30 Second Timeout + ABCs and 123s

Imagine having to discipline a kid with a face and smile as sweet as this. I had to discipline Sofia last night for the first time in her entire life. That's a pretty good track record, she's really pretty easy going and doesn't push the boundaries too much. So for 22 months and 3 weeks we've had it pretty good.

The whole incident really wasn't that big of a deal but since this was a first I thought I'd like to look back down the road and remember...

I was on the computer and Sofia came up and started punching buttons. I asked her to stop as usual and she didn't. I asked her again and I moved her little arm. She looked at me then, square in the eye with this mischievous grin and hit me in the face! I was a little taken aback but I reacted quickly, picked her up and put her in the corner of the couch, looked back into her sweet, little, now-serious face and said, "No, Sofia. You DO NOT hit. That is not nice." And then I thought about what ABC's Supernanny would do. She puts kids in time-out one minute per year. So a two-year old should go in time-out for 2 minutes. But for some reason I must have thought Sofia was 6 months old because I then very seriously told her, "Now you sit here in time-out for, (pause) um, 30 seconds."

I was trying so hard to be a disciplinarian. But then I look over at Dan who is sitting on the couch next to Sofia and his entire body is shaking. I move my gaze up to his face and he's covering his mouth, trying his hardest to hide his laughing from our sweet little troublemaker seated next to him. This makes me lose it and now I'm laughing as hard as he is and trying as well to hide my laughter. Sofia was pretty unfazed. She gave a little whine and cry because she knew she'd done wrong, or at least that she was in trouble. Once her 30-second time-out was over I gave her a hug and talked to her about being sorry, (Supernanny would be proud) and she went on about her way.

I know her infractions will get more serious and I will get better at this but I think our little girl will be testing her boundaries more and more in the upcoming years. So it's nice now to know that we can still laugh.

**UPDATE**
This scenario repeated itself tonight, almost exactly. This time she was a bit more upset during timeout. I wanted to pull her to me immediately and tell her it was ok but I knew this was a teaching moment so I held firm. I'm not too worried about the behavior though as I'm certain she's testing her boundaries. I think I'd be more worried if she was acting out of aggression or frustration.

ABCs and 123s
Sofia loves singing and music so it was no surprise to me that she had learned the ABC song. She's pretty good at saying a majority of the letters.

Recently she also learned to count to ten. I was so proud of our girl, but I thought for sure she didn't understand the actual concept of counting but had rather memorized the sequence. Well, turns out she actually DOES understand counting. For instance, if she has a cracker and I give her another one she'll say, "One, two cracker." It's really cute. So lately she's been counting things, including her fingers.

I finally got both of these random acts of cuteness on video.

The ABCs video was taken in the car while sitting in rush hour traffic, which is why you only see the top of her head.



The counting video was sort of taken against her will as she's taken to saying NO when I pull the camera out. I guess she's tired of being Mommy's trick pony! But she obliges when I ask her to count the monkeys in her book.

Halloween Weekend

Happy Halloween from our sweet little witch!



We had so much fun this Halloween! Part of the fun of having children is getting to see the world through their eyes. I love watching Sofia discover new things and experiences for the first time.

Last year we dressed her up as a monkey (she is our little monkey, after all) and took lots of great pictures of her crawling around in costume. But this year was different because she got to Trick or Treat for the first time. And next year will be even better because she'll probably actually enjoy it then.

This year we decided to dress her up as a witch. It's also probably the last year in which we'll get to chose the costume for her. Dan thinks that Halloween costumes MUST be scary. I don't quite know how you make such a cute little girl like our Sofia scary but I figured a witch may be as close as we'd get.

The day before Halloween
On Friday we took her in partial costume to the Discovery Green Park. She loves her new toy broom, which she calls an "oom." I love her new black Chuck Taylor high tops!





The park was pretty empty and she was finally brave enough to play on the elevated jump mesh. Her feet are finally big enough that she doesn't fall straight through! She was actually a little scared but handled herself like a big girl.





Sofia loves the park and we had a lot of fun seeing the new Cool Globes Exhibit,



and Sofia loves holding the leash and taking Jaxy (who she now calls "Buddy") for a walk.



Halloween
The next day, Saturday, was finally the big day. Halloween had arrived! I loved getting her dressed. I know before too long she won't need my help anymore...







She was all dressed up and ready to go. I took so many pictures of her I couldn't even hardly narrow it down to these, but here are some of my favorites.







It was finally time to Trick or Treat. She headed down the street with Dan to our neighbor's house. I loved the way she would drag the broom behind her. This was really the only stop we made. She got a little shy, you can see her looking to the camera for help. But was more than happy to take the candy. She was so excited about the candy which was funny because I'm not sure she really knows what it is.







After that stop we headed to a couple of neighborhood street parties. Sofia had fun running around. And it seemed that Halloween really wore her out because she fell asleep pretty early in her stroller even before the walk home.



Halloween was so fun - we had a great time - and I'm so looking forward to making more memories with our little angel witch.

Pumpkin... Apple!

Seems our little girl has a sense of humor.

As soon as Halloween neared a local party store by our house put a huge inflatable pumpkin on top of their warehouse. Sofia sees it everyday on the drive home and the first day she saw it she yelled, "Ap-poo!" I sort of giggled and said, "I know that may look like an apple, but it's actually a pumpkin." This continued the next day, and the day after that until eventually she started a debate with me. It goes sort of like this:

Sofia: Ap-poo
Me: No, that's a pumpkin, Sofia.
Her: Ap-poo!
Me: Pumpkin!
Her: Ap-pooooooo!!!
Me: Pumpkiiiiin!!!
Her: Ap-poo, ap-poo, (very high pitched now) ap-pooooooo!!!!

It goes on like this now at the sight of any pumpkin. And she laughs. She knows she's getting me. We have our first inside joke. She's so fun-loving, my girl!!

So in honor of apples (or pumpkins) here are some photos I took of Sofia at our last trip to the grocery store where they had a whole "ap-poo" display. She tried immediately to pick one up.



Then I had her sit on one of the small pumpkins but that was kind of awkward.



So I had her sit on a huge pumpkin and smile at me. She's such a doll!



But I guess now she thinks pumpkins (or ap-poos) are primarily used for seating because this is the first thing she did with the pumpkin we took home.



And while we're on the pumpkin topic, remember this? This is one of my all-time favorite pictures of my little pumpkin... just about a year ago. Where did the time go...?

I heart NY

We're back!

We had so much fun. Sofia loved meeting so many new friends and family and seeing so many new sights in New Haven and NYC. As soon as I sort through the 600+ photos we took I'll share some of them here.

Finally...

I got a new camera. And it was just in time to take a picture of the utter cuteness that is Sofia in her new skinny jeans and boots.



I bought her the boots in anticipation of our trip to the Northeast next week. Grandma was babysitting the day I got them and showed them to Sofia. I imagined she would think they were as adorable as I did, but instead she was very wary of them. You would have thought they had spikes on the inside the way she fussed when we tried to coax her little foot inside. Grandma and I used every tactic we could think of. We let her favorite stuffed frog try them on, we let Grandma try them on, Grandma even busted out a pair of her own boots and modeled them for Sofia. No matter how hard she tried she wouldn't put those adorable boots on her adorable feet. So I gave up.

Until this weekend. Finally a cold front came in and I wanted her to get used to these big boots before we got to New York. As I pulled them out she was already fussing and saying No. I was going to insist she wear them but first I thought I'd try a calmer way. I told her they were boots like Dora the Explorer's monkey friend, Boots, wears. Then I said, "Grandma has boots. Mommy has boots," and then Dan chimed in with what would finally win her over. "Even Kyle wears boots."

Her face lit up. And her little hands went for the boots. I can just imagine in that head of hers, her thinking, "Well, if Kyle wears boots, then by all means..." And what do you know? Now she loves her boots. It was that simple.

For those of you who don't know, Kyle is her favorite friend at day care. She spends all day speaking of him. His name is the answer to many questions and she oftentimes just blurts out his name for no reason. He's the first person she runs to when she gets to day care and she loves to give him hugs.

And now, thanks to Kyle she put on those adorable boots!

August Pictures from Grandma

In an attempt to catch up I'm going to share some photos with the blog. Grandma always takes great pics of Sofia when they're together and August was no different.

Uncle Dave came to visit with Caroline, Katelyn and Ashleigh. Sofia had so much fun playing with her girl cousins. Funny, it's all girl cousins on one side and (so far) all boy cousins on the other.

We got to have dinner together and the girls played together. They even helped us give Sofia a bath and get her into her pjs. But it seems their favorite toy of all may have been the box where all the toys are kept. They loved hiding in it and jumping out. Ashleigh's face is hilarious!







It was great to see them all together and Grandma got a great shot of all of them here. I know she must have been so happy to have all her girls (and her boys) in one place!



Weekends with Grandma and Grandpa
Grandma and Grandpa help Dan and I out a lot by watching Sofia overnight and sometimes over the whole weekend. And every visit with them means Sofia is learning something new.

This time Sofia learned how to unzip her pjs. Actually, I think she figured this out on her own. Luckily we have yet to find her undressed in the morning!



One of her favorite things to do at Grandma and Grandpa's is to "rock, rock, rock, rock in her rocking chair" and watch one of Grandma's baby videos. All the stuffed animals you see strewn about usually sit in the rocking chair. Until Sofia gets there. The first thing she does is quickly toss them (and the chair cushion) aside so she can sit herself.



Another time, after her usual tossing of the animals she decided to put Grandma to work. She pointed to each animal for Grandma to hand to her until finally they were all sharing her rocking chair.



She really loves her Grandma



and her Grandpa.

It's Been Too Long...

It's been too long since I've shared any news on Sofia, but life has been very busy lately.

I tend to blog at work. (Sorry, Michael!) But work has been really busy too. We're in the midst of doing all the marketing materials for the American Institute of Architects (AIA) 2009 Home Tour. (We did not design the website though, in case you were wondering.) Among some other new clients and branding programs, we've also been hired to update all the signage for San Jacinto College. They have 3 campuses so it's going to be a big job.

And on top of that our office is moving to a new location in the Museum District. Sofia will stay at her same daycare even though it's now out of the way. She's just so happy there with her favorite teacher who she calls "Fluffy" and her favorite classmate (and word), "Kyle!"

And for yet more excuses as to why this blog has gone un-updated ... I have been out of town the last five out of 10 weekends! moving Papi (sad,) moving furniture (heavy,) celebrating Bachelorette Party in Atlantic City (fun, although tiring,) hosting two out of town Bridal Showers (also fun and tiring,) having a minor surgery (ouch,) and chasing this cutie (the best of all:)


This was taken during one of our many visits to Dallas, this one in particular to celebrate Uncle Jeff's 30th. Pictures to come...

We're also planning some fun adventures for October and November. Sea World in San Antonio, where David and Dan will run a half marathon, a wedding in New Jersey with visits to Connecticut to see family and to NYC to have fun!

And for the cherry on top of the icing of excuses... my camera broke. So I'm in the market for a new one which will be purchased soon. Until then, here are a couple Grandma took during our visits with them this past weekend.

She has so much fun singing Itsy Bitsy Spider with Tad and Grandpa,



reading books with Mommy and Grandma,





and especially trying on all of Grandma's hats.





And I promise I will share others with you soon... Love, Angie