Almost two!

Sophie has been up to so much these days. She keeps me busy and has been giving us a taste of what it will be like when she turns two. She has been getting in to everything and went through a hitting phase. Thankfully she isn't hitting much anymore, but she will says hit alot. We'll be talking about her friend Elsie, and Sophie will say "hit Elsie". I don't know if it's because she knows that she isn't supposed to hit, so she says it and mentally she's picturing herself hitting or what. She is so funny! The other day she saw a picture of Christ and she said "hit Jesus". I told her that "we don't hit anyone. It makes Jesus sad when we hit. We want Jesus to be happy, so we need to be nice." She has been talking about Jesus a lot lately and she asks us to sing Primary songs for her. One of her favorites is "Jesus peep" which is Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam. She also asks for the "star song", I Am Like a Star and Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star. She likes the "temple song" and "popcorn" (I Love to See the Temple and Popcorn Popping). Sophie is getting very good at putting words together. She doesn't put more than two words together at a time, but she is speaking so well. Today as I was getting ready, she came in and said "Mommy pretty." It made me feel so good! Here are some pictures of the many things Sophie has been up to these days.

Playing at the park. She loves to hang on things at home, so when we go to the park she really likes to hang on the bars.
About a month ago, I was getting ready and Sophie was in the bathroom with me, as she always is and I had my flat iron plugged in. I'm always telling her to be careful and to stay away from the cord, but this particular day she got too close and her hand caught the cord and the iron fell. I moved out of the way so that it wouldn't hit me. When I looked to see where it landed, I saw it sitting on Sophie's leg and foot. It all seemed like slow motion and her cry seemed a little delayed, but she was so brave. She didn't cry for too long. I immediately put her foot in cold water and then we put some burn cream on it. When I first saw it, it didn't look too bad. Not long after it happened, Sophie went down for her nap. When she woke up I was quite surprised to see that the burn was much worse. It was a lot bigger than I thought. Here are the pictures of her poor leg.

The two marks on her ankle were actually blisters. I felt so bad that she got burned.

I love this picture! Jon took this picture of Sophie while she was watching TV. If I had to guess, I'd say she was probably watching Toy Story. She is obsessed with Toy Story. We have decided to throw her a Toy Story party for her birthday. She just loves Wooody and Buzz.

Sophie loves to read books. She is reading her Bumble book to Max.

One morning Sophie was in my closet while I was getting ready and she put on my heels. I was quite surprised that she could actually walk in them. I brought her downstairs so that I could take a picture of her and this is how she posed.

Fun with lipstick!

Sophie has been getting into things while I take a shower. The first time, she found some toothpaste and rubbed it all over her arms. She had it all over her clothes, in her hair and on her face. I couldn't wash it off with a washcloth, so I ended up putting her in the tub to clean her off. Another day I caught her using Jon's deodorant as chapstick. She loves to play with Jon's deodorant. I finally decided to put everything up high and I put all the towels and sheets down low so that Sophie can't get into things anymore. Unfortunately she got my makeup bag while I was getting ready, and of course I didn't think much of it until a few minutes later when it was very quiet. I was nervous, not sure what I would find. I found Sophie in the spare bedroom sitting on the floor holding my lipstick. She had lipstick all over her leg, on her hands and on her face.

Lipstick on her face. I sure love this sweet face!

Cute dirty face! Sophie had fun playing outside. She loves to touch the cars, and of course they are always dirty.

This is Sophie's Christmas dress. I was never able to get a picture of her in her dress until last Sunday. She doesn't like to cooperate when I take pictures, but I still got some cute pictures.

My beautiful girl! She looks so sweet.

Sophie has outgrown the towels that she had as a baby, so I bought her some new towels. I have seen cute towels that were sewn with a washcloth as the hood and I wanted to sew one for Sophie. Our bishops wife was sweet enough to help me and let me use her sewing machine. Here is the cute towel we made. We didn't have time to do both towels, so I will post pictures of the yellow towel once we finish it. Sophie really likes her new towel. I think she likes that it completely wraps around her. Tonight Jon was holding her like a baby while she was all wrapped up in her towel.

So I still haven't learned. Today while I was in the shower Sophie got my makeup bag. I knew she was up to something because she was so quiet. I didn't want to get her attention, because she'd come and bug me. She loves to open the curtain while I'm showering. Anyway, when I got out of the shower, I found her in our closet sitting on the floor with my makeup bag. When I found her, she said "Don't" which is what she says when she doesn't want us to see what she is doing. I was worried that my makeup would be all over the carpet or on the clothes, but this was all she did. She put on some eye liner. She watches very carefully everything we do and she has learned that eye liner goes on the eyes. Oh what a silly girl!

Easter

I love this picture. I made an ABC book for Sophie and I needed a picture of eggs. Since we had out Easter decorations out, I had Sophie pose with her basket full of eggs. She just looks so cute and happy. I'm surprised she sat so still and smiled. She doesn't usually cooperate with me when I pull out the camera.
Sophie got her Easter basket Saturday morning, but it was such a busy day, I didn't get a picture of her with her basket. She got her ABC book, the new Winnie the Pooh movie, 2 Toy Story sippy cups, and some candy. She loves her sippy cups!

My beautiful girl in her Easter dress. We had Easter dinner with friends. I was a little unsure how the afternoon would go, since Sophie decided she didn't want to take a nap, but she did well. Thanks to Kaylee, Sophie had a lot of fun. She played with Sophie the majority of the time we were at the Jeffreys. They jumped on the tramp and Kaylee showed Sophie her parakeet, which Sophie thought was so neat. Dinner was very good and we had strawberry pie and strawberry shortcake for dessert. Yum!

Spring Break

The week after Sophie and I got back from Utah was Jon's Spring Break. We had such a fun week having Daddy home everyday. Monday, Jon and Sophie had a dentist appointment, and Sophie got her teeth cleaned for the first time. She did so well! She opened her mouth and let the hygienist clean her teeth. I was so proud of her! After the dentist appointment, we went to breakfast and then to the mall to ride the carousel. Sophie loves to ride the horses every time we go to the mall. We had such a fun morning!

Tuesday, was a very fun day. We went to the Minneapolis to the Children's Museum and Sophie had a blast. There was so much to explore and she just couldn't get enough. We first went to the baby and toddler exhibit and she walked around and explored. In the above picture, she is sitting in a birds nest in the toddler exhibit.

We then moved on the room where she learned a little about nature. There was an ant hill and she could crawl around like she was an ant, but she didn't seem to like it too much. There was a wheel that you could turn and create a thunderstorm. The clouds would come out and then you'd hear the thunder and see the flash of lightening. Sophie got a little nervous any time she heard the thunder.

This is also in the nature area, and of course this was her favorite place to play, because of the water. She got so wet! They had plastic salamanders and tadpoles, but Sophie didn't like them too much.

Another exhibit was the make believe room. Here Sophie is at the cash register in the grocery store. She had fun pushing one of the shopping carts, and everything was set up like a grocery store. As you can see they have plastic fruits and vegetables, bread, canned foods and boxes for the kids to place in their carts. I think this was my favorite area.

Sophie's favorite area was here where she could play with water and bubbles. By the time we left, Sophie's pants and sleeves were soaked, but she had so much fun.

Playing with bubbles. This tube was full of soapy water and there were wands like you find in a bottle of bubbles, but these were larger so you could make large bubbles. Sophie had so much fun. She really likes bubbles.

After the museum, we went to the Mall of America for lunch. We ate lunch at the Rainforest Cafe. It was quite pricey and the food wasn't that great, but it was a fun place to eat. Sophie loved seeing all of the animals. We were in a rainforest and we got to sit next to one of the fish tanks and watch the fishes. We also sat near the waterfall and the elephants. Every so often there is a thunderstorm and once again, the sound of the thunder made Sophie a little nervous. Sophie ordered dinosaur chicken nuggets, the same ones that we have at home. We could have bought a whole package of nuggets for the price we paid for 6 nuggets, but again, it was all about the ambiance.

Daddy and Sophie outside the Rainforest Cafe.

Sophie had a fun filled day, but she was exhausted by the time we went home. Thankfully she can still fall asleep in her carseat. I love watching her when she sleeps. She is so peaceful!

The rest of the week was fun, but not as busy. Wednesday was a lazy day. We stayed home all day and spent most of the day in our pajamas. Thursday, we went to the Children's Museum here in Mankato. It doesn't quite compare to the one in Minneapolis, but that doesn't matter to Sophie, she still has lots of fun.

Friday we watched our friend Mia while her parents went to Rochester for a doctors appointment. Sophie was such a big helper. She wanted to help feed Mia, although it made for more work for me. She loved holding Mia!

Jon holding Sophie and Mia. Two thirsty girls!

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.

Christmas Morning

Christmas Day was a busy, yet wonderful day. We woke up and got ready for church first thing in the morning. My parents had Sacrament meeting at 9:00, so we decided to put off opening presents until after church. Sophie did get one of her gifts before we left for church. Below her stocking was a stuffed Rudolph. She was so excited to see her Rudolph. She has fallen in love with Rudolph this year, so I just couldn't resist when I saw the stuffed Rudolph at the store. Luckily she didn't beg us to take it to church. Sophie got to wear her new Christmas dress, but there wasn't enough time before church and by the time we got home from church she was upset and crying, so I didn't get a picture of her in her new dress. Sacrament Meeting was really nice! When we got home, we ate breakfast, which was ready to come out of the oven. We had breakfast casserole and orange rolls, and boy was it tasty. After breakfast we went downstairs to open presents.

Last year was fun with Sophie, but this year was amazing. She understood a little bit more about opening presents, but most of all she understood playing with the presents. Sophie has never been one to jump right in to opening presents, so Jon had to help her. The first present she opened was a baby doll stroller from Grandma and Grandpa Reed. She loved it! Since she had a stroller, she had to have a baby to push in the stroller, so Grandpa had Sophie open the doll next. Once she opened the first two gifts she didn't have too much interest in the other gifts. Daddy helped her open several of her gifts, but once she plenty of toys to play with she abandoned opening gifts. It broke Daddy's heart to have to open the rest of Sophie's presents, but he did it willingly. Most of the presents were Sophie's new clothes, and boy did she get some cute outfits. She was spoiled! She got plenty from Papa and Maemi Reed: baby stroller, 2 baby dolls, two outfits, sweats, socks, a hat, a book and polar bear. Mommy and Daddy gave her a shopping cart which stayed here, a princess ball, 4 board books, Rudolph, a cellphone, a toothbrush and toothpaste. Uncle Scott and aunt Nicole gave her the rocking chair that Scott made just for Sophie. Nick's family gave her a play piggybank that plays music and counts to 10. Jeff and Jesse gave her a chubby baby doll with big blue eyes like Sophie. Aunt Heather gave her a Christmas book and a stuffed giraffe. Grandma and Grandpa Harper gave her a cute ornament and some money. Grandma Harper gives each of her grandkids an ornament each year for Christmas and most years she makes them. This year she had 12 grandkids that she made ornaments for, and they are so cute. Thanks Grandma! Scott and Nicole came up in time for Sacrament meeting and stayed for breakfast and gifts. Nick and his family came over just as we started opening presents, and they joined in the fun. Ashtyn and Avery got several presents from Grandma and Grandpa too.

Sophie looking at one of her books with Daddy.
Sophie sitting in the baby stroller. Whenever we go to the mall with Sophie, she likes to get out of the stroller and push. When I saw her very own baby stroller, I was so excited, now she would have one just her size, that she could see over. Instead of being excited about pushing the stroller, she thought it would be fun to sit in the stroller. Silly girl! She doesn't like to ride in the stroller that is made for her, instead she'd rather push the big stroller and sit in the tiny stroller. We've finally convinced her that the baby stroller isn't for her to sit in. The fabric has already torn, but it still works.

One of the baby dolls in the stroller. This baby can go in the tub and she came with her own towel and bath toys.

Maemi showing off the Sophie calendar. I made my parents a calendar with pictures of Sophie, and one for Jon's parents with pictures of all 12 grandkids.

Sophie playing with her piggy bank. She loves this pig. We've taught her some of her colors using the coins from the pig.

Daddy and Sophie

Papa bought this cute hat for Sophie. She tried it on when we were at The Childrens Place and Papa just couldn't resist buying it for her.

After opening presents, we put Sophie down for a nap. When she woke up we headed down to Jon's parent's house. The family got together that evening for Christmas dinner. We had such a wonderful Christmas day! We are so fortunate to have been able to spend it with our family.