Instead, I will share a bath time shot.  I really like my baths.  Here I am posing with my bath toys.  I still have a little black eye in this picture because it was taken a couple of days ago, but I promise you it has gotten better.  You can hardly see it now.  I have a few more little bruises on my forehead, but no pain no gain, right?  It's all the price I must pay for learning to balance on two feet.  Mommy shot some videos of me walking over the last few days and daddy is showing her how to splice a couple of them together so you can see how fast I am improving.  We will get a combined video posted soon.  

It's official: I can toddle

I am through with playing around.  Well, with learning to walk that is...  (this is my friend Violet and I can play with her for hours.  She is the one with the ornery smile.  Her mommy has watched me a couple of times while my mommy has gone to some job interviews.  We have fun together.)  Anyway, I am in full practice mode.  I practice walking any chance I get.  Instead of playing with my toys, I grab on to the closest set of big person fingers I can find and make them walk laps around the house with me.  Mommy sits down on the couch:  I find one finger and then two and I make her get up and follow me around the house.  Daddy comes home:  I wiggle in his arms until he puts me down on the floor and walks with me.  Miss Meg comes over for a visit: first thing I do is find her fingers and drag her around with me.

Up until yesterday (April 1st... I didn't get this blog published until a week later) I have been toying around with one unsupported step here or two wobbly steps there.  Now I can practically make it across the room without help, although I prefer to hold onto someone's hand while we walk.  

My favorite thing to do is take a walk outside.  I like to walk all over our cul de sac.  We are one of the rare streets in our neighborhood that has sidewalks.  I like to step up on and jump down off of the curbs.  Mommy is afraid that one of these days I am going to fall down and skin my face on the sidewalk.  Maybe, but until then and probably even after, I am going to be a dare devil and push my limits along with mommy's buttons.  

Tooth #4

Quickly following my first upper tooth, my lower right incisor poked through yesterday!  I now have four teeth!

Guess what I found out I can do?  Now that I have both upper and lower teeth, I discovered that I can make sounds to drive my mommy crazy.  All I have to do is rub my lower teeth against the upper one that came in a few days ago and it makes a really cool sound.  Mommy called it 'grinding' as in "stop 'grinding' your teeth."  I don't make it so much any more, but that first day, boy, I made it any chance I got!

Toothy grin, here I come!

My top left tooth poked through today! Yippee!