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 .

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.