Merry Christmas

We took Sonja to get photos with Santa this year...

As you can see, she's not really into it...

That last one is her pointing her finger at me. It felt accusatory, but it was actually her way of telling Santa she would like him to take her back to me... hopefully.

Sorry if I ruined the surprise. I sent out MOST of my Christmas cards already so you should've gotten one if you gave me your address or I might have even hunted it down if I felt you NEEDED to see this.

Merry Christmas!!!

So now for an update on the family... I won't have much time to update you in the coming weeks, so it's now or never.

Jeff:

Jeff is back from VA. It's been a crazy year for us. He's been doing contracting work in the DC area for a company that his dad works for. Sonja and I went with him for the first month, then spent a month without him back at home. It was rough.
Jeff is also going to school part time (online this semester). He just built his own computer (a very cool gaming computer), and is currently Sonja's absolute favorite person in the world.

Caitlin:

I have been training clients part-time, and quite enjoying it. I've also been working on a few other projects, mostly pinterest stuff, and spending most of my time with Sonja. The highlight of my year so far was our trip to Cape May, NJ for a family reunion with my side of the family. It was absolutely wonderful and so very needed. This has been a great year for me as a mother, as well. I have found this year a lot easier in most ways than the first year. Sonja is such a delight to me, and I'm finally feeling confident in my abilities to handle motherhood and other things at the same time. lol.

Sonja:

This has been a big year for Sonja. It's her 2nd year of life, so big changes have taken place. She's gone from an unsteady walker to a running, jumping, energetic small child! She loves to sing, music, hums constantly, and is almost always placated if I just make up a song about whatever it is she hates doing (like putting on shoes and socks). She's always been a sweet girl, but her soft heart has started really showing as she's gotten older and more independent. She loves stuffed animals, and loves smothering them with hugs and kisses. She loves Puppy even though he doesn't exactly love her messing with him. She loves jumping and being tossed and doing rolls, she loves making me jump with her. She loves birds, the sun, the moon, stars, and learning. She loves to count. Her wonder and amazement at the most simple and basic aspects of life helps me to also enjoy those things in a new light. Taking her for a walk is so much more fun than going on a walk by myself has ever been. It's fun to show her new things and experience them with her in all her wonder and excitement.
Sonja is now going to a mother's day out program twice a week for half a day. She loves it. She doesn't like getting dropped off but loves being there and loves her teacher. She's also still in gymboree and loves that too. She's a smart kid. She's talking more and more and quicker to laugh and smile than ever before! She is the absolute light of our lives.

Puppy:

Puppy is doing great. He is a little bit sad about not being the center of attention anymore, but he and Sonja have reached an understanding. He still loves his crinkle tunnel and his mousies. Sonja is learning to throw them for him.. so that's a fun new way for them to play together. I've put him on a new diet that should hopefully help with his extra lbs. He's still our sweet Puppy boy and we love him a lot.

Hope you are all doing really well!

Merry Christmas!

Sonja is 18 months!

We went on a vacation to Cape May and then saw Jeff's sister, Liz, and her family and his Dad. So by the time we did all of that, Sonja turned 18 months old (July 4th!), and I was exhausted.. blogging was the last thing on my mind.. but I don't just do this for kicks, I want Sonja to have something she can look back on when she's older, or maybe when she has kids.. so she can know that her own mom went through some of the stuff she will possibly go through.

What can I say about my gorgeous little 18 month old?

I think I'll tell a few stories about our vacation.. just to give you a small idea of what victories and fun moments we have had together recently.

Sonja has consistently been unwilling to let anyone grab or touch her hands against her will. That is still true. One day while we were in Cape May, we decided to take Sonja to the free Zoo there. It has great reviews and I definitely understand why. They had all kinds of animals there, including giraffes, zebras, lions, tigers, etc. and I found myself in awe of how well the zoo managed to keep these animals in decent habitats with enough room to not make me feel completely depressed for them. As we took Sonja through, one of the big changes I noticed since her last visit, was that she was actually aware and excited about the animals. She loved the birds and kept saying "boods" and pointing at them for me. We walked and walked and soon I grew tired of carrying her and put her down for a moment because she wanted to "quwalk" (that's how she says walk). And then something new happened. As she started making a break for it, I said (mostly to myself) "Sonja, why don't you just hold Mommy's hand just this one time???" And, to my disbelief, she walked right over to me and grabbed my hand and we walked around the entire zoo like that. And since that day she has held my hand when I ask her to (9 out of 10 times at least). That is also the first day she would wear a hat for us, and now she loves wearing them and taking them off repeatedly.

And speaking of obedience, the stage of her fearlessly running into the street may soon be over. Today she actually listened when I forcefully said "NO" as she fled for the street in the driveway of our friend's house. She stopped and turned around and came back to me. It was awesome.

So far I have not had to spank or yell to get my way with Sonja. In fact, I believe those methods would ultimately ruin our relationship. The few times I have raised my voice a bit more than I should've... those times I saw this look on her face of pure hurt.. and I realized that I need to knock that off.  There are better ways.

Sonja hates to be ignored. So that's naturally my new tactic when she throws fits. I just ignore her. I try redirecting her usually, but if that doesn't work, I just let her scream at me until she calms down. And that's another thing about her that is awesome, and I hope is a consistent behavior with her.. she calms down and even redirects herself now VERY quickly (unless she's genuinely hurt or sick). The hitting thing still happens on rare occassion, but I have found that now she will do it, pause a second and realize what she did and then she will take her hand (like the plan was this all along) and point to my nose or cheek and tell me it's name. Haha. She's a sly one. When she gets mad, sometimes she will throw the thing in her hand.. and then instantly say "uh oh" and go get it and be totally fine again. It's weird, but I love it. And all of this depends on me not losing my cool, because if I get mad, she feeds off my anger and things escalate. So keeping my cool is my newest challenge and I'm proud to say I'm not doing too bad at it.

Sonja now loves to dance. In cape may she and my sister and mom had a fun little dance party. She was a bit overwhelmed by all of the people there (over 30), but she managed to get some precious moments in like the dance party and she still talks about Nunu and Moo Moo even at home. She did try to step on and hit my brother's little baby Emma... so we are gonna have to work on that. And when we were at Liz's, she had fun dancing there with Laidey and Rex and Aunt Liz. She is still a total flirt, though. She loves her Frunkle Chris and dances whenever she sees him... and she loved her Uncle Andrew a lot. Sonja now breaks into dances randomly even if there isn't music on.. it's awesome.

Sonja loves to sing as well. She's learning a lot of songs, like Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, the ABC's and many Walk Off The Earth songs. She knows some of her alphabet now, and is especially fond of the letter B. She can count to 3. While we were at the airport, we started lifting her on 3, so her new favorite thing to do is count to three and then jump.

On the 4th of July we went with the Taylors to Shanandoah National Park. Sonja had a great time hiking with us, and did really well. She wore her little zebra hat and held her little hello kitty water bottle and took to the trails like a champ! That night she got to meet her Poppy's new friend, who happens to be a girl. She instantly fell in love with her and was dancing and showing off like I have NEVER seen before. It was so awesome. She had a good 18 monthiversary I think. She didn't get to see fireworks that night, though, because bedtime was more important.

One of my favorite memories with Sonja on our vacation was when she and Rex started this adorable chasing game around the living room. It was so funny. He had on these crazy glasses and they were laughing the whole time.. and then they ran into each other and both got goose eggs on their forheads.. but even that was kinda adorable, albeit sad and adorable.

She really enjoyed the beach. She tried a few times to just go straight into the ocean, no holding back.. luckily we managed to stop her. She liked the sand to a degree, but mostly the water and the seashells which she kept calling "zhozhos". She also enjoyed several naps at the beach, courtesy of Nunu snuggle time. It was great. I wished I could nap on the beach.. so peaceful. But I was busy boogy boarding so it's all good.

Sonja is a sweet, feisty, loving, energetic toddler. Her smile is beautiful and infectious. You can tell she is really smart, and really independent, but she definitely still clings to me and her Daddy. She needs snuggles and she needs that time in my arms every day or she starts feeling a little insecure. She loves to give hugs and sometimes kissies.. which is another word she can say now. I find parenting actually easier at this point than it was even a few months ago. I feel like we have hit a groove. There are still hard days (like today because she has croup), but for the most part I'm enjoying seeing her learn and grow and grow up.

So Now I'm going to list her favorites and her skills and then this post will be over.

Favorites:
- Shape: Triangles
- Letter: B
- Activity: Coloring, Bubbles, Watching Walk Off the Earth, Baths
- Place: Gymboree
- Toy: Boo the Pomeranian (she sleeps with him now), her ABC blocks, her vacuum, the chalk board and her magical markers and paper, her shape ball, her chair, and her new shapes that stick to the fridge and the dishwasher.
- words: "Dede" (Adelaide) "ZhoZho" "Bee" "Quwalk" (walk) "Nunu" "Cookie" "star" "Ba" (bath)

Skills:
- Vocabulary - (see above), "A, B, C, D, E.. G.. K... P(sounds like B)... S... V (also sounds like B)... X (sounds like KS)... Z (sounds like C)", "me", "li-el sta" (little star), "are", "high", "hi", "sky", "boods" (birds), "poopie", "nunu", "nana", "gapa" (grandpa), "rere" (rebekah), "mama", "moomoo", "hot", "cold", "police", "cheese", "aurora", "puppy", "bubble", "ball", "square", "blue" (usually for blue berries), "swing" and "sing", "brush", "eyes, ears, cheek, nose, mou (mouth)", "spoon," and I know there are more but I can't think of them all.

- Tasks - she can now find and put the shapes in the shape ball, she can also match pictures up on her ipad app. She can "brush" her own hair... ish... She can climb really well now, and is now capable of jumping and actually getting a little air under her feet. She can run. She knows almost all the parts of the face and all about belly buttons. She is semi-good with a fork and spoon. She is so good with the ipad that she actually can get all the way to my very hard to get to youtube app, search through it until she finds Walk Off the Earth, and then starts her own videos. It freaks me out. She is also pretty good at holding markers and pens in the way we do...


She's a great kid. I love her so much.

Fifi Island

A long time ago, for a project my sister had, I created an island online called "Fifi Island." It's a poodle-shaped island in the middle of the ocean and it's overrun by wild poodles.

I think it's time we started raising funds to build Fifi Island. I know what I would do with it.

Fifi Island would be a place where I could gather all the people I love, and create a new society of my choosing. We would have bonfires every night and start awesome traditions. Everyone would get a decent sized home with all the amenities they needed, and we would make sure we got the population up to around 1000 people. It would start with my loved ones, of course. Only the ones who want to come. My family, Jeff's family, and any of my friends who wanted to come. I would also allow my family to bring their friends as long as they passed the entrance interview.

Fifi Island would be a democracy, and should we have a 50/50 tie, we would choose two people with opposing views to arm wrestle it out. I would start the island with a tax-less economy. We would simply trade services and goods, and the government would all be on a volunteer basis. There would not be pointless meetings because the population would be very small, and if someone commits a crime, we would have a trial. If that person is found guilty, they are either voted off the island, or given a punishment befitting the crime. Most of the worst crimes would be an instant deportation.

We would have cool traditions on Fifi Island. We would always have community activities, and we would make sure that everyone got the chance to make friends with everyone on the island. No visitors would be allowed onto Fifi Island without a permit given by a citizenship comity. Fifi Island would be the first solar roadway system, and solar-powered houses. At night, torches would be lit, but light pollution would be minimal. Instead of street lamps, we would have our solar roadways lined with glowing lane markers. Homes would be far away enough that we wouldn't annoy our neighbors if we decided to have friends over, but close enough that we could walk to each other's homes. In fact, cars would be a very limited commodity on Fifi Island. Instead, bicycles, walking, and scooters would be the main modes of transportation.

Religious freedom would reign, but no formal church buildings would be built. Instead, church would be practiced in homes or on the beach. Nature is more conducive to worship anyway right? That would always be up for a vote, though.

If there is a disagreement between families or people on Fifi Island that they cannot resolve themselves, it would be taken to a quick 3 day trial and a vote.

We would make sure to have doctors, nurses, and other medically trained people on the island. We would have a hospital (probably small) that would be centrally located. Also available would be a fitness center. We would have farms that would either be communally worked (in rotations) or farmed by expert farmers. It would all be non-GMO and organic.  We would raise chickens, but if you want beef or any other meat, you have to hunt for it yourself. I do not believe in raising an animal for slaughter. So there would be wild cows, possibly pigs, and turkeys. No cages for the chickens, though, they would get to roam around the farms.

We would have cows and goats for the sole purpose of milking, but they would be treated with great kindness, and the amount they were milked would be very closely controlled.

Dogs and Cats would be permitted as pets, but any animal abuse is an immediate deportation. Also, all pets must be neutered or spayed unless given a breeding permit by the Fifi Island committee.

It would be glorious. I know I put a little too much thought into this but it's like my impossible dream. Wouldn't it be nice to just start over? I often just get so tired of our broken government, and I think... wouldn't it be nice to just start from scratch, do things right, and not over-complicate things? I would love just living with people who are awesome and feeling like a part of something awesome, part of a real community.

Anyway.. this was fun for me. Blog Out.

Happy 16 Months

Sonja is now 16 months old!

It seems to be going faster and faster. I can't keep up.

We just went for her "15 month" checkup last week (we are a little behind) and she's doing well. She keeps going from a little under the 50th percentile in height and then shooting up into the 60th or higher, and her weight will go up and then shoot back down... so I think we are prepping for another growth spurt because she's 48th percentile in height and 58th in weight right now.

Sonja is a beautiful and sweet child still. She is very busy and likes to always be on the move. She loves harassing Puppy and eating Pizza (which brings me great joy as well).

Recently I have noticed that she can get her feelings hurt, like when her cousin Rex hits or shoves her (he's a baby... he doesn't really do it with negative intentions I hope)... she will get this really heartbreaking look on her face and her lower lip will stick out and then she bursts into tears. Oh man.. breaks my heart.

She has also grown fond of hitting recently (something I am desperately trying to break her of). She goes "Dat!" and then smacks me, or the cat, or any object really. I don't know why she started doing it but I don't like it.

But the good parts (and there are so many) definitely are worth the bad.

Honestly, being Sonja's mom is very very rewarding for me. Recently I was looking back through old facebook posts trying to remember when Jeff switched jobs and I found myself hating myself from that time. I just seem so douschy... self-involved, braggy, I don't know.. I just cringed a lot.

I think having her grounds me and it makes me see that a lot of the little things are not as important as I thought they were, and that I can enjoy life without feeling like I have to prove myself or my greatness or anything else.. because really it's not about me much anymore. There is a bigger picture. And I honestly enjoy myself a lot more often because I get to experience life with such a wonderful little girl.

Sonja now knows how to blow kisses and gives kisses and it is adorable. She also has "bye bye" down and is starting to learn "Hello." She says it when she holds my phone up to her head.

She can "brush" her hair, and likes to do it herself. She is also starting to get the hang of spoons and forks and does not like to be helped.

Sonja's Favorites:

- Puppy
- Her singing teapot
- drinking from a cup
- milk
- cereal
- trying new foods (she gets sick of stuff if we give it to her too often)
- going to the park and gymboree
- singing "chomp chomp chomp goes the crocodile"
- playing chase, peekaboo, and any other game where she can scare us or we can scare her
- playing with her cousins
- going to Nana's house
- Auntie Em babysitting
- Balls
- Snuggles
- Making faces at each other
- books

Sonja continues to learn new words, try new things, and get better and better at all sorts of things. She's getting pretty fast, she's starting to master climbing things, and she is pretty strong for a baby.

She loves singing, and will sing and twirl on command. She hates the word "no" and gets visibly angry when I say it. Usually because it accompanies her not getting to do what she wants.

We also recently purchased a sheep backpack with a leash on it and it has changed my world. I love it. It's the best way to give her a little freedom while keeping her from doing major damage to herself.

I love this sweet girl. I love seeing her grow and learn and just enjoy life.

15 Months

Bluebonnets (15 months)

Today, Sonja is 15 months old!

I cannot believe how quickly time flies by and how much she changes in such a short amount of time.

Sonja just keeps getting cuter and cuter. She is a pretty happy child, especially this month when the teething finally ended (it may be starting back up again though (sad face)).

Sonja's Favorite Toys:
* Anything with wheels that she can push (shopping carts, her walker, toy shopping carts or baby doll strollers, her radio flyer)
* Her stuffed dog and other stuffed animals
* Her puzzle with the zoo animals on it (zebra, lion, crocodile, etc.) - her favorite puzzle piece is now the crocodile. She loves crocodiles so much that I made up a song for her about them and she loves it.
* Books! She loves being read to over and over again. Her current favorite books are "The Little Red Hen," "I Love You, Stinky Face," and "5 Little Penguins." She really wants to like the giant "Mother Goose" book but she gets bored with it really easily.
* Her Puzzle ball - she is getting so good at putting the shapes in!
* The Emporer's New Groove DVD (she doesn't actually care about watching the movie she just loves the cover of the DVD).
* Anything she isn't supposed to play with
* Her Rubber Duckies

Sonja's Favorite Songs:
* Chomp Chomp Chomp goes the Crocodile
* Anything by Walk Off the Earth
* "Happy"

Sonja's Favorite People:
*She's been a big Momma's girl this month
* Of course she loves her Dadda too
* Aunt Meghan (who came to visit a few weekends ago.. they get along great!)
* Nana
* Puppy
* Jojo
* Frunkle Chris
* Susan at Gold's Gym

Sonja's New Words:
* Crocodile (Coco or Caca)
* Bird (also said Birdy the other day!)
* Giraffe (Gi or Gir)

Sonja's Favorite Words:
* Rawr
* Mama (she's started to get what it means)
* Dada
*Dooka [dooka] doo (this is what she says when she's being tickled or chased by us and about to be tickled but also sometimes randomly) (I think it's her form of "tickle tickle tickle")

Cute Mimicry:
* She loves to run around with her eyes shut and a big grin on her face.. it's hilarious
* She also loves to try to mimic fishy lips
* She tries to brush her own hair and put on her own head band and take it off over and over
* She tries to put things on her head a lot now

Other Notable Things:
* Sonja has gotten so cute at peekaboo. She likes to hide behind objects like our ottoman and pop up without saying a word ( I usually say boo for her..)
* Sonja can now Hi-Five again and always does when I ask her to
* Sonja likes to roll when I sing the song "Roll over"
* She also likes to jump on the bed or couch (and by jump I mean shes usually on her knees bouncing) when I sing the "5 Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed" song.
* She has been pretty clingy lately and had some stranger anxiety, she is also afraid of her babysitters when she sees them because she thinks I'm going to leave her.
* Sonja and Puppy now get along really really well and seem to really love each other
* Sonja loves to go to the park with us and just run around in the open fields and try to climb the slide again. She also loves the swing again and will sit in there for a really long time if I let her.
* Sonja loves to sit in a laundry basket while I push her back and forth down the hallway in our apartment. She often refuses to get out when I'm too tired to continue. I have to hide the laundry basket sometimes to prevent her from making me do it again.

Favorite Foods:
* "cookies" (breakfast cookies by belvita)
* bites of Mommy's granola cereal
* tortillas and pita bread
* BANANAS
* Apples (but only if they are not cut)
* blueberries and raspberries
* Daddy's Coconut Thai soup
* Nana's Pancakes
* Cheese sticks
* Toddler Meals and Pouches
* Milk

I sure love this kid! Happy 15 months!

Sonja with her dog that she "rescued" from Hobby Lobby

Sonja at the Austin Zoo - she and this little deer fell in love

Sonja with a dandilion

Sonja and me playing Mario Twins

Getting into trouble! Right after this she tried to play with the litter box... monster...

Snuggling down with the Puppy boy

playing foot wars with mommy

my beautiful princess at the park

She is in charge! Also getting pretty good at running... 

walking with Daddy and Frunkle Chris... or as she likes to call them her "slaves/body guards"

Sonja is 14 months old!

Sonja,

You turned 14 months old 9 days ago and I didn't post! I have been very busy. Up until this past Monday, you've been pretty sad. You finally finished cutting what I believe is your last molar, so I think you should be good for another year or so until your 2 year molars come in. The 14th month was a little harder on both of us because of the teething. You got really clingy and very moody and I struggled to keep you happy and not lose my sanity this month.

Despite all of those things, we still managed to have fun together and you continue to learn new skills. I'm noticing more and more aspects of your personality coming through and hope that you continue in the current trend. You are very people-oriented. You love to watch people, you love to interact with people, and you love to connect with others. You don't seem to like most other babies but you love older children. You do get mad when things don't go your way (don't we all?) but you have a pretty decent ability to cope and move on quickly when forced. I find you to be especially good at dealing with most obstacles when you are well fed and not tired. You're patient. You are sweet.

You are currently really into your stuffed animals. You love snuggling them and holding them. You love it when I act them out. Recently, we went to Hobby Lobby and you fell in love with a little stuffed dog named Boo the Pomeranian. You carried him all around the store and even went back for him many times after you'd dropped him. I couldn't help myself. I bought him. You still love him dearly.

Being your mom is one of the greatest things in the world. I just love being with you and I love showing you new things and exploring the world with you. As you learn to put shapes into your shape ball, build with blocks, learn new words, I feel lucky that I can watch and teach and experience these things with you. You are my baby and I love you more than anything in this world.

Love,

Mommy

6 Years

Happy 6th Anniversary to us! Yesterday, Jeff and I celebrated 6 years of marriage!

This year, Jeff planned our date. I had been talking about how I want to go to a paint-your-own pottery studio so Jeff took me to one on Saturday and we both picked out some giant mugs to paint. We didn't finish in time before the 2nd half of our date, so we will have to go back and finish, but trust me they are going to be awesome! Mine already has a unicorn farting a rainbow so you can imagine how great it's going to be when I add the rest!

After that, we went on a segway tour of Austin. It was really fun, a lot more fun than it sounds actually. The segway itself is super fun to drive. It goes up to 12 mph and we definitely took it to full speed several times. Really it felt more like a joy ride on a segway with some cool people and we stopped a few places to learn historical info about things, but not the boring history, the interesting stuff like hauntings and fires and dramatic events. All in all it was a really great date and a great way to spend some time together while Sonja was staying with friends.

I still find it hard to leave her with other people mostly because I worry she will feel like I'm abandoning her, but it really is important for us to get out of the house and spend some quality time together.

Here are a few photos of our fun time.

Sonja's 13 months old.. and some change...

This post is a little late, but I wanted to quickly document the cuteness of 13 month old Sonja.

Sonja is 13 months old! Yay!

This was on the actual day she turned 13 months old.. digging through drawers.. story of my life

Sonja's Favorite Things at 13 months:

Toys:

* Her wooden puzzles with the cows, ducks, chickens, etc.

* Her doll that says "mama"

* Rubber Duckies and all things duck... she loves the puzzle piece ducks, the ducks in the photo on my bathroom wall, all duck objects.

Animals:

* Dogs. This month she got to meet her Nunu's dog, Winston, and they both loved each other so much. 

* She also loves cats, but they don't seem to love her back (*ahem*Puppy*ahem*)

* Ducks

Activities:

* Looking at the pictures on the Fridge

* Looking at the pictures around the house, pointing at them and calling them "Nana" "dada" and "mama" with no regard to who she is actually pointing at.

* Playing with the animal app on my iPad - it has pictures of different animals and when she touches the picture it pulls the animal up, says it's name and then you hear the sound it makes... 

* Gymboree

* Baths

* Eating

TV:

* Bubble Guppies

* Team Umi Zoomi

* Walk Off the Earth on YouTube (they're a band not really meant for children but she loves them anyway.. and they are so good!)

Food:

* Bananas

* Peas

* Peanut Butter Sandwiches

* Bread

* Yogurt 

* Blueberries

* Raspberries

* Breakfast "cookies"

* Milk

* Anything Mama or Dada are eating

Her Current Vocabulary Consists of:

* Duck

* Quack

* Doga (dog)

* Caca (cat)

* No

* Uh Oh (she will ONLY say this if she drops something or if she intends to drop something)

* OW (usually said while hitting me in the face or touching my face)

* Moo

* Mama

* Dada

* Nana

* Yeah

* Shhh (sheep)

Sonja is a delightful child. She is snuggly and sweet. She still has some stranger anxiety we are hoping gets a little better than it currently is, and has a hard time when I take her to the gym childcare but does OK with babysitters. She is teething right now and getting all of her molars and lateral incisors (which I think is part of the problem). She loves baths, animals, and learning. She is the type of child that focuses really intensely when she's trying to do something, whether it is rolling a ball, jumping, or playing with a toy, she get's this focus that I'm really impressed with for her age and she has gotten really good at certain tasks.

New Skills:

* Putting blocks together

* Walking without assistance (and sometimes running) (albeit clumsily)

* Understanding where her puzzle pieces are meant to go and attempting to put them there

* Helping me get her dressed

* Understanding that my wallet snaps, and attempting to open and close it with the snap

* Climbing (the rock wall at gymboree and the slide)

* Waving "bye bye" to her Dada when he leaves and when we leave she waves at the door...

* Staying in her bed most of the night if not all of the night

Sonja is definitely obsessed with us, she kind of goes back and forth between who she favors, but she seems to want us for different reasons. She is very playful, outgoing, and loves walking all over the place. She always wants to push things, like at the grocery store, she demands that she push the cart. She likes pushing her little activity walker thing, and tries pushing almost everything at least once to see if it will roll. She is also gaining a lot of independence. She doesn't like it if I try to feed her, however, she has learned that if she will hand me a toy she isn't able to get to work, I will make it work and give it back so she's a lot more OK with me taking things from her to fix them for her. I like that new development. I think it's good Jeff is working more now. She was definitely turning into a Daddy's girl.. so now I have the chance to keep it more even lol. 

Sonja loves to play. She loves playing chase, getting tickled, dancing, being thrown, and any sort of play we can come up with. She loves peek-a-boo and hide and seek too. She's a clever little thing and will sometimes try to delay a nap by initiating a peek a boo game in her crib. Cracks me up.

Sonja loves to take baths and play with her ducks. I recently had the fun experience of her pooping in the tub. Let's just say it's an experience I can live without repeating. Yuck!

And that is my sweet girl. She continues to challenge me and make my life a lot more full of awesome. 

after her 1 year old shots and blood draw I treated her to "which wich" and she loved it

playing in the pantry with her doll... creepiest doll ever btw

Playing with the unpoppable Gymboree bubbles!

they just sit in her hair like that for hours if I don't get them off

she used the scale as a stool to get to the drawer easier

we have fun together

enjoying a yogurt.. I learned from this not to give her the carton

Sonja's 1st Birthday Photos!!!

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Happy 1st Birthday to the CUTEST baby in the world!

This isn't all of them... but I felt like I should share at least some of them...

Bad News

Today was our first ultrasound. The baby was supposed to be around 8 weeks. It measured at 6 weeks 5 days and no heartbeat was detectable. This means that (barring a miracle) the baby is no longer growing and is no longer viable. Sadly, I am probably miscarrying and will know for sure on Tuesday when we check one last time if I haven't started naturally losing the pregnancy, and then if there is no heartbeat I will either get a D&C or take a pill to help my body pass the tissue.

I am heart broken, as is Jeff, and it's not easy blogging about this. I didn't want to at first, but realize that if I'm going to be public with sharing my good news, sometimes that means being public with really bad devastating news.

I realize that this is not my fault. Chromosomal defects are the main cause of this sort of thing at this stage in the pregnancy. We hope to try again in the future. That's all I really feel like saying about this subject.

Sonja is 1!!!!

Happy Birthday to the best baby in the world!!!!

Today she turned 1, and I cannot believe how fast that happened!

Sonja is such a joy in our lives, and such a beautiful and smart little girl. She's a sweet girl, who loves hugs and kisses and hates not getting what she wants. She doesn't like to feel left out and she hates it when I don't share. Sonja loves people but is also a little shy especially at first. She loves to "talk" and play with toys. She's a great kid.

Here's a few videos we took of her opening gifts... I promised to make these since she took a nap halfway through her party and had to open them after everyone had left.  We are so appreciative of all the gifts and especially of the love and support of those who came to her party and those who wished they could come to her party and sent well wishes even though they couldn't! Sonja is very loved! And I felt very loved as well :).

Thank you everyone for the gifts! I am so sorry if I didn't figure out which gifts were from whom, but I am very grateful! And so is Sonja.. as much as a 1 year old can be grateful!

The party went well. I made a smash cake. Sonja did not eat it. But I tried. It was really healthy.

 We decorated the apartment (by we I mean Meghan, Nick, Jeff and I)

 We got her another cake for the guests to eat.. yellow with strawberry filling.. it wasn't the hit of the party, but Jeff's chocolate peanut butter pie from the 1431 cafe was well liked.

Sonja wore her scotty dog shirt from Grandma and Grandpa. She did well considering how overwhelmed she must've been and attacking her cousin Caden... I felt bad about that. She just gets so excited sometimes she doesn't realize she's hurting people she just starts flapping those arms around. I'm not sure why she was so excited to see Caden, maybe she knew he was family?

All in all it was a good party.. and next years will be even better!

My gift to Sonja this year? A membership to Gymboree!!! I'm so excited to take her there every week and help her learn and grow with other kids her age!