Month eleven was once again heaven!

Sophia's 11th month was great..... up until the very end:(

She began her 11th month while we were still in Cuba! We continued our fabulous vacation in paradise for a second week after the wedding. It was nice and relaxing. Great weather, great company (my family) and lots of memories! It went by way too quickly....

While in Cuba Sophia became an official crawler. No more occasional moves but rather full out crawling across the room! It was very exciting but also opened our eyes up to the reality of a mobile baby!!!!

Once back home in cold cold Edmonton the excitement did not settle down. Nana and Relic arrived for Christmas a week after we had said good-bye from the Cuba trip! They spent a few days with us and a few days with Tori and her family.

Christmas was great! Busy but great! We spent it with ALL of our family! Lots of moving around from place to place but we managed to squeeze every one in. Sophia was spoiled for her first Christmas and seemed to really enjoy all of the Christmas excitement. Should be pretty cute next year!

After Christmas it all went down hill. Well not quite that quickly but a week later it sure did. Poor Sophia celebrated her 11 month birthday with a stomach flu that was violent and lasted a week. It resulted in a trip to the hospital, a urinary tract infections, two visits to the doctor and the discovery of under developed ureters in our poor girl. She should grow out of it but for now we have to keep an eye on her and do everything to prevent any urinary tract infections.

What a busy month...

By 11 months:

Weight: 18 lbs 2 oz (due to her flu bug...:()

Height: 29 1/2 inches

Month ten we left the den yet again!!!

Month ten began like any....

Sophia continued to hang out with her buddies and they babies were really starting to interact with each other at this age. They would laugh at each other, try to cuddle with each other and would get very frustrated with each other. It was pretty cute to watch!

Sophia continued to practice crawling and would occasionally do a few moves here and there but was more in to comando crawling than traditional hands and knees crawling. She was still very very mobile and we had to put up a permanent gate at the top of our stairs because she was so fast!

Near the end of Sophia's tenth month we packed up and left for THE trip of the year! We had been preparing for it for over 1/2 a year and it was finally here! Our wedding trip!!!! We left for Cuba on November 29th, just shy of Sophia's ten month birthday! It was a great flight for us as Air Canada upgraded us to first class because we were getting married. Sophia did a great job! She slept really well on the flights, hung out with Nana and Relic and Papa Roger and Grandma Lene and got to play with her cousins Taylor and Teleah. We were all so excited for this trip and could not wait to see all 57 people who were there for our wedding!

So much family and so many friends! We were very blessed to have that many people there. There were lots of people who were meeting Miss Sophia for the first time. Sophia was a bit overwhelmed at first and slept TONS in the first few days we were there but got used to the heat, the sun and the relaxed life on the beach! We got an excellent beachfront suite and settled in to our two week vacation very quickly!

By ten months old:

Weight: 17 lbs 15 oz

Height: 28 3/4 inches

Month nine was might fine!

Month 9 was a very good month!

Sophia grew two new teeth in this month. She sprung her first top tooth on October 13th and the next on October 19th. This brought her up to 4 whole teeth and a new world of biting.....

Again... Poor me!

Sophia continued to try many more new foods at this age and became a huge fan of yogurt and cheese! To this day she can down as much dairy as she wants and never has to worry about getting bunged up...

Sophia continued on her quest towards crawling. She would get up on her hands and knees and rock back and forth but didn't have the guts to move. She would get a panicked look on her face and slowly lay back down on to her belly. She was still surprisingly mobile though and just by doing circles on her belly, pulling herself with her hands and rolling, Sophia could make it pretty far! She also continued on working on her standing on furniture and her walking. By far that was her favorite!!!

Sophia celebrated her first Halloween in this month and in fact celebrated her 9 month birthday on Halloween. She dressed up as a skunk and went to a Mum's group Halloween party! She wore her skunk outfit while we ran errands on Halloween and got LOTS of compliments on how cute she was! She definitely made a cute and stinky skunk!

The biggest event of month 9 was the move in to our new home! Lots of work but so exciting! We had lots of help from family and friends and managed to get most of the unpacking done on the first day. Thanks to all that helped! We settled in to our home very quickly and LOVE it here. So many places to walk with Sophia and the dog, a beautiful old neighborhood with lots of trees and schools. There is an outdoor pool a couple of blocks away and parks everywhere. Definitely a great move for us! We have to admit though, it was really weird not living with Papa Roger and Grandma Lene. Sophia looked for them every morning at breakfast. It was a really nice treat having all of the extra help, yummy home cooked meals and watching Sophia build such a bond with them. I think it hard on all of us involved when we left :(

By 9 months:

Weight: 17 lbs 7 oz

Height: 28 1/2 inches

Month eight was somewhat great.....

Month eight was mostly great but came with a few hitches....

Sophia started it off great! We continued our daily river valley walks which Sophia LOVED and we LOVED too! Nothing like fresh air, trees and a river to relax you at the end of a long day.

My mum's group continued each Wednesday and Rog and Arlene's home became the place of choice for hosting. Us mummies used the river valley as our choice of venues for burning 'baby fat'!!! It is a great workout carrying a baby and climbing hills and doing stairs!

Adam and I took Sophia swimming again and she loved it even more this time around. She splashed and squealed with delight! We must have spent an hour in the pool and finally left because she turned in to a prune!

We also got another visit from Nana in this month. Nana and Teleah came over to visit Sophia and have some playtime with her. Teleah LOVES Sophia so much and is always so gentle around her. It is pretty cute to watch. She like to shower her with big wet kisses and always makes sure Sophia has a soo-soo with her at all times!

After this it all went downhill..... First I got sick with flu like symptoms. Yucky aches and pains, fever and chills. It lasted a couple of days and Adam had to come home early a couple of times because I could not lift Sophia up. It then turned in to a horrible chest/head/sinus cold. Sophia got it a couple of days after me and it hit her hard. She was on fire. Literally her skin felt too hot to touch. She was lethargic and had a horrible chest cough and congestion. She slept with Adam and I because her breathing was horrible and we were really worried about her. Arlene and I took her to the Stollery at one point because she was burning up, not eating or drinking and not sleeping. It was truly one of the saddest sights. You can see the tired look on Sophia's face in the above photo. And that was taken at the tail end of things. Adam was the last to get the illness... We are pretty sure we had H1N1. Classic symptoms and the pediatrition said that it was accounting for over 80% of the flu bugs at that time but staying at home was the best thing for us. That was a loooooooooong week.

Sophia did get better and continued to be her happy self. In her eighth month Sophia started to stand up holding furniture, loved walking holding our hands , learned to wave good-bye to anyone and everyone and was starting to become interested in crawling. She also officially became a sleep through the night baby!!!! Yay to that!

By eight months old:

Weight: 16 lbs 10 oz

Height: 27 1/2 inches

Month seven was too busy to be heaven!!!!

Month seven was a very very very busy month for us. We started it off while on vacation in Nova Scotia. While there we sold our house back in Edmonton and the new owners wanted quick possession. That meant that we had to be out of our house 8 days after we got home from our trip..... NOT FUN AT ALL!!!!!

Not only did we have to pack an entire house up in such a short time, but we also had no new home to live in. Thankfully Papa Roger and Grandma Lene offered up their home for us to move in to. I often wonder if they would have made that offer knowing how long we were actually going to stay.... We thought we would be there for a month tops but that quickly turned into over 2 1/2 months. Ooops! Very much appreciated though!

We moved into our new, temporary home on August the 8th. I think it was an adjustment for everyone but probably a HUGE adjustment for Roger and Arlene. No more quiet house, no more clean, clutter free house. Our 'stuff' slowly took over each room of the house.

It was an adjustment for Miss Sophia but she quickly settled in to a new routine and loved having her Grandma and Papa there each day. It was great for Adam and me. We LOVED living near the river valley and took Sophia out for long walks every night we were there. Finn (our dog) had never been in better shape.

Month seven brought Sophia's first visit to the zoo. As you can see from the above photo, the babies were more in to looking at the grass than any of the animals! Too funny!

Sophia also started to sleep even more consistently through the night in this month. She would sleep for 11 hours 4 or 5 nights a week which was a real treat for us! Sophia started to play peek-a-boo with us by holding a t-towel over her face and then ripping it down and laughing so hard. Every time I would grab it from her she would laugh so hard she almost couldn't breath! We have some pretty cute videos of these nightly episodes.

Overall month seven was great. Busy with lots of new adjustments but still great! We really lucked out living with Roger and Arlene and enjoyed our time there. Thanks again!

By 7 months:

Weight: 16 lbs 1 oz

Height: 26 1/2 inches

Month six we put on the clicks!!!!!

Looking back I can't believe how busy our summer was!!!! I didn't realize how much traveling we did with Sophia.....

Month six was another busy one full of excitement and we really did put on the clicks!

Sophia celebrated her first Canada Day! She got all dressed up for the occasion and had fun playing with all of her friends at our Canada Day barbeque.

Month six brought another camping trip for us. We again went camping with Craig, Audrey and Mr. Max to Waterton. We went on a couple of hikes in the mountains and again the babies did really well! We did some shopping in town, lounging at the campground and went to the ice cream shop and candy store! It was a fun trip but a REALLY long drive for the babies and the mummies.....

At the end of Sophia's sixth month we flew all the way to Nova Scotia for a big family reunion. Sophia and I went a week ahead of Adam and spent some time with my Aunt and Uncle before the other 30 people arrived for another week of fun! Sophia was a great traveller for me and adjusted to the time change and surroundings change quite well. Sophia turned six months on that trip. It was a big deal for us! She was a 1/2 year old already....

In Sophia's sixth month she mastered eating pablum and started trying different vegetables and fruit that I made for her with my Magic Bullet! We had lots of fun coming up with yummy food combos. Sophia became a pro at sitting up on her own without falling over. She started sleeping through the night off and on and made the big move to her own bedroom in this month!!! And our favorite is that we discovered how ticklish Sophia was at about 5 and a bit months! We knew her neck was ticklish but we discovered her ticklish ribs and thighs!

This was a really fun month filled with so many squeals and giggles from our Buba-loo!

By 6 months old:

Weight: 15 lbs 3 oz

Height: 26 inches

Month five we got the JIVE!!!!

Month five was another busy one filled with so many firsts and lasts!!!!

We started off Sophia's fifth month by making our LAST trip to Cold Lake before Nana and Relic moved to Comox. We had such a fun time with Sophia's cousins. We went on lots of walks to the park, played at the beach and Sophia did lots of Jolly Jumping with Ella Bean! Ella adored Sophia on that trip and just wanted to carry her around so badly but knew she was still to little to do so. Instead she would 'help' her jump and sometimes hold her off of the ground while she was in her jumper! It was pretty funny! It was a really nice trip and was so hard to say good-bye.... MANY MANY MANY good years were had in Cold Lake but now we will have MANY more great years in Courtenay!!! Can't wait for the visit in April!

Sophia made her first trip out to Pigeon Lake in month five to see Grandma and Papa Toots. She was a very good baby and spent lots of time snuggling with Grandma and Papa! Sophia also went for her first swim in a baby pool while on our little trip. She wasn't too happy about it as the water was pretty cold but she tolerated it long enough for some photos.... We are looking forward to some fun out there this summer with a very mobile child!!!! Watch out!

Our next trip was also in month five and was a big one!!! Sophia went on her first of two camping trips. We went to Jasper with Craig, Audrey and Max. It was a little cold at night and in the mornings but the babies did really well. We went on a good day hike and the babies did amazingly well in their back packs. They spent time hanging out by the fire with us, shopping in town, and napping in the hammock. Sophia slept better than she ever had. I didn't sleep too well though because I spent most of the night waking up to check on her and make sure she wasn't freezing to death or that she wasn't suffocating in all of her blankets!!! While in Jasper Sophia sprung both of her bottom teeth. They came in a day apart one week shy of her 5 month birthday. It was all very exciting but I had no idea what was in store for me.... I never took biting seriously until Sophia got her teeth... YIKES!!! Poor me.....

Month five also brought Sophia's first introduction to rice cereal. She tried it for the first time at 4 1/2 months and wasn't a huge fan. She made some funny faces and gagged a little bit but by the time she turned the big 5 months she was a little pro and was really enjoying her food!

Rolling over from back to front and front to back was also a skill that Sophia mastered in this month. She would do it occasionally before her fifth month with some help but became a real pro by the age of 4 1/2 months! She was especially good at it when she was wearing a disposable diaper as opposed to her gigantic cloth diapers!

The 5th month was great! REALLY busy, full of travels and many firsts. So much fun....

By the age of 5 months:

Weight: 14 lbs 6 oz

Height: 25 inches

Month four was FUN galore!!!!

Month four was a big month for Sophia! There were lots of firsts in that month.

Sophia and I celebrated our first Mother's Day together. It was such a special day filled with Sophia's famous smiles and giggles and the best snuggles ever! Sophia also got me a nice gift (courtesy of Daddy). I couldn't have wished for a better day!

Sophia's was introduced to swimming as well. She was pretty relaxed in the water with her Daddy and even went under water a few times! So cool to see. Sophia absolutely LOVES the water. To this day she loves kicking and splashing at bath time, swimming in the pool and really enjoyed swimming in the ocean! She is a true water baby!

The fourth month also brought an introduction to the Jolly Jumper. Just the other day I was trying to rack my brain to remember how old she was when she first when in the jumper. I thought she was a lot older but in fact she was just over 3 months old her first time! She took to it really fast and learned to jump and squeal and turn on her toes! I loved putting a tutu on her and watching her dance like a mini ballerina! Girls are too much fun....

The fourth month also saw the end to our official Mum's Group through Capital Health. The above photo was taken on our last day at the health unit. Sophia was 9 weeks when we started the group and 15 weeks on her last day. However, us Mums new better than to let a good group like that just end. We continued meeting each Wednesday, taking turns at each other's houses or setting up strollercize, river valley walks and swimming dates. Those women are fantastic! We have helped each other through the tough times and motivated each other to get fit again! Thanks ladies!

It is amazing looking back at Sophia through the months. I am really enjoying remembering all of the fun things we did and all of the new things Sophia did each month. It seems like eons ago but it was only a mere 7 months ago..... Wow! Time really does fly.

By the end of month four:

Weight: 13 lbs 12 oz

Height: 24 1/2 inchs

Month three was filled with GLEE!!!!

Month 3 was an extra special one filled with trips to see family, a first taste at fame and the beginnings of our juicy bum baby!

Sophia started off her third month with a drive up to Cold Lake to visit her Nana. She did so well on the drive. In fact I don't think she even woke up to eat until we actually arrived! Nana was able to get lots of snuggles in and Sophia got to meet some of my Cold Lake friends.

Next was a very special trip to Calgary. We stayed with Uncle Brad, Aunty Kath and Sophia's cousin Oliver. Sophia had a fun vacation but the best moment was meeting her Great Nana for the first time! It was a very special moment that we will cherish forever.

In Sophia's third month I joined a Mum's group and met some really amazing women! They have all turned into great friends and such a support for me through those early months! Sophia and I are very lucky! Even though it was only supposed to be a 6 week session, we all still meet once a week (or more often) for play dates and gabbing sessions!

Just after we started our group Sophia and Max were asked to be model babies for the grand opening of the Northgate Health Center! We thought there would be a few pictures for the paper. However..... When we arrived EVERY newspaper, new station and radio station were there. Sophia and Max were in the Edmonton Sun, Edmonton Journal and the Edmonton Gazette. They were also on Global TV news and City TV news. We also just found out that they made the list for the Edmonton Sun's top photos of 2009.

Sophia's third month was so much fun! She became the smiliest baby ever and started her giggles. She chubbed out and got the big thunder thighs and J Lo bum! She was so squishy and kissable!!!!

By the end of month 3:

Weight: 12 lbs 15 oz

Height: 23 1/2 inches

Month two we flew!!!!

Our second month with Sophia really did fly by!!! Things settled down, we really got to know our little girls signs. I became much more comfortable venturing out to go shopping, lunch dates with friends and to the movies (stars and strollers!!! So great)! I also signed up to join the New Mom's Network. We wouldn't start until Sophia was 9 weeks old and I had no idea what a life saver this group of Mom's was going to be!!!! That is another story for month 3!

Adam really settled in to Daddy-hood and loved having after work naps with his girl! Those two snuggled so much. Sophia always grinned from ear to ear when her Dad showed up!

When Sophia was 6 weeks old, my Mom and I flew with her to Toronto to meet Chrissy, Joe, Lauren, Ella and Mateo! I wasn't sure what to expect but Sophia did just fine. She let out a couple of squeals at take off and landing but slept in a hook on bassinet for most of the trip! We had a great time during our visit and realized it wasn't so bad traveling with a baby.....

Month two was great! Feels like it was so long ago. I wish I could bottle up all of the special moments and relive them over and over again....

By the end of month two:

Weight: 11 lbs 7 oz

Height: 23 inches