July 4th Weekend

It is so hot in Houston.

Ridiculously hot.

Which is why I am so surprised at how much I was looking forward to July 4th and all it's festivities. Regardless of the heat we had a great weekend.

The Park with Grandma
If you haven't figured out by now, I love, love, love the new park downtown. On Friday they were having a come one, come all Gymboree class at the park. So Grandma came over and we took Sofia.



Although she was a bit hesitant at first it seemed she liked it alright. At least when I was around. She's going through a clingy stage but that usually happens after weekends when I leave her with other people, like I did the last weekend.

Anyway, she seemed pretty interested in whatever she was watching. I love her sweet eyes in this picture.



We spent the rest of the afternoon at the park,

blowing bubbles with Grandma





and getting sprayed by the Mist Fountain for the first time.







She really loved that. I don't think I've seen my daughter with a smile for that many consecutive minutes in my life. We can't wait to bring her back.

That night we had dinner with some friends and Sofia got to wear No. 2 of 3 Fourth of July outfits. This picture is mainly for Tia Emily's benefit.



July 4th
Saturday night I was so excited to finally celebrate the Fourth of July. Sofia put on the most patriotic dress she could find





and we headed over to Mel and Dee's for yet another awesome meal.

After dinner I insisted on heading out to see the fireworks. It was a little past her bedtime but she was a trooper.



We drove a few minutes away from the house and stood on a bridge over I-10 and watched them light up the sky over downtown. Sofia watched in awe for approximately 10 seconds



before spotting a puppy a hundred yards away. "Doggie," she exclaimed and that was it. She'd lost all interest in those bright kabooms in the sky. We went home.



Now We've Got Soul!
Our friend Brad and his family are hosting a young woman from Israel. She's here for the summer teaching at their Jewish Community Center. In an attempt to show her different slices of American life they decided to take her to the House of Blues downtown which hosts a Gospel Brunch every Sunday.

You eat what you want from this huge array of southern favorites, including chicken and waffles while being serenaded by a full scale gospel concert. Sometimes they have full choirs, this day they had a quartet.



I've always wanted to go and this was the perfect excuse to drag Dan and Sofia to see it.



It was interesting to say the least. The food was great and the music was good. It was definitely an experience! It was also fun to see Sofia's reaction to all that loud music. She was scared at first but she got comfortable before too long and was running all over that place.

Didn't I mention it earlier? It's hot.
Man, it's hot this summer. Unfortunately, our little old house doesn't stay very cool either. So we got out of the house and cooled off with some TCBY. Sofia loved it!



She kept sticking her tongue out and just waiting for the ice cream to be brought to her.



Smart girl!

A Picture I Love

I love this picture. Grandma took this one day while babysitting recently.



I love it because she's falling over. She's always falling over, falling down or bumping into things. And it never fazes her.

I love the lighthearted surprise in her smile.

I love that those plastic tupperware cups are out because she's always carrying them around the house.

I love this picture. We love that girl!

June 26 - 29

This was a fun weekend. Unfortunately, Dan had to work. But Sofia and I headed out to Dallas on Friday. She was to have a fun-filled weekend with Emi and I was going to have a "Me Weekend!"

I love road trips with Sofia. She's really good in the car. This time we stopped for lunch at a world famous rest stop, Buc-Ees. Some of you may recognize the Buc-Ees Beaver.



They even have their own blog. Crazy.

They also have life-size bears in front of this store. Since it was just me and Sofia and a bunch of strangers in a parking lot I couldn't get her to pose very well with the Mama bear or the Baby bear.





Right after I took these a guy walked by and said he sure hoped she never saw one in real life and thought they were as friendly and still as the ones she sees outside of gas stations. I guess he's right but whatever.

Anyway once we got to town I took Sofia to Emi's to spend the night. I was actually in town because a group of people who I used to wait tables with at Cozymel's in Grapevine were all getting together for a reunion. Crazy to think it had been nearly 10 years. Also crazy to think it's where I met my husband, and where my best friend met her husband. Good times...



The next day I went and picked up Sofia from Emi's and we got over to see Bobo as quickly as we could. Jeff's sister, Kelly K, was in town so we played tourist and headed down to the Fort Worth Stockyards and had lunch with Jeff and Emily



Dayle (Kelly's college friend) and Kelly (Jeff's sister)



and Mary.



Sofia tried on Bobo's hat



and then sat on a saddle for the first time.







Unfortunately it wasn't atop a horse. I was going to take her to see the miniature horses but it was so crazy hot outside we decided to skip it.

I took Sofia back to Emi's where she got to play with her best friend. She thinks Matthew's funny.



The rest of the weekend we spent with friends, just enjoying our weekend.

But Daddy was glad when we got home.

We Officially Have a "Little Girl"

I have so many things from the past couple of weeks to share with you but first of all this:



those, my friends, are pigtails. For some reason when I imagined having a child I always imagined a happy little girl with pigtails. And here she is



singing "Wheels on the Bus." And notice the booster chair. This was a first.

The restaurant we were in was out of high chairs. There was another couple there - with triplets. One family managed to monopolize every high chair the restaurant had. It was a good feeling to know that our little family can't do that. That family deserved all those high chairs. God bless them!

Father's Day 2009


This year we spent Father's Day here in Houston. We kept it low-key and just decided to meet at the mall near Grandma & Grandpa's house. Memorial City Mall has a great kids play area



and a really cool carousel.



We thought it would be great for Grandpa to take her on her first carousel ride. It would be a memory she could keep forever



of Grandpa torturing her. She didn't like it at all, even when we tried to take her on it.



Grandpa did his best to make it up to her with several free cookie samples.



It worked.



The mall also had great miniature train displays set up. Sofia really loved watching all the trains and she learned all sorts of new train sounds. She even got to be the conductor of one!



(Note: To save my reputation, I must point out that the matching black and white gingham was NOT done on purpose. I'm not that mom. By the time I realized it I didn't feel like changing either one of us so we just went with it. Dan said it wouldn't look as bad since he wasn't wearing a matching shirt! I agreed out of laziness.)

Daddy was sweet enough to give Sofia a ride on his shoulders



and Grandma was sweet enough to capture Sofia's plumber aspirations from behind.



In Grandma's defense, we made her take this photo. She really didn't want to embarrass her poor granddaughter but she succumbed to the peer pressure!

It was a fun relaxing afternoon and a nice way to spend Father's Day during this wretchedly hot Houston summer.

By the way, these were taken last year around Father's Day 2008. It's fun to see how much she changed in just a short year.

The Children's Museum
Thursdays are like my Fridays since I typically don't work on Fridays. Thursdays are also Free Day at Houston's Children's Museum. So one Thursday we took Sofia. It was madness but she still had a blast in their newly renovated Tot Spot. After Summer is over and it's a little less crazy we'll have to go back.

She climbed up things.



She slid down things.



She twirled big, colorful, plastic flowers.



She played with what my friend Lindsey perfectly described as a "Huge Lite Brite." It was so cool.







She drew with chalk.



She pretended to drive a car.



And she pretended to be a Gas Station Attendant.



She really had a great time! I can't wait to take her back.

Stay tuned for more updates soon. I have lots to share about a trip to D/FW and lots of fun stuff from July 4th weekend. I have more pictures than time!

Going Potty is so Boring

We haven't really taught her how to use the potty. As I mentioned in another post we've just recently introduced her to one.

And although she's never "used it," per se, it seems she's already picked up some toilet procedures.

Not only does she read on the toilet,



it seems she also loves to read on the changing table now.



These must be some incredible story lines. Gotta love it!