One Fish, Two Fish

Sophie turned two in June.  I seriously can not believe I have a two year old.

Sophie's Birthday present is this awesome vintage bouncing horse.  I love it just as much as she does.

  Watch out...he bites!

Birthday Cake.  Decorated by Sophie.

Anyways.  Here are just a few of the reasons why we LOVE Sophie.
1.  She laughs all of the time.  It's like having a mini me.  Sometimes we laugh so hard together neither one of us can stop.  Usually because I have done something dumb and she has caught me doing it.
2.  She is becoming a very polite little girl.  When I ask her to do something she usually responds with, "Ok mommy!"  She says 'please' and 'thank you' without having to be prompted most of the time.  She notices when things need to be cleaned up and does it without being asked.
3.  She is one CRAZY little fish.  She loves the water.  We have season passes to 7Peaks and she is seriously fearless in the water.  She climbs up to the slides ALONE and goes down them on her own with much, much bigger kids (don't worry, we wait at the bottom).  No floaties.  When Rob tries to take her on the big people slides, she tries to push him away because she wants to do it on her own.  Her new favorite thing in the wave pool (or any shallow water) is running and jumping to land on her bum so that her head goes completely under water.  She holds her breath for a few seconds and then jumps up out of the water again.  It is seriously funny to watch this tiny kid playing in the water like this.  She jumps off diving boards, tall ledges, and wishes she could swim on her own.  It can be scary, so we watch her like hawks anytime we are near water.  
4.  Her favorite thing to say to us is, "I Got This!"  And she does not use this phrase sparingly.  She is one independent little lady.  She wants to do everything on her own and does not hesitate to let you know.  

Some things she can do:
-Pour her own milk (almond milk, and only when it's half empty or less)
-Get in and out of her carseat on her own
-Say her own prayers.  Which usually include things like, 'thanks for dis food (she usually specifies what we are eating...example, 'thanks for dis zutini panakes') and 'help be nice to charleeet'... It is adorable and definitely my favorite thing ever.  Then she usually looks around, says a few more random words depending on what interesting objects are close by and then closes.
-She knows all of her shapes, and colors
-Recognizes her says numbers (I can tell her what numbers to push on the microwave and she gets it right).
-Can almost sing her abc's.  She can fill in the blanks when I sing it and leave letters out, and is getting closer to doing it on her own.
-Jump!  It took her FOREVER to figure this out and now she loves it.
-Go to the bathroom on her own.  Finally.  After being potty trained for over 6 months and needing my help every single time, it's nice when she does it on her own every once in a while.

Her favorites:
Songs:  
Wheels on the Bus, ABC's, Elmo's Song
Foods:
Oatmeal (plain old fashioned oatmeal....with nothing in it, or sometimes a smashed banana), Zucchini Pancakes (actually more like a fritter but not fried), and anything chocolate when she can get her hands on it
Games: 
Hide and Seek.  She can literally play for HOURS.  She is getting really good at hiding and staying quiet so people actually have a hard time finding her sometimes.
Elmo's ABC's on the Ipad
Books:  Goodnight Goon (Micheal Rex), Go Dogs Go (P.D Eastman), Milk and Cookies (by Frank Asch), and of course her 'prishures' (Scriptures...the awesome kids Book of Mormon with pictures).
Treats:  Banana Bread, Cookies, or candy (which she always calls 'nandy' and is always referring to these gems that Rob brought home from Finnland
Activities: Blowing Bubbles, Playing at the park, Swimming or going to the water park, getting her nails painted (which she asks for daily)
Movies: Bolt, The Muppets, How to Train your Dragon, Kung Fu Panda (Yes, I realize 3 of the 4 are animated action films)
Toys: Elmo, Cookie (cookie monster), Vanilla Doll (best doll ever, hand-me-down from cousin), and anything that Charlotte is currently holding.

These are a few pictures our good friend Ashlee took of our family right after Charlotte was born:

Cousin Love

Liberty Park. 

First time Bowling.  She got a strike.  Not kidding. 

First ATV ride with Dad:

Sorry Charlie

Oh Charlotte.

I love the name Charlotte and all of the possibilities in nick names.  Right now, it's a close tie between Lottie and Charlie.  If you're anything like my sister, you are probably dying right now about both of those options, but you are welcome to call her Charlotte if you hate them.  

My little Charlie is almost 5 months old.  I can't believe how fast her life is passing us by.  She is getting so big...ok she's still under 22 inches long and 13 lbs, but she's getting big for her.

How many 4 months old do you know that can still be held like this?  Yup...that's my new haircut.  I sort of LOVE it.

Some new developments:

She can roll over both ways...tummy to back and back to tummy.  She doesn't do it much but she can.  She's close to scooting as well.

She loves to blow bubbles with her mouth and even does it while crying.

She loves holding her toes when she's laying on the floor and when I'm trying to change her diaper.

She loves to LAUGH and SMILE.  She is the happiest baby.  Just looking at her makes a smile spread across her little face and you just know she's seconds away from letting out a laugh.

She loves being tickled.

She is not a cuddler.  

She talks all day long and mimiks sounds we tell her.

She still loves her bumbo seat.

She loves playing with my jewelry and clothing while I'm holding her.

She loves her sleep.  In fact, most nights she sleeps from 8 to 8 without waking up to eat a single time.  I can't complain.  Although, I woke up to go to the bathroom the other night and heard some noises coming from her room.  I walked in and found her laying in her bed wide awake, cooing, giggling, and playing with her toes...not sure how often this happens, but it sure was cute.

She is so easy going, pleasant, happy, and an all around beautiful baby.  Our lives would be incomplete without her.

Yeah....that's a turban.  So what?

Easter, Snow Days, and Other things

These last few weeks have been busy busy.  We've had a lot of fun and can't believe that Rob is done with his first year of business school (except for finals, those are next week).  Lucky for me, the time has gone by quickly as well.  The MBA program at BYU has an awesome spouses association and I've been able to make some really good friends through it.

A few weeks ago I participated in a splash n' dash with some of the friends I've made through the program.  1/2 mile swim and a 5k.  It was a lot of fun.  I finished my swim in under 20 minutes, which if you know how horrible of a swimmer I am, you would feel like it was a huge accomplishment like I do.  The whole thing took me 47 minutes.  Not too shabby for 3 months post-partum.  

 We had a fun Easter party with the whole group too.  Sophie discovered that she can fit under cars.  That is why she looks like a burn victim in this photo.

 

 We had Easter a week early with my mom, sisters, and Jeff.   Sophie and Wes had a good time collecting eggs.

Sophie protecting her lute.   

I think she found more eggs than everyone else combined.

The weather has been amazing here lately and so we've been exploring some of the parks that are near our apartment.  We have found some pretty amazing ones that we never knew existed.

Then, on Saturday, it snowed and stayed on the ground for the 2nd time this winter.  Not kidding.  It has been really light on the snow this year.  So we busted out our winter gear and played outside.

Sophie had more fun eating the snow than anything else.

 And stuffing it into plastic eggs.  She could never quite figure out why it wouldn't stay in there...

 This is what happens when you tell an almost two year old to say 'cheese.'

 The cute scarf and leg warmers she is wearing were all made by my mom.  These pictures don't do them justice.  They are the cutest things she owns.

Sophie and her partner in crime.  Notice how Sophie is still shorter than him even while standing in the doll stroller.  She used his height to steel that sucker off of the counter.  Yes, he is wearing one of my shoes.

We met Cosmo.  He may have been 4th string Cosmo and may have accidentally trampled a 4 year old girl during a race at the MBA family field day, but we'll chose to ignore all of those facts and just be happy that we got a picture with him.

For Easter, we went on a little walk down the Provo River Trail and had a small picnic.  We fed these ducks at the beginning of the trail, and they followed us (in the water) all the way down river to where we stopped to eat.  Then climbed out and basically sat on our picnic blanket trying to get more food.

My favorite picture to date.  I can not stop laughing when I look at this photo.  This pretty much sums up their relationship up to this point.  Charlotte lives in fear, people.

So, we're a family of four

It seems like Charlotte was born yesterday, but it also seems like she's been a part of our family forever.  I don't know how else to explain it.  Adjusting to two kiddos has not been very difficult for our little family.  Charlotte has reflux so she's occasionally quite fussy but when I don't eat dairy or chocolate she does considerably better than when I do, so I am sticking with the no dairy plan.  Dairy isn't all that good for you anyways, so my life is better without it.

Other than that, she is an angel.  Don't tell anyone whose kids don't like to sleep, but Charlotte already sleeps 12 hours without waking up to eat most nights.  On a bad night, she goes about 8 or 9.  I'm not complaining people.  This little girl loves her momma and knows that her momma loves her sleep.

This is Charlotte telling Sophie, "If you wake me up, I'll put a spell on you."

2/11/12

She LOVES the Bumbo. 

This is a very common occurrence.

Sophie bumped her head and it just wouldn't feel better until she could hold 'Lotte'.  When Sophie says it, it sounds more like 'lawdee'.

 2/12/12

 

Sophie loves to help Charlotte with tummy time.  

 2/13/12

2/27/12

Sophie has an obsession with anything that has to do with dolls.  At any given moment throughout the day, you can usually catch her with two or three of them in her arms.  She also likes to carry them around in the Bjorn.  Yes, she is naked with only shoes on.  A product of potty training.  Steffanie....this is me apologizing for giving you a hard time about Wes running around naked....it is impossible to get a child who is potty training to keep their clothes on.  They just like to be naked for a few days until they get the hang of it.  Trust me.

She also loves to play in the doll furniture.

3/5/12

And goes to bed like this EVERY.SINGLE.NIGHT.  I am not kidding.  And yes, she KNOWS when one is missing because they are HER 'bebies'

This is how we spend most of our mornings.  Hanging out on mom's bed.

She takes awhile to brighten up in the mornings.

And has found a new love.  Wearing my clothes and shoes.

3/17/12

And serving her dolls breakfast in bed.  Also a morning ritual.

Oh...and we have one happy baby.  She's smiling all the time now.  You only have to look in her direction to get her to do it and if you are lucky, she'll let out a little giggle as well.

Sophie loves squishing hugging her.

And a month later, she still loves to sit in this thing.  Fist bump anyone?

We've been having a great year.  I know I've said it before, but my favorite year in Provo by far (and we're closing in on our fifth here).

Life is good, people.  Life is good.