Going to See Attle

Nothing like a little pancakes, sausage, and yogurt at 3:30 am!! Technically, it was 5:30 Central time, but we were still on West Coast Time!

Clearly, Sophia eats in any time zone.

Sophia scored her very own seat and she told Daddy, and the rest of the plane, all about it!

Many years ago when Shelby was about 3 or 4, Stacy, Mom and I planned a trip to Seattle. For days and days we would tell Shelby about our plans and the people she would meet, etc. So about a day or so into our trip, a very confused Shelby looked up at Stacy and said, "So when are we going to see Attle?" Priceless. Well, last week we took Sophia to meet Attle too!



Overall, we had a wonderful trip! I seriously didn't want to come home and almost didn't! We almost got talked into staying another few days, but I decided against it. Although next time we'll know what a great time is waiting for us and maybe plan accordingly! :)



We left on the 4th and after a very disappointing flight delay in Minneapolis, we missed fireworks in both places, oh well! I will say however, that descending upon Seattle you could see every surrounding town and their fireworks display and it was pretty cool; most definitely not as impressive as being on the ground, but still fun, and a whole new perspective, that's for sure! Sophia, being the wonderful baby that she is, just slept herself right into the new time zone...gotta love a smart baby! Her sleep was disrupted when the plane landed and of course we had to exit, get luggage, get car seat installed and get home! Whew! But she gladly played with Aunt Stephanie and chatted the whole way home. We set up her crib, put her to bed and she didn't wake up until 9 am Seattle time, like I said, gotta love a smart baby!



Our week was filled with lots of family fun! I always remember how much I miss my cousin and the kids every time we're together. Stephanie and I are the only two granddaughters on our moms' side, so we have a lot in common and always have lots to catch up on too! Charlie and I tried to balance between being the tourist and just hangin' out. We even got some much needed adult time while we utilized the family babysitter and even got a couple of date nights in!



The way home was not quite as smooth because we left on the "red eye" flight, leaving at 12:40 am and arriving back in KC at 8:15 am. Blech. Well, the first flight was delayed so we managed to get the last two seats, literally, on the earlier flight (at 12:25 am) so we didn't miss our connection in Minneapolis. The plane was jam-packed and the guy next to me was none to pleased to have a baby next to him, but continued to leave his overhead light on and i-pod blaring at full volume the entire time anyway. Sophia slept, but only agreed to sleep if she were perched precariously on the edge of my knee hunched and over my leg for the next 3 and half hours. We arrived in Minneapolis and the Gods were shining on us b/c not only was our flight not full (the only one of the last 3) but they let us carry on the car seat and Sophia got her very own seat...hooray! This meant that Mommy and Daddy got a much needed cat nap. The bad part was that we were delayed again, perhaps Minneapolis is really a black hole, and were late arriving to KC. Poor mom, who was late to work and braved the rain to come get us, was happily waiting at the gate for us and even took Sophia last afternoon and all night to give us a chance to regroup and rest. Gotta love grandparents!



I will post more pictures from our vacation soon, now the laundry and cleaning begins! Aaaah, I miss vacation already! ;)

Daddies

Daddies are for playing fun games....

and giving out cold, hard cash!

Summer Favorites

Fresh Watermelon...

and corn on the cob!

Splish Splash!

Today marked Sophia's first visit to the swimming pool! Yay! Luckily I have friends that are connected because not only have I not taken her to the pool this season (bad mommy!), but I haven't gotten our own neighborhood pool passes and I STILL don't have a swimming suit I would wear in public! ARG! Nonetheless, I sported a tank and some shorts and at least got a bit of a tan! ;)

Some of the gals from Baby Boot Camp and I get together on Fridays for "mommy time" so today we ventured out in the sun! All the kids had a great time, even Sophia had fun warming up and splashing along! I must say that I did not anticipate her nervousness, but surprisingly she did have a bit of anxiety at the beginning her adventure.

Here she is sitting on the step of the pool and testing the water.

Warmed up and ready to float, Mom! Here Sophia is chatting with her buddy Massimo.

Sophia and her "betrothed", Luca! Luca is about 2 months older than Sophia and is already committed to attending Charlie's old high school, Rockhurst! Ha ha!

Sophia, now extremely comfortable in the water, floated all around the pool all by herself! It was too funny! She had a great time and wasn't at all nervous about being so far from Mommy.

You can also catch a small glimpse of Emma in the bottom of the picture really testing out her lung power...what a big girl!

Out of the pool and ready to dry off with some pool side fun!

Busy Week!

One puts it together, one takes it apart

Zoe looking annoyed at my constant picture taking

Sophia and Aunt Bess playing games at Winstead's

Sophia getting some pushes from Big Cousin

My niece, Zoe, was in town this week and it is always fun to have her! Sophia was also the recipient of much love and playtime too! We got together as much as possible and played and ate. Zoe's favorite KC restaurant is Andre's so it didn't take much arm twisting for Sophia and me to join her! All the girls, minus Shelby who is still away for the summer, got together to play at Bess' the other night and it was fun to see! We were even lucky enough to have Zoe join us yesterday morning for Baby Boot Camp! We gave her quite a workout, but she still managed to play with the babies! The three of us are all boarding a plane next week to visit Zoe and her family in Seattle, so at least our goodbye was only temporary!

Plugging Along

Which of those should I pick first?

Well, this looks good...

Hmmm, not sure about this asparagus stuff after all

Well, maybe dinner was pretty delicious after all!

Well, luckily we have managed to get rid of the 2-spoon technique (but still keep it in the back pocket, just in case!) and Sophia is still eating...hooray! It can be hard to remember to take 3 spoons with you every time you leave the house!



I figured out that if she has something to eat with her hands, as opposed to just shoving a sad and empty spoon into her mouth, she is quite contented to open her mouth to the various spoonfuls of veggies that I give her.



Her old favorites still include Goldfish, Cheerios, and Puffs, which incidentally is all she ate for lunch today but nonetheless, we have expanded to other foods like turkey sausage, pork sausage, deli meat (just so-so) and little ham chunks. She also loves cheese cubes and just started eating cherries and grapes. She prefers the red grapes to the green, but will eat both if they're on her tray. She has also started to eat veggies with her hands, where as before she would just throw them on the floor and seek out the crunchies.



Whew! In just over a week we've come very far! Last night was also monumental because her dinner was almost the exact same as ours...hooray! She ate quite a bit of meatloaf, asparagus, and grapes (which we had as part of a salad, but she's not there yet), with some cheese and Cheerios thrown in, and she ate everything by herself!

Hunger Strike

Here's the double spoon trick in action!

Two spoons on the floor and one to go...

Drinking milk from a sippy like a big girl!

Sigh....well our "perfect" baby is now showing signs of a true baby complete with mood swings and that stubborn attitude! Darn-it...but come to think of it, that behavior sure does sound a lot like mommy! She has gone on somewhat of a hunger strike this past week. In fact, it started just after her doctor's visit, our theory is that she overheard the doc and is absolutely disgraced by her 95th percentile weigh-in and is showing her protest. Or maybe she's going through a phase, we're not sure, but it's one of those!



She started pushing the spoon away and refusing to eat. Okay, I thought that she was ready to start feeding herself, no biggie, except that I just made a freezer full of fresh purees, but whatever! So, I cut up some sweet potatoes and carrots for her to eat, but no go. She in fact was only interested in feeding herself Goldfish, Cheerios, and puffs--all the things that crunch, apparently. If it didn't crunch, not interested. Then she started trying to grab the spoon. Again, I thought ready to use it herself. No, not so much. She was really more excited to wave it around and fling the food across the dining room, that was way more fun than actually eating it.



So, we got some sage advice from our friends Greg and Julie to give her a spoon for each hand and then try and feed her! Well, smarts pays off I guess because it worked! Temporarily. Now, I'm just not sure when the mood will strike for her to want to eat, but let me tell you what, I shove as much as possible in there while the mouth is open and hope for the best! She is still drinking her milk, which is now switched from the bottle to the sippy with no problems, so I can't complain too much.



I'm trying to tame my inner control freak/crazy mother and tell myself that she will not starve to death and will eat when she's hungry!



Aside from eating, her sleeping habits are becoming a little different too. She's waking up a tad earlier, much to my dismay, and seeming not to sleep as soundly during the night. She also has had more "tantrums" in trying to take naps lately, very unlike her. Of course my psychosis has drawn the correlation between her not eating, therefore not having enough food in her belly which is causing her to disrupt her own sleep. Arg! Mostly, things are still very good with her sleeping, but I am beginning to notice slight changes.



Finally...I got a call from the doctor today and her hip x-rays were perfectly normal! Yipee! I figured that things were okay, but it's nice to be reassured. As far as her popping, we'll just wait and see. Hopefully she'll be walking by the time our next doctor's visit rolls around and we may have more answers, or it may just disappear, which would be better!