Christmas 2009

A couple of things I learned during Christmas this year:

1. When you ask your daughter what she wants from Santa and she says 'a blue baby doll'...that is really ALL she wants. Seriously, I think Santa could've just brought the baby doll and she wouldn't have missed the rest. Santa is pretty happy that the kitchen is starting to get more use, though.

2. The zhu-zhu craze is somewhat substantiated. Mr. Squiggles and Num-Nums invoked many laughs and giggles out of this little girl on Christmas morning. I didn't get the whole thing at first (a hamster, really?) but they are pretty cute and fun.

And, of course, I can't post without a couple of Christmas morning pics:

The calm before the storm

The storm...

Happy Holidays

We've been pretty busy this holiday season. Pictures of all of our fun are below:

Making cookies (for Santa, of course)

Testing out our new snowboots (for the 10 inches of snow we finally got in Richmond)

Venturing out into the snow. This was as close as she would get after falling (ungloved) hands first in the snow...

Hanging with our best bud from daycare...

Enjoying my first starbucks hot 'vanilla'...

Trimming the tree...

Turning Two

So I may have a little 'mommy' guilt that Sofia didn't have a real first birthday party AND she's always going to have a birthday that sort of coincides with Thanksgiving...but for whatever reason I decided to do the 'real' birthday party this year at a place nearby called Cartwheels & Coffee and I am SO glad I did...the place is GREAT (highly recommend it). As you can see, Sofia enjoyed it as well :) She got to see her cousin Henry and her best bud from daycare, Archer. As well as all of her 'girls'.

All dressed up and ready for the party (and playing with the cool cash register mommy and daddy got me for my b'day)

Playing basketball with our party host, Taylor, and Stella...

Hangin' with Cousin Henry

Do you think she's having fun?

Papa Beach's big present!!! (my pink 'tractor')

A Budding Rock Star

I think the Hold Steady may be calling us for a backup singer in a couple of years....

Halloween

So we decided to try out trick-or-treating in grandma's neighborhood this year and it was a total success. Sofia loved running around with all of the kids in her neighborhood and she actually collected quite a bit of candy (Daddy is happy about that). She did get scared by one of the haunted houses in the neighborhood, but was otherwise pretty excited about the whole Halloween thing...

Heading out to collect some candy...

I'm a strawberry, by the way....

Dancing Queen...

I've tried on numerous occassions to capture video of Sofia dancing, but she always stops as soon as I turn the camera on. This past weekend I was able to sneak a video of her dancing in her pajamas and nikes (hey, who doesn;t dance in their pajamas and nikes?)

Pumpkin Picking

It's not October without the annual trip to the pumpkin patch. We went this past weekend and had a blast. Sofia picked out a special 'green' pumpkin for herself and even helped carry them.

Corn Dogs and Ferris Wheels

That's right, folks, it's State Fair time! We took Sofia out to the State Fair last weekend (it was our first trip, too) and had a great time. Sofia had her first official State Fair Corn Dog and even got to ride a few rides (with a supervising adult, of course). Not sure I've ever seen this ride before, but she seemed to enjoy it (almost as much as Rob)
jealous??

We've All Got A Pic Like This Somewhere...

It's a classic....the toddler gets into her (or his) mommy's lipstick...mine happened to be while shopping at Babies R Us for a new booster seat...

Our Music Lessons Begin..

I caught Sofia helping Rob 'research' musical instruments on the couch this morning (But Daddy NEEDS this guitar, mommy)

Vacation 2009

So we started off our end of summer vacation with a trip back to Busch Gardens...and believe it or not, little kids (i.e. Sofia) can ride the log flume! We met up with our cousin Henry and spent an entire day (9-5) at the park. I'm not even kidding....I guess it just takes a theme park to keep an almost two year old entertained...

After Busch Gardens, we headed down to the Eastern Shore of Virginia Beach where we spent time digging in the sand, jumping the waves, and generally enjoying ourselves. We even made it over to the Virginia Beach Aquarium (sorry, no decent photos as my camera died right as we got there). I've tried to post some of the better pictures of our week below...and the last couple are from the GREAT beach bar on the eastern shore....you know, the one I told everyone that came to our wedding about? The one I said would be a great place to drink and hang out on friday night before the wedding? You know, the one that had a KITCHEN FIRE so NOBODY could spend friday night there? I took pictures to prove it really exists :)

Getting on the Log Flume...

Really, toddlers are allowed on this!?

On to the beach!

And I was even able to capture the elusive 'family picture' (not the best light, but hey - it works) And I'm serious - this bar exists...you can drink cold beers and eat tasty fried foods...right on the beach. Our view:

Awwwww...

This one was too good not to share...

Close Encounters of the Elmo Kind...

So we went to 'Breakfast with Elmo' this past weekend at Busch Gardens (which by the way, is totally worth the extra $18 b/c you get in early and get to park close!) and had a great time. Sofia was pretty scared of all of the Sesame Street characters at first but warmed up to Elmo after a bit. I caught a couple of photos of her 'inching' towards him on the steps, but the best, by far, is the video Rob got of us doing the conga line...seriously, you HAVE to watch all the way to the end...



hmmm....

okay..he's not so scary after all...

wait...yes he is!!

The Only Single Lady In Our House

A Couple of Firsts...

Okay, so the first first is the MOST exciting - Sofia did her first pee pee in the potty!! (sorry, no pictures)....okay, i know it was probably a fluke and won't happen again for another 6 months...but just let me revel in the excitement. Oh, and our other first is just cute - Sofia's first official pony tail:

We're feeding dad his lunch in the first picture



a close up of the actual 'pony'

Butterflies LIVE!

A couple of weekends ago we took Sofia to our local botanical gardens to see Butterflies LIVE! It was such a neat experience (and I'll preface this post by saying I'm pretty sure I was more impressed than she was!). There were hundreds of butterflies flying around in an enclosed section of the conservatory..they would land right next to you, it was amazing. A little nervewracking, though, considering one of the things they tell you before you go in is to 'watch your step b/c some of the butterflies land on the ground' - tell that to an 18 month old who has learned how to RUN!?! I was so terrified that she would accidentally smush one of these (iIm sure very expensive) butterflies...but all went well and I think she actually thought it was cool....for at least a full four minutes or so (ha). After the butterflies, the garden has a 'childrens' section, which includes a small waterpark type thingy for kids to run through and cool off...once again, we didn't know ahead of time so we let Sofia run through in her clothes...I'm pretty sure it's a sign of bad parenting when your daughter has gotten soaking wet in her clothes twice in the last month...but at least she's having fun, right?

watching for butterflies (and yes, that is butterflies on her shirt...I couldn't resist....)

who needs a bathing suit?

18 Months Old!!

We figured it was time to celebrate with ice cream....

Memorial Day

So we went down to Papa Beach's for Memorial Day and lucked out with good weather. Sofia's first trip to the beach this year was a success...and she wasn't even scared of the water!

Mallrat

Well, being a mallrat certaintly isn't like it was when I was growing up...the mall in richmond basically has a small water park to entertain you. This past weekend we went to our local mall and ended up playing in the water fountains (next time we'll bring our bathing suit)....check out the pics below:

The Future's So Bright....

Sofia's newest favorite accessory :)

Our 'new' wagon...

Sofia's cousins, Nick and JP, were extremely generous and handed us down their wagon. Sofia ABSOLUTELY loves it...see for yourself:

Easter!

Cousin Nick helps me find eggs...

Just plain cute...

Just wanted to post a couple of my favorite recent pictures

Yep...that's Elmo in Sofia's pajamas...he needed them so he could go night-night!