Sophie Update

I just can't believe how much Sophie is changing. She has learned so much in the last couple of months. A week and a half ago, on Sunday, January 21st Sophie climbed out of her crib for the first time. I couldn't believe what I was seeing. She stood in the corner of her crib and held on to one side then she lifted her legs up on the front rail, so that her body was parallel to the floor. She then swung her legs over the bed so that she was hanging and then she dropped, but not without help. Luckily she hasn't tried to do it on her own, she is too scared.

While we were in Utah during the Christmas break Sophie began saying so many words. Before we left we could count all of the words she could say, now there is no possible way to keep track. I couldn't believe how quickly she started talking. Some of our favorite words that she says are: "chapick" for chapstick, she likes to say noise anytime she hears a new noise, "rosies" for ring around the rosies, "Fwosty" for Frosty the snowman, and so many others I can't even remember or know how to write. She loves to hide whenever she hears Jon or I coming. She is learning her colors and is doing very well with them. She knows red the best, but she can recognize blue, green, yellow and orange and she can say all of them. I can't believe how much she is learning, she is so smart! She has become very loving and she loves to give hugs, but she calls them loves. Sophie's been giving squeezes, tight hugs, and she says "quees" as she hugs you. I love it! It's so cute. She has such a sweet voice and I love hearing her talk. Everyday she'll say a new word that I didn't even know she knew.

We are also getting ready to potty train Sophie. She has been telling us when she is poopy, and sometimes she tells us before she poops and then a minute or two later she'll poop. We've decided to try potty training during Jon's spring break. I bought her a little toilet seat and she thinks it is the neatest thing. The first time I sat her on the toilet, she screamed with excitement. Wish us luck with potty training.

Sophie loves to dance! If there isn't any music, she'll ask me to dance, which means please turn on the music. Other times she'll hum for herself or else she'll just dance with no music. These days she likes to dance around singing "Fwosty, Fwosty". She also likes to hang on anything that is tall enough for her. I think we'll put her in dance or gymnastics when she gets a little older. Just the other day she did the splits in the kitchen for Jon and I couldn't believe how far she could go, her legs were almost perfectly strait out to the side. Needless to say, she is quite flexible. She likes to do summersaults and she loves to bounce. Her favorite thing to do these days is fly. We hold her hands and twirl around making her fly. As soon as we stop, Jon and I are so dizzy, but Sophie looks up at us and says "fly". We try to explain to her that we are dizzy or spinning, but she doesn't quite understand what we are saying. I don't know when I became so senstive to spinning, but Jon and I both feel that it must be because we are getting older. I get dizzy just doing Ring Around the Rosies with her. Usually Jon and I take turns "flying" so that we have a few minutes to recover from being dizzy. We love our Sophie and life is so fun with her around. She makes life interesting and I can't imagine my life without her. I love being a mom, Sophie's mom. I truly feel blessed to be her mom, and I am so grateful to Jake and Shiloh for giving her to us. They are our special angels.

Since it's winter, it's hard to find things to do with Sophie since it's too cold to go outside and play. Actually it has been a pleasantly warm winter, but still a little too cold for her to play outside for an extended amount of time, so we've been going to the mall to play. Her most favorite thing to do is to ride the horsies on the carousel. She gets so excited when she gets to ride the horsies. My favorite is when she waves to me as she comes around.

The mall also has a play area for the kids. This bear is at the entrance of the play area and Sophie loves to give the bear a hug every time she goes in to play. The play area was donated to the mall by the Mankato Clinic, so all of the toys are medical related.

This is the ambulance, and Sophie is sitting in the wheel, which is a small tunnel. She likes to go through it, but will only do so if she can see me on the other side.

This bear is Sophie's favorite to play on. She loves to give bear hugs. Sometimes I'll set her on the nose of the bear and she'll slide off in to my arms. She thinks it's so fun.

Sophie has so many cute outfits, and I love taking pictures of her so that we can remember what she looks like in them. We gave her this dress and sweater for her birthday. The pink on the bottom are little fish blowing bubbles. I love her little boots too! I've been curling her hair lately with my flat iron and it looks so cute. I can't believe how long her hair is getting. I know at some point I'm going to need to get it trimmed, but I just can't bring myself to do it yet.

I love this outfit! I saw the pattern for the sweater and hat in a knitting book and loved it. My mom is amazing when it comes to knitting, especially knitting sweaters. I showed her the pattern and she knit this sweater for Sophie, and I knit the hat and made the flowers. She looks so cute in it, but she doesn't like to leave it on for long.

Showing off her cute sweater and hat.

Sophie got to go outside in the snow for the very first time on Friday, January 20th. The bishop and his wife were coming over for dinner and games, so Jon shoveled the driveway when he got home. Since he was outside, I got Sophie all bundled up in her snow pants, coat and boots so she could go out and play for a few minutes. It was really cold, below 10 degrees so I didn't want her outside for too long, but I wasn't sure how many chances she'd have to play in the snow. When I first opened the door for her to go outside, she didn't want to go even though Jon was outside. She was a little scared. She did eventually walk outside with Jon. Jon said it took her a few minutes to warm up to the snow, and eventually he got her to walk in the snow.

This winter has been so warm, and we haven't had much snow. We've probably had four or five inches at the most. My friend Mandy bought some snow pants for her little girl at the end of the season last year, but Amelia was too big for the pants, so she gave them to Sophie. I bought some snow boots for her on clearance at Target a few weeks ago and she's only been able to wear them a couple of times.

Sophie all bundled up ready to play in the snow.

Another one of Sophie's cute outfits. She got this outfit from Grandma Reed for Christmas. This is one of my most favorite outfits. I love the cupcake on her skirt! I'd been watching for this outfit to go on sale at Gymboree and I ended up going to Gymboree at midnight on Black Friday to buy it. Grandma paid for it, but I'm the one who bought it since our mall was a bit closer.

It's not easy to get these cute pictures of my Sophie. She doesn't like to pose for pictures and she definitely doesn't like to hold still long enough for me to take the pictures. I usually end up taking several pictures so that I can get one good one.

Sophie got these cute snowman pajamas for Christmas. Here she is holding her Rudolph and her milk sippy cup while watching Frosty. Frosty is her most favorite movie. She first fell in love with Rudolph, which is why she got a stuffed Rudolph for Christmas, but she has since switched to watching Frosty. She still asks to watch Frosty, but we are trying to get her away from watching Christmas movies. I think we watched Rudolph at least 30 times during the Christmas holiday and we've probably watched Frosty at least that many times. I'm glad that she loves watching Christmas movies so much.

Sophie in her snowman pajamas laying on the coffee table. We tell her that she can't sit on the table, but as you can see she doesn't always listen to us.

Another cute outfit from Grandma Reed. She gave this outift to Sophie for Christmas. Thanks to Grandma Reed for providing Sophie with so much of her wardrobe. My mom lost her job last March and was out of work until December. It killed her not being able to buy clothes for Sophie, so once she found out that she was going to have a job again, she began buying Sophie more clothes.

Grandma Reed knit this sweater too. It's so nice to have so many nice sweaters to keep Sophie warm this winter. Sophie's hair is getting long enough that I can pull her hair back into a pony tail. It's a small pony, but it sure looks cute.

Grandpa Reed gave Sophie this cute hat. She doesn't like wearing it for very long, but it looks so cute on her.

Sophie being silly while Mommy tries to take her picture.

Sophie wearing Mommy's glasses. Doesn't she look so smart?

I took this picture of Sophie the week before we left for Utah. She had gotten sick with the stomach flu and was finally able to eat something. She woke up one night around 10:30 and Jon went in to check on her and she started throwing up. We have been very lucky, because this was the first time she's ever thrown up. We had to wash her bedding and give her a bath before putting her back to bed. The next day she seemed to be feeling better, but she ended up throwing up again during her nap and then again several times that afternoon and evening. Our friend Adam Anderson came over around 7:30 to help Jon give Sophie a blessing. Within 30 minutes she began to show signs of improvement and thirst. I didn't want her to drink too much in case she threw up again, but she did really well. She ate a popsicle for the first time that night.