Christmas 2010

I was at work on Christmas day when I got a call from my mom. My Grandpa had fallen on Christmas Eve and was down all night. He said he got up, felt dizzy and fell. He tried to get up all night long but couldn't. He had pulled the cushions off the couch, knocked over the table, chairs, and other furniture, crawled into the kitchen and there were drawers pulled out. He did everything he could but was disoriented and it was dark, and he was too weak to get up. We finally found him (my brother) Christmas around noon. My brother, dad, and cousin helped get him ready and brought him into the ER. I was really emotional and felt helpless and sad that I was at work. He luckily didn't break anything but was black and blue all over, had some rug burn on his elbows, and cracked some ribs. He was admitted to the hospital (where he still is). He had a rough first night, the nurses wouldn't help him get up to the bathroom and didn't put his CPAP machine on him. When I came to work I checked on him and he was in a soaking wet brief and sheets and really tired and weak (from not having good oxygen all night). I was mad/sad that he was being treated like that. The day got better, we had family come up and help him shower. No more briefs, he had help getting to the bathroom. He's doing ok. He's had fevers and is developing pnuemonia. He has a lot of secretions and tonight he choked on his dinner and they think he may have aspirated (breathed in his food). They had to call respiratory and the physician, ordered a chest xray, and some respiratory treatments. It's really hard to see him like that, and it makes me really sad. I know he misses my Grandma a lot and I think he's been ready to see her for a while now, but it doesn't make it any easier. I don't know what will happen, but I love him and it hurts to see him so dependent and weak.

Because of that, we didn't get to have Christmas on Christmas. We were able to open a few presents at my parent's house but Sophie didn't last long and was in bed before my little family could do Christmas. I worked the next day and it was really hard being there - I just wanted to be home and I felt stressed. We were able to do Christmas that night. I had today off. I put away Christmas decorations and cleaned the house. I have to work the next two days and am just not feeling up to it.

On a lighter note, I love my baby so much. She got spoiled this Christmas! She got some hair clips, bath toys, some wooden toys and puzzles, and a few outfits. I got her a bubble belly dog and she LOVED LOVED LOVED IT. She was mesmerized by the bubbles and love trying to get them.

This is the fantastic Fisher Price house I found at the thrift store ($3) and was able to get the people for it off ebay. She loved it. She figured out a bunch of the sounds. She kept putting the baby in the crib! It was so cute.

My mom bought some carpet from RCWilley last month. As a promotion she got this car! It's a remote controlled car. I couldn't believe it when she brought it out. She sat Sophie in it and that is where she stayed all night, she loved it! We're still putting it together but Sophie thought it was so awesome. I can't wait until we get it up and running!

She grinned all night! She cried when we finally took her out.

We were so blessed this Christmas. Holidays are always a good excuse to spend time with family and eat lots! My relationship with my mom is slowly improving. (that's a whole other story).

We got some great gifts from my parents: kitchen gadgets, a new pair of scrubs, some 'toys' for Kale, jewelry, a baby doll and some other things for Sophie, and a hoodie. Also, my mom bought us a playstation 3. We're not big gamers but it's got a ton of other capabilities and we love to play band hero/guitar hero. Kale did so great this year, he got me a cute purse, awesome shoes for work, and a voucher for a pedicure and massage. He filled my stocking with delicious treats and yummy lotions. He even found this darling salt and pepper shaker I love! He was so thoughtful and worked so hard. I got him some new shoes, hoodies, a stack of movies/blueray discs, and some pj pants. Any Christmas money we got we deposited into Sophie's savings account. She's got more in her savings than we do in ours! I hope we have enough for her to put a downpayment on her first house or pay for her college. We're working on that.

This is the cat my mom gave her. It's super funny... it's really soft and when you pet it's back it meows. Sophie doesn't really like it. She is so peticular about things!

I work the next few days then I have a few much needed days off. I follow up with my Dr on Thursday to figure out what to do about all my 'health' stuff. I have been pondering my new years goals. I will blog about those later! Hope everyone had a great Holiday weekend.

December Update

Christmas is almost here! How exciting! Here is my blog update on our lives.


Sophie's new trick!
Look Ma, I figured out how Velcro works! She either has to have a onsie on or a snap cloth dipe. Gosh I am SOOOO glad we have done cloth diapering. It has saved me so much money and I am glad that my baby can wear cotton on her sweet bum bum!


Sophie is such a mama's girl. If I am in the room, I am the ONLY one that she wants. Rarely does Kale get to hold her. She is super attached to me. I usually love it. Sometimes though, I need to get things done or want to eat a hot meal (yeah right!). The past couple days though she's been so cuddle with us both, and has let Kale hold her! I love it, it's so tender to see my two loves snuggling up!
Playing with the Christmas Ornaments

Watching TV with Daddy!

Tonight we had Kale's family up for Christmas celebration! I cooked dinner and we did some presents and watched Home Alone. It's always hard to get everyone to look... we got 2 out of 3 in this picture of Sophie with her cousins.

We both work tomorrow :( It's nice to get holiday pay and let some of the other nurses who have older kids be home with their families though.

I had a physical this month. I haven't had health insurance since 2007 but we were able to pick it up for the last two months of this year because we became 'eligable.' I made sure to take advantage of it and get a physical with my FP and a 'lady exam' (ugh). Come to find out I'm falling apart! My vitamin D levels are critically low, my cholesterol is on the higher end of normal, my estrogen is low from breastfeeding, my thyroid levels are super low, and my liver functions are low. What the heck! I'm like an old lady with all my pills I'm taking now. Luckily most are short term. I hope that I can get my Vit D levels back up so I feel better and get my thyroid managed so I can loose weight (no wonder I've remained so chubby--well that and my eating habits, uh oh). I had all these labs done when I was pregnant and nothing was abnormal. Ha so I am blaming being a mother -- it is stressing out my body apparently.

Kale is going to take another semester of school then stop for a while. He's got some basic classes, including snowboarding! He is so excited... he's taken it before and really liked going up. He'll be able to graduate with his associates degree. He's just going to take a break from school so he can spend more time with the family. We miss him! I am so grateful to have such a hardworking husband. I love that guy.

Merry Christmas everyone. I hope that it's a great day and you can all be safe and enjoy spending time with your loved ones!

Santa

We saw Santa today. I wont lie, I'm pretty disappointed in the pics. Sophie, of course, was freaking out the minute we put her on Santa's lap, so I was snapping pictures like crazy. Only three turned out, and they're all awful. I don't mean because Sophie's crying... one the flash is crazy, the others are blurry or crooked. Oh well.


My cousin bought Sophie this ADORABLE Christmas dress. I didn't think it would fit her but put it on and was pleasantly surprised that it fit pretty well (room to grow). Thanks so much Heather!


Sophie's newest thing is: refusing to look at the camera despite anything we try...
Santa 2010

Santa 2009

Family Pic

Sophie

Love this girl!

Dear 70-year-old Walmart Shopper,

Thank you for your awarness today. All the other shoppers around me were being rude, mumbling things under their breath, and giving me dirty looks. I promise I tried to pick the best time to go shopping with a Toddler - after a nap, diaper change, and meal... it just didn't go as planned. I appreciate you kidnapping my cart, letting me go in front of you, loading all my groceries, and patting my hysterical baby as I also stood there holding her with tears streaming down my own face. I should have been loading YOUR groceries and wish there was some way I could personally repay you for your wonderful act of kindness today. To you it was small, but to me it was great.

Love,
Me

End of November

I am a terrible blogger. I don't know why, I have no good excuse. I wish I could keep a better record of our life!

Thanksgiving was a stressful week. I was doing a major portion of Thanksgiving dinner and my cousin and her two kids were coming up for dinner. The only bad part is that I worked smack-dab in the middle of the day (11-5) so it made it hard to manage dinner from work. Needless to say, the turkey was burnt, the stuff didn't get seasoned, and the potatoes were... well not creamy. I stressed about it all week and when it was over I felt exhausted. I worked all weekend. I am glad that I have a few days off.

Thanksgiving is always a time to reflect on what things in my life I am thankful for. I am thankful mostly for my work "family." Lately I have felt overwhelmed, overworked, and very underappreciated. I hope I can get out of this rut because I really do love my job and love the unit I work on. My other nurses take such good care of me and are such good listeners. I love the demographic and type of patients I care for. Nursing can be really rewarding.

I am thankful for my sweet husband and beautiful daughter. How great is family and the fact that we'll be together forever!? I don't know how some people go through life wondering about that. I am thankful for the gospel. I am also grateful for the tangible things in my life: car, house, food storage, and a comfy bed!

Sophie is a crawling machine. She acts like it was no big deal she didn't crawl until 13 months. She has some severe stranger danger too. I don't even know what to do with her! I can't leave her with anyone it seems like, especially lately she just clings to me. Poor girl. I don't know how to help her get past that. We've been doing a toddler formula in place of milk since she had so many problems. She's had a month long diaper rash though from it. I want to transition off it. We've been doing just one measly ounce A DAY for almost a week and she's already borderline constipated. I'm just trying to balance her out with lots of fruit and water. We haven't had any major problems, and since her stools are more formed, her diaper rash has gotten so much better. We stopped using cloth diapers when it got really bad thinking it may have something to do with it... it didn't. We were using disposables with tons of diaper cream and it never got better. I'm SO glad to be back to cloth! I don't know why but disposables just seem so... icky. Paper underwear (no thanks)! I tried one off ebay (Sunbaby). They are very cheap (5.50) but I was actually really impressed.

We love our new house. It's so nice having a garage vs. carport! We painted our living room and I love it. I am going to try to paint Sophie's room this week. I have OCD so painting can prove difficult because I am such a perfectionist! The snow lately has been crazy! We have these two random cats that have shown up the last week. They are definitely not someone's pet. I've seen them slinkin around before. I made the mistake of throwing out some leftovers a couple days ago so now they come and sit by my back sliding door... all night and most of the day. They just look at me. They try to get in if I open the door so it's kinda buggin me, but I have a soft spot in my heart for animals so it's hard! I don't know what to do about them. They could never be inside cats, I'll tell ya that much, but I don't want to be mean to them and I also feel bad they looks so skinny. I worry about calling the pound because I know they euthanize a TON of cats... I remember hearing a statistic when I volunteered at the Humane Society about that.

We went to visit my sweet Grandpa this last week. He's really gone downhill since my Grandma past away. I wish I visited with him more. It's super funny that Sophie LOVES him... she's probably been around him less than 10 times but she never is scared of him! In fact she let him hold her and pretty soon I look over and she was laying back on him eating his popcorn watching America's Funniest Home Videoes. I couldn't believe it! My cousin had her baby over. Sophie didn't want ANYTHING to do with him. She kept poking her finger at him. At one point, for a 'picture moment' we had her hold him while my Grandpa held them. She started fussing and pushing him off her, haha! She's such a little stinker, I just love her!

Picture Fail

This week I had to work pretty much every other day (Sunday, Wednesday, Friday). Since it takes half a day to recover from my 13 hour shifts, my week went by too fast unfortunately. Today Kale and I actually had a day off together. We had family pictures planned. I spent the morning cleaning the house, and after I put Sophie down for a nap Kale and I got ready. When she woke up I got her in the bath and got her ready. She was being grumpy, naturally, and it continued through our family pictures! She refused to look at the camera and was fussy almost the entire time! It was slightly frustrating because I have been looking forward to doing some updated family pictures, and it's hard work getting everyone ready! We were going to do them outside but of course the weather sucked. We found somewhere inside but Sophie was so difficult to work with. Our photographer was great : very patient and accomodating! I'm hoping we get a few good ones.

When we came home it was snowing! Sophie was so curious. She kept reaching out to touch the snowflakes. Of course my camera battery died (one of those days) so this is the only picture we got!

Sophie is such a big girl! Her hair is so long. It's starting to get a lot lighter. She loves to bath. Usually when she wakes up we get her in the bath. I worry since she's gone all night without eating so often times I feed her in the tub. Ha Ha weird I know, but she eats really good in there! She's usually in there for an hour! She starts to freak out when she sees the towel to get out. She also has figured out the drain and the faucet. So if I try to drain the water she flips the drain and sits over it so I can't get to it. She also turns the water on. Little stink! She hasn't pooped in the tub for a while, phew, knock on wood!

She's getting to be a better eater. She's not on table foods completely though. She still has baby food purees. I have not been anxious to introduce milk. We've been doing a toddler formula and it's working so well, at this point in my life I hate to mess with something that isn't broken. She loves to self feed. She likes toast, any roast beef or ham, yogurt, chips, tortillas, string cheese, and tonight we found out she loves enchiladas!

She's always been a butt-scooter. About a week and a half ago she was acting like she'd maybe crawl but she'd fall flat on her belly. Well once day she just started crawling! She's still working on it, but it has made life a bit harder because I worry about all our stairs (the gate wont fit because the way the railing is) and stuff around the house. I THOUGHT it was babyproofed but she's definitely pointed out things to watch!

I haven't ever made Thanksgiving dinner but this year I am! I have no clue what to do but plan on calling my Dad and getting the lowdown! Lee's was having an awesome sale on a few canned things I use in most recipes, so I got my turkey then.

I finished up our extended family Christmas shopping this week. It actually seemed pretty easy. I just went to a store that had it all! I've got everything ready to wrap. I refuse to decorate until after Thanksgiving though. We are a real-tree family all the way so I usually try to wait until December to get the tree. LOVE the way a real tree smells and looks!

Yo Gabba Gabba

This is just a random picture I had on the camera from Sunday.


We went to the yo gabba gabba concert this afternoon. I think that YGG is pretty annoying personally, and I end up singing the songs all day. Sophie loves it though. YGG and sesame street are the only ones that keep her interest. I use the TV a lot as background and also to 'babysit' when I need to get things done. Also, Sophie eats the best when she has YGG as a distraction. Call my parenting skills horrible, but I gotta do what I gotta do! When I saw that YGG was coming to Salt Lake I was super excited and bought tickets several months ago.

We got there a bit late. As we were walking in Reel Big Fish were playing, it was awesome! Sophie was immediately entertained! It was so much fun. We were on row 3 and had several seats all to ourselves!


We got to meet Toodee, she came out of the door we were sitting by!

I got a little excited. Sophie was loving it!

She was super fidgetty and only wanted me to hold her.

They released ballons from the ceiling. It was fun, what a party! Sophie thought her balloon was so cool.

Her favorite, Biz. She smiles the entire time he's doing his beat-boxing. It was way cool, he did so good.

I figure since they made me buy a seat for her, we'd sit her in it for a bit. She was following along with the dance moves. This was with the "goodbye" song.

It lasted about an 1.5. It was the perfect amount of time. Sophie did really well and only got a little fidgetty after they had a short intermission. I loved it and would totally go again! Sesame street is coming in December, we'll have to consider it.

Sorry, picture overload.

Isn't it funny that once you have children your life changes in more ways that one. If you would have asked me two years ago if I'd ever be at a 2pm yo gabba gabba concernt, I'd say heck no!

Happy Halloween

Sophie's pony-tail today with a cute headband my friend makes. I love how long her hair is!



Mmm pretzels and carrots...



We made a sporatic trip to Wyoming to visit Kale's grandparents. It's rare that we have the same days off (let alone the entire weekend) so we thought we better take advantage. Sophie did great on the car ride. She had some major stranger danger but it's still fun to have his grandparents see the baby!

MMMM sweet nectar! (don't worry it's not open)

Sophie is getting to be such a big girl! I love her so much. I wish life had a DVR button to pause, rewind, (and sometimes fastforward) because it seems like she is just growing up too fast. She is so sweet and I just love being around her. She's finally getting over her cold and has been very pleasant lately!

I didn't get very good Halloween pictures this year. Sophie was a lady bug! We really only wore her costume to a little church function. It was still fun to dress her up! She was darling, thanks Crystal for letting us borrow such a cute costume!

My cousin was induced on Oct 23. Her husband is overseas so I thought it would be a great opportunity to be a support during her labor. She made labor look super easy and had a BIG beautiful baby. I recommended my midwife to her and so that was just a cherry on top (being able to see my midwife again). My midwife is wonderful and I just love her.

Aaron

We were at Carter's exchanging something we got from Sophie's birthday and she grabbed this little doll. I have been looking for the perfect doll... I wanted one that was completely soft but had no luck finding one anywhere! This is a smaller one, but it's the perfect size for Sophie right now and she LOVES it. She turns into such a maternal baby and pats and hugs her dollie. One of her favorite things to do is swing with the doll.

Halloween party tonight, pictures to come!

Updates on the Bettolo Fam!

Hi! I'm just lounging on my couch right now watching TV. I thought I'd blog. Sophie is sick. Poor baby. It could be teeth (she's been grinding them since yesterday) but I think she's got a little cold. Some low-grade fevers and nosey-nose stuff. Poor girl! She keeps coughing because of the drainage. I must say that my husband paid me a nice compliment today. Someone from the neighborhood came over to visit. I was inside with the baby but heard him say: "I am so glad my wife is a nurse. I wouldn't know what to do and would probably be taking the baby to the doctor but my wife is so good. She's been giving her medicine, has the humidifier out, has her bed elevated, and has been so calm about it. I am so grateful she is a nurse and knows what to do and is taking such good care of our daughter." It was such a nice thing to hear. My love language is definitely words of affirmation so things like that mean so much!

A dear nurse I work with gave me her baby monitor. It has been so nice. Sophie's room is on the top floor and our family area is on the third floor so I always had a hard time hearing her. It has made it so nice. I was able to take the monitor outside with me today to work in the yard. I love our yard! It's been on the cold side, but overall the weather has been nice and we've spent a lot of time outside. Sophie LOVES the tramp. She loves it when I hold her and sit with her and Kale jumps around us and bounces us. She likes to also be cradled while I jump really high. It's way funny to see her. She could spend hours out there! She used to hate the feel of the grass, but I think she's liking it now. She tolerates it at least. A few days ago we were out there and she was trying to chase after a little froggy. It was so funny. We also have seen a few snakes (ew). I love having my window open at night. There is a pesky barking dog a few houses down and next door, but other than that I love the noises. The birds and bugs just sing! I love the wetland area for that reason.

Kale and I have hit a wall lately with classes. I have never been great at math so my class is getting a bit more technical. Kale has night classes three times a week... but they follow a ten hour shift that starts at 6am so he's usually exhausted. He's working 6 days a week between two jobs. Poor Fella. Sometimes I think I should be working more to offset everything so he can cut back, but I love being home with Sophs, and Kale has said he would rather be working than parenting! He does a great job though, he'd be wonderful. I just hate the idea of working full-time! Kale is so good with Sophie. On my days off he takes such good care of her. She has been eating so much better. Kale can get her to eat much better than I can. She's kind of a diva when I try to feed her haha! She grabs at the spoon, gets mad and throws her sippy at me, and refuses to eat. Kale is amazing though; He gets her to eat her veggies and can get her to eat 4oz. Sophie has started to pull up on things. She can't quite get her booty all the way up but she tries. She loves to stand and has for months and months but has no interest in taking any steps! She is a stubborn girl. She doesn't crawl but instead she scoots around on her butt. I don't mind her lack of mobility though, I'll be honest!

We are liking our house. We've had a few obsticles that suck, but it's nice having extra space. I still have cabinents that are completely empty. I'm slowly filling them up. Today I found the cutest little 1L deep fryer at Target. It was only 24 bucks and I couldn't pass it up. We made french fries tonight and they were delicious. I got front-loading washer/dryer appliances when we moved in. It was my little splurge. I love them, they ALMOST make laundry fun again! It's been a bit tricky with my cloth dipes because they use so little water I have to do a couple cycles to get them clean. I actually have my old washer and am probably going to get it hooked up so I can go back to using it. Our laundry room has so much space, it's wonderful. We got a deep freezer. I LOVE it. It's a midsized one but I love having that extra space to help build my food storage. I wish I had more experience with what I can and can't freeze though. There have been some great caselot sales lately. Also, something new to us, is recycling. Our city does it. I haven't quite figured out the best way to organize recycling and keep it from the regular trash. Sometimes I can't find the little 1 or 2 recycling thing on packaging and stuff so it makes it hard and definitely takes up more time. I hope I can find a good system and get good at it. I still feel like I have so much to do. Everything is moved in. I still need to 'organize' things though. Things are just kinda put into closets and stuff. I need to go through my shed, organize drawers and closets better, and get a little more organized in the pantry and kitchen cabinents. If only there were more hours in the day.

Hmm.... what else.... I love my job. Everyone I work with is fantastic. I love the patient demographic and the experience I get. It's so neat to have such a wide scope of diagnoses too. I have learned so much. Wiping baby bums is SO much easier than adult bums. My mom had a little sewing machine that was in a rental house she bought last year that she gave me. I can't wait to use it. I found some cute homemade Christmas gifts that I can't wait to try. I took several sewing classes in Jr high so lets hope it comes back to me and I can be crafty.

My brother has been home from the mission for a few weeks now. He's got the post mission blues. I feel bad, it must be so hard to make that night and day switch. I heard the college dissolved the student wards?! Boo! I am going to talk him into signing up for some institute classes. I am also going to make him go biking with me or something. But c'mon... let's face it, I'm probably pretty lame to hang out with. If anyone has a sweet girl in mind that he could do a group date with, or know of any fun activities, please let me know!

Now, for the picture part of my post:

My mom found a teeny snake and was letting Sophie check it out (ew)

Sophie loves playing in the sink. It's the only way I get her to hold still while doing her hair. Now she knows how to turn it on though on her own, so it gets pretty messy.

I love my beautiful baby! She looks like such a big girl lately. I miss her being a teeny baby that I can snuggle. She is just like a little person now. She is so sweet!

Loves the tramp (this is mid-jump)

Made us some baby-legs. Sophie's thighs are so fat though.

Jeff's Home and Sophie's First Birthday!

Jeff is home from Australia! We went to the airport to get him. It was funny because another family was there picking up a missionary also and when my brother and the other missionary came down the escalator the other mom like fell to the floor and started to scream and wallor. I was so distracted watching, I thought it was hilarious! Sophie was a total grump. I don't think she likes big crowds and lots of noise. She was so fussy (and in turn-so was I)

After we went to eat at Chuck A Rama. It's one of Jeff's favorites. I can't quite eat like I used too... after a couple plates I'm full. We have this joke that we always undo a button and get another plate. Sophie's pants were a little tight and we undid her button, haha

Our new house has a really neat yard. Most of the day and especially in the morning it sounds like one of those nature sounds CDs. There are frogs, fuzzy caterpillars, and snakes (ew I don't like that part so much). My mom was over and caught a small one and Sophie was checking it out.

Sophie had her 1 year checkup. She is such a big girl! She was 22lbs 2 oz (68th percentile) and 31 inches long (96 percentile). Sophie has been pretty grumpy/fussy this week. Her bum bum issues are getting a little better now but did get worse when we tried a slow introduction of milk again so the doctor gave us some enfagrow toddler formula samples to get us through two weeks until we're going to try milk again. We're continuing the miralax so hopefully that will help when we try again in a few days. They want me to introduce 1oz every few days. She got 5 shots, poor baby!

This was taken on Sophie's Birthday! I spent most of the day cleaning. Kale was home and I rarely have another body to watch Sophie while I unpack. The day was SOOO productive. I was able to unpack and clean the rest of the garage. This is a picture of Sophie playing with her new birthday toys! I am proud to say that I got all of Sophie's toys at the DI! She got a star stacking toy, a pull toy with lots of little blocks, and a wooden puzzle toy. She is so dang sweet. Seeing this picture makes me smile.

Today we had a birthday party for Sophie! I have felt slightly stressed and very busy all week preparing. I didn't think about it being conference weekend. A lot of people couldn't come, but it was still fun!

This is before the party. I made the banner with the help of a nice friend's diecuting! It was a cupcake theme. I made her birthday cards too. It's fun to make things like that, especially when it's for something special. Sophie was pretty grumpy today. She woke up really unhappy after her nap, poor girl. She was very clingy to me and just seems like she's having a hard week. I hope next week is better. I can focus on her and not worry about unpacking, cleaning , ect...

She's got curlers in. Her hair is SO long now they barely work ha.

Some of our party guests!

We had a bubble machine, so fun!

Sophie's favorite color is purple!

Cupcake theme party

A lady in my old ward has a cupcake business (Whimsy Cupcakes). We were lucky enough to be her husband's home teachees so we got some cupcakes here and there, and they were DELICIOUS! Not only do they look great but they taste so wonderful. We got pink lemonade flavor... the cupcakes are so soft and moist. The frosting is the perfect balance of sweetness! They went super fast (shoulda ordered more) and I had to hurry and snap a picture quickly!

Opening presents

Whimsy made a JUMBO cupcake for Sophie. I died laughing... I thought for sure she'd really go after it when we put it in front of her. She was so dainty about it! She'd poke her finger in the frosting and taste it. Finally after a few tastes she went in for it with both hands.

She made more of a mess than what she actually ate, but it was so fun to watch her!

Sophie and her daddy!

After being cleaned up we went back outside to swing (she loves swinging and jumping on the tramp!!!)

Overall it was a great birthday. It's such a bittersweet feeling. It actually makes me really sad to think that a whole year has gone by. Even though I know I have many more great years to spend with Sophie, it's just sad to see how fast time flies! She is such a big girl. She is a pretty good sleeper. She never goes down easily but she sleeps through the night. She is a very picky eater. She only eats: banana, applesauce, and pear baby food puree, toast, lil munchers and yogurt bites, yogurt, and she is a great water drinker. She doesn't crawl, pull up on things, or walk. We get asked those things a lot. She's on her own pace: I really think it comes down to being stubborn/lazy. Her newest, not so desirable habit, is throwing temper tantrums. At home I don't mind, I can remove her from the situation and let her 'voice' her unhappiness. In public is a little different because people look at you so critically. If I don't give her something, let her touch/hold something, or even just walk away from something, she does a high-pitched shrill shrieking. Sometimes she'll even pinch/hit me! Oh my goodness, that baby girl of mine! I hope it's a phase. She's such a good baby and it's just out of character for her. I just take it as her way of communicating since she can't talk yet.

She's become quite the babble-er. She love to rock back and forth too. She's gotten to be a pro at the sippy cups. We started using some spill-able toddler water bottles. Once in a while she gets pretty soaked. Speaking of soaked, she LOVES to sit in the bathroom with her legs in the sink! She knows how to turn the faucet off and on, and likes to splash and spray stuff. She loves baths, and swimming. We went to the Marshall White Center this week and she smiled almost the whole time! She is really good at kicking and splashing. I dunked her a few times, but it always makes me nervous! Sophie's has a really cute birth mark on her left chubby thigh. Her hemangioma is still there. The first year is a rapid growth phase, but they usually start to get smaller and usually disappear by the time the baby is 5.

We're happy to be in our new house! We had another little bump in the road. The fridge's water supply was turned off. When we moved in we turned it back on. Little did we know the sellers didn't disclose that the water supply has a leak! The entire floor around the fridge and the ceiling below and downstairs wood flooring is ruined. Luckily we don't have to pay for it, but it's still not fun! They're going to fix it this week. We are going to paint plum purple in our living room, and green in Sophie's room. We have been doing some work in the yard too... pulling weeds and changing around some landscaping. It will be nice when there are no more projects :) Ha like that will even happen huh?! I hope I will have more time to blog: it's my journal and my own little therapy. Thanks to everyone who reads :)