The cropped "SFW" version of a super-adorable pic

Late as always. We got Alexander’s first professional portraits in early June. (He was almost 4 months by then.) Michele and Dave have both been “meaning” to get around to posting them. At least getting physical prints distributed to the grandparents has already taken place. (Thanks to Michele.)

This photo shoot produced what may be one of Dave’s favorite photos of all. The cropped, clean, family-friendly version of the photo is posted here inline.

View the Album

Direct Link to the Album

View the Album as a slideshow

Sometime between 7:15pm and 9:00pm, we try to start the “bedtime routine”. (OK, so that wide variety is not good, but at least it is honest.)

Bathe Sophia. Generally, she gets a bath after Alexander because she likes to “help” with his bath. (“Help” in this context means, sit on stool by bath and poor water on him.)

Brush Sophia’s teeth. Right now, we use a soft finger tooth brush. She is getting better about actually using her toothbrush as more than a mechanism to get water and tasty Elmo toothpaste into her mouth.

Get lotion and PJs. Sophia has some mild excema that flares up if we don’t moisturize her skin. We’ve used Aveeno, Aquafor, and hydrocortizone. Probably more stuff, too, but that’s all I can think of.

Read some books. Lots of them, actually. This can last anywhere from 5 to 90 minutes, but is one of the most rewarding of all experiences. We let her select the “next book” so she will remain engaged, even as she fades. We can tell that she is absorbing all of the content. What amazes me is when she starts reciting entire passages (if not books!) back to us.
Here is a sampling of current favorite literally selections: (Alas, the Amazon Affiliates program is not available in NC, so I won’t get any credit if buy any of these. )

• Cuentos populares españoles – (Sophia alternately refers to this as the “special book” or the “spanish book”. Michele described it as “special” the first time Sophia asked her to read it. Sophia now only asks Daddy Dave to read it.
• Winnie the Pooh, Nature’s True Colors
• Curious George Collection (Thank you, Mimi)
• Goodnight Elmo
• Silent Night (Thank you, abuela)
• Curious George Good Night Book (Thank you, Mimi)
• Nursery Rhyme Collection. This one has been popular for a long time.
• Good Morning, Good Night. (Thanks, Turner Family!)
• How Do I Love You (Thank you, Marcela)
• All the Ways I Love You, a  book with a recording of Sophia and Alexander’s Mimi reading the book (Thank you, Mimi)
• Love you forever (Thank you, Marcela)
• The Going to Bed Book (Thank you, Layna)

This next part is what motivated me to write this post. Saying “good night” to the room. Not really sure how this started, but I *thinkit was an idea from another blog. Daddy picks up Sophia and walks her around the room to individually say “good night” to different things in her room. With very little variation, and in this order, here is what we say good night to:

1. “The Painting” or “Girl on the swing” – A friend gave us a lovely print that perfectly matches her room colors. As you guessed, it’s the silhouette of a young girl swinging on a tree swing. (Thank you, Maryjo for the gift!)
2. The Clock – Sophia used to be consumed with a desire to grab the hands of the clock. Problem is that the she would break the clock. A few weeks ago, I counted off the numbers on the face of the clock, to encourage her both to count and associate the numeral with the number. Now she wants to count them off. But I think it is pretty much a delaying tactic because she always gets to 5 and restarts. Clever girl.
3. The Door – The closet door to be precise. Ever since she learned “One, two buckle my shoe. Three, four knock at the door”, there has been a fair amount of knocking.
4. The Butterflies (part 1) – Sophia’s room has a bit of a butterfly theme. We got some butterflies from Pottery Barn. (See the original post to see these.
5. Los libros (“books”) – Sophia’s night time books are next to her silla. We bid them good night as we go by. Sometimes she will try to each down to read some more. A delaying tactic.
6. La silla (“chair”) – Sophia has her own “toddler-size” chair. This is where she sits most of the time that we read to her for bed time. She lovesthe chair.
7. The curtains -The only time she ever really wants to say good night to those now is to open then and look outside. A delaying tactic.
8. The Ladybug Piggy Bank – This lady bug has a pair of metal coil antennae with spongy balls glued to the tips. Sophia just loves to smack at the antennae and flick them. Amusingly, one of the sponge tips fell off after about 2 smacks. It took Daddy around 20 months to get some glue to re-attach. (Seriously.) The night I did, Sophia said, “Daddy fixed it.” Which was interesting because she did not see me do it, and I did not point it out. (Thank you, Turners for the gift.)
9. The lamp – Sophia has never really said good bye to the lamp. We usually skip it now.
10. The Butterflies (part 2) – Sophia has a butterfly mobile above her crib. We say good night to them. Actually, she just likes to smack them. See the original Casa Lennon post to see these. (Thank you, Cousin Flippins for the mobile!)
11. The Fan – The ceiling fan has, you guessed it, butterflies. What can we say, everything for girls rooms in 2008 had butterflies on it. Now that Sophia is old enough, she likes to pull the light chain to turn the light on. She invariably smiles when she does that. In the last couple of weeks, she has started turning on the light, looking at me, and saying, “it’s not dark.” Too cute.
12. The (whatever I feel like pointing out) mirror – Next we walk to the mirror in her room and say good night to whatever strikes our fancy. Popular choices: Daddy’s glasses, our teeth, the design on Sophia’s PJs, you get the idea.
13. One last “Good night Room” – We turn around and say good night to the whole room.
14. Sophia now wants to throw the switch that turns off the lamp light. Sometimes she’ll act surprised and exclaim, “It’s dark!”
15. Get Ellie and Paco – We store Ellie the elephant and Paco the pachyderm in the top drawer of her chest of drawers. This is where they go “nite-nite”. After we turn off the light, we knock on the drawer door and Sophia calls for her cherished friends. When I hand them over, she gives them a huge embrace. She really likes them.
16. Get in Crib – We put her in her crib and ask her if she wants her blankie. She always does. Amazing.
17. Sing Songs – Something that Mommy Michele started doing a little while ago was singing her songs when she put her in bed. The 3 songs that are musts, because she always requests them, are “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star”, “ABC”, and “Silent Night”. And normally in that order. Recently she has asked us to sing he such-and-such song. (Dog Song, Boy Song, etc) I told her I did not know how that song went and asked her if she would sing it to me. Invariably, any song she makes up is either to “Frère Jacques” or “Twinkle Twinkle”.

Generally, that routine does the trick. When we first started it, it worked like a charm. There really is something to be said for comforting your young children through routine. Of course, this entire philosophy and approach will end up being completely backwards for Alexander. We’ll need to figure out what works for him.

As you can also tell, we also have very thankful to have such generous friends and family.

Abuela appreciating her birthday collage

Casa Lennon’s abuela, sometimes know called Juana Antónia Lennon Gutierrez Magro Ibañez Alonso Palacios Barona Ruano García, delighted everyone by turning 70 years young. Much of the family converged on Las Tapas in Old Town Alexandria in what unexpectedly turned out to be a surprise party. More a function of the Lennon clan’s well communicated inability to communicate well.

That said, it was really fun. People came from Florida, North Carolina, New York, and even Maryland to take part. The primary “gift” abuela always wants is the time spent with her family – namely the grandkids. That is what she wants more than anything else. That said, Michael coordinated a gathering of lifetime photos and stories to put together for abuela. I highly recommend viewing the awesome collage that was the product of that effort.

ASIDE: We had the good fortune of being at the Spanish restaurant while Spain was beating Paraguay in the World Cup. (In case you hadn’t heard, SPAIN WON!!!! VIVA ESPANA!!! )

One last thing, we’d like to thank our niece Chloe for snapping so many candid photos.

Pictures from the Celebration

Here is the photo album gallery.

Here you can view it as a slideshow.

As may very well become our custom, we hosted an open house for Sophia’s birthday. The event serves the dual purposes of getting to see many of our friends that we haven’t seen in a while and celebrating Sophia’s birthday. Aside from the fact that the sun decided to be an active participant in this year’s festivities, we all had a really good time. Most importantly, Sophia had an absolute blast. We also were able to get several of our friends together that we have been trying to introduce to one another.

Of course, this format may not work as well for Alexander’s birthday, since he is in mid-winter. Oh well, I am sure his celebration will be great, too.

Note to all other parents of young children: We got a lot of feedback that the “format” worked very well. We opened our doors in the early afternoon and invited folks to drop by whenever they wanted for as long as they wanted. This definitely helped with toddler/infant nap schedules. Some stayed for 30 minutes as they squeezed us in between competing weekend events. (Thank you!) Some stayed for hours. It was great to be able to see people for any period of time.

We are so blessed with so many wonderful friends who would take time of their hectic lives to help us celebrate. We are genuinely grateful.

We are especially grateful that Dave’s parents (a.k.a. abuela and grandpa) made the trip down from DC. Especially since two days prior they had just arrived back in the country from a month in Spain. WOW! We love you.

Photos from Sophia’s 2nd Birthday

Here are the pictures from Sophia’s second birthday.

Videos of Sophia’s 2nd Birthday

Terrible recording of us singing happy birthday to Sophia. Direct Link to YouTube video

Sophia having fun, as usual, with the Mackes. Direct Link to YouTube Video
(Forgive Daddy’s awful singing)

Sophia is as much of a ham as her daddy

Sophia made her inaugural solo bike ride. Admittedly, it was almost a month ago, but she now asks to get on her “bici” all the time. (Spanish abbreviation.)  It’s an amusing back story.

We were shopping for a bike trailer that Dave would pull behind his bike.  We really liked the Burley Honey Bee. We found a good deal on it at the Bicycle Chain. Alas, after taking Dave’s bike there, we learned that the trailer would not attach to his bike. While Dave was trying it all out, Michele entertained Sophia by letting her ride various kids bikes. Sophia loved it. So much so that, well, we left with a bike. It’s actually used (though you would never know by looking at it). The best part is that we’ll be able to trade it back in later. Apparently young kids grow out of things.

Well, see below for more pix of the first ride and a video to boot.

More Cycling Pix

The collection of shots from her bike ride.

Video leaving the garage

Alexander Smiling for Mommy

We have taken a few pictures this week. I figured we would share them. Not a great deal of writing today, just links to some pictures and some videos from the past week.  Sorry we have not posted as frequently as when we only had Sophia, but apparently, a second child in the home consumes more time.

One quick note, Alexander had his 2 month check in this week and all went very well. Above average height and weight (14 pounds) and small noggin. Looking at the melon, I’m surprised he’s only in the 30-something percentile. Makes me wonder what kind of onion head monsters are running around out there.

LINKS TO PICTURES

A collection of assorted pictures from this week in the “Random Pictures” album.

You’ll be able to view more albums in the Casa Lennon photo gallery.

VIDEOS

Alexander amusing Mommy

A video of Sophia playing peekabo with her Mimi over Skype. (Direct Link to YouTube.)

Sophia laughing at Daddy running back and forth. (Reminiscent of this original.)

Valentine’s Day Post Card

Family Portrait

Mommy Michele and Sophia (with Jr hanging in waiting)

Sophia Being Cute

Tonight, she wanted some crackers. Daddy Dave encouraged her to say “More crackers, please.” While saying this, I’m signing “more” and “please”. Sophia takes it all in, and lets me repeat about 4 times. She tilts her head, I pause expectantly. Sophia exclaims in what sounds like perfect disbelief, “Cracka, pleeze!”

If you don’t know why I thought that was funny, read this.

Anyway, it cracked me up. Sorry, I know that is a terrible pun. So I then had to make her laugh. Check out the video below:

"Agua!" - Sophia and the Ocean

Guess you can tell from the title, but in case you missed it and the pic to the left, we went to the beach.  It was Sophia’s first ever beach trip, and she had a blast. She wasn’t really quite sure what to do with the breaking waves. The pool at home certainly doesn’t act that way! The water was a little rough since Tropical Storm Danny had just passed off shore the day before.

The crazy part is that this trip almost didn’t happen because Sophia was a bit under the weather the morning we planned to leave. In fact, she had been awake a good chunk of the night before. Our plans to be on the road by 9:30am were delayed when she slept in until 11:15! That was because Mommy Michele finally broke down at around 6:30am and gave Sophia the pacifier that she hadn’t had in close to two months. (I guess getting more teeth is not a pleasant experience. Good thing we don’t remember anything before the age of 2. Thanks for that tidbit, Cousin Michelle!)

Nom Nom Nom

We opted to take Highway 70 to Atlantic Beach rather than Interstate 40. That likely ended up taking longer, but was a slightly more interesting drive. More importantly, we got to stop off for an Eastern NC barbecue lunch in Goldsboro. We stopped at Wilber’s Barbecue.  That was definitely a treat for Daddy Dave.  But Sophia didn’t mind it either. She inhaled her share of hush puppies, june peas, and barbecue. (For those unfamiliar with the noun usage of the word “barbecue”,  you can learn all about NC BBQ here.)

We went to the beach our friends the Macke’s and their two beautiful children, Jessica and Alex. Since Mommy Michele thinks of everything, she wisely suggested we get adjoining rooms with the Mackes. That was a huge success for the kids.  They loved being able to run in between rooms. It was funny getting Sophia up in the morning and watching her walk immediately to the closed door, point to it, look at us, and grunt. Words, no. But the message was unmistakable.

Sophia just chillin'

Sophia really enjoyed going to the beach and playing with the sand.  I think one of her beach highlights was probably sitting in her friend’s chair.  She sat in that thing all the time and just people-watched.  She especially liked watching the Mackes (Dad, mostly) building sand castles and sand walls. She’s got supervisor in her blood. Other than going for brief strolls on the sand, her other favorite beach activity was probably getting rides in plastic, beach wagon that she barely fit in. I think we’ll need to get her a wagon of some kind cuz she loves getting pulled around like that.

The three kids are like peas in a pod.  (Watch the video below if you don’t believe me.) They just had a great time playing with each other in the pool and in the hotel room. It’s so cliche, but I am fascinated but by how amazingly happy it makes us just to see our daughter content and having fun. Daddy Dave keeps trying to tell himself he is not wrapped around Sophia’s finger, but he is lying to himself.

The last night we were there, we all went out for a lovely dinner at the Channel Marker. (Good Stuff!) We tried to go early since we had three kids less than 3 1/2 years of age. For our sanity, for that of fellow patrons, and cuz the kids probably wouldn’t last that long. On that last point, we were wrong. All the kids were very well behaved.  Sophia and Jessica even ended up dancing to some live sax jazz. Very nice evening indeed.

Everyone had a great time, and we just beat the rains to the highway for the trip home.  As is this blog’s tradition, we finish with a photo slideshow and the previously mentioned video.

PHOTOS FROM THE TRIP

As usual, view the individual photos at your own pace here.

VIDEO FROM THE TRIP

The doctor recommended we start her on rice cereal and move into solids. Moms and Dads out there, let us know your experience and how you did it. What brand did you buy? How did it go?

Since the last post, Dave got a new camera for his birthday. It is a Canon digital SLR. I signed him up for some camera classes. He will be getting a tripod at some point so that he too can be documented in the family events. I’m going to leave it him to post the pictures, so you’ll have to check back later for those updates.

Miss Sophia has progressed well with her sleeping also. She sleeps between 11 and 13 hours a night. She started waking up at night when it got cold at night here. I bought her some heavier sleepers and a little space heater and she is now sleeping like a champ again. On Sunday, she took 6 hours of naps and was only awake 4 hours total that day. She usually only naps twice during the day and for only 1 hour at a time plus a quick nap in her stroller in the late afternoon when we go for a walk.

A quick round up of other developments:
-She is sitting up with assistance in her exersaucer, on our laps, and in her bumbo (video in next post)
-She rolled over 4 times about a month ago and hasn’t done it again since. The Dr. said most babies don’t roll over until 5 months, so we don’t know what that was about. There’s video there that I think Dave already posted.
-She went to the babysitter WHILE awake for the first time. Thanks to Marcela, Nikki & Ivan, and the grandparents.
-Dave’s parents came for a week and had a blast with Miss Sophia. They helped entertain Miss Sophia while I got the house a little cleaner.
-I went to work for three days and left her w/ Dave and his parents. The first morning was a little hard. The second day, I stayed late to go to a reception after the conference. She was in good hands.
-She is babbling.
-She is ticklish, especially under her right arm.

Things are going to be changing in October. Wednesday is Dave’s last day at Duke until January 12th. I go back to work October 20th. I’m very proud of Dave for taking his FMLA time to spend with Sophia and get to know our daughter even better. I’ll only be 3 minutes away, so I can always come visit during lunch, which makes the transition easier for me.

Miss Sophia is waking up from her nap now. Best wishes.

Michele