Sophia's Half Birthday!

Ok, so technically her half birthday was 2 days ago. I was way too sleep deprived to blog until today. So here it goes! 

Sophia is 6 months old! Lots of drooling, biting, and hands in the mouth, but still no teeth! She's slowly getting used to the idea that I can't hold her all day. She'll sit on the couch and play, scoot around on the play mat, or hang out in the exersaucer for short periods of time throughout the day. The only time she will sit quietly in the swing is if I put her in there within the first hour of her waking up. Maybe she'll still too tired to fight it at that point, but any other time of the day, she arches her back so I can't even buckle her in. She sits really well by herself, but I always put the boppy behind her so she doesn't smack her head on the ground when she throws herself back.

 Tuesday she went to her 6 month well baby check up. She weighs 14lbs, 14 oz and is 25.25 in long. I was actually expecting her to be a lot bigger. The doctor says she looks great, and is right on track for her growth. She had to get 3 shots, and she started crying as soon as I laid her on the table. 

Out of curiosity, I pulled out Dylan's calendar that has all of his check up info and milestones to see where he was at 6 months. At his 6 month appointment, he was 14lbs and 26.25in. I was surprised because Sophia seems a lot chunkier than I ever remember Dylan being. Maybe since he was an inch longer, his weight was a little more stretched out. I flipped ahead to his 7 month and saw that within the 2 weeks after he turned 7 months he got his first 2 teeth, started crawling, moved from his belly to sitting up by himself, and pulled himself up to standing using his toy chest. OMG! I can only imagine Dylan running around the house (screaming like the Hulk), and Sophia crawling after him trying to keep up. To think that may be reality in a month or so is scary! 

The next day (Wed), Sophia woke up with a fever, and a red bump on her leg from her shots. She wanted me to hold her, but she would cry if my hand even brushed up against the bump. After a very fussy day and a lot of protesting from Dylan, we all went to bed early. I expected Dylan to put up a fight about going to bed early, but some of the things he says are ridiculous. He went to his room, and yelled "fine! I'm just going to be late for everything! I'm going to be late for the circus and for swim lessons!" I told him not to worry about being late because with his attitude he isn't going to the circus or swim lessons. He ran out crying saying he wanted to go, then finally agreed to lay down. 

Sorry I got a little sidetracked by Dylan's craziness. Anywho, here are Sophia's 6 month pictures.

And then the paparazzi goes too far...

 

 6 more months until her 1st birthday! This is also a reminder that there are only 6 months until Christmas. :) In case you were wondering, YES, I have started thinking about her 1st birthday party!!! Who am I kidding, I started thinking about it months ago. I may or may not already have 2 presents in my closet for her. I'm not 100% set on anything yet, but I really like the theme Sophia in One-derland (like Alice in Wonderland). I'll keep ya posted!

 

Random cuteness from Sophia

Uh, oh! Someone tried to escape from the bouncy!

Her first time on a carousel at Peter Piper Pizza

Working on her sippy cup skills

to cut or not to cut?

This kid needs a haircut. I think his last haircut was 2 months ago when Josh was home for a week in April. They usually go to the base to get their hair cut, but I'd feel kind of awkward walking into the barber by myself. So I can either find another place to take him, cut it myself (which may result in the need for him to wear a hat), or let it grow out. I'm liking the idea of letting his hair grow. I miss his mohawk! We had to cut his hair short because the lady at the base was not well versed in the mohawk (or faux-hawk) fashion of hair. hmm..decisions, decisions! 

Father's Day

"Dad-A son's first hero, a daughter's first love" 

Dylan and Sophia are lucky to have such an amazing dad. He's the kind of dad that isn't too busy to get down on the floor to play with you. The kind of dad that realizes that having the opportunity to spend time with your kids is a privilege, not an inconvenience. Their faces light up every time he's around. Sophia can't take her eyes off of him and tries to grab the phone when we video chat. She may be little, but she knows love. Dylan wants to be just like him. I totally credit him with Dylan's crazy sense of humor and fearless ways. This is the first Father's Day that Josh has spent away from home (He was home on R&R for his first Father's Day). I know it's hard for him to be away, and we all miss him like crazy. Someday the kids will understand that not all dads wear a suit and tie to work. Their dad wears combat boots. He's our hero, and we are proud of him. Hopefully we were able to bring a smile to his face today, and remind him that he's the best dad that two kids could ask for.

Dylan's 4 year pictures!

Every year we have professional pictures taken of Dylan for his birthday. At first we went to a studio, but when he turned 2 we switched to Courtney Sargent Photography. We knew Courtney from high school, and her pictures are awesome. Having her take Dylan's (and now Sophia's) pictures was one of the best decisions we made. Today we got the disc with all of Dylan's 4 year pictures. Since we took them right before Josh's deployment, I convinced him to wear his ACU's for the pictures, and I love the way they came out! Although these pictures were for Dylan's birthday, we got a few really cute ones of Sophia in there. I can't post all of them because there are 79 pictures, but here are a few of my faves. Enjoy!

I am way behind on hanging pictures in the house, so this is another project that should keep me busy for the next few weeks!

Dylan's rant of the day

Me: Dylan, I'm putting this hot dog thing away, so are you going to want another hot dog?

Dylan: I'm going to have one more hot dog and then I'm not going to eat anything else because I won't be starving anymore. And when I'm done I'm going to be the winner because I'm 4 years old. So that means I can fight the bad guys, and the monsters, and the aliens from space...and the aliens not from space.

Me: soooo....it's a yes on the hot dog?

These are the conversations we have all day long.

And as promised, Sophia's after peas picture-

Baby Food!

Yesterday was so much more productive than Wednesday was. There was no wallowing on the couch, eating fast food, or urge to make myself feel better by shopping. I actually got up and accomplished a few things. Soph and I went to the grocery store and bought stuff to start making her baby food! We got peas, bananas, avocado, and pears. I think I remember reading that you should start with a vegetable first. I can't remember the reasoning, and actually I may have made that fact up in my head but whatever, we are starting with peas! A few months ago I bought the Baby Bullet, and it's been sitting in my kitchen just waiting to be used. Well your big day is finally here Baby Bullet!

Once I steamed the peas, it literally took 10 seconds to make the food. It made 6 servings of baby food for about 20 cents. 

 When Dylan saw me steaming the peas for Sophia, he insisted that he wanted to eat a bowl of peas too. I can't really say no to a child who is asking to eat peas. I made him a separate bowl of steamed (not mashed) peas, and he finished the whole thing in a few minutes. 

Notice all of his pictures are in superhero shirts? It's his new obsession.

 If you are wondering where Sophia is while I am doing all of this, I had to carry her around in the Moby Wrap. You didn't think she'd sit nicely while I made her food, did you? Yup, that's right, I did all of this with a baby strapped to my chest. 

Now it's time for the taste test! 

 

 

Before (and her first time sitting in the high chair)

I took an after picture but now it's no where to be found on my phone. And now that I think about it, Dylan was asking to take a picture with my phone so he may have deleted it in the process. Trust me when I say that the peas were a hit! Just like with the oatmeal, she got impatient with me and started trying to grab the spoon out of my hand. We're going to be eating peas for the rest of the week (to make sure there are no food allergies), so I'll try to get an after pic today!

First attempt at making baby food-success!

From chaos to quiet

Today there was a rare double nap sighting at my house. The kids had spent the day playing at grandma's house and fell asleep on the way home. To my surprise, they both stayed asleep for more than an hour once we were actually home! This is a huge deal, especially for my little nap-hating Sopita. Despite my efforts to nap as well, I ended up sitting on the couch watching tv and eating food that I shouldn't be eating. Just me, alone with my thoughts. On a day that I need a distraction from my thoughts, the kids decide to give me an hour alone in a quiet house. There are probably a million things that I could have done around the house, but I just laid around like a bum. When Sophia finally woke up, it snapped me out of my funk and back into mommy mode. It made me realize how much the chaos of my day keeps me sane. The kids need me. I know that there are going to be days when my world feels like it's falling apart, when I miss Josh so much that I don't want to get out of bed, but Dylan and Sophia give me the strength I need to get through it. So when things are loud and crazy over here, I will try to remember that this is what keeps me together.

I guess the paparazzi are not welcome at naptime.

He walked in, took off his shoes, and stayed like this for 2 hours!

Pearly Whites

Dylan's 6 month check up with the dentist was this morning. Let me start off by saying that although we have all day to go to an appointment, I keep scheduling things early in the morning. It is quicker to go in the morning because we're usually one of the first ones there, and prior to me staying at home I had to make appointments early to avoid missing work. However, it doesn't hit me until the night before that getting Dylan up early is going to be awful. As I've said before, he is not a morning person. His appointment was at 7:30am, which means I had to have him up by 6:30 to give him time to get dressed, eat, and brush his teeth without rushing him. Rushing=Meltdown. 

We made it to the dentist with minimal tears, and his bad attitude went away as soon as he saw the video games in the waiting room. It was time for some updated x-rays, so I took Sophia and sat down while they took him to the x-ray area. 

Ok, I'm gonna go on a little rant about x-rays. Why hasn't someone figured out an easier way to take dental x-rays? I had to get them done not too long ago and those little white things you bite down on scratch the hell out of the inside of your mouth! It's very uncomfortable, and any time I've had x-rays, I end up with sore gums. With all of the crazy technology out there, someone needs to focus on this. Why are we being subjected to this torture? Can't they just make the bites smaller or more rounded? I felt so bad for Dylan as I watched the dental hygienists try to get him to sit still and bite down. He wasn't fighting them, but he kept gagging as he tried to bite down. It took 2 of them to get a decent picture of his teeth. The good news is that he is cavity free! He got his fluoride treatment and new toothbrush and we were on our way. The next time he goes back is in December, and Sophia might be ready for her first appointment with the dentist at that time.

Another successful trip to the dentist. :) Of course I took pictures along the way...

Video games in the waiting room

X-Rays!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Waiting for the dentist

And just because she's cute-

Looks like she might need to upgrade to a convertible carseat soon!

What's with all the yelling?

Sophia has gotten into a few habits that I'd like to break. 

#1-mini naps. She only naps for 15-20 minutes at a time. If she falls asleep while I'm holding her, her eyes pop open the second I lay her down in the crib. This is driving me crazy. 

#2-she wants to be held all the time. I know, I know, she's a baby! But come on, I can't hold her every moment of the day. When I put her down, she starts yelling. She doesn't really cry, but the constant yelling (which sounds like a dying cat) is enough to make me stop what I'm doing to go pick her up again. 

Dylan knows that sometimes he has to wait for me while I put Sophia to sleep, or feed her, but he's only 4 and patience is not really a strong attribute for him. Today he was playing outside and I saw that he was trying to fill up his water balloons with the water hose. Of course it was not going well and there was water everywhere but in the balloon. I told him just to wait a little bit and as soon as Sophia was napping I would go out there and fill up some balloons for him. It was so hot outside that I didn't really want to have her sitting out there with us. I guess I was taking too long because he kept trying to fill them up. He even resorted to shooting water into the balloons with his water guns.  After it was clear that Sophia would not be napping anytime soon, I decided to lay her on the play mat and go outside to help him. Of course she started yelling right away, but I figured it wouldn't take too long to help him. I filled up 5 balloons for him and told him that we'd make some more later. Walked over to Sophia and this is what I found: 

 

Yup, she was screaming like I abandoned her. I'm really hoping that the neediness is coming from her teething and maybe she'll chill out soon. Or maybe she's already the high maintenance girl that we all suspected that she'd be. 

Oh, and the water balloons lasted less than a minute with Dylan. He popped all of them, then wanted more immediately despite the dying cat sounds coming from inside the house. Never satisfied. He has a dentist appointment early in the morning, so let's hope for some good news there! 

Twins?

So I always thought that Sophia looked more like me, and Dylan looks more like Josh. A few days ago my grandma posted this picture of me on Facebook: 

Compare it to this picture I took of Sophia last week: 

 Wow, this child is my clone! She has more hair than I did, and she's a little chunkier, but seriously, we could be twins! This kind of makes me nervous. Am I destined to deal with a mini me equipped with my same sassy attitude and potty mouth? Will she have my type A (slightly OCD) personality? Maybe. But for now, I'll just enjoy the fact that she looks just like me. :)

In other news, Dylan is still insisting on being Optimus Prime for Halloween. I think he should be The Hulk. This is just a small part of our negotiations earlier-

Dylan: Are you going to let me be Optimus Prime for Halloween? 

Me: Well, maybe we'll have to talk about it. 

Dylan:  Um, I think we just talked about it. 

Me: Halloween is a long time away Dylan.

Dylan: But I've never been Optimus Prime before. 

There may be no convincing this boy. The only reason I want him to consider another costume is he was Bumblebee last year and refused to wear the mask. And how cute would he be as The Hulk? Well, we have about 5 more months to come to an agreement. I doubt he's going to be the one to back down though.