The L.A. Dime

The last 5 days have been wonderful……I’ve had the chance for some quality Sophie-n-Mama-bonding time. Brad’s been out of town at the KY Film Lab and so our little munchkin and I have been hanging out lots. I stayed home on Wednesday since her molars are coming in and even though her other teeth never much bothered her when they came in, these back teeth caused a little fever, a little less sleep and all around more irritability. We went to the park where she loved running after the older kids and figured out how to climb up the slide. Thursday and Friday I had to work but I went in late so got to have the mornings with her. Even though I love my job, I always look forward to 3:45pm when I can get on out of there and head home. Friday night we spent with our good friends Chong & family and the Newhouses – we had dinner, looked for possible Halloween costumes and then took the kids to a playground. There was also a little area that had a “spraying water feature” and for a girl who used to cry all the way through her baths, Sophie was soaked within minutes. She’d walk right into the water and got quite annoyed with me when I tried to stop her. Saturday morning we went to the beach with Nancy and the kids.

Having this extra time with her has enabled me to see what a great (st)age she is right now. Being mobile allows her to explore her surroundings even more and she’ll sit with the most random things for long periods of time. For example, her monitor, a LiveStrong bracelet, a container with a ball inside that rattles and her tractor will keep her quite content. I am also very happy to see her understand simple words and phrases like “let’s go up the stairs”, or “can you please drink some millk”; upon request, she’ll also give you her doll, ball, shoes, duck and of course, her favorite monkey Bobo. Even better, she understands it when I talk to her in German!!

Brad is on his way home now and while we’ve missed him, I am really thankful for this special time I’ve had with our Sophie-Bophie!

Oh, one last note – she’ll now grab a book, come over to you and climb onto your lap so you can read it to her  —- soooo cute!!

Every few months, we try to get out of town on little road trips. Our most recent one, although it didn’t include Brad since he was swamped with writing and school work, was to Big Bear to spend the weekend with our close friends Mark and Faleena and Mark’s parents. We had an absolutely wonderful time hanging out in the cabin by the lake, feeding the ducks, hiking a 5-mile trail along the lake, sliding down the mountain and visiting the Big Bear Zoo. Yes, that’s a real black bear you see there. Thank you Mark and Faleena for having us up!

Last weekend, we had a few fellow parents, dear friends and family over to celebrate Sophia’s first birthday. There was lots of homemade food, swimming and corn-hole playing. We accidentially deleted some of our pictures so we unfortunately can’t show you the hawaiian decorations. Nonetheless, Sophie really enjoyed having everyone here and would like to Thank all of you for your many birthday cards, wishes and wonderful presents. We love you so much sweet pea and can’t wait to see what year # 2 brings!
 

Here’s a YouTube video montage of our favorite Sophie photos from year one, cut to our favorite band, The Submarines‘, new hit song, You, Me, and the Bourgeoisie.  This song is now featured in a national Mac advertisement for the iPhone.

One year ago today, at 12:25 P.M., the most amazing thing happened:

Click here to see how it all began.  Her first entire first year is archived in the Sophia category.