Someone Found Her Toes

And I think she loves them!!

4.5 Month Sofia

Little girl how you have grown and changed. I feel like your newborn days were ages ago and honestly (& sadly) are faint memories now. It's true what they say about each new stage being even more fun than the last!

You are a toy holder, a toy player, a toy grabber! You especially love your rattle and this crunchy book (although sometimes we have to take the book away cause you get mad at it.... Maybe it's because it doesn't go in your mouth the way you want?) You will see these toys and stare at them until we hand them to you are move you so you can pick them up yourself!

You have lots and lots of fans, including your cousin, Phoenix. He has been trying to get you to laugh for ages. You've given him a smile, and you definitely don't take your eyes off of him (I think you might be just as big of fan of his as he is of you!) Earlier last week, he was trying so hard to get you to giggle, but there were no giggles coming out. I really thought it'd be a while. The next day, we were in the back yard with him. He started taking a shovel and shoving it in the ground, pulling it up, making a silly noise, all while moving throughout the yard. You thought this was HILARIOUS! You started laughing, out of the blue! And it was just a little chuckle... you were rolling with laughter! It was so cute and funny! Phoenix should feel so lucky. You've only laughed for you parents... he's the first one outside of us that has made you really giggle. I guess it's totally fitting!

I think you'll be a reader. You are already wanting to turn those pages. If only those darn fingers would work right! I give you the board books to play with you. And this morning, we gave you my little notebook that I've been using to record the food I've been eating. You flipped through it. (It was pretty cute. It has a little elastic string that holds it closed. I had a pen inside the book, sticking out one end. First you took the pen out. We helped unhook the book. Then you started flipping through the pages!)

You found your toes! This photo was taken moments after you'd put your toes in your mouth for the first time! Of course, the camera came our and you wouldn't do it again. I'm sure we'll catch it eventually... I doubt this is the last of the toes!

Look at you sitting on the couch! Pretty soon you'll be sitting up unassisted. You now try to sit up in the little bathtub instead of lounging back. You also sit up on our laps. We have been helping you sit up with some assistance and a soft place to land when you slide forward or sideways. How the heck have you grown up so stinking fast!? You are pretty good at sitting up in the Bumbo seat too, and you can almost sit by yourself on the little potty!

This isn't the best photo to show those eyebrows... I'm working on getting them at their highest! You love raising your eyebrows. This comes from your father, and we love it! Oh and your hair being down is a rarity! Usually it's standing up all over the place. :) We kind of like it that way!

Everything goes in the mouth and lately you've been doing some serious gnawing and chewing on whatever it is that made it in your mouth... Sophie the Giraffe, mama's fingers, toys, blankets, clothes, your fingers, daddy's knuckles...

Oh little bug, how much we love you. It's true what they say... each new stage is soooo much fun! (I'm sure they say that until we hit the teenage stage... then we just say, "Ugh I hope this ends soon!" ;) Coming up next is sitting up on your own. Mama is working on calling you by your name (instead of one of the thousands of little nicknames she gives you everyday) so that you'll be able to recognize yourself as Sofia. We are going to start signing with you more often - I think we'll start with a sign for mama's milk, potty, and maybe mama and daddy. Of course, you won't probably start using them for a while & I still have some research to do about signing with baby... 

Sofia Reads

These were some of our books from a couple weeks ago. A few that I absolutely loved again. Like I previously mentioned, the books we get are completely random because of the way I quickly pick them out. I have found that by coincidence some of our books have similarities. With this set, the similar theme was whales (in 3 of the 4 books) and 2 of the books involved animals being eaten! 

If Sofia had a favorite, this was one of them! She seemed to like this book a lot, and so we read it. A lot! Good thing I liked it so much too! We'll definitely be checking this book out again! 

I think this was her favorite page!

We were really big fans of this book too. The lines have glitter on them. She noticed me running my hands across them and sometimes I'd try to make her fingers feel the glitter lines too. After a few times of reading, she started reaching towards the lines too! Babies are so stinking smart!

Love this book!

Sofia Reads

As an elementary school teacher, I have spent years going to the children's library to find books to bring into the classroom. I've been known to check out QUITE a few at a time (I even racked up an $85 late fee once... thankfully they let me out of it!! Phew!) The excitement of reading to my own little one has been huge! Before Sofia was born, I'd even go visit the children's part of the library when I'd be there checking out other books. 

We try to walk to the library at least once a week to switch out books, and right now we are trying to limit ourselves to only a few books (the number is slowly growing!) Since she's really not into giving me time to go through the books and find the perfect ones, it's a matter of luck that we end up with anything worth reading! I usually grab a book, flip to the middle to see how many words are on each page. The lower amount of words, the better! 

I'd like to keep up on some of our favorite books by taking photos of them. I'd love to recheck some of these keepers out again and this is a perfect place to record which ones we loved (cause we all know my mommy brain isn't going to remember... I can't even remember names of basic household appliances anymore!)

This might be one of my FAVORITES yet! Basically the mom takes the baby all these fun places - the zoo, the circus, a farm - and accidentally trades baby out with an animal from that place. She doesn't realize until she gets home (& of course waits til the next day to trade baby back). It's pretty fun to read though... & I read it enough times that I was starting to memorize the words!

 

 This is a sweet Daddy book. I'd definitely get this book again. It's a little longer for sweet Sofia at this point. We read it in parts... read until she is done with it and start somewhere around where we left off the next time we picked up the book. New Dad's should read this to their babies. It is pretty sweet!

 Everybody loves books about apple eating goats!

 Really simple book. Would love to get this book again when Sofia can talk more and understands that there are different languages. It would be great to be able to teach her some words in different languages... but I'm getting ahead of myself! She doesn't even know her name is Sofia yet! ;)

The Sideways Sit Runs in the Family

I had recently mentioned Sofia's sideways sit when she sits in the Bumbo seat. Turns out it runs in the family!! Jac posted the photo of Z's sideways sit earlier today after Z found it in old photos.

The funny part of these photos (is Sofia's facial expression) is that today Sofia happened to be wearing an almost identical outfit to Zia's and that photo of Z was posted after Sofia was already dressed!! Of course that meant a mock photo had to be taken, although Sofia is pretty much telling me with her face that we missing P and his cool toys do it's just not as entertaining...

First Trip to the Zoo

Seth surprised us with an adventure last Sunday. It's funny, I was quite surprised. He's had to work so much that when he started asking if we had anything we had to do Sunday, I thought he was going to say he'd be working for a few hours and then hang out with us later... Instead he said he wanted to take his girls on an adventure!!

We threw all our stuff together and left intending to head to the falls... Little Miss had other plans which included NOT being in the car for that long! So on our way out of town, we turned west and headed towards the other part of town to go to the zoo instead.

I was way excited to see the elephants. They have a brand new baby one teamed Lucy. She was too cute!! Sofia's favorite we're the porcupines. They were right near the glass wall. She watched as they moved around their home, waddling bak and forth.

Seth and I are both excited to take her back to the zoo as she grows. We talked about how fun it would be for her to respond to seeing the animals a little more. Seth mentioned how he looked forward to when she could run around the big grassy area laughing and chasing the other kids. We can't wait to take Sofia back to the zoo as she grows!!