Seth is 4!, Sophie has adjusted, and lots and lots of playtime with cousins

Below i will post a few pics of Seth's 4th birthday. As you will see, it was spider-man themed and he had a blast!
It took Sophie about 6 weeks, but she has completely adjusted to daycare now. She actually even looks forward to going and in the morning, right after breakfast, she will say "bye bye" over and over. Sophie's vocabulary is quite extensive now so i won't attempt to record all of her words at this point, but one of my favorites is when she says i love you, although it doesn't quite sound exactly like "i love you" more like, "i la la". She knows several body parts and is still feisty as ever, but also super sweet! :) Seth continues to be an amazing big brother...we are so proud of him. Sophie, like most toddlers, is hitting some, and she will smack Seth on the head for no reason, but not once has Seth ever gotten mad at her and hit back. In fact, most times he just laughs it off. :) Seth is preparing to enter pre-k next week. We are very excited for him, and he even received a school supply list. He had to get 3 vaccines yesterday in order to be ready for school, and he was soooo brave. He can write all the letters of the alphabet, and just last night he was reading a few basic words (to, we, see, the, etc.). Below are some pics from the past few months:

Seth and Sophie update (4 and 15 months)

Just to back-track a little because i don't think i recorded this, but Sophie started taking steps at 11 months and really started walking at 12 months. She doesn't do anything slow, and once she figured out how to walk, she hasn't slowed down. She loves to climb, and if she finds steps, she will go up and down them over and over and over.... She loves to play outside and HATES to come back in. Her 1st birthday was a blast and she ate every single bite of her cupcake. This is unlike Seth who wanted no part of his cake at 1 years old. At her 15 month checkup, she was 31.5 inches and 25.6 pounds (83% for both)
She is a GREAT eater!
She started daycare on June 6th and developed severe separation anxiety. Right now we are doing half days to ease her in, but we have had some hard nights and days because of the anxiety.
Here are a few words she can say at 15 months (sorry if there are repeats): cracker, starts singing bye baby bunting (bye, bay), elmo, dora, lalala, cheese, car, tweet tweet (bird), who who (owl), meowww (cat), rrrrr (lion), bell baba (belly button), She also calls out Seth's name a lot but it sounds like, "Se".

At Seth's 4 year checkup, he did a blood draw and was so brave. He weighed in at 41 pounds, and 3 1/2 feet. (80%). He is now drawing with much more detail: drawing planets, stick figures with eyes, mouth, eyelashes, hair and fingers, he can write his name in upper and lower case letters, and his teacher said that he was the only one in class that knew all the letters (both big and small).

So once again since i have decided to play "catch up", i am sure i have left out so much, but here are some pictures to enjoy:

bye bye bottle

Last night Sophie was drinking milk from her sippy cup extremely well so i thought i would forgo the bottle and see if she would be okay with that. Well, she never fussed and went right to sleep. I tried it again tonight and she was perfectly fine without it again. I am excited that she is now off all bottles, but at the same time i am extremely sad. It was such a special bonding time to me. As i held her and gave her the bottle she would gently reach back and stroke my shoulder and arm. I guess realizing that i will never feed a bottle to one of my own babies makes me a little sad (yes, we are done having babies). Oh well, on to the next stage! :)

Sophie's update

Sophie is growing up soooo fast lately. Here is what she can do:
--she will mimic you and pick up the phone and put it to her ear
--she will grab a brush and try to brush her hair
--she says "dight", "mama", "dada", sometimes "byebye", "dah" for tada as she raises her arms above her head. When you ask her what a dog says, she will make whining noises and then start panting like a dog. She will point at the mirror when you ask her where the baby is. She will wave sometimes. She loves to clap.
--she is taking her first steps and actually took 4 steps yesterday.
--she loves to play peek a boo
--when she is hungry, she says, "yumyumyum".
--she can do the sign for "more", although it looks as if she is clapping
--she is a very sensitive baby and will cry at the drop of a hat, but at the same time she can be very fiesty and tries very hard to keep up with her big brother.
--During my visit in Florida, Sophie began using her signs very well...she now perfectly signs milk, more, eat and all done and uses them all the time now.
--She says "baa baa" when asked what a sheep says, and her favorite words are "no" and "uh oh".
--While at a playground she almost climbed up a slide backwards, and can even operate a little scooter.
--she can drink out of a cup and use a spoon.

Christmas 2010 (Sophie's 1st Christmas)

Christmas was so much fun this year. This is the first year that Seth really understood what was going on. He was sooooo excited. We made our cookies for Santa on Christmas Eve, watched Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer and sang songs. He woke up early, but we woke up earlier and were able to capture his excitement on video as he walked down stairs to his presents. Sophie wasn't awake yet, so we decided to let her sleep while Seth unwrapped his presents. It was just easier this way since she is now into everything.

Seth's "sayings"

--Seth came home from school one day and i asked him if he had a good day. Here was his response..."i had a super awesome day! Well, i had an accident though." Me: "really, what happened?"
Seth: "i took some toys from the other kids...sooooo, maybe i didn't have a good day. Well, i was a little good!"
---Seth: "i love you mommy. I love mommy and daddy, but not Sophie."
Me: "awwww, why don't you love sophie?"
Seth: "i don't love her because she licks me!"
---Seth was doing something that was starting to get me upset. He realized i was getting angry and he says..."it's going to be okay...all you need to do is take a deep breath."
---I was working out one day, when Seth asks, "mommy, what are you doing?"
Me: "working out".
Seth: "why?"
Me: "because it makes you healthy and strong"
(after i finished...)
Seth: "are you done?"
Me: "yes".
Seth: "let me see if you are strong"
Me (flexing my bicep)
Seth: "well...you're not much stronger. I think you need to work out more."

Bye Bye

Sophie has just started waving bye bye now and she has also said "bye bye" a few times!

The Shepherd

One night as we were eating, Seth saw the Nativity scene set up on the buffet table. He proudly proclaimed, "Awwww, it's baby Jesus!..."and there's Little Bo Peep!" (looking at the shepherd).

"Dight"

So besides saying "mama" and "dada", i can confidently confirm that Sophie is saying "dight" for light. Everytime i ask her where the light is, she consistently looks up, and as if to point, she puts her hand up toward the light and utters, "dight". I actually got it on video, so as soon as i can upload it, i will post it here.

blog-worthy

In my last blog i mentioned that Seth has stopped sucking his thumb, but in our opinion this is such a huge accomplishment that it deserves it's very own blog. It has been about 2-3 weeks now and there is no sign of Seth sucking his thumb. He is so proud of himself and we just can't believe how he gave it up on his own! We didn't even really talk to him about it, he just decided one day that he would stop. I thought this was going to be a huge thing to overcome in a year or 2, but luckily we (and he) won't have to go through it. So proud of our big boy!

4 months later...

Okay, i admit i have been really bad about not keeping up on our blog. Let's just say we have been BUSY! We moved into our new house, i had surgery for carpal and cubital tunnel, my Mimi passed away and we went to Florida for Thanksgiving. I hate that i do this, but so many cute things have been going on with Seth and Sophie, but of course if i don't immediately write them down then i forget them. I do remember a cute saying from Seth about his sister. We were reading a book one day and it had a rainbow in it. He said "awww, what a pretty rainbow...just like my sister". He also saw a picture of me in my wedding dress one day and said, "mommy, is that you when you were a princess?". What a sweet boy our Seth is. He is growing up so fast! He is getting very curious about words, how to spell them and what they mean. He continues to be amazing with Sophie and is a very sweet and protective brother.
8 and a half months was the magic age with Sophie. She caught on to crawling and within days she was chasing after her brother around the room. She also pulls up and stands, claps, holds her own bottle, and gives those open mouth baby kisses. She understands some words like milk, light, mama, dada, eat, etc. Just yesterday it sounded like she tried to say light and uh oh. She is a very happy baby. She is now sleeping 12-13 hours straight. She still is not crazy about her carseat, but will tolerate it for a little while. She is a bit more, shall i say "sensitive" than Seth ever was. If she falls over or if you look at her wrong, she will cry. It's neat to see the differences in the children. Seth was definitely more laid back. Jerry says he was easier, i just say "different". :) Sophie has so much personality and really interacts with us. Seth didn't crawl until 10 months, so physically she is way ahead of where he was. I think that's just because she wants to keep up with her big brother! One thing to mention, i decided to take away Sophie's pacifier at 6 months. It was causing some sleep issues and she was waking up almost every hour because it would fall out and she didn't know how to put it back in. It wasn't easy because she cried the first week or so, but now that she is paci free, she is a great sleeper. Seth gave up his paci by himself at 6 months, but then he started sucking his thumb. Sophie has not taken to her thumb or finger, which is a good thing because in the future we will not have to go through trying to break that habit. Oh, and while we are on the subject, Seth seems to be weaning himself from sucking his thumb. For about the past week he proudly tells us daily that he isn't sucking his thumb. Very proud of him! Okay, okay...i am done rambling! Enjoy the pics...