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.

THE PLAN
- Daddy Dave takes Sophia to day care a few times before she actually begins.
- Sophia starts day care on Monday January 12.
- Daddy Dave returns to work on Monday January 12.
(Sounds simple enough, right?)

THE REALITY
- Sophia got pretty sick the Friday night before she was to go to day care. Hmm, that’s ominous.
- Sunday before day care, Mommy Michele gets that bug. Hmm, this is getting worse before it gets better.
- Monday, January 12 (first day of day care), Daddy Dave stays home to take care of the girls.
- Tuesday, Daddy Dave gets sick, too. Another day not going to work and Sophia still not in day care.
- Wednesday, January 14 – Daddy Dave finally makes it back to work for about a half a day. Mommy Michele still looking after Sophia.
- January 16 – We finally take Sophia to day care. (Yeah!) It lasts about an hour before they tell us she threw up (and more). Mommy Michele goes to get her.
(Quite an interesting “first week” of day care)
- Second week shortened by snow day and Sophia getting sent home Thursday afternoon with a rash (along with two classmates. OY!)

You can tell Sophia was not well because she was really “clingy” and quiet. (See pic on the right. ) So what made this return even more special was an insurance fiasco. Apparently, Sophia’s pediatrician is no longer covered by Daddy Dave’s insurance. Duke emailed this information to Daddy Dave about a week after he went on leave, so he didn’t get it until about 3 months later. In the mean time, Sophia’s pediatrician, Rex Pediatrics of Cary, has been submitting claims that have been refused for about 2 months. Sure wish someone would have told us. Especially before Sophia had some blood samples and chest X-Ray. Long story short (too late), Duke allowed us to switch insurance providers retroactively to January 1 so that claims could be refiled. (Thank you, Duke!)

Well, this has been a pretty gloomy post so far (sorry), so thought we would end on a more positive note. Sophia got to experience her first snow. We hesitated to take outside since she was not doing well. But, thankfully, abuela Lennon and Mimi both got her snow suits and we felt better taking her out. Sophia enjoyed the fresh air and weird white stuff.

More importantly, Sophia is doing well now and is acting like her usual cheerful, smiling, laughing self. Having a sick kid is awful because you want nothing more than to have them get better. But when they get better, you seem to appreciate and love them even more. (Is that possible?)

Oh yeah, Sophia has made it successfully through two consecutive days of day care. Of course, she was not there for 8 hours either day, but oh well. Daddy Dave dropped her off and Mommy Michele picked her up. I think picking up may be the easier of the two. Although Michele got to take Sophia out of Dave’s Accord coupe. I think we may be closer to getting Daddy Dave’s much desired Honda Odyssey.

Some Recent Pictures
OK, well here are a series of pics from January.
(Note: You can view all the pictures at your own pace here.)
Some Recent Videos
I like this first video because there are a couple of cute smiles by Sophia.

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!

Figured since Sophia was 3 months old today, I should finally get around to posting something again. I can’t believe it’s been 3 months! Well, as you might imagine, a few things have happened, so let’s cut to the chase. New developments:

• Sophia sleeps through the night

Woo Hoo!! That’s worth re-writing. Sophia sleeps through the night. It felt just as good to type it the second time as it did the first time. Truth be told, she doesn’t sleep through every night, but so what! She tends to go down fairly consistently at 8:00 pm. (+/- 30 minutes) I think the first night that she slept through, neither Mommy Michele nor I did cuz we were concerned. “Why isn’t she crying yet?” “Do you think she is OK?” You parents out there know what I am talking about.

• Sophia actually rolled over on her own

This was a little bit of a surprise. We were just chillin’ upstairs getting her some tummy time. She deals with that OK. But I guess she’d had her fill and she decided to roll over on her back. I think what amazed me more than anything was how genuinely excited I got.

• Facing out in the Baby Carrier

Sophia has always liked the baby carrier. However, in recent weeks, she started facing out (sample picture), rather than staring at our chests all the time. This may sound small, but she likes it even more. Which translates into us being able to take longer walks together. Now, whether we actually do take those walks together is a whole ‘nother matter.

Pictures from the last few weeks
(As usual, you can see the pix direct, rather than with flash.)

A Handful of videos
Mimi enjoying some time with Sophia

Waking up in the morning with a few smiles

Video trying to catch Sophia rolling over on her own. (No video evidence yet.)

A Video only a parent (or grandparent) could love (Just trying to capture the roll on video)

• Sophia had her first travel adventure (trip to DC)
• Sophia met her tia (aunt) Elizabeth, tio Diego, and 3 Spanish Cousins
• Sophia had her first babysitting experience (Grandpa)
• Sophia turned 2 months old (August 5)
• Sophia is cooing and giggling
• Sophia met her maternal grandmother (aka, Meme)

Hopefully the pix and video may make it worthwhile. To pique your interest, I’ll start with a picture that I think may be my fave so far.

“Highlights” from Sophia’s first trip to DC
Let me just start by saying that we knew the car trip would be longer than the ~5 hours we were used to. (Stop to feed, change diapers, etc.) We did not expect that it would take us 9 hours of total travel time to get to New Market, MD. Mind you, that’s because we got to Tyson’s Corner at around 6:00 pm Friday afternoon. Middle of DC rush hour. No thanks. We stopped and ate dinner. (2 hours at Tysons.)

Sophia Met the rest of Dave’s immediate family
Sophia got to meet her Aunt Elizabeth (Dave’s sister), her husband Diego, and 3 kids – Diego, Pablo, & Cristina. She also got to meet her uncle Paul (another of Dave’s brothers), his wife Renee, and 2 of their 3 kids – Catalina and Mariana. (Isabela wasn’t able to make it, but Sophia can’t wait to meet her cousin.) It’s always great to see the family, but, for obvious reasons, this time was special. It is so wonderful to see everyone, especially the kids, get so genuinely excited about meeting Sophia. Makes you really appreciate family.

Probably one of the more memorable events was going to Buca di Beppo. It is a very loud restaurant. Baby Sophia hadn’t napped much that day. She spent just about the entire time zonked out on uncle Paul’s shoulder. It was pretty amazing that she stayed put. (Pictures in the slide show.) There are also some adorable pix of Sophia’s cousin Cristina holding Sophia. Cristina really wanted to hold her new cousin but was really nervous about what to do if she cried. Well, it lasted about 10 seconds.

2 month check up
Sophia had her 2 month check up on 8/5. She got 4 vaccinations and was not necessarily her cheerful self for the next couple of days. That was to be expected. We were pleased with her physical progress.

Weight: ll lbs 8.5oz. (70th percentile)
Height: 23 1/4″ (75th percentile)
Head Circum: 15 1/2″ (70th percentile)

Considering that she was at 50th, 50th, and 60th, respectively, one month before, we are very happy.

Sophia met the first of her maternal relatives
Mommy Michele’s momma (aka, Meme) came up from Florida and spent an extended weekend with us. Sophia really enjoyed this time as the two of them got to spend some quality time together. In fact, some of that time was so that Mom and Dad could go out on a date.
(THANK YOU!! THANK YOU!! THANK YOU!! THANK YOU!! THANK YOU!! )
We went out to the movies. Our choices were “Dark Knight” and “Mamma Mia!“. We both selected “Mamma Mia!”. Despite my friend John Straffin’s protestations, I will relinquish neither my geek card nor my man card. (I’m still singing ABBA songs a week later. )

Most Recent Pix
(Gotta admit, there are a quite a few, so I didn’t name and / or describe them all. Sorry.)
(For those of you who don’t like Flash or just want to see the photos directly on Flickr, click here.)

A Collection of Videos
Here are a couple of recent videos of Sophia smiling and laughing.
Mommy Michele giving Sophia some kisses one morning

Sophia enjoying playing with Mommy