A Chip Off the Old Fluff

Can you say adorable?!

Nothin' like some brotherly love

Any of you who really know me, know that I love matchy matchiness. I love to be twins with my friends and family any given day of the week. In fact, recently I encouraged Jill to buy the exact same jacket as me, not only because it's warm and adorable, but because we could be twins! Pam and I ordered the exact same shoes in the exact same size and color off the Internet, because again, great shoes, but I also love to match! I'm not sure exactly why I have this need but perhaps it stems from being the youngest child/grandchild in the family and my constant yearning for someone younger than me...? But, I digress...



So, when Kathleen's daughter Lily sent this outfit to Sophia for Christmas I was really beside myself with joy and delight! It is absolutely too cute! I'm not sure how she stumbled upon such a gem, but I love it. The slippers are a little hard to see in the pictures, but they match the hat and are little mini-doggies. Some pictures were difficult to take because Walter was afraid he would get in trouble if he came too near Sophia, so I ended up holding her, sitting next to Walt and taking the picture myself...yikes! Also, since these pictures were taken, Walter has had a hair cut. In fact, Walter has a had a rough go of it the past few days, but that's a whole other story all together!

American Babyator

One tough family!

Sophia and the Little Bears

Charlie and I are very excited about the revival of the reality show American Gladiators. Both of us watched it every Sat. morning as kids and loved it! Who didn't, really. Anyway, when they hype began last month we got pretty excited. Our good friends Jill and Matt were excited too, or should I say Matt was excited and Jill's just a good sport! :)



Anyway, we celebrated the show's premiere with a private launch party and in true Hirner fashion, came dressed to impress! Sophia's very stylish red headband is actually an armband, but we figured, hey, her head is small! She didn't dislike it as much as I think it squeezed her little head. As soon as we put it on she made a kind of disgruntled, confused face. The second it came off, her face lit up with a smile! I guess that was our sign to stop torturing our child! Later on, feeling left out without her get-up, she asked Daddy to borrow his headband and this look was equally cute!



I'm a girl who loves a theme party, what can I say!?

Maxin' and Relaxin'

Dog pile on Favorite Uncle Stacy (the name he gave himself) and Shelby!

Sophia is such a good baby. She is content most of the time and she is still a pretty good eater. The schedule continues to work out and she is still sleeping 8-9 hours per night. We love to play and sing songs all day. We also recently started reading books. I absolutely love to take her picture when she's naked or semi-naked as above. I am probably totally starting a bad habit, but we hang out many morning in our underwear before we get ready and leave the house. We cuddle, talk, and nap this way, it's very much fun!



I am still attempting to "nurse" via the pump, but my days are numbered. My milk supply has been steadily decreasing and I'm still not really sure why. I now only pump at every other feeding because I get so little and it kinda hurts. Logically speaking I should probably just give it up all together. She's only getting about 2 bottles of milk each day and the rest is formula. I'm thankful that she is not picky (yet, anyway) about what kind of milk or formula she gets. We've been switching up her formula due to the sample packs we got in the mail and I just recently had to buy our first can (grrrrr! it's so expensive!).



I am still dealing with a lot of that guilt stuff that I discussed in my much earlier posts. I know in my head that I have nothing to feel bad about and that I've stuck with it for as long as humanly possible, literally! But even though she isn't nursing directly from me, it's still a bond that I'd have to break. I feel good about being able to supply her with food and nutrients and it's sad to think of being without that. Besides the fact that some days my 15 minutes of pumping is the only time I get to myself! I did get some advice however that was to let my milk run dry is much better than just stopping. I can believe that, however at this stage, I don't think there's much difference. Because I have so little milk I think I would only have mild discomfort and it would probably dissipate within a day or two.



I'll keep you abreast of my decision (ha!) and if anyone has any advice on formulas let me know!

The Other Child

Okay, this was just too funny not to post! This weekend the weather was fabulous and we had to take advantage. So, we loaded up the two kids and headed to the dog park. Sophia loved to be in fresh air and watched all the doggies run wild. Walter had a great time and was more playful and social than I have seen him in a long time. There were many dogs around and everyone was sort of huddled close in and around one particular spot because mud had taken over a large portion of the play area. Where we were wasn't too bad and only required a minimal amount of feet wiping before loading in the care. Mostly we were worried that he would drip gross, muddy drool on Sophia as she was captive next to him in her car seat.

So anyway, we drop Walt off at home and head out for more errands. When we came home a few hours later we were greeted by a barrage of muddy footprints all over the floor. This was very curious because Walter was not tracking mud when we brought him home. So, we followed the line of prints back to...you guessed it...his water bowl.

In our absence he took it upon himself to rinse his feet in his bowl and then parade around playing by himself so that we had to wash the hall, kitchen and the hardwoods to free them of his feet! He is generally not this prissy about his appearance but it was too cute and too funny...we got a good laugh out of it!

Christmas Day!

Twins!!

Daddy and Sophia both have on a hangin' with my gnomies tee! Too cute!

I love Christmas day brunch...it is most definitely one of my favorite things all year long! This year brunch was held at Charlie's brother Leo's house. As usual it was a full house and full of little ones running about and celebrating. Although Sophia didn't know this day different from any other, she really raked in the gifts!

She got lots of useful things like some rattles that make noise and are easy to chew. She got lots of clothes, which she needed and even some toys! Many of her toys she'll have to grow into but I know they'll be great when she gets to them!

Molly got a beautiful new play kitchen and her brother Nick got a Wii and Guitar Hero. I must say I tried my hand at each and I can really see how this Guitar Hero phenomenon has struck the nation! It is fun, although I am really terrible! All the kids, including Julie, entertained with real musical instruments too! Molly and Julie played piano and Nick demonstrated some songs he learned on his real electric guitar. We have a family of talented musicians...I hope Sophia becomes part of that group too!

Christmas Eve

Sophia kicks back while Mommy and Bama prepare dinner.

My little koukla (doll in Greek)

This was too cute of an opportunity and I couldn't pass it up! It reminded me of the stuffed animal scene in ET!

We had a cozy family get-together on Christmas eve at my mom's house. Stacy had to work Christmas day, Shelby was with her mom, and without Dad and his Christmas pants it was a different and difficult holiday for me. For those of you who don't know, my Dad was famous for his "Christmas" pants. They were some of the loudest plaid you've ever laid eyes on and boy, were they festive! For as long as I can remember, Dad would wear these green, red, yellow, and blue plaid pants every year on Christmas morning. We all made fun of him but I think we all secretly loved the pants and they helped everyone to celebrate. Strangely when we cleaned out his apartment nobody could find them. Maybe Dad took them with and entertained everyone up there with his pants this year...I hope so!



Charlie's sisters Cathy and Anne came over too, along with my cousin Dean. We had a FABULOUS dinner prepared by mom and we played a mean game of boy vs girl Trivial Pursuit. I hate to admit that the boys did in fact win, but we were close behind! It's those damned sports questions that get us every time!



Sophia had a great time and basked in the warmth of love, but I think by the end of the night was a little over-stressed and over-stimulated and was just happy to watch everything unfold from the comfort of Daddy's arms.

Grandma's Christmas

Which reindeer is this one?

Aunt Chris won't have too much longer to wait for her next baby fix!

Big Cousin Molly proudly holding Sophia!

Grandma Sue and Baby Girl

The "complete" picture of all the grandchildren in attendance!

From left to right: Julie, Nick, Sophia, Mira, Molly, Anna, and Henry

God love Nick! He is doing exactly what he's told: hold the baby and smile...too bad his cousins just wouldn't cooperate! I guess being the oldest is sometimes difficult too!

We had so many Christmas celebrations this year that we were really merry! We had a special celebration on the Sunday before with Charlie's grandmother. She turns 90 this coming February, on our anniversary actually, so she wasn't sure she would want to brave the elements and venture out on Christmas.

Sue's brother John, his daughter Tiffany and husband Dennis all arrived with their kids in tow too! It was so much fun to have a house full of kids celebrating Christmas. It made me thankful for the cousins Sophia has and brought back fond memories of all us getting together on holidays too. Of course I am the youngest and so I was ALWAYS the one picked on and made to do the dirty work, but it's all just fun memories now! It was good to see what future Christmases may be like with Chris's newest on the way and more children in our future (not yet, but future!!) too.

Grandma really raked in the goods and got plenty of snacks for her junk food drawer! We all know her love of candy and insatiable sweet-tooth, so we stocked her up good!