Worst Blogger Ever

I don't know how I let life get in the way, but judging by the date of my last post, I did. I was using the blog as Soph's baby book and now I feel really guilty that I just stopped and don't have anything written for over a year. I want to start back up because she cracks me up and I want to have a place to write down all of the funny things she does/says. And on a whole other level, we have an 8 month old son, Nolan. I have guilt about him too because I have NOTHING for him. No baby book, no blog documenting his first 8 months. Just guilt guilt guilt. I'm going to change that and try to be more dedicated to this blog. If I thought life got in the way with just 1 kid, I know I'm going to have to work extra hard to keep up with it with 2!
Some quick updates:
I'm a stay at home mom now!! It really wasn't a hard decision once we realized we would be having a 2nd child. Daycare expenses were outrageous and my pay was going to be going straight to that. It was more important to us to make some cut backs and have me home.
Sophia goes to preschool 2 mornings a week and absolutely loves it. I was nervous we wouldn't find a place that I liked as much as their daycare, but it is a great program with wonderful teachers. We are really happy.
I'm trying to help out with finances by doing an online job about 10 hours a week and am also teaching Stroller Strides 1-2 days a week. I don't make much money with Stroller Strides, but it gets us out of the house, and I'm able to take other instructors' SS classes for free, which means I'm not bugging Pat to let me join the gym. :-)
Sophia is a hysterical little girl who is growing up way too fast. Her vocabulary seems to be really advanced; so to hear her use big words in her sweet, tiny little voice is just too much.  She loves to listen to music and dance; in fact, her favorite singer is Justin Bieber! She asks all the time for "The Biebs" and as soon as we get in the car she says "We listen to As Long As You Love Me?" and then she sings along whenever we find it. When she hears the opening notes she starts squealing and says "Oh mommy! It's my favorite song! You found it! I feel SO HAPPY!" She honestly brings tears to my eyes with how cute she is.
Nolan is all boy. All. The. Time. He's crawling everywhere, pulling up to standing and cruising along the furniture. He can climb a few steps at a time and is just a smiley, happy baby.  I tell everyone that will listen that if we would be guaranteed more of him, I'd have 10 more kids. He claps and waves and just loves to give hugs and snuggles to anyone that will hold him - even the clerk at the shoe store the other day! haha.
I know there is so much more that needs to be updated - especially give the fact that I haven't updated in over a year, but I'm beat so I'm headed to bed (yes, at 10 after 9!)

11 months

11 months. Seriously? How in the world has almost a year gone by? She just gets more and more fun every day. She is all over the place right now. She crawls so fast and towards things she knows she shouldn't be near. Like the steps - always crawling towards the steps and squealing so that you chase her. And if she gets too close to the edge? She stops and looks over her shoulder like "aren't you supposed to be stopping me?" Over the past month she has:
                ~ said her first word! Ball! (as you can see from the picture, she's obsessed!)
               ~ she stands without holding on and can squat down, pick something up, and stand back up with no help.
               ~ she's trying to feed herself with a spoon. She gets the concept, but can't get the food on the spoon without some help.
              ~ she walks all over the place while holding on to your fingers, but she isn't trying to take any steps on her own yet. If there's nothing for her to hold on to, then she gets down and starts crawling.
               ~ she looooves the puppies. She starts squealing and clapping whenever she sees them.
               ~ she makes us laugh all.the.time. She makes funny faces and funny noises and when she sees us laughing, she laughs more and it's just a wonderful sound all of us laughing together.

Planning for her birthday party is in full swing. It's going to be pretty low key, but my cousin (once or twice removed - or however that all works) makes invitations and decorations so we HAD to order things from her. If you're on Facebook, you should definitely check her out. Peas & Thank You's is the name and she's amazing. I will definitely have pictures of her work once we have the party next month.

Here are some pics of what Soph has been up to this past month.

10 months

I'm pretty much the worst blogger ever! Soph will be 11 months tomorrow, so I guess I need to do her 10 month update. But first, do you like the new blog design? A friend of mine is so talented that she re-designed it for me. You can check her out at Life is Sweet

Soph is growing so much and is such a happy baby. I remember the first few months when she would cry all the time and we would just walk and walk and walk to keep her happy. Now? She only cries if she's hungry or tired. She's always laughing and getting in to things she shouldn't. It's so much fun watching her discover everything. There will be a better update tomorrow with her 11 month pictures. I promise!

9 months old!

We're having some technical difficulties so I can't upload Soph's 9 month pictures. :-(  The problem is that I take too many and we don't have any more space on the computer!! We're working on getting an external hard drive, so as soon as we have that, I'll be able to add the pics.

We went to her 9 month appointment on Thursday and it went very well. She's 28 inches long (67%), 18lbs 3oz (39%) and her head circumference is 17 1/2 inches (65%). The doctor was very pleased with everything she can do and said that she is a very healthy little girl.  That wasn't the case over Christmas though, when she had her very first ear infection. 10 days of meds and she's as good as new.
Here are her new "tricks": :-)
Sophia is pointing at everything now.
She pants like a dog whenever she sees one (hysterical!)
She can stand on her own for about 20 seconds
She feeds herself puffs
She takes baths in the "big girl" bathtub
She also likes to take 2 toys and smash them together or on top of her toy box
She's squealing and screaming anytime she's excited - and it is LOUD!

We've also started cloth diapering. I know, a lot of people are telling me I'm crazy, but I have a lot of friends that do it and are being really supportive. It is going to take some getting used to, but I think it's going to be really great - and have you seen how cute cloth diapers are?!

Here are a TON of pics from the past month. I could do pages and pages of just Christmas, but I'll try to pick just a few.

8 months old!

In case you couldn't read it in the 1st picture, Sophia decided to show it to you a little closer! :-) It's getting near impossible to take monthly pictures of her because she's always on the go. We sit her down, and before we can press the button on the camera, she's crawling away.
I've definitely slacked on this whole blogging thing, but it's my New Years Resolution to do better. So here are her pictures of what she's been doing and then I can get to her 9 month post and start the year right.
~This month she's learned to climb the stairs ::eek!!::
~She had her 1st visit with Santa (see pic below)

~We started Ferberizing (sleep training) and she's doing much better. Down at 7:30, up around 4, eats and back to bed until close to 7. We're all feeling much better rested.

7 months old!

The past month has been so busy! Sophia is a crawling machine. There is no amount of baby-proofing that we can do to keep her out of things. She is babbling more and more "mama, dada, lala, baba" - but of course she doesn't know what any of those things means. But it's REALLY cute to hear her "talking". She is also clapping her hands everytime she's happy and excited. She's such a happy baby. She only grumps and /or cries when she's hungry or tired. Other than that, she giggles, smiles and talks constantly. She's one noisy little girl. :-)
We're still working on her sleeping through the night, but she's doing pretty well. She goes to bed about 7 and gets up anytime between 1 and 3. We feed her a little bit and then she sleeps again until between 5 and 7. Hopefully one of these days she'll sleep the whole time.
I feel like she's been doing so much, but mainly it's been getting better at the things she's already been doing. She definitely keeps us on our toes. Here are some pictures of what she's been up to the past month.

Ok, so there were a ton of pictures! I couldn't pick just a few!!