A letter to Sophia on her 2nd Birthday

Our Dearest Fia Bia,

This has been the year of change for you!  A year ago, you had just started to crawl.  It took you awhile to walk, but now you run laps around the house.  However, when we all play together, you don't like it when we run around too fast because you can't quite keep up yet.  You've also begun to talk much more.  You still call Mommy, Daddy, sometimes.  But that's okay. It seems like every other day now we hear a new word out of your mouth.  Like messy, red ball, hands, book, flower, teddy bear and more.  You say "Where?" when looking for something.  You've even started putting words together like "Gimme some" and "Do it".  You are a demanding little thing.

When we are out and about, you yell at us to "GO!" when we get stopped at a red light and you love to wave and say "Hi" to strangers.  You aren't shy at all like your sister was at your age, especially when it comes to men.  You go up to your Uncle's and Grandpa's almost more than the women in the family.  But there is one little lady that you are in love with, and that is Dora.  You flip out in excitement when we turn on her show and request it immediately when we go to the Grandparent's houses.

You are finally starting to read books now instead of eat them which has been so much fun.  The books can't have a lot of text though, because you don't like to linger too long on any one page.  Your absolute favorite is Moo, Baa, La La La by Sandra Boynton followed closely by a Dora bedtime book. 

While you aren't completely fearless, you are definitely reckless.  You will make yourself fall backwards on the floor and actually start laughing.  Other people will gasp and say, "Oh no, is she okay?"  And we'll just sit back and laugh right along with you.  You are one tough cookie.

You have become "The Tickler" and love to run and tickle us all, especially right after dinner.  You also love to sing.  Your favorites are Happy Birthday, Twinkle Twinkle, and The ABC Song.  When you aren't being silly, you can count to 10 with minor assistance.

We aren't sure what happened to our laid back baby, because you now have the patience of your Mother and start to whine when we take too long to do something.  Also, you certainly have your opinions and say "No" while shaking your head vigorously when you really don't want to do something.  You are very curious still and don't listen well to us telling you "No", so the house is still full of barricades, gates and locked doors to keep you out of things.

While your independence is growing, you are still our cuddler.  You will rest your head on our shoulder or the crook of our neck and we eat it to pieces.  You are still Mommy's little girl, but your love for Daddy is growing great.  When he gets home from work, you join Madeline in running to him and yelling "Daddy!" with a huge smile on your face.  

Happy Birthday Fia!  We love you and look forward to another year of wonderment with you.  

Much love,

Mommy and Daddy

Fia Bia

Oh, Fia Bia. This little thing is a trip. I have a love/hate relationship with this age. Her cuteness factor is over the moon (just look at these pictures), but so is her annoyance factor. She still has that baby charm with her chubby cheeks and cute little feet. Everyone attacks her with kisses.  

She is a walking machine but still looks like a drunk baby and falls a lot.

She still doesn't say much.  She'll learn a new word and use it a few times, but then she stops. She recently added "down" to her vocabulary when she is done eating. She knows my name is Mommy but I've only heard her say it a handful of times.

She isn't the laid-back, no-cares-in-the-world baby anymore. When Madeline takes a toy from her or says "No", she gets upset. When she doesn't get her way, she gets upset.  When she is teething, I miss my day job.  No joke.  Those days are just downright horrendous. I am seriously frightened for her 2 year molars.

Madeline may be a Daddy's girl, but Fia is all about Mommy.  She is severely attached to me. I love it except for when I need to get things done, like cooking, laundry, etc. Sometimes she will literally be attached to my leg while I'm cooking dinner.

She is a cuddle bug.  She will come up to me and just want to lay her head on my shoulder.  She shares her hugs but I get about 80% of them.

She is in LOVE with the doggies. Her favorite thing to do is to go sit on top of Miles when he is sleeping. Needless to say, he doesn't share the adoration.

Her dancing is a trip! She has the booty shake down so we have regular dancing sessions in our Disco-tech a.k.a. the dining room.

She has finally started to leave the mini-blinds alone in the kitchen so I can leave them at a normal height now. Before, I had to always have them up away from her reach. We still have to block the dog bed with the ottoman. Otherwise, she will go lay with them. We also have to leave the laundry room door closed so she doesn't play in the dog's water. Unfortunately for the dogs, this means they have limited access to their water. I'm good about opening the door for them though when the Troublemaker is asleep or locked in her highchair.

She still messes with the dishwasher which drives me crazy. Although, I can finally vacuum the house without having to carry her too. For the longest time, she was scared of it so I had to carry all 26# of her with me. Talk about a workout!

Her favorite song is Happy Birthday and I MUST get her singing it on camera.  It is the most adorable thing you will ever see!

"Don't pity the Fia!"

Fia's First Haircut

Fia's hair had been getting long and unruly lately so I decided it was time to get it trimmed. I had trimmed it once before myself, basically just her bangs so they weren't in face. But this time she needed a professional cut, so I took her to Cookie Cutters. She did fantastic and didn't mind the experience at all!

Here is her messy mop before:

And here she is after. How adorable are those curls?

Fia is walking!

Fia took her first unassisted steps back at the beginning of July and hasn't looked back. Her favorite activity the last few weeks has been to do circles around the house with the doll stroller. It was like her exercise to build up her legs. Then as each week passed, she could take an extra step or two by herself, but couldn't get past 4 or 5 steps. Then this week she took off! She is now walking across the room and it's so fun to see. She is so proud of herself when she does it.

I have some great video of her to share but my computer is having issues at the moment. I'm anxious for you all to see her so I'll try to get it up soon.

Totter's Otterville

For Alexis' 2nd birthday, my sister and brother-in-law took her to Totter's Otterville and we tagged along. It's kinda like a children's museum. Our first stop was the vet hospital. Fia checked out Marshmellow the bunny.




Meanwhile, Dr. Madeline worked on a horse.

Then we made it to the dance hall for some ballerina lessons.

Then it was time to catch some fish.

They got matching butterfly face paint thanks to yours-truly. As you can see, the kid next to us was getting a little more creative.

Oh, the grocery store! Madeline LOVED this. But she got mad when the scanner didn't beep. I lied and told her I could hear it.

Notice the sparkly red shoes she put on from the dress up room next door. It was hilarious watching her clip-clap around the store shopping. And she was one serious shopper!

Fia decided to go to the diner for some lunch.

I think it was tie between the grocery store and the ball pit for Madeline's favorite activity.

All in all, it was an absolute blast and I will definitely take the kids back. I only wish it was a little closer as it's a good 40 minute drive away. But it's worth a trip every few months or so.

Fia is 15 months!

She is definitely in between being a baby and a toddler now. She still loves to snuggle when she gets tired and of course I love that. But when she is full of energy, she is ready to move. She just recently started cruising but she doesn't go too far yet. She took a few steps with me holding her hands the other day so we keep working on that. She also discovered she can climb so walking has taken a sidestep to climbing on everything she possibly can. Her current obsession is our fireplace. I have to pull her out of there about 50 times a day.


She has started to babble a lot, but she doesn't consistently use words. In rare instances, I've caught her saying bye-bye, dog and wow. Her favorite song is Itsy Bitsy Spider and sometimes she will try to sing it too. It is absolutely adorable! This means, of course, that we sing it constantly.

Her emotions are starting to come through and she gets her feelings hurt when she gets in trouble. This particular development has really made me feel her transition from baby to toddler.

As for her stats, she is 23 pounds 6 ounces and 30.25 inches long. Both right around average and smaller than Madeline at this age.

Despite her progress, her doctor, Andy and I were concerned how slowly she was developing. I decided to contact Help Me Grow, a state-funded program that helps infants and toddlers achieve their milestones. I figured it couldn't hurt and since it was free, we had nothing to lose. She had an evaluation and did qualify for services for speech and gross motor delays. I'm now in the process of figuring out where we go from here so we'll see how this program can help her move along.

Easter!

Rainy Day

This has been a cold, wet, boring week. Blah! One day in particular was especially yucky outside so we kept things interesting and fun inside.

Fia discovered she can climb into Madeline's chair. She loved getting in it, moving around and then falling out (on purpose).




While Fia was having fun, Madeline and I were coloring.

A friend and fellow Mommy blogger wrote recently about how Moms are usually the picture-takers and therefore aren't in most pictures with their kids. This is true for me too. She called on Mommies to get in there! So here are mine. I either took the picture myself or used the timer. I love them!

Later that day, it was still yucky outside. So I decided to turn snack time into an egg hunt. Or is that the other way around? Hmm, anyway the kids LOVED this. Fia found one egg but didn't really know what all the fuss was about. Until she saw what was inside. Her eyes lit up when she realized they were filled with goldfish and raisins.

Once Madeline started going crazy opening her eggs on the floor, I realized we probably should have done that at the table. But oh well, I keep things fairly clean around here. And germs are kinda good for them, right?

Cruisin'

Look who just started cruisin'! She's learned that standing is what the cool kids do and now has started taking her very first cruisin' steps. She has only gone maybe 2-3 steps so far. But I know she is well on her way to creating more trouble in this house.

Fun in the Sun

We had a summer day in April and we took full advantage. The kids LOVED the pool! I think we'll be out there all summer.

Madeline was a bit timid with the sprinkler at first but she eventually ended up running through it. The funniest part was that she would run through it and then keep running to the far end of the yard like 50 feet away. Hey, at least she got part of the concept.

Then we put the slide in the pool and Madeline was in heaven. I think we're gonna need a bigger pool. :/

Fia Bia

"Mom, why are you taking pictures of me?"

"Oh yeah, because I'm cute."

"It's a hard life."

"But someone's got to do it, ya know?"