Visit Mitty Day

Last Friday was "Take Your Daughter to Your Old Job" day.

Hanging out in the Advancement office with Meghan, Fr. Russi and Cassie.

Sofia thought she'd take charge and get some work done.
This office has had a couple of slackers as its most recent occupants.

Hoppy Easter

Who is this child? I mean, even I wanted to cry when I saw this creepy Westfield Easter Bunny. Thankfully, Sofia saves the picture with her class and grace under pressure.

February Friends

Now that March is nearly over, I thought I'd catch up on some of our February visits.

We took a drive out to Livermore to meet Brady Thomas who was born in November. Such a cutie!
Sofia is already making her move.

We were thrilled to welcome to the neighborhood little April Rogers on January 12th. Her parents, Julia and Jeff, were convinced she was going to be their third little boy...but Sofia had a different hunch and she was right!

Sofia had a play date with the big kids, Drew (4) & Mia (2) Jenkins. Drew was SO good with her
and Mia was very gracious in sharing her toys. We can't wait to play with them again!

Little Lucas turned 3 on 2/22 and we spent a fun afternoon in Dublin playing "stick the nose on clown" (no more pins?). Big sister Julia making sure Lucas doesn't get sick from too much cake.

Fingers in lieu of cake.

Nine

Happy 9 months to me!

What has Sofia been up to? Well, it's hard work being 9 months old. Every week includes, but is not limited to:

*Clapping her hands 700 times.

*Waving hello & good-bye to any and all moving and stationary objects.

*Mimicking sounds and grunts and singing loud and proud for all to hear.

*Defiantly closing her mouth to any pureed food other than bananas.

*Showing off her EIGHT pearly whites. Three of them arrived at once this past month. Not fun.

*Enjoying a few play dates per week with her friends.

*Still not crawling, but happy to sit and play. No complaints from Mom.

*Being sweet & mellow and oh-so-observant of everything going on around her.

*Swimming lessons that we're finally really enjoying.

*Enjoying time outside under the umbrella now that the weather is finally nice.

*Trying to figure out if she prefers two naps to three.

D-O-N-E with this photo shoot.

Sunday, Sunday, Sunday!

The biggest Sunday of the year (not counting Easter) happened to fall on String's birthday this year so we decided to host a little Super Bowl/Birthday gathering with some of String's favorite people and a few of his favorite things: football, wine and BBQ. Not necessarily in that order. Grammy & Nono, Uncle Michael and the Vaccaro and Imelli families joined us for a fun, chaos filled grub-fest. No better way to celebrate 36!

We're waiting patiently for the hot dogs, String.

Grant & Dominic placing bets on what songs The Who will sing at half time.

Blankets and toys and fun.

Uncle Michael and Sofia bonding.

Check out the BUMP on Dominic's head.
He took one for the team and helped me convince String we need to get a new (softer) coffee table. Thanks Dominic!

I'm Kind of a Big Deal

Sofia has recently been mentioned on some of her friend's blogs. I thought I'd give a shout out since she's taking a nap and can't be bothered with this internet thing.

Most recently (today) she received her first feature in someone else's blog. Well, that's not true. Meghan did blog about her immediately following her birth...and I hesitate to link to this because it shows me in all of my chapped lip, post-C-section glory. But hey, that's life...just concentrate on how teeny weeny Sofia was. Unbelievable!

We love Meghan's visits and someday Sofia will love playing with Howie, cutest dog on the planet. Maybe someday she'll even blog about him.

Sofia hosted a play date last weekend with some friends, old and new. Our buddies Carla and Kaylee blogged about it and maybe this will save me the trouble! We just found out that Carla and Kaylee (and dad Brad) will be moving to Washington D.C. in June. Happy for them, not happy that the girls won't get to play together anymore. But we look forward to following their escapades on the Belsher Bunch Blog! Here's another Kaylee and Sofia cute moment.

Eight is Great!

Happy Eight Months to me! I'm finally taller than the bear!

Month 8 is upon us and Sofia is all smiles!

*She's still a champ sleeper, usually waking up just once during the night. Three 30 minute naps continue to be the norm. We are anxiously awaiting for the two longer naps that all the books say will come soon. We'll see about that.

*Giving kisses. She receives about a thousand a day and has finally started to (sorta) reciprocate. They are wonderfully open mouthed and wet, but are given on command, nonetheless.

*No crawling yet, but lots and lots of rolling. There is a bit of laziness in her...she is happy to sit and play, but if something rolls out of her reach, she'll just move onto something else. She definitely gets this from her mother.

*Most of February (or at least it seemed) was spent fighting our first legit cold. Well, maybe it wasn't even legit, there was no fever. Just lots and lots and lots of snot. We are now quite adept at using the aspirator bulb, much to Sofia's dismay.

*She was doing quite well trying new foods until the pesky cold seemed to affect her appetite for solids. She loves bananas and pears but is still skeptical of peas and potato type things.

*She babbles and talks ALL the time. Dadadadad comes out a lot, but unfortunately is not directed towards the Dada. But it's still cute. The other sound we LOVE to make is the gutteral "smokers hack" as we like to call it. I don't know how she hasn't lost her voice yet.

*The exersaucer is becoming our new best friend. It was slow going in the beginning, she'd tire of it quickly. But now it buys mommy shower time, so we love it. She's just started jumping up and down in it like she's had 12 Red Bulls.

Really hoping there's no lead in that pig.

*The legs are getting quite strong and she loves to stand while being held. If you lift her up in the air the legs go like crazy like she's running. It's hilarious.

Some fun pics from the past month:

A cute gift from her Swedish friend Isak Almgren. Sötnos means "cutie."

Wings of love.

Waiting for the train at Vasona. Will be waiting until spring.

First time on the swing at the park. Overwhelmingly unimpressed.

Closing the barn door.

Happy to be in my crib minus the swaddle.

Rockin' the cankles.