Sophia interrupts, “I don’t want to go on the baby carrier.”

Michele responds, “We won’t put you in the baby carrier because it is for carrying baby’s and she is a girl.”

Sophia says, “I’m not a girl. I’m a monkey.”

Dave asks, “How do you know you’re a monkey.”

Sophia shoves her hands hands in her armpits and hoots, hollers, screams like a chimpanzee. There you have it.

The irony is that we were at the National Zoo earlier this summer, and Dave’s friend Larry asked if she was a monkey. Sophia said she wasn’t. When asked why not, she put her hands in her pockets and said, “I have pockets.”

Not sure which is the more structurally sound argument.

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:

Recently, Michele encouraged Sophia to take her wrapped-up diapers and discarding them in the trash can. Sophia has really taken to it. She actually *enjoys* taking the diapers and tossing them in the trash can. Of course, we kinda dig it, too, and hope that she continues to be that helpful when her brother arrives.

As some of you may know, Sophia recently had the flu. She simultaneously had an emerging ear infection and a bit of wheezing, for which she was prescribed antibiotics and 5 days of breathing treatments, respectively. You might recall that Sophia has had breathing treatments before, and is *not* a fan of getting that mask strapped to her face. She pretty much balled everytime we put it on her.

After her last treatment this time, she worked up the courage to cautiously approach the dinosaur face-inspired mask. She gingerly grabbed it and examined it. I praised her for her courage and willingness to see that it wasn’t that bad.

She then marched to the trash can and dropped it in.

The three of us took an unplanned trip to DC to spend time with the grandparents after Sophia’s abuelo had a medical scare. Thankfully, he is doing very well. Sophia had a great time entertaining family in DC in her exersaucer. She absolutely loves that thing. See pix for proof.

From a development perspective, Sophia is advancing very well. At about 8 months, she decided to start crawling. She literally picked it up in about 3 days. It was an amazingly quick transition. As Mommy Michele said, “I think she just downloaded the ‘crawl’ program.” (View this clip, if you don’t get the Matrix reference.) She’s actually pulling herself up, too. But no doubt, she is crawling around quickly.

Another step in Sophia’s development is her ability (and interest) in holding her own bottle and feeding herself. For non-parents, that might just sound kind of neat. As other parents know, this is a super-cool step. It makes getting out the door easier. It enables the three of us to eat together and engage more than we have been able to. It really makes things a lot easier.

(The pic to the left is from a day stroll we took to Dunkin Donuts.)

One thing that Sophia has been wrestling with of late is being sick. I’m sure it is the combination of winter season and starting day care. Nevertheless, her nostrils are ever-flowing “snaucets”. (snot-faucets; charming I know.) She’s had a few trips to the pediatrician. She is doing much better now.

One thing that we are very happy about is that for the first time since she started day care in mid March, Sophia has finally gone all 5 days in one week. It took 2 months, but she finally made it one complete week. We need we could do it, we just had to be patient. Sophia has adjusted pretty well to day care. We were just informed that the second week of April she will begin her transition to the next class. We are very excited about that because Sophia is enamored with the main teacher in that classroom. Mrs’ Lopez is Columbian and speaks to Sophia in Spanish. Sophia totally lights up when she speaks to her in Spanish. Incidentally, we estimate that Sophia’s Spanish will be at Daddy Dave’s level within 3 months.

One last anecdote that we find very amusing is Sophia’s interest and fascination with brushing her teeth. Both of them. Sophia always seemed transfixed when we brushed our teeth. So Mommy Michele gave her a toothbrush once while brushing her teeth, and Sophia mimicked perfectly. Sophia now has her own toothbrush that she uses to brush her teeth. It’s quite cute actually.

Alright, enough for now. Here are the pix and video.

Pictures from Months 7 – 8
Here is a slideshow of the pix. As always, you can view the pictures directly by going to the Picasa web folder.
Videos from Months 7 – 8
Here a few videos from the last couple of months. I love the first one.
This is Daddy Dave goofing around with Sophia and having a good time. (Direct Link to video.)

Sophia playing with Michele and crawling at 8 months (Direct Link to Video.)

A video of the 3 of us relaxing one night. Sophia at 8 months. Likely something only family might like. (Direct Link to Video.)