3 more weeks??? Wha???? O.M.G!!!!

Well, it is down to crunch time.....

I kept telling Adam that we had to start getting 'things' around the house ready. We needed to wash baby clothes, move Sophia in to her new room, get out baby gear, install the carseat..... and maybe even pick out some names!!!!

He kept saying "we have plenty of time". Now we officially DON'T "have plenty of time"!

I feel like I have so much to do to prepare for this little person and to prepare Sophia for the epic change in her life. I am feeling pretty guilty these days about bringing a new baby home. Don't get me wrong, I am SUPER excited to meet this new person but I have lots of anxiety about how busy life is going to be, how Sophia will react, and if I have enough room in my heart to love another person as much as I do Sophia. I know she is too little to understand but I don't ever want her to doubt that her Mommy and Daddy adore her beyond explanation.

Sophia is such a light in our lives. So busy but so much fun! The things that come out of her mouth are adorable and the tone of her voice is undeniably the cutest sound ever. She has such a girly voice and almost a squeak to it! Every sentence and every word ends in an almost question! It is really funny to listen to her talk.

She likes to hide in the house and then yell "Where are you Mummy?". I answer "right here!" and she'll squeal "Oh!", as if it is a surprise. After play-dates with friends we walk hand in hand and she will look up at me and "Have fun Tysey's (or whoever we played with) house?". I will answer yes and then she will say "No more pay Tyse....Tyse sleeping now?". Pretty cute conversations! She also LOVES to sing and dance these days and will sing songs to her teddy bear in her crib. I love it! The best sound to wake up to!

She is very talkative but definitely a watcher when in crowds. If she is with her friends or family she is quite outgoing and a true ham! She can turn shy really easily when around new kids but will eventually venture away from my lap to try to play with them. She regularly comes back to me for some cuddles and reassurance... She is also on the timid side these days with strange noises or dark rooms. She spooks easily and will run up to me yelling "I scared Mummy". When I ask of what she will say "noises". We have had to ask people to try not to purposely scare her or surprise her because it leaves her pretty upset for awhile and she will often wake up with bad dreams after such an episode.

Anyhow, life is about to change as we know it. Just another few weeks and we will be a family of four..... Scary! I hope for a fast (but not too fast) labour and delivery. As long as we get a healthy baby out of it I will be happy with whatever happens. Can't wait to see what kind of baby we get and for that moment when Sophia walks in to the room to unwrap her new baby and reveal if it is a brother or sister to the rest of the world!

Wish us luck!

Our little explorer!

What a fun age this girl is at!!! Sophia is extremely busy at 20 months but almost always has a smile on her face and a squeaky cheerful voice to go with it! Even her temper tantrums end with giggles these days!

Sophia is very strong willed and becoming very independent. She is learning to dress herself, has to open and close all of the doors on her own, take off her own diaper, wipe her own bum after the potty (which, for the record, she won't actually pee or poop on), brush her own teeth, unzip and zip up her own jacket, wash her own face, pour her own water, wash her own hands, feed the dog, ect..... Although it makes it that much harder to get things done quickly and efficiently, it is really amazing to watch her grow each day.

Sophia loves to ham it up too! She really likes to get a laugh out of anyone and everyone. If she notices an audience and she is feeling comfortable enough she will pull all of her tricks at once. Her latest is counting from 2 to 10 (never starts at 1), singing songs and rhyming rhymes, naming all of her body parts (including her tongue and teeth) and testing Adam and I on our body parts. She will say "eyes" and wait for us to point to the right part and then move on to the next body part.

Sophia LOVES to explore and collect things. From what I understand, her Daddy was just like that as a kiddo. She will stop and pick up every rock, leaf and berry we pass and store them in her pockets. She will walk around with keys and try to unlock every single door. EVERYTHING goes in to her mouth or electrical sockets!!!! Needless to say our house is baby proof and when we go anywhere else we can not take our eyes off of her for a second!

In all of this change Sophia is still a real cuddly girl. She LOVES her snuggles with her Mom and Dad and will spend 15 minutes at a time just hanging out in our arms. I love it and will never ever ever ever encourage her to do otherwise.

We love our baby girl and are really looking forward to seeing what the next baby is going to be like! So much fun being parents!

The summer of travels!

Sophia has been a busy girl traveling from coast to coast (literally) in Canada!

The very end of June Sophia and I flew to Comox to visit Nana and Relic. Lauren, Ella and Mateo were also there during our visit! Sophia LOVES her big cousins and was spoiled rotten by them. We had a fun filled, BUSY trip with outings each and every day. We saw Mount Washington (snow picture above), Puntledge River, Hornby and Denby island, Miracle beach.... The list goes on! We had a great time and can't wait to go back!

Our next big adventure was our flight all the way to Nova Scotia. There, Sophia and I spent a week with Aunt Judy and Uncle Paul in Kingsport. They bought and renovated my Nannie and Grandaddy's home and turned it into a beautiful, relaxing place to visit. I have so many memories as a child in Kingsport and I look forward to building memories for Sophia and her sibling(s)! We spent that trip relaxing, walking, hot tubing, chilling with family, visiting a zoo and of course Hall's Harbour for a lobster feast! Sophia loved the lobsters when they were alive but once they were cooked she FREAKED!!!

On to Toronto we flew where we met Adam at the airport to begin the next leg of our trip. We stayed with my sister Chrissy and her family. We had a great time..... besides being sick and getting Chrissy and her kids sick. Yuck!

They put a new pool in their back yard so we spent many a SWELTERING afternoon by the pool swimming. Adam and I left Sophia with Aunty Chrissy for two days while we drove to Hamilton for some friends wedding. It was a nice getaway and nice break but was hard to leave Sophia. We hadn't ever left her for that long before. Thanks to Chrissy for taking such good care of her! We also took Sophia to the Toronto Zoo. It happened to be the hottest day of the week so it was a quick, sweaty, dehydrating 3 hours!!!! Beautiful zoo though!

Life has been busy! We are happy to be home and settling back in to a routine! Sophia is 18 1/2 months now and is TROUBLE!!!! She is very strong willed and likes to do things on her own and her way or the highway. She is talking up a storm and has well over a hundred words. She is in the mimicking stage and will copy almost anything that comes out of our mouths! We really have to watch ourselves now!!!!

Sophia is a blast and although I get frustrated with having a little cling on attached to my leg 24 hours a day, I would trade it for the world! She makes us laugh all the time and is a real ham!

We are looking forward to the next bambino to add to the fun! I am almost 22 weeks pregnant now and feeling really good! This baby is very active and reassures me he/she is growing and healthy all the time! Can't wait to see what we get!

By 18 months:

Weight: 24lbs (up the the 50th percentile!!!)

Height: 32 3/4 inches (75th percentile!!!)

Big changes for Sophia!

Sophia has no idea how much her life is going to change in 6 months......

She will officially become a big sister around the 23rd of December! Yup it is true we are having baby #2! He/she looks like a perfect little healthy baby and we couldn't be happier to have him/her join our family! I am sure Sophia will be out of joint for awhile but will grow to love her new buddy with time!

It has been a busy month with Sophia growing and changing every day! She is such a ham and such a bright light in our lives. She is really taking off with her speech and is up to over 40 words now! She still has her words of the week but is starting to put some words together! This week it is "Uh-oh Spao" (uh-oh spaghettio), "Hi Dadda!", "Hi Mama!", "Soo-soo?", "Oh Dear!". She likes to chat from the moment she opens her eyes until she goes back to sleep! She is much like her Mama in that department!

Although we are not officially potty training (I think she is way to young yet), Sophia is taking an interest in the whole thing and has peed on the potty 3 times now. She is pretty proud of herself but will walk around the corner and pee on the floor 5 minutes later..... and then laugh about it!

Sophia has such a fun personality and although everyone thinks she is so mellow, we are definitely seeing a wild side to her. She is really starting with the temper tantrums (especially with her Mama) and will arch her back, push her belly out, put her chin to her chest with a pout on and start trying to hit whatever she is mad at. Or she will just lay on the floor and kick!

She loves talking on the phone and has had little conversations lately with Adam and Nana and Relic. She will talk jibberish and then laugh out loud!

Sophia hates loud noises. If she drops something and makes a noise, if the dog barks, the doorbell rings, she will throw whatever she is holding and come a running for her Mom! A bit of a scaredy-cat!

She LOVES being tickled. If you stop she will take your hand and put it on her leg or armpit. Or she will just lay there and put her arms above her head for you to tickle her. Several times a day she will stop what she is doing and tickle herself while saying "tickle tickle tickle"! During her night time bottle she will spend half of the time tickling Adam or myself!

And Sophia LOVES to dance! She bounces her knees and bops her head to music all day! She especially loves if we all dance together in the living room! I wonder what the neighbors think???

Other than that not much else is new!!!!

By 16 months:

Weight: 22lbs 3oz

Height: 31 inches

Sunny days!

Finally we have had some beautiful weather to get outside and enjoy! Almost too hot but I would never complain about that!

Sophia still LOVES being outside. She knows the route for our walks and gets really excited as we approach the school field where we let her run wild. She makes her way to the park every time. It used to take her 20 minutes to cross the field with all of the falls but now she effortlessly runs/wobbles to her destination...... the swing! She grins from ear to ear and claps and yells "Yay"!!!!

As usual Sophia has some new tricks and new sayings these past few weeks. She really likes to put on a show for us and will perform all of her tricks at once because she knows it is cute. She will give us 'five', bump knuckles, wink (actually uses one eye!!!!), do a little dance, stick out her tongue, blow us a kiss and then just laugh. It is really funny to watch. When Adam gets home from work she runs to the window to wave 'hi'. Through the window she will bump knuckles to Adam, wink and yell "Hi Dadeeeee"! She now calls Adam "Daddy" instead of "Dada" and she calls me "Mum". No more Mama.

Sophia can now show you her belly button, nose, ears, eyes and sometimes mouth. She as learned to climb up on to the slippery couch when she is naked and uses her teeth to help pull herself up. She continues to be obsessed with our can cupboard/lazy susan and will climb inside and get herself stuck! Also is obsessed with unrolling toilet paper....

Last but not least, Sophia has been introduced to the potty! We are not going to force anything but she really likes to sit on it over and over again. She as taken an interest in watching us use the bathroom and seems pretty proud of her potty. We will see what time brings. I don't think she quite has the concept of peeing on the potty as opposed to the couch or the carpet.... but it will come!

Trip to Nana and Relic's house!

Just some of my fav photos from our super fantastic trip to Nana and Relic's house! We had a fun filled, busy week with Nana and Relic! We went everywhere and did everything.... Hiking, beach walks, watched the snowbirds, ate lots of yummy food, had a crab and scallop feast, drove a golf cart, drank LOTS of tea and lattes, played in the rain, shopped downtown, walked the golf course, went for a visit to meet Sophia's Great Grammy Boyd, BBQ'd with great friends, visited with my Aunt, Uncle and beautiful cousin and fiance and of course had lots of time to play scrabble and rummy cube!

Relic won Sophia over by day 2 and took her with him to Tim Horton's in the mornings, to the clubhouse for breakfast, grocery shopping and out for rides in the golf cart. She had a blast! Nana taught Sophia lots of new songs and dances and Sophia got plenty on Nana cuddles in throughout the week!

We were thoroughly spoiled and really enjoyed our time with them. Thank you Nana and Relic for such a fun trip! We will be back and hopefully sooner than you think!

Big changes and busy days!

It has been awhile since we have updated the blog. Lots of changes as of late!

Sophia is officially 15 months old and is quite the toddler already! She is still a very easy going girl but is definitely learning how to push her limits, test the waters and is letting her personality shine through.....

She continues to talk up a storm and has a new words everyday. Her phrases this week are "Oh Wow", "Uh-oh", "der der" (for the itsy bitsy spider), "ni ni" (night night), "baby", "huh???", "dat", "kitty" (to any animal that exists) and "te" (thank) and "Deee" (birdie). She surprises us with words all the time. When we pulled up to Grandma and Papa's house she yelled "Gana". At Nana and Relic's house last week she would call out "Elic" (Relic) for my dad very sternly or yell "Hi Dick" (Hi Rick) any time he would enter the room. She said "Oh thanks" to my mom when playing with her. Quite the chatter box!

Sophia has also decided that blowing kisses is fantastic and does it all day. She blows kisses to everyone. On the week-end we stayed at Adam's cousin's house and slept in the same room as Sophia. She woke up at 4:30 am blowing us kisses from her crib and waving and saying "hi Dada, hi!!!!". Pretty funny.

Sophia is really enjoying songs and LOVES the itsy bitsy spider. She constantly asks me to sing it by making the spider action with her hands and saying "der? der?" and will join in the actions for "washed the spider out" and "out came the sun". Really cute. She is starting to like "I'm a little tea pot" now too!

Sophia and I have been busy with traveling lately. We flew to Courtenay, B. C. to see Nana and Relic last week and had a blast! It is beautiful there. I am going to post some pictures from our trip. It was filled with fun! A few days after we came home we packed right back up and headed up to Calgary for a visit with family, a BBQ, trip to the zoo and a nice visit with Sophia's Great Nana! I think Nana really enjoyed seeing her and Sophia seemed to be entertaining many other residents and visitors as well. She gave Nana and big cuddle before we left. Precious memories.

Month 15 has been great! Sophia has been healthy and happy and BUSY! We love it! She is at such a great age!

By 15 months:

Weight: 21 lbs 8 oz

Height: 30.5 inches

Growing like a weed!!!!

Growing like a weed!!!! I can hardly keep up with her these days! I feel like every day I am weeding through her closet to put away clothes that no longer fit. A month ago I tried a pair of shoes on her that were at least an inch too long. Last week I put them on her and they fit perfectly.....I am sure by next week I will be putting those away too. She may not be the biggest kid weight wise but she sure is tall!!!!

Chatterbox should be Sophia's middle name. This baby never stops talking. Yesterday Adam and I were woken up to Sophia having a full out conversation with who knows what in here crib at 3:30 in the morning! She went on for about 20 minutes and then fell right back asleep. She may have been talking in her sleep. I am not sure.... It was pretty cute to listen too, especially because we did not have to get out of bed to a crying baby. We just had to listen to her tell her stories!

The other day my friend Ali and her little girl Faye (3 years old) were over for a visit. Sophia has a real thing for watching and taking in all of the actions of older kids. She will silently sit and watch other children for long periods of time and just smile at them. Faye was trying to play with Sophia and would stroke her face and pet her head. She tried really hard to talk to her and asked "Sophia, where is your dragon?" Sophia responded and said "Dragon?". Perfectly! Ali couldn't believe it!

Sophia continues to get faster and more efficient with her walking/running! She LOVES to play outside and is really enjoying going to the park to play. If we take Sophia out of the wagon in the soccer field, next thing we know she will b-line it for the park.

The photos above are just some favorites taken over the last few days. Sophia and Mommy cuddles, Sophia sporting my old overall dress from when I was her age, kisses from her best friend in the world Finnigan, Sophia all smiles in her new MEC splash suit, and Sophia b-lining it for the park!

Enjoy!

Goofy chatter!

Sophia has such a fun and quirky personality. I often wonder what is going through her head!

She just laughs and chatters all day long....

Naked walker!!!

Sophia LOVES bath time and as soon as we mention it or start the water she will b-line it for the bathtub! Thought we would show you our walker making her way to the bathroom! Lots of tumbles still but there truly is nothing cuter than a baby learning to walk!

Sorry it is sideways!!!! Oops!

Weather, wagons and walks!!!!

The weather has been so great! I love spring and the anticipation of summer and the fact that we don't need to wear hats and mittens!!!!

Sophia LOVES being outside and now that the snow has finally melted we have been getting lots of use out of her wagon. She is so proud of herself when she rides in her radio flyer! She really feels like a big girl. If we take her out of it to walk she will walk right back to the wagon and try to climb back in herself. Too cute! Her favorite is if we pull her and run really fast. She squeals and smiles so big her face looks like it is going to crack! Yesterday she signed "more" when I stopped running.

Over the last 3 days Sophia has gone from being a sometimes walker to a sometimes crawler. She walks about 90% of the time now. She looks like a little orangutang with her arms above her head for balance. She is getting really fast and sneaks up on us all of the time now. She walked in on Adam after he got out of the shower and scared him! It is so funny to see her motor around the house like this. I love it!

Next is turning her carseat around. So exciting because for the longest time we couldn't get Sophia above 20 lbs. Today she went for her follow-up visit to her Dr. because she was dropping in her growth and she has bounced back up to the 25th-50th %ile! So proud of her. The doctor wants to check her urines once a month until she is 18 months and then every 3 months after that. At 2 years old she will have a repeat bladder scan/u/s test and hopefully she will have grown out of her reflux! Fingers crossed. Sophia is a much happier girl and a much better eater when not on antibiotics!

By 14 months:

Height: 30 1/4 inches

Weight: 21 lbs 2 oz