The Family York: A Whirlwind Month!

It hasn't been a month yet since the last post, yet so much has happened in so little time! I wish I could sit down and write more blogs in a more concise manner, but life is busy and there are more important things to concentrate on! So, this is a long one, hang in there folks!

Squirmy

Our baby girl is 9 months old now and she is up to all sorts of new things. Somewhere around mid December she started crawling! By the time my parents got here she had mastered it and there was no stopping her. She seems so proud of herself, now that she can get to wherever she wants to go. Crawling was an interesting accomplishment, especially since our house was decked out for Christmas, tree and all. The twinkling lights on the tree were so tempting to her, she made several attempts to pull them off the tree. The ornaments were no exception, they too found themselves in Sophie's grasp. I finally decided to put a few soft ornaments on the bottom branches. Sophie seemed to know they were put there especially for her, as she would find them immediately and take them down to play with.

And then she started driving!

Sophie received a very special gift for Christmas this year, her first tooth started coming through! This mommy is so proud! It didn't seem to be a very rough teething experience, except for a few fussy nights, it definitely could have been worse. I noticed that she seemed to be using her tongue to feel something on her bottom gum. When I put my finger in there, sure enough, I felt a little nub of a tooth coming through. Despite this one lonely tooth showing up, Sophie has decided to start eating some soft whole foods. She works those gums like none other! She is "gumming" cereal pieces, bananas, tomatoes, cucumbers, bread, pasta, cottage cheese, and black beans just to name a few. It seems that she is getting less interested in her pureed foods. When she is done with her meal, she is looking at mine, patiently waiting for me to put something yummy in her mouth. A little crankiness ensues if she doesn't get a taste of some "real" food at mealtime.

Cucumbers, yum!

As soon as this little girl learned how to crawl, she was pulling herself up on things. Her favorite things to pull up on are mommy and daddy's legs, but she finds any other place equally challenging. Now she is standing in her crib by the time we go in to get her when she has woken up. I can't believe how quickly she has changed in less than a month!

It seems that Sophie has started to figure out how to say "Ma Ma". She says "Da da" all the time, usually when she is playing and having a good time. The few times I have heard "Ma ma" come out have been in the middle of sobs, when she wants something she can't have, or when she is getting "whiny" and tired. Great! Oh well, she knows I'll be there for her when she's down.

We celebrated my 32nd birthday on December 5th. Since it was in the middle of the week, we decided to have a date night on the weekend. On the actual day, however, we decided to get in the Christmas spirit and take Sophie to see Santa, then we were off to get a tree. There is a very popular Santa in Orlando, and he resides at the big mall in town. Being the savvy parents we are, we went to see him on a Wednesday afternoon. At first glance, the line did not look too long. Three hours later (!!), we were visiting with Santa. This wait for Santa seemed to go by fairly quickly, thanks to the loud music, gigantic decorations, and interesting people watching. The wait took so long that Sophie took a nap in my arm and woke up in a great mood just in time for the big man! Thankfully, the man who directed the photo shoot had done this once or twice and advised me to turn Sophie so that she never saw Santa and set her down in his lap. The "director" immediately went into action making faces and noises and using his props to get her attention and make her smile. Job well done!

We took Sophie and her friend Sloane and her parents to Universal studios for "Grinchmas" and the Macy's Christmas parade this month as well. The girls enjoyed watching the parade with it's giant balloons and all it's participants. The adults took turns riding a few Harry Potter rides and some roller coasters! The night ended with a concert by Mannheim Steamroller, talk about getting in the Christmas spirit!!

But first, a nap

Sloane and Sophie

Watching the parade

Santa!

Grandma Cindy and Grandpa Bob came and visited for a week for Christmas. Since my mom is always cooking fabulous meals for us and spending a lot of the time in the kitchen, Dan and I decided she was not to step foot in the kitchen until Christmas Day (we know our limits, ok?). So for the days leading up to Christmas, we cooked a few dinners for the family. Thanks to mom and dad, Dan got a new grill for Christmas, so we grilled up some hamburgers for our Christmas Eve feast. I had to work a half day on Christmas, and when I got home everyone was itching to start opening presents. Our little Sophie was spoiled by all the wonderful gifts everyone got for her! There were so many, and it took us so long to open gifts that our little girl had to take a nap in the middle of everything. It was obvious to us it was nap time when Sophie was sitting in the middle of wrapped and unwrapped presents and started crying from being overwhelmed I'm sure. Even I was overwhelmed when it was all over! We had a great time and a great holiday. The time sure does fly when you're with the ones you love.