The Pumpkin Patch

Ok so it was a sad little pumpkin patch and it was picked over but it's the only pumpkin patch around and we made the best of it. Grammy and PapPap came for a visit on Saturday so we headed out in search of the perfect jack-o-lantern. After getting tangled up in the pumpkin vines and throwing some dirt around I think we found the perfect pumpkins...

a skinny one, a la daddy.

And a fat one, a la mama.

Obviously this wagon ride didn't last too long. She was pulling that baby by herself in .2 seconds.

One Fish, Two Fish

Here's Little Bit sporting her cool Dr. Seuss shirt that we picked up for her while we were in Orlando. Her FAVORITE book at the moment is One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish. Do you guys read Dr. Seuss books to your kids? I'm talking the complete versions, not the shortened down board books? Jesus are they LONG! One Fish is like 62 pages! I think we've made it through the entire book once. And I like to call myself literate but man can they be tricky to read out loud.

On the other hand....

...she's so not my child! She takes after Steven in this department. We have to shout out another thank you to our neighbor Darlene who not only gave us the cool piano but also this groovy vacuum. Too bad it's a toy, I could put this kid to work!

American Idol

No doubt about it, she is my child. I love to sing and rock out to any type of music. Sophia is quite the little music fan too. She'll dance to anything and sometimes she'll try to sing along to the radio while we're in the car. And all three of us (Steven included) can do some serious rocking out to the Wiggles. Well this morning my neighbor came down and said that she had a few toys to give to Sophie. Free toys = major score! So this morning we became the proud owners of a super cool piano complete with a bench, a ton of beats and a real microphone! The kid grabbed up the microphone like she was born to rock. Now what comes out of it is somewhat ear piercing but still cute.

A Year and a Half

Well we've reached the half way mark. In just 6 months Sophia with be a two year old. I can hardly believe that on Saturday our baby turned 18 months old. I'm a few days behind but since we went for her 18 month well visit today I thought that I could still squeeze in an salute to 18 months. So here's what's been going on over the last 30 days.

1. Constantly trying to dress her self. This ends up in some very interesting outfits, like a pair of my shorts over her head! And see the above photo.
2. Kelly Clarkson’s “Miss Independent" is the current theme song at our house. EVERYTHING is “I do.”
3. She’s becoming a pro at using a spoon. Yesterday she ate an entire container of apple sauce and didn’t spill one drop. But she ate an entire thing of ravioli with her hand. So it’s hit or miss.
4. Loves to cover anything up with a blanket, including the dog. Poor dog.
5. She can spend 20 minutes buckling herself into her highchair. Apparently this is a great form of entertainment or a form of OCD.
6. She absolutely loves her daycare teacher Brenda and can be heard shouting “Enda” all the way down the hall.
7. She can ride her rocking horse like a champ.
8. She has the temper of her father and can throw things farther than an 18 month old should be able to throw
9. Loves to talk on the phone and even holds the phone up to Oscar’s ear. Again, poor dog.
10. She has NOT attempted to climb out of her bed, YAY!!!
11. She has attempted to climb out of her highchair.
12. Aside from her wellness visit today we have not been to the doctor for over 3 months. She weighs 23 pounds and is 32 inches long.
13. Her favorite book is “One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish” and says “no no no” when we get to the part about the “bad fish.”
14.She thinks it is hilarious to yell for us.
15. Loves to give and receive ‘butterfly kisses” and says “eye” when she wants one. 16. She’s starting to play “hide and seek” but she’s a much better seeker than hider.
16. She's starting to play hide and seek but she's a better "seeker" than "hider."
17. There's not a shy bone in her body and she'll talk to anyone.
18. She loves to pretend like she's taking photos...hmmm...I wonder where she gets that from?

Neighborhood Pig Roast

Every year my subdivision puts on a neighborhood pig roast. Basically, the home owners association provides the meat and drinks and everyone brings a dish. We probably have over 80 houses in my subdivision but hardly anyone came to the festivities on Saturday. The no shows obviously have issues. Maybe they are hobbits and/or hermits. How anyone could pass up a yummy pig roast is BEYOND me. Especially when it is in your back yard! Little Bit enjoyed running wild in the filed with another little girl who just so happened to have a bag full of grapes. Lucky for Sophie, Bree was nice enough to share.

Greats

Allow me to introduce you to Papaw Choo-Choo, my grandpa, Sophie's great-grandpa, and Gigi's dad. For as long as I can remember he's been Papaw Choo-choo, simply because was a conductor for the rail road (what can I say, we were one smart group of kids to come up with that one). As my cousins and I got older we dropped the "choo-choo" part but when little ones are around the name seems to resurface. Within a few minutes, Little Bit was warmed up to him and was dragging him everywhere. Today he was the coolest person on the planet because he let Little Bit play in a miniature house, the camper.

Play Ball

Just a quick post. The WVU game is on so I can't be playing around on photoshop and blogger! I thought I'd post this one because back in April I posted a photo of Sophie with Oscar's soccer ball and it covered her entire body! The kid has grown a lot in 4 1/2 months!

Got Milk?

I made a huge mistake. But first let me say that I hate milk, my daughter hates milk, and my husband is not one to pour a big glass of milk. In our family milk is an ingredient or used on cereal. However, kids are suppose to drink milk. So they say. Well in an effort to get Little Bit to down some moo juice I decided to try and kick it up a notch with some Quik (because pure liquid sugar makes anything taste great and peditricians definitely recommended it).Let me also say that from age 2-5 I would not go anywhere without my cup and can of chocolate Quik. I'd even pack the stuff in my suitcase when I'd spend the night with my grandparents or aunt.

So back to the mistake I made. I made the mistake of letting Sophie assist in the whole flavoring of the milk process. So everyday when we come home she wants to sit on the bar, help squeeze in the pink or chocolate syrup and the worse part, STIR! Now the stirring was not big deal at first because she'd allow me to help. Now she shoves my hand away and shouts "ME". And then of course you have to lick the spoon. The upside, she now gulps the stuff like it's going out of style.

Thank Heaven For Little Girls

Today I got to meet 16 hour old Jordan Alaina the daughter of our good friends Katie and Dave. She's practically perfect in every way! 8 pounds and 12 ounces with lots of black hair. Almost 3 pounds more than our little squirt. I had great plans of taking a TON of photos of her in the hospital BUT when we got to the hospital we learned that Katie was crammed into a hospital room with a roommate and as far away from the window as possible. And little Jordan was hungry and not in the mood to have her first photo shoot. But not to worry, I'm off on Friday so hopefully I'll be able to go for a visit and snap away! So here's one poor quality photo for now. She's cute as a button!

Xmas in September

I never get my Christmas shopping done early. Usually on Christmas eve I'm still running around picking up a few last minute gifts. But this year is different. Thanks to my friend Maria, Sophie is getting this baby for Christmas:

I am PUMPED! I disovered this kitchen set months ago on eBay where it is ubber expensive. But by doing some detective work, I learned that every year around Halloween Costco puts it out with their Xmas stuff. Since I live is WV with the crappiest shopping this side of the Mississippi I asked Maria to keep her eyes open for it when she's in Costco picking up 2999 baby wipes and diapers. Wouldn't you know it, she called me on Sunday and said she was standing in Costco looking at it! So I can officially mark "the big gift" off Sophie's Christmas list. I already can't wait to set it up Christmas morning with fake food and pots and pans! Little Bit is going to LOVE it! Thank-you Maria, I know I owe you big time, seeing as it wouldn't fit in your car!

Game Face

What you see here is the look of a serious Mountaineer fan. She may only be 17 months but she knew what was going to happen today. That's right, final score 48 Mounties 23 Turds. I'm going to have to video tape her shouting "LETS GO" into her megaphone. It totally rocks. And thank-you GiGi for cooking a TON of yummy game food.

Enough Said

Stepped out da house...

...in my all pink Chucks.

Doesn't every 18 month old need a pair of pint size Chuck Ts? Mine does. And the only color that would do is pink. I got a super deal on these suckers on eBay. So when they came in the mail today I ripped open the box and slapped them on her. I'm not sure if I'll let her wear them to day care because her teachers might KILL me since they have laces. Although yesterday Miss Brenda informed me that Little Bit got some kicks out of taking off her velcro sandals and hiding them from her . Rotten. Period.

Joy Ride

Luckily Ben is too young to realize that there is a mad woman manning his stroller. Otherwise he probably would have jumped out and abandoned ship. Of course Miss. Thing thought she was hot stuff pushing a big stroller with a real baby inside. Just you wait Sophie, he'll be bigger than you in no time flat and we'll see who's pushing who.

It's been almost six months since I last posted a photo of Ben and wow has he changed! I wish I had a picture of him with his dad Joel...they are clones!

Ya Gotta Regatta

Every Labor Day weekend the City of Charleston puts on the Sternwheel Regatta. This year the entertainment included Star Ship, now everyone sing with me "We built this city...we built this city on Rock and Roll!." But to me the Regatta means one thing and one thing only, carney food. I love everything about it's fried deliciousness. It's always difficult for me deciding what to eat so I end up eating everything. Steven of course could go the rest of his life and never eat a funnel cake again. And have I mentioned before that things on a stick freak him out. Seriously, he says stick food is like chewing on tin foil. I for one can't imagine such a sad existence. This was Sophie B's first go at gourmet de carney. I think the photos speak for themselves as to whether or not she enjoyed it.

Fried hotdog on a stick? It doesn't get much better!

Wait, these nachos are pretty yummy.

Apparently you take to dancing in the middle of the street when you eat...

one of these!

Dog Paddle

Warning: Picture overload and believe it or not there's not one of Sophia!

This evening we took Oscar the Boxer for some much needed fun. Since Sophie B. came into the picture he gets the shaft 99.9% of the time. But tonight it was all about our D-O-double G. Pools closed for the summer today so the local wave pool hosted a "dog swim" to help raise money for our new shelter. We didn't know what to expect. We pulled into the parking lot and the place was packed with people and dogs as far as the eye could see. Big dogs, small dogs, puppies, old dogs, coon hounds, wiener dogs, Boston terriers, poodles, pugs, dobermans, a million Labs and Goldens, and even a few lazy bull dogs. Name a breed and I guarantee you it made an appearance. Oscar had a BLAST. Some of our friends went so Oscar got to play with Winnie (Gracie's boxer), Casey, and Morgan. Sophie got in on the action too. I couldn't keep her out of the pool and away from the dogs. The kid is a major animal lover. By the time we left I had her stripped down to her diaper because she was drenched from head to toe. Of course you can't really stay dry when you dive in after your dog. Look for us on WSAZ News Channel 3, you just might see us!

Oscar and Winnie getting ready to take a dip.

A sea of dog hair and dog pee, I'm not even kidding.

Check out that butterfly!

The poor thing was TIRED by the time we left.