March Begins

Well, we finally made it to March.  (I’m aware it’s now June in the real world.  You can’t rush perfection.)  This post is just going to be a collection of random stuff, so stick with me.

First, I have some pictures where I’m not quite sure when they were taken.  The screen on my old digital camera is broken, but it still takes pictures fine, so I keep it in the diaper bag for random shots.  But I can’t see the menus to reset the date, so the camera thinks it is 2004.

This shot is of Sophie at a little sandwich shop near where Debbie gets her hair done. I think it’s from back in November or December.

And here are some pictures from swim class around the same time.

Sophie and Debbie feeding the ducks at Lake Miramar.

Sophie and Debbie eating lunch at Shakespeare Pub in San Diego.

This is an interesting photo. It is at a place called Pioneer Park. It is a park that was converted from an old cemetery. They kept some of the more interesting tombstones in a little memorial at the side of the park. (They left all the people where they were. Gives you a bit of a chill when you walk across the park…).

And finally here is Sophie on one of our bike rides around Lake Miramar.

Here is a link to the full album.

2009-03-01 Sophie March

Sophie Turns 9 (Months)

On December 8th we took Sophie in to the doctor for her 9 month checkup.  Everything checked out great!  She is 17 pounds and 28 1/2 inches long, which is tracking right on schedule.

Here she is posing on the table at the doctor’s office.

Swim Class

As many of you know, Sophie has been going to swim classes since the beginning of September.  She really seems to enjoy going to class, and has even improved her swimming technique (I think learning to crawl helped a lot).

Because of the Veterans Day holiday on November 11th, we had the rare opportunity to have Debbie join us at swim class.  (There were also about 3 other dads their because they had the day off too.)   Since Debbie was there to hold Sophie I was able to get in the pool with my camera and get some pictures.

Here is a picture of Sophie and Nicholas getting ready for class:

Debbie hangs out in the pool with the other dads:

Debbie and Sophie:

Shannon and Julia:

Sophie says hooray!

Here is a link to the full album:

2008-11-11 Sophie Swim Class

Fall Arrives in San Diego

As most of you are probably aware, it’s sometimes hard to tell what season it is here in San Diego simply by looking out the window.  There have already been a few 90 degree days in November.  The leaves on some of the trees do turn color and fall off, but that usually doesn’t happen until about New Year’s Day.

So, there are a couple of strategies to try to get into the “mood” for the season.  The first is to just look at the calendar.  We kicked off the season with Halloween in our last post (no worries here about making sure your costume is big enough to fit your winter coat under!)  The next big event on the November calendar is Election Day.  I’ll leave the political discussions to another blog, but we did take Sophie with us when we voted (someone needed to make the big decisions!).

The other strategies San Diegans use to get into the fall mood is something we call “Going to Julian.” No one is quite sure why, but for some reason in the fall people feel the irresistible need to get in their cars and drive for an hour to the mountains and eat apple pie. We decided Sophie needed to experience this right of passage so she would know what the “seasons” are.

So we packed up the car with provisions and headed east into the mountains. Since this is the kind of journey you can’t do all at once, we decided to make a pit stop in Ramona. We had heard that they had a couple of small wineries there and wanted to check them out. We stopped at the Schwaesdall Winery. They had a nice little tasting room run by the couple that actually owns the winery and makes the wine. After tasting a little wine and stopping for lunch

we started off on the second leg of our journey, finally making it to Julian by late afternoon. And what did we find when we got there? A huge traffic jam and hundreds of people lined up down the block just to eat pie! (I know, I know, this shouldn’t be a surprise, but when you go there in April the place is deserted). We did eventually find a place to park and spent a few hours wandering through all of the little shops in town.

And we even managed to get some pie.

All in all it turned out to be a great day.

We even brought some wine and pie back to civilization and went over to Niki and Rick’s the next day to share.

Here’s a link to the full album:

2008-11-08 Julian

Julia Turns One

Sophie’s friend Julia had a party for her first birthday on October 4th.  Most of our usual baby group friends were there, so there was the standard chaos of a bunch of 6 to 12 month olds running around.  And, as always, our daughter decided to take a nap right in the middle of the party!  Oh well, I guess it’s better than having her not sleep and throwing a tantrum.

Here is a picture of Sophie and Jada having a moment:

An overhead view of the fun:

Sophie takes a turn on the swingset:

Julia the birthday girl:

Make a wish!

Shannon shows her daughter how to eat cake with her hands:

And this is why you do this outside:

Happy Birthday Julia!

In other happenings, on the day before while Dad was off at the airshow, Sophie and Debbie went to hang out with Hailey and Hailey’s mom. Here is a photo of them at the bookstore hanging out:

Click below for a link to the full album:

2008-10-04 Julia Birthday

Sophie Firsts for October

Hello!  I know it’s been a while since my last post, so we’re going to do something a little different on this one.  I usually try to post events in chronological order, even if I’m a few weeks behind.  But today I’m posting some updates on Sophie because she’s had some important firsts this month and I didn’t want to wait too long to let you all know about them.

First of all, Sophie is able to go from lying down to sitting up all by herself.  She’s been able to do this for about a month now.  Most mornings when we come to get her out of her crib she is already sitting up waiting for us.  Here she is yesterday enjoying a card and stuffed pumpkin her Nana sent her (apparently some of the chocolate rubbed off on the card!):

(no, we’re not giving her chocolate yet!)

The next first is that she has her first teeth.  The two front bottom teeth finally broke through on October 23rd.  Here is a close up of them:

Then on October 25th when we were up visiting our friends Shay and Eric in Simi Valley (more on that trip in an upcoming post), she started clapping all by her self.  Here is a picture of her from today showing us how she claps:

And finally just today, October 31st, she started crawling!  She had been getting up on her hands and knees for the last couple of weeks, and she could shimmy backwards, but today was the first day she truly crawled forward:

Finally, just to embarrass her when she’s a teenager, here are some pictures of her sleeping with her butt up in the air:

So as you can see our little baby is all grown up (Oct 5 and April 25)!

Here is a link to the full album:

2008-10-31 Sophie Firsts

A Walk in the Park

On September 11th we took Sophie to the doctor for her 6 month old checkup.  As many of you might recall, Sophie had a few issues with her size back in the early days.  Well now she weighs 14.5 pounds (25th percentile) and is 26.5 inches long (75th percentile!)  The doctor said everything looked great and she had no concerns.  Sophie even went to her and let her poke and prod her without crying or complaining.  So everything was good and everyone was happy – and then out came the needle!  Yes, four more shots, and four more looks of betrayal – “How could you let them do this to me!?!”  But after a few minutes Sophie calmed right down (it took Debbie a little longer) and was great the rest of the day.

To celebrate all our good news, we went for a walk down to the park.  Here’s Sophie in her cool pink velour track suit, hanging out in front of our house before our walk:

Of course we took the Bob stroller.  Here are Debbie and Sophie at the park entrance with Black Mountain in the background:

We put Sophie into the infant swing and gave her a few pushes.  She really liked it.

After that it was off to the bouncy frog (I think it was a frog?)

Then a quick trip down the slide,

followed by a climb across the monkey bars,

then a quick climb up the rock wall,

and finally another trip down the slide with Dad.

After all that working out Sophie was exhausted and went to sleep with her froggy friend, and then she slept the whole way home.

Click below for a link to the full album.

2008-09-11 A Walk in the Park

Sophie Tries the See Food Diet

I’m sorry, but it had to be done!

Click on the link below if you can stand to see any more:

2008-09-01 Sophie See Food

Sophie the Little Mermaid

Now that I’ve got some free time on my hands, we decided to sign Sophie up for swimming lessons.  (Although at this age it’s more like dunking lessons.  We go every Tuesday afternoon to the pool in the rehab center at a local hospital.  They keep the water at about 90+ degrees, so it’s not exactly refreshing.  But they teach the kids how to float on their backs, how to kick and swim, and how to crawl out of the pool if the fall in.  And of course sing lots of songs.

Here’s Sophie getting ready for class:

From 2008-09-02 Sophie Swim Lessons

From 2008-09-02 Sophie Swim Lessons

Here we are in the pool:

From 2008-09-02 Sophie Swim Lessons

Here is where we practice “falling” into the pool and getting back out:

From 2008-09-02 Sophie Swim Lessons

And here is a picture showing how we float.  She can actually float pretty good, I only have to support the back of her head:

From 2008-09-02 Sophie Swim Lessons

Of course, there is plenty of time to be social:

From 2008-09-02 Sophie Swim Lessons

After working up a big appetite, we went over to Fuddruckers for lunch:

From 2008-09-02 Sophie Swim Lessons

From 2008-09-02 Sophie Swim Lessons

I wanted to say thanks to Elizabeth for taking most of these pictures (since I was in the pool!)  Thanks, friend!

From 2008-09-02 Sophie Swim Lessons

Click HERE for a link to the full album.

Quality Time With Vim

Debbie’s friend Vim was in town this weekend for a wedding with her husband, Joe and daughter, Violet. On Friday everyone got together. Vim and Debbie used to work together, and Vim has since moved to Florida. Violet was born on March 15th, one week after Sophie. This is Debbie and Vim last December:

Now here they are with their new babies:

Remember, Violet is one week younger than Sophie. (Don’t worry Sophie, you’ll get big someday!)

Also this week we finally made room to assemble Sophie’s activity center. She took to it right away and loves to play with all the little gadgets.

She has also figured out how to flip over by herself. And apparently prefers to sleep on her tummy because that’s how we find her every morning now. She has also figured out how to find her pacifier and put it back in her mouth by herself. Which is great because that means we don’t have to get up to do it!

And, as always these days, we love bath time. Especially since Mama bought us some rubber duckies to play with!

Here is a link to the full album:

2008-08-08 Quality Time with Vim