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.

Alexander poolside on his surfboard mat

The day our community pool opens should be a holiday in our house. We look forward to it for months, literally. This year the big day was May 8, a little bit earlier than the year before. Sweet! Makes us feel that our ever-increasing home owner’s dues may be moderately justified. Ironically, we failed to make Opening Day this year. Nevertheless, we finally made it and were accompanied by 3/4ths of Team Gresham.

Sophia had a blast in the water. It was a little surprising only because the water was a little chilly early in the season. (I know that “chilly” is relative, but when compared to her typical bathwater, it was chilly.) We’ve since made two trips and Sophia has actually had no interest getting in the water. It might be a water temp thing, but we doubt it. She’s really just wanted to run all around the pool, stopping at each ladder to makes us just nervous enough. Michele finally got her to go back in after many attempts. Within 5 minutes, Michele and Sophia were having a great time, as usual. Mommy Michele always seems to know exactly what to do.

Alexander actually didn’t make it into the water on his first visit. He was napping some, and Daddy rewarded him with some tummy time. That’s love. We did dip his 3 month old feet in the water. He was not amused. As an aside, Alexander loves getting baths. It took Sophia a while to actually come around to liking them. Alexander pretty much loved them as soon as we were able to submerge him. Makes the experience better for everyone.

Quick aside – After we bathe Sophia at night, she climbs out and starts saying, “Ale’ander’s turn.” It’s so cute (to us.) The way I wrote it is my attempt to capture her phonetic pronunciation. Basically, his name without the “kz” sound of the “x” in Alexander.

More Pool Pix

Here are more random pictures from the first day at the pool.

Valentine’s Day Post Card

Family Portrait

Mommy Michele and Sophia (with Jr hanging in waiting)

Sophia Being Cute

The (expected) details of his arrival:

• C-Section scheduled for the morning of Monday, Feb. 15. (For those of you thinking, “that’s just like Michele, planning it out”, you should know that Michele was really looking forward to the spontaneous, natural experience. But sometimes even that is not something you can control.)
• As with Sophia, we will be delivering at Rex Hospital in Raleigh, NC.
• We have AWESOME friends that have agreed to watch Sophia while we are in the hospital. Though at least we learned she can visit. Yay!

Because Michele will be recovering from surgery, we ask that if you want to meet the new addition, please introduce yourself to him when we get back home. The amazing love and support we received in the hospital when Sophia arrived was both amazing and literally overwhelming.

So, how exactly is it different this time around beyond the obvious gender difference?

1. Not as much free time to prep. So the prepping is not as peppy.
   

   Crib and dresser from "his" room

   For a perfect example, one only need look at his room. For “long time readers”, you may recall the post describing her nursery. To prep for this post, I ran upstairs, moved boxes out of the frame, and snapped some pix. We simply have not been able to dedicate the same level of energy and time to his room that we did for Sophia’s. Nevertheless, he does have a bigger room, brand new furniture, and just as many hand me downs and amazing sales acquisitions as Sophia did.

2. One huge difference is the amount of combined time we’ll be taking off. With Sophia, Michele stayed at home 4 months. Dave began his 3 month leave after that. When all was said and done, Sophia did not start day care until she was 7 1/2 months old. Her brother will only have mom home for the first 3 months. It will be interesting to see how that difference plays out. Dave will be out a total of 6 weeks, though the last 3-4 weeks will be staggered as part time. (Big shout out to my boss Kevin for supporting this flexible schedule! Here’s an unsolicited plug for his site about all things Durham.)
3. Lastly, it will be….interesting to see just how different the two kids are. We, of course, think Sophia is the perfect child. So, of course, karma would dictate that he will be….different. We know it’s just being silly and superstitious, but we can’t help it. I remember a story my mother shared about when she was expecting her second child, my brother Michael. She was concerned she could not possibly love anyone as much as she loved her firstborn, my sister Elizabeth. (She was genuinely concerned about this.) But then, as soon as he was born, she knew she loved him just as much. I’m sure the same will be true for us.

I was totally uplifted, but she wasn’t done yet. She looked around, paused, and then yelled for Kitty. Michele went to get Kitty, and again, Sophia clapped and yelled, “yay!”

She is the coolest kid ever! (I gotta say that for the 2 months left when I can before her brother arrives. )

The post is taking longer and longer each time. This time, it is Michele doing the post. I broke the pictures out into four different groups: Friends, Family, Around the House, and Around Town.

Here are a few quick items since the last posting about a month ago:

We are really happy and enjoying spending time with our precious, happy girl. She has been sick a termendous amount (ear infections, pink eye, stomach bug ….) and we are fortunate to have jobs that let us be flexible about how we get our hours. Since Sophia started Jan 12th, she has only been to daycare all five days in a week twice! I think she missed more school than she went in March.

Sophia just moved into the next class at Primrose. I think she is in love with the teacher, Mrs. Lopez. She is from Columbia and speaks Spanish to Sophia. When I used to get her, she was ready to go and held onto me for dear life. Today, her first full day in the new class, she kept pushing me away to get down and play and move around. She also ate and slept really well there. It made me really happy that she enjoys where she spends so much time.

With how much Sophia was sick, her 9-month check up revealed what we guessed … she weighed less than she did at her 6-month check up. She went from the 75% in weight to the 25% in weight. Luckily, she’s already gained a few pounds since then and is well on her way again. The leeks, potatoes, carrots, and peas puree is one of her favorites along with yogurt, apple sauce and the always popular Cheerios.

Even though we don’t get out as much as we used to, I realized when looking at the pictures that we get around alot still. Two weekends again we spent some time with Layna from KY, Maryjo read Sophia her bedtime stories and put her to bed, and we visited the Floyds, the Tanners, and the Turners. By Sunday though, we skipped out on a BBQ b/c Sophia napped the entire time of the BBQ.

For Easter weekend, we took a trip to DC to visit Dave’s family and celebrate Grandpa Peter and Great Aunt Eileen (the twins) turning 70. Mike and Renee spent alot of time organizing and Elizabeth flew in from Spain. Sophia had a blast getting to know her family better.

Tonight Sophia moved from the infant tub to the real tub (pictures in the slide show). Luckily, I had no items on the Town Council agenda, so I got to play with Sophia instead. Other updates include her almost walking on her own (she now holds just one of my hands), three more teeth are coming in (that will make five), and she now knows Ma-Ma and Pa-Pa. I LOVE hearing her blabber Ma ma ma ma. She is happy and doesn’t really whine … her nickname with many is the “amazing baby”. We truly adore her.

Without out any more blabber from ma ma, here are the links to the pictures. I’m going to leave the posting of the videos to Daddy Dave.

Click here to see Pictures of Sophia–Friends if your Flash isn’t working.

Several pictures (about 30)–only the die hards will sit through this .

Well, I failed to actually post before the end of 2008. C’est la vie. (That’s for you, Jacob. Look it up.) Since we have so many pix and videos since the last post, I figured I would break up this post into 3 mini-posts. This is a really long post, so I apologize in advance. Each section has its own set of pix and videos. If you want to see them all, have at them. The 3 general categories are:

• Health, Development, & General Stuff
• Thanksgiving 2008
• Christmas in Florida – 2008

A note on viewing the pix. For the time being, I am simply putting slide shows in the post. You can view the albums at your pace at any time by going to Dave’s Picasa Albums.

Been a while since we last posted so I figure starting with some of her recent developments is a good place to start.

• Sophia had her 6 month checkup in early December.
  • 18 pounds and 6 oz – ~70 percentile
  • 25 3/4 inches tall – ~70 percentile
• Of course this was technically a week late. Sophia had her first sickness. When all the Lennons got together for Thanksgiving (more on that later) Daddy Dave got sick. Sure enough, Sophia got sick a little later. And lastly Mommy Michele got sick last. We all ended up taking antibiotics to clear things up. It was Daddy Dave and Sophia’s first time ever taking antibiotics. The only scary time was when Sophia’s temperature got up to 102 F. The after hours nurse told us to give her a cold bath and not to really worry until she got to 105. Frankly, I don’t think that’s very good advice, but I’m sure she stayed a Holiday Inn Express the night before. I have to admit that I now know what it feels like to feel completely powerless. We wanted nothing more than for Sophia to get better, or at least feel good. But we could only soothe her as best our biological instincts (and many google searches) allowed. When Sophia was young (hah! I guess a couple of months old) she didn’t mind the aspirator. At 6 months, she minded. And now she is mobile, strong, and independent enough to avoid our efforts to help her breathe. As many parents before us know, that is most fun at 03:17am.
• Getting around. Sophia has made some good progress in this arena. She can scoot around the room pretty easily now. (See videos below.) She’s also able to roll over from her back to her belly consistently. The other way still requires some effort. (Or is it dumb luck?)
• Along these same lines, in the last few weeks, Sophia has started being able to remain sitting up straight unassisted. Well, for up to a minute or so at which point – “Timber.”
  

  From Casa Lennon Pics for December 2008

• Our friends, the Turners, gave us a Johnny Jump Up. (See Video below.) Holy guacamole. She loves that thing. All newer-than-us parents or parents-to-be must invest in one, especially all our extended volleyball family. What’s funny is that ever since she started using that, all she wants to do is bounce, hop, jump, etc. The sad part is that she now has mo’ mad ups than Daddy Dave.

Here are some pix from the last month
(Remember – Xmas and Tgiving photos are further down the page)
December 2008 Videos
1 of 4 -Many people seem quite intrigued by how Sophia gets around while she is lying on her back. I figured I would try to capture it. It isn’t until about 25 seconds in that she actually starts moving. Anyway, you’ll see why she has a bald spot on the back of her head.

2 of 4 - Sophia can only move forward on her back, so, of course, she can only move backwards on her belly.

3 of 4 - This is a video of Michele and Sophia playing one night. I love Sophia’s giggling. I also like the face Sophia gives the camera at the end of the video.

4 of 4 - Our good friends, the Turner family, passed their Johnny Jump Up to us. We are eternally grateful because Sophia absolutely loves it. She is just getting used to it in this video, but she can’t get enough of it now.

We had the good fortune of celebrating Thanksgiving twice this year. Once with friends when the Dois hosted a Thanksgiving dinner the weekend before, then our family get together on Turkey day. Dinner with the Dois was great and Sophia definitely enjoyed playing with people her own size.
Turkey Day was especially sweet this year because the Lennon Clan descended on North Carolina. It definitely made “traveling” easier for us since we only had to drive to Chapel Hill for a phenomenal Thanksgiving meal prepared by my cousin Travis and Michelle. YUMMY! The meal deserves its own blog post.
Of course, the truly important part of Thanksgiving was to get together with the ones we love and we are extremely fortunate that we were able to do that. (For those who couldn’t make it, we love y’all, too.) We had a total of 12 people in our home. That may be a new record for us. It was snug and was very special for me because it reminded me of holidays at Grandma Lennon’s house in Edgewater Park where we seemed to fit people everywhere. (Whenever Dave wonders if we’ll have enough space for something, I just think of 49c Edgewater Park.)
The day after Thanksgiving, we joined every other Triangle family with young children at the NC Museum of Life and Science. (I must admit that I was disappointed the lemurs were not out.) We had a nice picnic and birthday celebration for Peter, Catalina, Renee, Gary and Cousin Michelle before going in. The cake sure was crowded.

Here are some pix from our Thanksgiving celebrations

Christmas was in Florida this year. (Central Florida, north of Orlando.) We debated for a while whether or not to fly or drive. The drive would have been about 3-4 days of travel – cuz we would have wanted to stop in Savannah, Charleston, and/or Saint Augustine. Then Southwest offered non-stop flights for less than $90 each way. SOLD! So Sophia had her first ever flight. We (and all of our co-passengers) are very happy to report that it went very well. Sophia slept on the original take off and other than that she was unfazed. Thankfully, RDU to Orlando is a relatively short flight.
When we got to Florida we opted to upgrade at a big discount from 3 door Hyundai Accent to a Toyota Avalon. Money well spent. We stayed in one of Michele’s father’s homes. (Making him sound like a McCain. ) Thankfully felt comfortable there and was able to sleep comfortably. What made the experience even more fantastic was the kindness of Shane and Jamie. (Mommy Michele’s brother.) They have a beautiful baby girl, Kielynn, who is just a few months older than Sophia. Shane and Jaime let us borrow a pack-and-play and several toys for Sophia. Made life (and packing) much easier.
In Florida, Sophia got to meet a lot of her Hane family. She had met her maternal grandmother, Mimi, a few months ago. But on this trip she met her cousins, aunts and uncles, grandfather, and many others. For the most part, Sophia did pretty well with being handed to a bunch of “strangers”. Sophia has started to develop a bit of stranger anxiety, but she did pretty well. She seemed really intrigued by her grandpa Marv and cousin Jacob. Who knew?
Daddy Dave thought it was really cool that Sophia got to meet her great-great-aunt Lois and great-great-uncle Francis. (Lois is Michele’s paternal grandfather’s big sister.) That just seems so cool.
We shared a Christmas Eve dinner with Mimi, Shane, Jaime, and Aunt Helen. It was quite delish, and it made quite a dish. (That’s for you, Straffin. For anyone who is curious, here is the source.) We finished the night with some board games with Shannon (Michele’s sister), Ben, Chloe, and Jacob. Everyone had a great time. We also had several big family gatherings that made seeing more people while we were down much easier.
Christmas day finished very nicely because our friends Maryjo and Scots were kind enough to come over and cook Christmas dinner for us. They knew we were flying back that morning and had no food. We are very grateful to them for their kindness. They even brought presents for Sophia.

Sophia opened her first present while we were in Florida. Michele’s cousin, Cindy, sent Sophia a wonderful book. See the video below. Many others were very generous and helped stock up on age-appropriate toys and books for Sophia. We are very grateful for all of the generosity of friends and family.

Here are some pix from our Christmas celebrations & time in Florida
And a few videos
1 of 5 – This is Sophia officially unwrapping her first wrapped Christmas present. (Thank you, Cousin Cindy). Of course, she didn’t do much of the unwrapping, but she loves the taste of the present.

2 of 5 – Sophia met a lot of new people in Florida. For example, she got to meet her great-great uncle Francis and great-great Aunt Lois. How cool is that. (Lois is Sophia’s maternal great grandfather’s sister.) This video also has some more of the extended Hane clan who were in Florida for Christmas.

3 of 5 -Went to Florida and Sophia just would not stay calm for 3 seconds with her Aunt Shannon. Shannon made the most of it by having fun with Sophia.

4 of 5 – Sophia had a great time in Florida meeting her maternal extended family. She really enjoyed playing with her cousins. Just take a look.

5 of 5 – A holiday family tradition is to play some board games and have a blast. Christmas Eve we played Jacob’s Christmas present, Cranium. Jacob is supposed to hum or whistle the tune and Ben and Dave are to try to guess. If you can’t figure out, don’t worry, we didn’t either. (My favorite part may be Jacob’s excuse caught at the very end of the video.)

UP NEXT TIME …
Daddy Dave goes back to work January 12th and little Sophia starts daycare at Primrose Schools. The daycare is just a mile from the house and a mile from Mommy Michele’s work, so Mommy Michele plans to see her during lunch at least once a week. We are very confident that things will go well. We’ve heard only great things and we have friends who have sent their kids there for years. We got on the waiting list January of 2008 and were confirmed for a spot in November.

Best Wishes in the New Year!
Love,
The Lennons!

There were a couple of quick anecdotes I wanted to share.
Sophia’s First Word
After deciding she has finally mastered Klingon – I verified her annunciation with the Klingon Language Institute, Sophia decided to try on something new. I am proud to announce Sophia’s first word: “Galarraga”. Who knew she was a fan of the former Braves first baseman.
(In case you are still wondering, yes that’s a joke. But say that name with your best baby voice out loud – come on, you know you want to. See, easy to hear how I think she said it.)

Daddy Dave Begins Parental Leave
So it’s true, I have started my official leave. Those of you following me on facebook and twitter already knew that, I suppose. Today is the first day of my second week. The 3 of us had all last week off together. It was great. We relaxed and had a nice stacation.
Michele is now back to work. As much as she doesn’t like being away from Sophia, she is also happy to be back at work. She likes her work and enjoys the people she works with. Being only a 1 1/2 minute drive (sorry, Larry) from home also means she can come home quickly if she wants.

Peter and Abuela (maternal grandmother) came down
Daddy Dave’s brother Peter made the trip to Morrisville to ostensibly run in the Morrisville 5K. That didn’t happen. Instead, they attended a photography class. Dave needs to learn to use his sweet Canon EOS Rebel Xsi that Mommy Michele got him for his birthday. (Most of the pix on this post were taken with that camera.)
To make us feel better, we did some trail riding the next day at Lake Crabtree park. I was surprised that Peter had never been “mountain” trail riding. Lake Crabtree is not much of a mountain, though Loop 6 can kick my… sorry, family blog.

Sophia kinda starts on solid foods
Sophia was given the clear by her pediatrician to start rice cereal. Our pediatrician should have told Sophia that. As you’ll see in one of the videos below, Sophia wasn’t exactly chomping at the bit to (a) start eating non-liquids and (b) eat from this new fangled thing called a spoon. She likes the nipple just fine, thank you very much. (Again, family blog, so keepin’ the entendres to a minimum.)

First ever visit to her day care
Today, Sophia took her first ever visit to her daycare. She will be going to Primrose Schools. We can’t wait for her to start because you see, one mortgage is not enough. Seriously though, we are very happy with our choice and know she’ll be happy there. Ironically, we met a nice lady named Sylvia who is from Spain. She was very excited to meet me because she said that she had yet to meet anyone in this area from Spain. I guess I’ll just have to do.

We know we are lucky, but when we heard that one of Sophia’s future classmates comes in from Pittsboro every day? D*&M!! For you non-locals. (Sorry again, Larry.)

Pictures (94 of them)
(If you want to see the photos individually and not in a Flash slideshow, here’s the album.) You may want to go there also if you want more control of the slideshow. If you want to start the slide show below again, you’ll need to refresh this page and scroll down to see the sldes again.
Videos

Mommy Michele making Sophia Laugh (45 seconds) Note that Mommy Michele was the one holding the camera, so not only is it artistic, it is impressive.

Solid Foods. Kinda. (2:39 in length)

Mommy Michele Making Sophia chuckle some more (1:01 in length)
(if you listen, you can here abuela, cousin michele, and cousin travis in the background.)

Some Pictures
Some pix from the last couple of weeks. I was looking for pictures of Sophia with her uncles Michael or Peter, but I think that I took all those pix experimenting with Uncle Peter’s camera. (oops)

A Video
I thought this was a pretty funny clip. Sophia holding on to her own bottle. Swear I didn’t set this up.