Sophia Watch: Twelve Months

We did it!  We made it through twelve months of Sophia Watch!  Hurray!  Sophia's pretty psyched about it, too.  :)


I can't believe our sweet little girl is already a full year old... She's getting to be such a big girl, too!  It's just as well that I'm so late in posting this month's Sophia Watch, because she's really starting to hit so many milestones now -- so this will be a mix of Sophia's 12th and 13th months.  :)

While she's still not crawling, she *has* figured out a really cute squat/scoot combo that gets her around in a haphazard way.  :)  If you put her down on her belly, she immediately puts her legs out in a froggy split, and then pushes herself up into a sitting position.  I keep trying to get it on video, but she's so darn fast!  She's also discovered that by reversing that move and scooting her bottom over a bit, she can slowly maneuver herself around on the floor -- she goes from sitting, to froggy split on her belly, scoots herself backwards a bit, and then pushes herself back into a sitting position.  It's not the fastest or most precise method of locomotion, but it's incredibly cute.  Especially given her shrieks of triumph when she manages to get close enough to grab another toy!

Sophia has also started saying a few more words this month!  She reliably announces our names whenever we come into view, and she's added a floppy little hand wave and "hiiiii!"  The best is when we're driving somewhere, and then I come around to get her our of her carseat when we've arrived -- because she's rear-facing, she doesn't see me during the whole of the drive, and then gets super excited when she sees me again.  She starts vigorously waving both her arms, tilts her head at me, grins, and shouts "hiiiiii!  Mamamamama!"

Other words she says: milk (which she pronounced perfectly once earlier this week, but usually says more like "meh" while reaching insistently for her cup), yes (typically in response to me asking if she wants more food), no.  I, um, may have taught her that last one -- she's been in a food-throwing phase lately, and I said "no!" to her very sternly, which seems to have made a big impression on her.  Now she babbles to herself "no, no, no, no" -- as she throws her food.  Here's hoping she learns to not actually throw her food!

And Sophia and Joshua are really starting to play *with* each other more these days.  Joshua has learned that if Sophia has a toy he wants, the easiest way to get it back from her is to hold out his hand in front of her and wait.  She loves sharing with us, even more than actually playing with an object herself, and Joshua is learning to take advantage of that.  Which is much better than him grabbing things out of her hands!  They also love dancing together, particularly at the table -- Sophia will start rocking back and forth in her booster seat, and Joshua will laugh and start rocking his own chair.  They make each other laugh so hard!

And some more sweet photos from our little 12-month photo shoot -- I did at least take these right on Sophia's birthday.  :)





Big brother wanted to help, but then he got bored and started hiding under the blanket off to the side.  Which Sophia thought was absolutely hilarious!




Then Joshua wanted in on the sticker-wearing photoshoot fun.  He didn't want to sit nicely next to his sister, but I think this sequence is a sweeter representation of their relationship!  (Please excuse his jammies and Thomas underwear...  Again, a more faithful representation of how he prefers to present himself these days!)





Happy birthday, sweet Sophia!  We love you, and are so thankful for your presence in our little family!

Sophia Watch: Eleven Months

Our little Sophia is closing in on a year old!  It's hard to believe that it's already been almost a year since she was born...  Our wee Fifi is growing up so fast!!


This month, she's added a little to her confirmed vocabulary -- she babbles constantly, and there are lots of times where it seems that she's parroting words back at us or where she makes noises that could conceivably be intelligible words, but it's absolutely clear that she knows how to say Joshua ("Ja-dah"), Mama, and Dada.  The best moment for me was when I came home from Tae's baby shower, and as soon as I walked in the door, Sophia looked up at me, grinned, and very clearly shouted "Mama!"  A close runner-up moment was when she was sitting on the floor in our living room and noticed David sitting on the couch behind the coffee table -- she had to crane her neck way back to see him, so she started playing peekaboo: sitting straight up, then craning way back and saying "Dada!," then sitting back up, and repeating over and over and over again.  :)

Sophia's also gotten much, much better at feeding herself this month.  We started with puffs, then torn up bits of bread, and then steamed peas and carrots.  She's very trusting, I think, and willing to try just about anything I put in front of her!  And while she's still pretty slow in feeding herself, it's vastly easier than having to actively spoonfeed her every bite.  She continues marching towards greater independence every day!

Oh, and it seems that Sophia is already a positive influence on her big brother.  :)  My efforts at cheering Sophia on when she first started feeding herself steamed veggies led to Joshua insisting on having his very own bowl of peas and carrots -- and then he demanded that "Mama watch Joshua eat?  Say 'good job, Joshua'?"  And then proceeded to finish off an entire large bowl of veggies.  He loves doing things with her (and he also wants me to pay the same attention to him as I do to her) -- and it's nice that those impulses can be channeled towards good!

And we're still working on encouraging Sophia to develop those gross motor skills.  She's much more wriggly and lunge-y these days, but still no scooting or crawling or anything... She pretty consistently practices civil disobedience when I try to get her to stand, too.  She'll fix me with a baleful stare, start huffing her annoyance, and then do crazy splits in the air to prevent me from getting her to put her weight on her legs.  It's absurdly cute, her little acts of defiance.  :)  So far, I can outlast her and get her to practice standing, but I foresee another stubborn KeddieCub toddler...

It's a good thing she's so adorable.  :)  (And is it just me, or does she look SO MUCH like Joshua in these photos??)







Joshua wanted in, but then fixedly refused to look at the camera.  I think he was going for a studied nonchalance?  (Don't tell him that his Reunions t-shirt sans pants kind of takes away from the effect...)  Sophia tried to match his GQ look, but was too excited to see her beloved "Ja-dah" to hold the model's stare for long.  :)





Happy eleven months, sweet girl!  We love you so much!

Sophia Watch: Ten Months

Wee Fifi is ten months old!  Without a doubt, the time is flying by even faster for her than it did for Joshua... I can't believe she's so close to a year old already!  (And, um, I may have already started actively planning her birthday party...)

Sophia sprouted two more teeth this month, and she's been working on at least two more, so in most of her official bunny-comparison shots, she's either chewing on her fingers or sucking furiously at her lips... But it's a faithful capture of what she looks like these days.  :)  And she really is the cutest wee teether in the world!



The biggest and most exciting milestone we reached this month was Sophia's first word!  She was sitting in her high chair eating her dinner, and Joshua was playing nearby.  He came up to the chair with a large white blanket over his head, and started playing peekaboo with her.  He would throw the blanket over his face, wait for me to ask who was under the blanket, and then fling the blanket gleefully off his head, shouting "it's Joshua!!"  Sophia was startled at first, and then started giggling at each reveal.  And then after about the 15th time, Sophia's babbling started resolving into "Aht-jah!  Jah-tah jah-tah jah-tah!"  And she continues to say something similar these days, every once in a while, but always while looking at and/or trying to grab Joshua.  So it's clear to us that our little girl's first word is her beloved big brother's name.  *melt*

Sophia also continues to grow more and more interactive every day.  She's still not much for moving, but she's begun to lunge and reeeeeach for toys that are just outside her grasp.  So while she's placid and content as a baseline, it's becoming clear that she's also a very determined wee girlie.  So far, she'll reach and reach until her arm gets tired and then squawk until I give her the toy she wants... But I do think mobility is on the horizon!  I just need to stop being such a softie and spoiling her...  ;)

But I'm going to try to take advantage of her immobility while it lasts to get some pretty pictures of her!











Happy ten months, sweet little girl!

Sophia Watch: Nine Months

I submit to you that there is nothing cuter than a little girl in a ruffled skirt and leggings.  Especially when that little girl is our NINE-month-old Sophia!!


Our wee Fifi continues to grow -- at her nine-month appointment, she weighed 17 lbs., 9 oz. (50th percentile) and was 28 inches long (75th percentile).  We had to fill out this fairly extensive Ages and Stages Questionnaire for this checkup (which I think is new -- our pediatric practice didn't require us to do this 2.5 years ago for Joshua), which was an interesting exercise in evaluating and challenging Sophia.  She's right on track for communication, problem-solving, fine motor, and personal-social skills, but she's ever so slightly behind the curve on her gross motor skills.  Which we've known, given her utter contentment with her immobility.  :)  Our pediatrician isn't particularly concerned, especially since there are no physiological reasons why Sophia isn't moving around much (no hip dysplasia, and her core muscles are certainly strong enough), so he's given us some ideas of games and exercises we can do with Sophia.

So I've started a bit of a baby bootcamp with her this week, encouraging her to stand while grabbing onto toys on the couch and doing more floor time with her.  She's fine with it for maybe 1-2 minutes at a time, and then she'll start pouting and huffing with displeasure, craning her neck around to try to fix me with a baleful glare -- it's actually really funny and cute.  And she's discovering civil disobedience as well -- she's figured out that she can just slump and refuse to put her weight on her legs... But the lure of rattles and toys (and sometimes, when I need to bring out the big guns, my phone) are generally enough to encourage her to stay on her feet for at least some of her awake time!

Oh!  And she did manage to roll over from belly to back this month!  Woot!

Perhaps the biggest change we've seen this month has been in her interactiveness.  She's mastered the art of grabbing, and will happily amuse herself by gripping various toys or blankets or her own clothes. But what she loves more than anything is to try to grab our faces.  :)  She loves playing with my chin while I burp her, and she really, really loves grabbing whatever part of her brother is within range.  As a result, Joshua has realized this month that Sophia is pretty much the coolest toy EVER.  Sometimes, it's really wonderful to watch these new depths of interaction between the two of them -- Joshua loves giving Sophia small toys to grab and shake, and she laughs like crazy while she tries to grab hold of his arms or face.  But other times, it seems Joshua still thinks of Sophia as more of a toy than a person, and it requires a lot of hands-on refereeing to make sure he doesn't, say, pile all the blankets on her face or treat her like a bobblehead doll...  Thankfully, Sophia is still very patient with him, and he's learning that Sophia's frowns and cries are her version of saying "no, thank you."

And other milestones reached this month: her second tooth popped through (without tooooo much fuss, so hopefully she's getting more used to this process?), she fed herself puffs and Mum-Mums for the first time, and she grows more vocal every day.  Including some precious "mamamama" sounds to break up the more usual chorus of "dadadadas."  :)

And she discovered how very, very tasty the onesie stickers are this month...













She gave me that last face when I made her stop eating her sticker and sit up straight next to her bunny.  :)

Happy nine months, sweetheart!  We love you so much!

Sophia Watch: Eight Months

It's the end of an era, y'all -- Sophia's hair is (mostly) lying flat these days!  I'm going to miss that absurd shock of hair on the top of her head...  :)

Another first for the Sophia Watch photos -- a ridiculously cute little baby skirt!  It's finally starting to get a little bit spring-like here in Princeton, so we celebrated with a spring green blanket and little skirt!


Our sweet girl had another month of slow and steady growth, with one particularly big milestone: her first tooth!  Teething appears to be a slower and more irritating process for poor Fifi than it was for her big brother -- she had several days of unusual crying jags, which cleared up as soon as that evil tooth of doom broke through the surface.  But even so, she only had crying fits about once a day, and she was her typically placid self otherwise.  We'll see how she handles the appearance of other teeth... They appear to be coming in just one at a time (another contrast with Joshua), so hopefully this won't be a long, drawn-out, painful process for her!

With the appearance of a (very sharp) tooth came some painful bites during nursing sessions.  Back when Joshua got his first teeth, he started biting really hard, too, and nothing I tried was successful at getting him to stop, so we ended up weaning him at 7 months and switching to formula.  I was worried that the same would happen with Sophia, but either I've gotten better at this parenting thing or she's more compliant than her brother was -- because after a couple weeks of painful bites and shortened nursing sessions, she's learned to stop!  So I'm hopeful that we'll be able to hit my goal of a full year of breastfeeding!

The other noticeable change in Sophia this month was her increased babbling and giggling.  She now fairly regularly says/shouts "dadadada," with great vigor and glee -- David claims that she's calling for him.  :)  It's really cute watching her try out her vocal cords and let loose these pterodactyl shrieks, and it's particularly sweet watching her laugh at Joshua's antics.  We can't wait until she takes part more fully in playtime with her brother!

And some more sweet photos of our little Sophia at eight months!

Sophia Watch: Seven Months

Well, at least I'm getting this post written before Sophia turns eight months old...  :)  As per usual these days, I'm backdating this a bit so it at least looks like I posted this close to when I took the photos below!

Our wee Fifi is seven months old!  And the biggest milestone she's hit this month is reflected in her official seven-month photo: she's sitting up on her own, completely unsupported, for multiple minutes at a time!  At the time of this photo session (a couple days after she turned seven months), her record was two minutes straight.  She seems to really enjoy the new perspective this sitting up thing gives her, and it's so precious to see her delighted grin as she peers out at the world like a big girl!


Just for comparison's sake, I took a shot of her lying back next to her bunny, as she did for her first six Sophia Watch photos, and it's amazing what a difference her new posture makes:


Sophia is still a very placid, content, and relatively immobile wee girl.  This month, she did manage to roll over from back to belly a few times (most notably once in her crib at the beginning of a nap, which led to much consternation and complaining until I came in to flip her back over).  She now seems to be used to that particular move, and actually prefers sleeping on her side now.  But she still has no interest in rolling from her belly to her back, or trying to roll or scoot herself in any direction when she's on the floor.  She does, however, love watching her big brother run laps around the living room -- no matter what she's doing, she'll crane her neck and fix her eyes on Joshua when he runs near her, and occasionally let loose little giggles and squeals of glee.  Perhaps she thinks this "mobility" thing is just for big brothers?

She's certainly a healthy and growing little girl, though!  We've continued introducing her to various veggies and fruits, and so far, we haven't found a food she doesn't like.  And she'll eat whatever amount you put in front of her!  These days, she nurses four times a day, and has two solid meals (3.5 oz. of puree plus rice cereal to thicken the consistency).  She's had sweet potatoes, squash, green beans, peas, carrots, apples, and pears, and devours it all with the same gusto.  I'm hoping this love of all veggies will continue well into her toddlerhood!

We're also finally making some headway against her eczema (which I don't think I've blogged about yet) -- she has some super dry and rough patches on her arms, hands and cheeks, particularly on her left cheek and hand where her dry skin is exacerbated by her continuous sucking on her fingers.  We've been using a baby lotion for sensitive skin that seems to be working -- our pediatrician recommended we try this before going with an actual anti-eczema product.  Thankfully, the rough patches don't seem to bother Sophia.  They certainly don't deter her from chewing on her beloved fingers!

And some more seven-month cuteness.  :)  David was helping me get Sophia's attention, and in many of these shots, you can see her staring adoringly up at her papa.  So heartmeltingly sweet!








And in what's becoming a normal part of these monthly shoots: a big brother cameo, with a matching sticker of his very own!


Happy seven months to our sweet little girl!