Happy Thanksgiving

Love Bugs

It took me longer than anticipated to report a happy Thanksgiving. I'm now recovering from a cold that Sophia caught from either Love Bug #1 (Amanda) or Love Bug #2 (Alyssa). Those little girls looove their cousin Sophia so much, they can't get close enough to her. Which is sweet, and I am so grateful there is no jealousy of the new addition to share Grandma's attention. So why are they Love Bugs? Well Amanda is in school now so basically she's a walking petri dish. She does really well washing her hands but, well, she's a kid and that's just that. Now Alyssa, she's a Love Bug because the kid just loves to bug. She definitely takes after my side of the family, with that devilish twinkle in her eye. I think we attempted to get Sophia down for a nap at least 4 times, each time the effort foiled by Alyssa. Here's a picture of my love bugs with Sophia!

7 months old

We're changing things up around here

It's been a big weekend of changes! Sophia is now out of her baby carrier and in her new stationary car seat. This triggered additional changes. For the first time, she sat in the grocery cart, which opened up a whole new world of things to try to grab. We went out for breakfast and she sat in the highchair like a big girl at a restaurant. And because she's sitting up so well now, we tried the swing at the park--so much fun!

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.