7/2/10

Walking and Talking!

I thought it would be nice to give you an update about The Soph. She is blossoming into an absolutely beautiful child, walking and talking! If I do say so myself. And I do. She is quick, too! Besides running around, she also enjoys playing with us (hide-and-seek, blocks, drawing on her MagnaDoodle, coloring), reading books (over and over and over!), ANYTHING Mommy and Daddy are doing, pretty much getting into EVERYTHING, and dancing to music! Anytime she hears anything musical, she moves her little butt! She likes it so much that we even have random dance parties during the day. She's pretty good at staying in time with the music. I don't know where she gets that!

As you saw a few videos down, Sophie likes to talk. A lot. About everything. In fact, I thought it would be a nice time to chronicle what she says and how she says them at 18 months. This will be interesting looking back, I think, in a few years. Or at high school graduation. Same diff.

There are a few words that she says quite clearly and there are times that Jim and I both look at each other and say "HUH?!?"). She babbles constantly, incoherently but confidently! She says things and acts like we should have understood everything she said. It's quite cute. The words she says are really mundane things to most adults, but to us it's pretty impressive. We are proud that she knows so much.

WHAT HOW
flower.................flowah
wow....................wwwwowww
ball
baby
this/that.............diss/daT (she enunciates the T)
mama/mommy
dada/daddy
grandpa..............gampah
thank you...........taintyu
water..................watah
milk....................milhhh
banana...............nana
juice
blueberries........bubeebees
strawberries......stahbeebees
apple..................ahhhpoh
tickletickle.........tittletittle
duck...................duh
doggie................dawdie
yuck...................yuhhh
wooo, stinky.....wooo teentee
bye-bye
hi/hello
night-night......nahnah (this gets confused with banana. A lot.)
purple..............puhpoh
blue.................behhhh
airplane...........beebee
yay (clapping)..eeeeee
tree
turtle
fish
bunny.............nunnah
elbow
knee...............Neeeeeeee
Henry ............Ennnnnnreeee (Our friend's little boy. She calls all baby boys this.)
Up Up Up
shoes
bath

When she sees the Cirque tent, she points and says "Dada" so she knows that's where he works.

She likes to sing. When I sing a scale, she imitates me. Also she sings to herself when playing or in her crib.

Can identify body parts when asked. Where's your eye? Where's Daddy's eye? etc. This is one of her favorite activities also. I was reading an alphabet book, the letter I was up. She pointed at her eye. She is very bright!

Can make animal noises. When she sees birds, she tweets. When she sees monkeys, she oooh ooh aah aahs. (Once at Trader Joe's grocery store, she saw a monkey by the bananas and made the noises. Even passers-by commented on how bright she is!) When we ask what a walrus says, she can even bellow. :]

She understands simple directions. Push the button, pick something up, put something in a specific place, let's go brush your teeth, etc.

She can identify many different household objects also, like clothing and furniture. The other day we were putting on her shoes to go out and she had her sippy cup in her hand. We have two tables in our apartment, a coffee table and a dining table. Sitting by the coffee table, Jim asked her to put the cup on the table. She got up and put it on the dining table. :]

As you can see, I'm a proud mama! Here are a few recent pictures that I snapped here in Seattle of Sophie being cute/doing her favorite things.




























Playing with Dada




























Laying on the floor, reading














MagnaDoodle


















She also insists on putting her socks on HERSELF. She's very persistent. (Make sure the volume is down, there's a mommy voice in there.)

6/26/10

Flashback Friday

This short video was taken in Atlanta, GA, six weeks after Sophie was born. To this day, she plays with her hair, and mine. I can't remember when she DIDN'T kill your back when you pick her up! She was so little here- probably 7 pounds?! Now she's 26ish! We even had to roll up the sleeves on her monkey onesie! Not any more!

6/23/10

Double Dark Adventures

So at the beginning of a city run, we write down a list of everything we'd like to do/experience while we're in the city. Yesterday, we got to check something off that list! In the morning, we went to Pike's Place Farmer's Market. This place has pretty much everything you could ever want! I mean, who DOESN'T want chocolate noodles? I mean, really!?!? The flowers were gorgeous and the produce was indescribable! The array of colors was breathtaking! The fish stands were stinky but the prices are quite good for the products. On our way out, we went to the first Starbucks where I had an unsweetened iced tea and Jim had a banana/strawberry smoothie. Mine was very delicious.
Next, we visited the Experience Music Project and the Science Fiction Museum at the base of the Space Needle. Click here to check it out! The EMP was just plain FUN! They had a self-playing guitar sculpture in the middle of the entry way.


















We checked out the Jimi Hendrix experience room first. They had his lyrics and smashed guitars and his butterfly costume on display. I wouldn't say I'm a HUGE fan, but I admire his phenomenal contribution to musical history. They also had a room where you can play the drums, play bass, keyboards, sing, EVERYTHING! Sophie liked this room! They also had a DJ section where you could spin records and add your own touches to a song. This was my favorite spot!

They also had these AMAZING costumes that The Supremes actually wore! The colors and detail and the SPARKLES! All that for a performance on Soul Train or Flip Wilson! I fell in love! There was a black sparkled trench I wanted to steal! We came home, and I made quiche for dinner. It was a good day!

Today, we decided to take advantage of the nice, nice weather and made the drive to the Northwest Trek, a wildlife park, about an hour south of Seattle. We saw a lot of elk, moose, deer, rams, and other various wildlife. It was a nice, but tiring day! Here are a few pictures. Enjoy!

This one of Sophie and Daddy turned out super cute! She has her fingers in her mouth because of her teeth coming in. Boo! :[














Cutie:














Elk














Baby ram!














Brown bear














Wolves














There was supposedly a baby porcupine, but we didn't see it. :[


















This beaver was scratching on the glass. So funny!














Overhead view:














RIVER OTTERS!














On the way home, we saw Mt. Rainier and had to stop to snap a pic.














Now we're home and the kids (Yep, Daddy too!) are in bed after a long, fun day! I think I might join them in a bit. Life is pretty good!

6/19/10

Sophie the Nut pt 1

A few mornings ago, after breakfast, Sophie (18 months) allowed us to videotape her being silly. In this vid, Sophie teaches us what a walrus, a monkey and a birdie says! She's such a sweet, goofy girl!


Sophie the Nut pt 2

In this video, Sophie is babbling and making silly faces/noises. She sings too! Gosh, I love her!


6/15/10

Picnic in the Park

We moseyed over to Marymoor Park today for a picnic. We had turkey sandwiches and had a great time pointing out squirrels and birds. Sophie pointed and said, "tweettweettweet!" whenever they flew by. Sophie picked a few flowers and even ate one by accident, haha! We gave her a bit of a fruit bar, and she popped it into her mouth right with it. Oh well! It's natural, right?
We were sitting right next to a children's play area, so of course we let Sophie explore. She went down the slides a few times with and without one of us, and she went on the swings. These are her favorite!