Happy Halloween

Halloween is my favorite "holiday" and I love dressing up. I was so excited to dress Sophia up this year. It was something I was looking forward to for months. I got her costume online 2 months ago. I tried it on her last month. She hated it. I mean, she really hated it. So I've been trying to get her used to it, to no avail. She just has no tolerance for it. So let this be one of my many lessons that I just can't have control over things 100% of the time. But I am determined of course, so I continue to torture my poor child for the sake of Halloween. Hopefully this does not mean that she'll despise Halloween (or me) because of it.

So for now, at least I still have my other "kid" to help celebrate Halloween. He's a great sport and a hunk, a hunk of burning love!

Thank you grandma

I'd like to give a little shout out to my mom, who was a tremendous help this last weekend. We had a lot of activity, including a costume party and then a funeral for a dear family friend. It was hectic and my mom really came through. Sophia might even prefer her grandma over me now, but I'm working on getting back in Sophia's good graces.

Pumpkin patch

Picture a warm fall day with a crisp breeze. We stroll lazily along the pumpkin patch looking for the perfect pumpkin. I stop and admire all the Halloween accoutrements hanging on various displays, pointing out which ones would be a great addition to our home decorations. A bluegrass band is playing in the courtyard and we walk over to hang out and talk to the local town folk. After a while, we pick out perfect photo opportunities for Sophia's first trip to the pumpkin patch. The afternoon ends with a stop at the booth for some hot apple cider.

Now erase that story from your head. Here's what really happened...

Rick gets home from golf early enough to finally go to the pumpkin patch. I've been nagging him for the last week about coming with Sophia and I. The place is packed and he's complaining about some guy that is taking way too long loading up his pumpkins and his kids. We finally get the parking spot and unload Sophia and the stroller. He says, "OK where are the pumpkins? I'll just follow you." We spot the pumpkin patch and make a bee line past all the really cute Halloween stuff and plop Sophia down in front of the pumpkins. I make a bunch of noise and try to get her to smile, as Rick rolls his eyes and says, "Oh boy, here we go." I get a few acceptable shots and then a nice lady asks if we wanted a family shot. Great! Then I tell Rick I want a shot of him and Sophia. He is patient enough for me to quickly snap a few and then we pick up 3 pumpkins and off we go. I'd say the trip lasted maybe 10 minutes tops. Oh, there was a bluegrass band playing somewhere but we were too busy rushing to see anything.

Playing around with my new photo editing tool

Trying to do some artsy stuff. I liked how this one turned out.

Sharing a few things

It's been a while since I've updated on milestones or little things Sophia has been doing. She's in such a fun stage.

• She loves to suck face. Ha! Seriously, she likes to try to suck on my chin, her daddy's nose, etc. I've had a hickey on my forearm and my neck from her. Did I mention that she's fully weaned now? Maybe residual side effect from missing the boobie?
• She's sitting up! She gets frustrated if I put her down on her back to play now. I should know better; she wants to sit up like a big girl.
• She knows her name. Or maybe I'd like to think she knows her name. When I say her name she looks at me. This has proved to be valuable when I'm trying to feed a moving target. I just say, "Sophia!" and she looks up long enough to put the spoon full of food in her mouth.
• She's in the 90th percentile for height and weight. Her thighs are so chubby that I can only put her in stretchy pants. Any other type of pant (jeans, etc.) don't fit, even 12 month size.

Here's the family watching the Blue Angels in SF last weekend.

Happy 6 month un-birthday!

18 pounds 14 1/2 ounces and 27 inches in length at Sophia's 6 month check-up.