Incoming!

Well, I had to report that Sophia's top, left tooth has finally made an appearance! Ya-HOOOOO! It has been a long time coming, but we're glad it's finally here. I suspect the other top tooth will soon follow, I just hope it doesn't take as long!

Double the Love

Jill was quite the trooper today, delivering her twin daughters in true Wonder Woman fashion! Lauren Kate was born at 5:26 pm and her sister, Aubrey Grace, came into the world exactly 10 minutes later! Congratulations, Jill and Matt!

Here's Jill holding Lauren

(Aubrey was still warming in the nursery after her bath!)

More pictures of both girls coming soon!

Just Poolin' Around

Yes, Mommy, I am cute!

Sophia and Luca splashing around!

Didn't even make it back to the car!!

We had another fun play/pool date with the Boot Camp Gals! This time there were six kids (3 babies and 3 big kids) and it was one frantic morning! By the time everyone played (destroying poor Julie's house!), ate lunch, changed, sunscreened, and got to the pool, we only had about an hour before major meltdown time! Oh well! It gave everyone a break and I'm really enjoying the different social opportunities Sophia is getting. I think it's really important to get her used to playing and sharing with other kids so when the time comes (and NO, it's not here yet) she'll hopefully adapt to new members of the family!

One Berry Busy Day!

Because I'm always up for an adventure, Sophia and I decided to head out to the Berry Patch earlier this week. It is a gigantic berry patch, as you might imagine, where you can pick your own blueberries and blackberries. Since I have never really done this, I thought it might be fun, plus you can't beat the price...$2.50/lb, I spend way more than that in the grocery store! Plus, it was really an opportunity for me to get out and spend some time with some other mommies!

Julie had to help me tie on my bucket! At the time it seemed a convenient location, but I think it was way too easily accessible for Sophia's little hands!

Here we are ready to pick! Julie, Jodie, Emma, Massimo and Luca and Isabelle in the stroller. I originally thought strollers were not allowed, but after I had Sophia already strapped onto my hip, I figured why move her now! In fact, in the end I was really glad I kept her with me because we bonded, talked, and I tried(somewhat unsuccessfully) to teach her how to pick berries!

She wasn't so much a picker, more a stick in your hand and swish the berries around-er. At one point she managed to totally remove the plastic bag from the bucket and swing it around, giggling all the while! Luckily, there weren't very many berries in there at the time, so we didn't lose any!

In the end, I did more wandering and talking that actual picking, so Jodie took pity on me and shared some of her berries! She's a superstar...she managed to pick all those berries while toting around 2 kiddos!

After berries, we headed straight to the nursing home to have lunch with Charlie's Grandma B. Sophia napped the whole way and woke up ready to eat and entertain! We try and visit Grandma for lunch every other week and it has become a nice routine. She loves to have us and even more, she loves to show Sophia off to all her friends in the dining room! The ladies love to see her every time and the best part is they never remember meeting her from the time before, so I don't have to think of new stories to tell them. I just run through the same laundry list of stuff; name, age, likes/dislikes...it's great!

Here Sophia entertained herself for many minutes by opening and closing the bathroom door.

Peek-a-boo!

Look at that adoring smile! She loves her Great Grandma B alright!

Here Sophia is standing on the edge of Grandma's bed. On the windowsill, next to the bed, she has a few different pictures, one of them being of Sophia. Sophia spotted it and grunted and squealed until I put her up on the bed.

She crawled right over to it and smiled!

Hey I've seen that baby before!

As usual, we had a great visit and we can't wait to go back again!

We All Scream for....Yogurt?!

Let's check and see what's left in here..
And what about in here...
Even though the spoon is upside down, I savored every last morsel!
Yay, time for more!!

Sophia boycotted the spoon for many, many months. She has recently decided to reintroduce the spoon as long as it carries the yogurt. She is not preferential to what kind of yogurt; fruit flavored, vanilla, plain-- heck, she even loves Greek yogurt, as long as it gets to her mouth, she's happy! I am trying to teach her how to use a spoon, although she's not so much interested in that, which is actually surprising considering her strong will and independence (and I have NO idea where she got that from!) She also only likes to use adult spoons, as seen above.

In other news, uh, there really isn't any!! She is still pulling up on everything, crawling, and creeping along furniture but has not been brave enough to try and stand alone. Her two top teeth are still being quite elusive and continue to be in hiding. We were all sure they'd be in by now, but they are moving down and up, down and up. Every few days she will drool and fuss and I'm SURE they're coming in, but still nothing. So, sadly she is creeping up on a year and still only has 2 teeth.

She and Walter continue to be a typical brother and sister pair. They have a love/hate relationship. He is so sweet, really, and tries to herd her, which is darling. However, in true Walter fashion, he herds by kissing. So instead of just running in front of her to veer her the other direction, he runs full speed, leaps in front of her and commences to kissing her until we yell at him. This happens easily 50 times a day. It makes me very tired. She acts distressed and disgruntled, but then again will seek him out morning, noon and night to play, so I just can't win!

She is such a good baby and we are so lucky!

Celebrating Cheesecake

The Cheesecake Factory celebrated it's anniversary this week and sold all their cheesecake slices for the original price of $1.50/slice, which is awesome since it's a savings of at least $7-8!! So naturally, we had to participate. Stacy, Shelby, Mom, Sophia and I loaded up and headed in for lunch. It was mobbed, as expected but somehow we got a table within 3 minutes, can't beat that! I guess a hungry baby on the verge of crying can scare any manager into giving us an immediate table!

Shelby settled on Caramel Turtle,

while Stacy was disappointed that Tres Leche was discontinued, but made-do anyway! ;)

We even let Sophia have a taste of cheesecake too! Bama was nice enough to share her White Chocolate Raspberry Truffle while I devoured my Godiva Triple Chocolate!

You want me to eat what??!

I am not too sure about all this, people!

Well, as it turns out, this stuff is lip-smakin' good after all, good choice!

Shelby's Home!

Shelby was sad when Favorite Uncle Stacy tried to snatch the baby away, but don't fear, because Sophia snubbed her uncle and held on tight to Big Cousin!

No love loss after all for FAUST!

Bama with her three grand kids and some surrogates!

Shelby spent all summer in Wisconsin with her mom and we were all happy to have her home, especially Miss Sophia! Shelby is such a great playmate and we can't wait until she officially finishes her babysitting classes!