New Favorites

Sophia has discovered two things: the bathroom and the refrigerator. She loves them and we basically have to wrestle the kid away from them both.

Sophia loves the bathroom because the toilet is the perfect height for her to pull her self up on, and bang on the lid. Yeah, yeah, ew the toilet. But at least its my toilet, and I know who cleans it (me), how often and with what. Sophia also discovered toilet paper. How she loves the toilet paper!! She shreds it all to pieces and then tries to eat it. Oh yeah, good times with The Husband and I trying to force her to open her mouth to pry out the worlds biggest spitball....





Sophia also loves standing in the open refrigerator. I have no idea why. Maybe its because the bottom of the fridge is off of the ground, so it provides a "step" for her to climb up. This means I can't store my eggs in the bottom of the refrigerator door now. Oh well. This love of the fridge also extends to the wine fridge. Sophia stands up on it and stares at the bottles. She hasn't tried to open it yet, but when she does, the thing is armed with a lock that The Husband and I will have to put to use.


oooooh, is that a 95 Opus in there?????

Now, the next few photos aren't new favorites, but I had to share. Like all babies her age, Sophia is starting to eat "finger foods" and chunkier things. This includes Cheerios. Sophia LOVES Cheerios. I can't leave the house for any extended period of time without a baggie full of "the o's" in my bag. Also like all babies her age, Sophia is chewing and putting everything in her mouth. Given access to the Cheerio's box, this is what happened:



Finally, we had our first big rain of the "winter" season [what San Diego calls winter, at least]. Sophia's playpen/pack n play is up against our patio doors, allowing her to look outside all the time. In the morning, she wakes up, gets a bottle and spends some time playing by herself while The Husband and I get ready for work. So, the morning it was raining, I walked into the kitchen to find my baby girl pondering the rain.

Looks like she's going to take after her Daddy and love the rain...

Early presents...Sophia still hates Santa

So, as everyone knows, The Husband and I both work full time. This means Sophia goes to day care. Everyday, she is dropped off at someone's house and is picked up in the early evening. The person who watches Sophia arranged for Santa to pay an early visit to San Diego.

Yeah, my kid still hates Santa. This time, she even tried to run away when I set her down at his feet.




Sophia also received some early gifts from her Granny and Grampy (and Skippy!) Because we had plans to spend Christmas in Chicago with my family, The Husband decided that his family Christmas could be celebrated early- by opening gifts more than a week early! Right now, Sophia is more interested in the wrapping and tissue paper than the gifts.

Granny and Grampy sent books, flashcards and toys. I know Sophia is going to love playing with all of it.


I love the adventures of Olivia..


Daddy shows her how to open presents



What's more interesting, paper..or the tree?


The best present I received all year....

Teefers

In all the hub-bub of the holidays, I've not been as dilligent as I should have about posting all of the new developments with Sophia. Instead of trying to find the time to write a massive update with lots of pictures, I'm going to try and do several shorter entries, with pictures and slide shows, to update everyone about the last few weeks.

Sophia has not one, but TWO new teeth- both top front teeth are currently coming in. The tooth on the right, next to the front one is going to be next. The gum is swollen, but I can't see white yet. Tooth #3 took F-O-R-E-V-E-R to come in- about three weeks from seeing white under the gum to the tooth cutting thru. Tooth #4 took about a week. If you thought taking pictures of the bottom two teeth was tough (but funny), you should try and photograph these two new ones. Impossible. I had to wrestle the kid to get her to open her mouth. On top of the general lack of cooperation, she wanted to eat the lens cap of my camera, which is attached to the camera by a cord. Here is the result of my work (I do not even want to discuss how many pictures were taken, then deleted, in order to get these 4) :

Me: So, Sophia, how about you show everyone those new teeth?



Sophia: No, I don't think so, Mommy.

Me: Aw, come on. I know everyone would really like to see...


Sophia: Ooooh, is that the lens cap? I looove lens caps.


Me: Sophia, open your mouth!


Sophia: I WANT THE LENS CAP, GIVE ME THE LENS CAP!!

Me: [taking pictures like a paparazzi while tickling the kid in order to get her to open her mouth]



This time, you don't even need to click on the picture to get it to enlarge- the top two are definitely there. It's so funny to see her with teeth. Now, her smile changes everyday. I can't wait to share a picture with everyone of a big toothy grin- instead of a big gummy one.

Per the request of The Husband

Apparantly, cartoon images are too much as well. So that too has been deleted. And Those Who Wish to be Unnamed, shall be exactly that.

But you shall not take my words. Oh no. The text stays. And if you don't like it so much, then please stop visiting this blog. Be as mad as you want at me. I can weather the storm.

For the love of God

Cropping pictures was not satsifactory to some people. So the picture of Niece 2 was removed and replaced.

A death to free speech and expression...a sad day indeed.

Musings, and a new policy

It has certainly been an interesting few days. Events occurred that made me reflect on sharing. Specifically, sharing photographs.

As new parents, we all but wallpaper our homes, refrigerators and wallets with pictures of our family. Typically, we want our extended families to share in this enthusiasm and practice. In order to accomplish this, and share our excitement, we share pictures with family.

I use this blog as a method to share pictures and stories of what's going on with Sophia. A digital scrapbook, updated regularly, with the expectation that the contents will be shared.

But what happens when the people we share pictures with share our pictures with others? I know that when I send my mom photographs, she will whip her wallet out at the smallest provocation in order to show others her grandchild. Sophia's grandpa has her picture, along with her other cousins, on the wall at his store. But what if Uncle Sean asks my mom for a copy of a picture I gave my mother? Is it reasonable for me to expect my mother NOT to share the picture with Sophia's own uncle?

I think the answer to that is no. That would be silly. Why else would you share a picture, if you didn't expect others to look at it too?? I don't expect the pictures I share with others to sit idle in a dark drawer, unappreciated and unloved. But it turns out that not everyone agrees with me.

There are certain people who have asked to not appear on this blog. They feel that, although the blog is used to share pictures of family with family, I do not have a right to "infringe on their privacy" and share images of those family members with others.

Therefore, I will no longer feature their images, or refer to them by name in this forum. For reference sake only, they will be referred to by acronyms which I will define as need be. For example, all nieces and nephews will be referred to as Niece 1, Niece 2, Nephew 1, Nephew 2 (in birth order) rather than by name, unless their parents agree that I can use their name "on the internet." In the event that I use a picture that they appear in, the image will be cropped or manipulated so that their face is unrecognizable.

I am making this policy as a request of BIL (Brother in Law) to make his life easier. While I do not agree that he has a privacy interest in pictures that are shared, we came to an agreement.

My baby is such the trendsetter!!!

They say that imitation is the most sincere form of flattery- and in that note, I am flattered indeed! Remember when I did this:




Adorable, I know.

Well, it look's like Someone knows a good idea when she sees it!!
And both pics at seven months!! How about that...

May all your holidays be happy and bright?????

I know I sent this to just about everyone, but I had to put it on the blog. It just makes me laugh. Yes, yes, it's wrong to laugh at your baby's fears. But this picture is just so adorably funny to me.

Sophia is growing by leaps and bounds. She goes to the pediatrician tomorrow, so I'll report back with her newest stats. Her top left front tooth FINALLY broke through the gum and is coming in. The one on the right is not far behind.

Tonight, Sophia officially started "real" hands and knees crawling. I couldn't believe it. She was army style crawling on her belly, and then just popped up on her knees and kept moving. She is also pulling herself up to stand on everything and everybody. Standing is the new sitting in my house. Sophia has just figured out how to get down from a standing position, so we're making progress. I swear, the kid is going to walk before I know it. I guess I better baby proof the house now.