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!
