Shake, shake, shake!

Sophie loves her Maracas!

Thirty-One

So many nice people wished me a happy birthday yesterday. Thanks everyone!! So instead of writing them eacy some quippy little sentence summary of my day, I decided to be really self-centred and blog about it. Sophie's sleeping in late this morning, and I don't have to go to work, so it's a perfect opportunity to babble quietly in my computer room.

I did have a really nice day. I had to run errands in the morning, and Sophie and I visited my school early in the morning so I could be in the staff photo - she was an absolute hit at school. She was fascinated by the big kids, and she drew quite a crowd around her pram. But then we got to stay home together for the rest of the day, which was what I wanted. I've missed just hanging out with my daughter...so that was really nice. I got to chat to various family members via various technology and media...I felt very connected :) My mother-in-law brought over some yummy American chocolates (a new shop has opened up nearby that sells them, and they're bloody expensive, but a fun treat!)

Then Dan and I and Sophie all went out to dinner together for the first time. We went to a litte family-run Thai place that we like. (It's called Thai Ayathua...I think. It's got bright purple neon lights, and it's on gympie road in Chermside, for any of you Brisbane readers. Fantastic place, if you like Thai food!) The food and wine were just right, the atmosphere was exactly what we want a Thai restaurant to be - colourful, exotic, just a tiny bit overdecorated with authentic and maybe some tacky asian peices. Flute renditions of 80's movie hits playing in the background. A swarm of Smily Thai people all somehow related, and their babies and small children everywhere. So at 7:00 on the dot, when Sophie did predictably turn into a pumpkin, she wasn't the only little one making noise, so we weren't too embarrassed. At the start of the night she was terribly excited! Fascinated by the colours and food and wanted to see and hear and grab absolutely everything and everyone who walked by. She did seem to love it! But she fell apart at her bedtime when she wasn't asleep, so we probably won't take her out to dinner again anytime real soon, but it was a fun experiment.

Dan's perfect birthday gift to me this year is a morning at a spa - a massage, facial and pedicure. It's booked for the end of the month...so I've got a while to look forward to it, and believe me, I am! I know I've delt with stress before in life, and I'm quite used to it. But I'm sure this is the most worn out my body has ever felt. I didn't actually feel like I was getting old at all until after the baby. Wow...now I know why people say that children make you go grey. Did you know what they can do to your back? Oh, I'm very excited for a little pampering :)


Yep, it's shaping up to be a pretty good year.

OH- and I should tell you the latest Sophie news as a proud parent. She's growing sooo well. She's over 7 kilos now, and in less than 3 weeks she went from the 10th percentile for weight, to the 25th percentile. She's our giant big chubby girl now :)

Her latest interests are pushing every button she sees. Typing on the computer (well, beating it really), turning lights on and off (usually she needs help, but sometimes not!), dancing (she moves her little body to a rhythm while she's lying down or sitting in a seat...she bounces to a beat. It's adorable!), singing and blowing raspberries for as long as she can. And of course, she gets chattier by the day and has something to say about everything...but that was to be expected I guess.

Time for an abrupt ending. Busy little girl needs her breakfast. Hope you enjoy your March. I'm sure we will.

Sitting and other Sophie stories

Life with this seven-month old is ... Fun!!

As of early this week, Sopie's sitting up on her own. Sometimes she just gets so excited about it!

Other times it's the perfect position for seriously studying toys- new and old and different. Her favourite toys today: the tupperware mini ladel, a paper towel roll, and a big empty can of formula. It makes the most satisfying sounds when she wacks it with things! When she makes a really good noise, she looks at me with so much pride and glee...my heart literally melts.

We are all about the games these days. Suddenly, everything is a game! Among her favourites are dancing with Momma (especially when she gets dipped!) and playing peek-a-boo. We like to play it anytime, anwhere, but most often we play it with this little blanket. I take turns covering our faces ("Where'd Momma go?" etc) and lifting up the blanket and exclaiming the expected "Peek-a-boo!" (or just to mix things up a bit, sometimes "there she is!"). Well, Do you know what she did today??! It was the best!

She was lying on top of a wide blanket on her changemat (getting wiped). Suddenly, she grabbed the corner of the blanket and covered her face with it! I looked at her wondering, and tried "Where'd Sophie go?" and out she popped beaming. she giggled when I said peekaboo.

And here's another game she loves... raspberries upside down. She comes back down laughing :)

(ok, so it's kinda fun for me too!)

Life at 7 months is full of people. Lots of family and friends. Here she is with her cousins Nikita and Sebastian.
Turns out this is a pretty good time for Sophie to be left with new people while I go to work. As hard as it was for me to get used to at first, she adjusted really quickly. She's beginning to recognize more faces that she sees regularly, and gets excited to see people like Nanna and Grandad, Bec, Aunty Pam and her very fun cousin Nikita. But she's still pretty happy for strangers, provided that they give her really big smiles and plenty of food.


Life at 7 months is full of outings. I have the occasional quiet day at home (like today), and they are rare. which is nice, cause I get to really appreciate them. But for me, juggling a part-time career and home means running errands and doing shopping on many of my home days. Sophie's going to get her fill of the shopping centres (malls). But so far, she still seems to really like it. These photos were from last week sometime, hanging out with Ryan and Bec.

Life at 7 months is Messy! Ok, I'm sure it will be from here on out. But she has just started to show real interest in helping to feed herself. Usually that means grabbing for the spoon just before it's about to enter her mouth, and trying to stuff it along with her whole hand inside.then she usually drops the spoon. At the beginning of a feed, when she's very hungry, she gets quite grumpy if I try to give her the spoon (or even an extra one of her own.) She grumbles at me with her mouth open wide and her arms flung out to her sides. "It's about eficiency Momma, I'm not doing anything, you just shovel it in!) But later, after she's closer to full, she suddenly starts getting quite excited and animated. That's when she starts trying to help ... which is funny and makes me laugh...which makes her laugh...which she inevitably waits to do until just as soon as I've put the next bite into her mouth...and the laugh sends food out everywhere. It's a hilarous mess.

And yes, she is very proud of her self when she manages to get a bite to herself.

This photo? Yeah, this mess is nothing. This is just with yogurt...I thought she looked cute trying to feed herself. You should've seen her with the veggies she had today! She's was covered head to toes. (a cute look!)

And did I tell you she splashes? Kicks and splashes in the bath...and had her first dip in the Kroes's swimming pool one of these recent weekends - she loved it! kicked and splashed so hard that she slept for 11 hours straight that night. (Still a mythical sleep number in our house.)

Going back to work is hard- mostly because of the stress of balancing and organizing everything and still trying to do everything well. And I miss her. But it's better than I thought it would be too. I'm enjoying my work, Sophie seems to enjoy her days away from me (though I like to think they're not full of quite as much fun or learning as the Momma days), and we I still have plenty of timeto enjoy each other. So it's not actually so bad. I think I'm getting used to it.

Oh, just in case you were wondering, It's perfectly fine to call her little again to your heart's content. She is still dainty and petite and adorable and all those things, but she's growing so well that we're not worried about her weight anymore. She's really healthy, so it's ok that she's small.

That's all for now. Sophie and I are going out to weed some of the jungle in our front yard :)

Our big American girl

Sophie had a very big week. She's dealing surprisingly well with Mamma going back to work at the moment. (It's a bit harder for mamma, but I'm slowly getting used to it).

Some good newses this week...
Sophie's a real live American citizen now...for better or for worse! (naw, just kidding - we're really happy for her!) On Thursday we had an exciting excursion into the city. Sophie took the train for the first time, she loved staring at all the people. and by the end of the trip she was singing away loudly to all of them. Made plenty of people smile, which is always fun.
We went into the city to have a very important appointment with the visiting American Embassy people, which lasted about 5 minutes. But they were a very important 5 minutes, which allow to be officially a dual citizen, and the owner of her very own American passport! yay!

The other great news is that Sophie's weight gain is fantastic again. She gained 700 grams in less than 2 weeks. That means she's finally broken the 6 kilo mark (we celebrated with a bottle of bubbly!), and she's back at the 10th percentile - which is where she was at birth, so right where she should be. The Zantac and all the solids she's eating are making a big difference! She's a healthy happy babe.

Oh, the week I had to go back to work, guess who decided she wasn't taking a bottle anymore. yeah. great. now it's just a toy and she won't take anything from it at all - not EBM or formula or water...but she is fascinated with the cup. so we are teaching her to use a cup now. It is unbelievably messy and but she gets at least as much into her tummy as she does all over the rest of her, so it's a good start.

Visiting the Doms.... cousin Nikita


And newest cousin Oskar ...born 22 Feburary, 2008. Such a cutie!!

Rolling over...
Ta Da! Happy February!