Vacations With Friends

Sophie started her first day of pre-school May 18th.  We have been talking about it a lot and she has been really excited to start.  One thing she was particularly excited about was wearing a backpack.  She must have had such a fun time on her first day of school, because when I went to pick her up, she looked at me and started crying.  She was telling me that she wanted to stay at school!  I'm thrilled that she loves it that much!

 

 

The second day I took her to school, I got a call in the morning.  The teacher told me that Sophie fell on the playground and hurt her knee.  She was refusing to walk on it at the moment, but they cleaned her up and put a band aid on it.  She was fine but it was their policy to give me a heads up.  Fast forward to the afternoon.  The teacher called again and said Sophie was still not walking on her leg with the skinned knee.  She was making the teachers pick her up and carry her everywhere!!  I went to pick her up a bit earlier than I had planned on to assess the situation for myself.  There she sat in her chair at the table playing with toys.  I stopped at the door with my arms open to see if she would get up and come to me.  She stayed put and told me all about how she couldn't walk because she had a boo boo on her leg.  I went to pick her up and noticed the band aid on her knee was pretty big.  I had a suspicion she was milking it!  When we got home we played in her room for a bit and within no time she started hobbling around on her leg.  It took a swift Daddy to rip the band aid off during bath time and we never looked back!  It was a decent sized scrape, and we had to be careful with it for a few days, but she lived to tell the tale.

Sophie and Sloane, bathing beauties

Birthday celebration for one of her classmates! Face Painting!!

We get a few pieces of artwork every week from school

27 weeks

Sophie had to take this picture of me

It had just thundered outside. She was not thrilled

Donuts on Orange Ave

 

We had a wonderful opportunity to make a quick get away to the beach in the beginning of the month.  We stayed at a cute condo on New Smyrna Beach for a long weekend.  Below you can see the view from our balcony.  An elevator ride, and quick walk past the pools, and we were on the beach!  It was an amazing weekend and very relaxing. 

 

Of course we had to take a dip in the pool!

"Daddy worked too hard on this, I must destroy it immediately"

Peaches are even more delicious at your beachfront condo!

This sand castle lasted a little bit longer

Best Friends

We also had a long weekend with Dan's friends and family in town.  We stayed at Cabana Bay where we spent a lot of time in the pools and a whole day at the parks!  It was great spending time with all of Dan's friends that he has known since high school.

Mia and Sophie at the park

"The girls"

Eric, Dan, Jason, and Adam

 

Breakfast with mommy.  Their fruit selection was amazing!

 

30 weeks

Orange slices pool side

The following video is Sophie's first time down the water slide!  She had multiple previous attempts but chickened out at the last moment.  Once we would get to the top, and she would see the water rushing down the slide, she lost her gumption.  But, throw in a few other little girls with encouraging words, and she went for it.  I was a little worried after seeing her come down the first time, but she said she wanted to do it again, and did so about 20 more times!

Dan is hard at work on many projects at Universal.  One of which is a new hotel called Sapphire Falls.  You can learn a little more about it here.  It is a Caribbean themed hotel, can't wait to see it come to life!

Early morning view from Cabana Bay. Dan's new project across the street

One last pic of Sophie for the end of the post. She looks so grown up in this pic!

Ice chips in the bathtub. It was a hot day!!

Love to all!!

The Yorks

11 Wonderful Months!

On February 28th Sophie turned 11 months!  Only one more to go until the big #1!  We will be heading back home at the end of the month for a birthday celebration with family and friends, along with her baptism.  We are thrilled to get back home to see everyone and celebrate!  More on that next month...
(**please excuse the gigantic pictures that are duplicates in here, computer glitch, or user error. Either way, darn!**)

Such sweet smiles on our walks!

The easiest way to play a piano

Our photo shoot.  I was trying to get a photo for her birthday invite, she was was only interested in picking up grass and leaves...

...unless she was eating "puffs"

A smile!  With her eyes closed...

Sophie now has four teeth!  She uses them to the best of her ability by pushing food to the front of her mouth and biting down on it.  Occasionally she will bite off a piece of food and seems quite impressed that she's done so.  She especially loves eating Cheerios with her four front teeth!

Yes, there is a piece of food on her nose.  But, I couldn't help it, she smiled so nice!

And giggled so hard

Then giggled some more...

Lucy's preferred spot while Sophie dines

She is getting better at standing without holding on to anything.  She loves standing at her activity table that lights up and makes noises when you touch it.  Once she gets the noises going, she lets go and starts clapping until the music stops.  She giggles and enjoys every minute of this!

I'm trying to teach her some sign language with a DVD series called "Baby Signing Time".  It's a fun video with music and other babies, very engaging for Sophie.  The only sign she does, refers to one of her favorite things, DOG!  She loves our Lucy and points to her and gets excited when she comes in the room.  So obviously it is the sign that we practice all day long.  Naturally, she's become an expert at it.  It involves using an open hand to pat your thigh, like your calling a dog over to you.  It came to her pretty easily, and I think she does it even when she's not referring to a dog.  But, when she notices a dog, points to it, then pats her thigh, it's simply amazing!  I reinforce when she points to a dog by doing the sign, saying "doggie" or "Lucy", and making an "arf arf" sound.  Sometimes, it seems like she is trying to say "arf arf" by making a high pitched barking sound.  It's amazing what a little sponge she is!  Up next is "bird", "food", "more", "drink", "Mommy", and "Daddy".

Sophie had a wonderful first Valentine's day!  Grandpa Bob sent her (and me of course!) a beautiful bouquet with a fun balloon attached.  She pointed to the flowers whenever we walked by them and had to touch them.  The balloon provided many hours of fun for Sophie and torture for the dog (sorry Lucy)!

Thanks Grandpa!

Looking at the balloon. Sophie: "Ooh, looks like fun!"  Lucy: "What the h#$% is that?!"

Just the other weekend a friend and I traveled to Tampa for a Bon Jovi concert and an overnight stay.  It was my birthday present from Dan.  It was such a fun night and a relaxing day away.  I missed my family, but it was nice to have a night off from being a mommy and to be able to sleep in the in morning (it's funny how sleeping til 8 am is now considered "sleeping in" to me).

Dan is enjoying his job at Universal.  He is now on the construction site full time, working in the trailer again.  The buildings are going up and he is busy!  He and his co-workers got a team together and joined Universal's softball league.  As of right now, Dan is the starting pitcher!

Work is going well for me at the hospital.  I recently moved up our "clinical ladder" and became a Clinical Nurse 5!  Due to years of service, my degree, and my involvement in the unit in areas of research and collaborative groups, I took the final step up.  Very happy to have made it to this point. 

So much fun on the swing!

Very interested to see what the other kids are doing

See you all back here in a month when our baby turns a year old!

Love,
The Yorks