While Dad's Away. . .

. . .the girls will play!!! Will has been gone for a few days now and we missed him so much! We have been entertaining ourselves with toys, books and just following mommy around nonstop! There is no holding Sophie Girl back! She is walking and completely independent! This makes mommy's job so much more hectic, but oh so fun!

We are looking forward to our "House Hunting" adventure in Jacksonville! We have 11 homes lined up! I am hoping that we find "the one" for us! I am sure that Sophie will have her own imput! I am just hoping that she can cope with the long days and very little naptime! We will see! I just want a house where there is enough space for all of us and maybe some room to grow ;) I am more concerned with the neighborhoods and a safe place where Sophie can play and maybe meet some new friends! (We sure are going to miss our "baby brigade"! Above all. . .WE MUST BE CLOSE TO GOOD SHOPPING!!!! ;)

Keeping our fingers crossed!!!!

First Birthday Bash!

We celebrated Sophie's First Year with our friends and family!

Thank you to all who made it special!
Our first celebration was actually celebrating Daddy's birthday! We had "The Baby Brigade" over for a lovely BBQ and an evening of playing! They love hanging out together!
We headed to Pittsburgh for a fun weekend with Tay Tay and Pap Pap! We went shopping, rode some rides at Kennywood and had a wonderful birthday party with family and friends! The cake wasn't too bad either!!
Sophie is a very lucky girl to have so many people who love her!

Happy 1st Birthday, my Sophie Girl!!!

Here's To A Better Next Year of Blogging. . .

Well baby girl, it's almost a year since you were born. Only two more days until we celebrate your very first birthday! I have to admit that I have been pretty emotional lately. I keep thinking back when I was at the hospital waiting for you to arrive. I can remember everything, especially the feeling of excitement that your dad and I had when we were waiting to meet you.
When I first held you and looked into your dark blue eyes, the love that I have for you overwhelmed me. You were perfect in every way!As this year has flown by, you have filled my heart with more love and joy than I could ever imagine. Your first smile, your first big girl bath, your first taste of "real food", your first tooth, your first crawl, your first step, and your first word has been highlights of my life thus far.
It is so hard to express the happiness and love that you have given me in this blog. You really are an angel sent from God to make me a better person. I love you with all my heart!

Happy First Birthday, my Sophie Girl!

The Simple Things. . .

Each day I look at Sophie and I am amazed at how much she has changed in 1o months! From sitting, to rolling, to "scooting", to crawling. . .and soon to be running! From breastfeeding, to cereal, to sage chicken and asparagus risotto! She has teeth, she talks (in her own way of course) and laughs. Now she is getting ready to start a band! haha Well, not quite!
She has just now been introduced to old pots and spoons! With all the hundreds, maybe now, thousands on dollars on toys and other occupiers of time, we get the most thrill out of an old pot that Will used in college! So glad we kept it!

My Little Fish

Well, Summer is finally here! My favorite time of the year here in Virginia Beach! I think I can safely say that it is Sophie's favorite time of the year, too! Long walks along the lake, trips to the park to swing and have picnics, picnic lunch dates with Daddy, and now morning swims with Mama!

The weather has been crazy. One day it is in the high 80's and the next it is 60! The pool has been open for over 2 weeks, but it hasn't been warm enough to enjoy. . .until NOW! Will and I took Sophie 3 times already she loves it! I'm really not too surprised, considering Will and I both were competitive swimmers back in the day! It's only natural that the love of water and pool chemicals seeped into her system!

She is still cautious of the water and hasn't taken to splashing as she does in her small tub during "spa time", but she has made progress since last year and clinging to her mom and dad!


God! Time really does fly! I don't have any pictures of her in the water just yet, but I am sure that more will come soon. These pictures were taken of when it was just me and her at the pool. As soon as dad joins us, we can capture some action shots!!

So Many Changes, So Little Time

Last Thursday, Sophie said her first word, "Mama!" :) She might not know what it means now, but it meant the world to me! We were on our way to drop off some lunch for Will when all of a sudden I heard her start babbling for the first time and she kept repeating "mama"! I could not believe it! Too bad we were in the midst of heavy traffic on base! I wanted to stop the car, get out and hug her! It was the cutest thing I ever heard. Of course when I told Will, he didn't believe me and wh
en he tried to get Sophie to say it again, she "raspberried" in his face! haha He soon heard it for his own ears and was amazed as well. I thought I was really special until everything became "mama". . .and I mean EVERYTHING! Will, blankets, stuffed animals, food, the remote. . .everything! Oh well! We have noticed that she does have a special word for when she refers to Will. It's more like, "blah blah!" Fitting, huh??? :)

Bad Mommy!!

I'm so not doing well with this!! I mean, I don't work, Sophie likes her sleep, why can't I commit to blogging/scrapbooking??? It's just whenever I have time, I spend it cleaning, laundering, relaxing. . .oh goodness! No more excuses! I have to be more religious about this! Plus! These past few weeks have been marked with "Sophie's Firsts"!!!

We took another trip to the burgh! I was able to spend time with the girls at Cynthia's bridal shower and "ladies night out"! It was some much needed time away from the monotony of day to day life at the beach. I had a great time catching up with the best friends! It seems that so much has changed since our swimming days; buying homes, actual real-life jobs, getting married, starting families, etc., but even miles apart from each other, when we make time to get together, things haven't changed at all! We are still the same at heart and always have a great time together! I pray that Sophie is as blessed as I am to have wonderful friends.

Now onto Sophie mile-markers!!! While we are in Pittsburgh, Sophie definitely gets some good workouts in with Pap-Pap and Grandma Tay Tay. Unfortunately, Tay Tay broke her wrist and had surgery so she wasn't her usual self while we were there, but it made her happy that we were around to keep her in good spirits! We even went shopping for Sophie's first Easter outfit!! No bonnet, but a darn cute flower headband! This was Pap Pap's opportunity to share some major bonding time with Soph since Tay Tay doesn't like to share so much!! :) The time must have paid off because just this past weekend Sophie began crawling!!! Yes, I know. Watch out!!! Already, she has had some close calls knocking herself out on the coffee table. I think we need to invest in one of those baby fences. You know, the ones that look like they are designed to herd cattle?? Yeah, we need it! She is so curious and observant that I can already tell that she is going to be getting into EVERYTHING! But it is fun to watch!!

Now that Sophie is mobile, we definitely keep a closer eye on her. Now, more than ever she wants to be free to move about. So when we are getting her "Spa Time" ready, I have to put her in her crib instead of placing her on our bed. (for obvious reasons) We play some nice music, give her a toy. . .well, when we got back from a splendid treat at Melt on Tuesday, we began our routine. She was in her crib and I was picking out some PJ's, when I turn around and see slowly climbing up the crib railing!! I stood there in shock while she just looked at me and smiled. I WISH I had a camera right then and there! She was so methodical, taking one hand at a time and making sure she had a good grip and using the bumper to balance herself. I called down to Will that he needed to get his tools out now to drop her crib (now set at the lowest setting). He, of course, was not happy and yelled, "Why?". After coming upstairs and seeing his daughter standing with her hands propped up against the railing, with a big smile on her face, he started laughing and said, "Oh God!", and went down to get his tools!

Sophie is enjoying St. Patty's Day by crawling around and keeping Mommy and Daddy on their toes!!!

Sophie is also enjoying her cereal bites. What started out as being quite the hand-eye coordination struggle, soon gave way to taking one at a time out of my hand and into her mouth to dumping a bunch on her tray and her going to town with fists-full at a time!!

She is quite the character and I love every minute of it!!!