A Visit From Grandma

This past weekend my mom was in town for a long weekend visit with her favorite granddaughter!  She couldn't get over how much this little girl had changed since she last saw her when she was 2 weeks old.  Boy did she miss her grandma!

Grandma had to learn to give Sophie a bath, Sophie thinks you did a good job!

My mom came in on a Thursday, just in time for our "test stay" at the new Disney resort that Dan has been slaving over for the past four years.  Since he worked on the project, we got a free night before the building was open to the public to make sure everything was in working order.  My mom and I packed up the car and headed to Disney.  We enjoyed a brief swim in the pool after a thunderstorm came through which made the water feel like a bath.  Sophie went for her first swim and had a great time.  After the pool we went inside for a bite to eat.  My mom went back to our place to spend the night with Lucy, then turned around and came back to hang by the pool the next morning.  Sophie had another brief swim in the pool with her grandma...

Such a relaxing swim, she fell asleep!

Here are some pictures of the resort.  The Finding Nemo and Cars portions are the only ones open right now.  Soon to be followed by The Lion King and Little Mermaid!

My little girl is officially a guest!

It's Mickey Sophie!

Luigi's Casa Della Tires, the part we stayed in

Cozy Cone Pool

Jelly fish water falls at the pool

So what is our busy little Sophie up to these days?  Well, at twelve weeks, our girl is growing so fast and has learned so much!

-We are still nursing, yay!  During the day we stretched it out to feeding every 3-4 hours, during the night is a different story (see next point).

-She is starting to sleep a little bit longer during the night.  The first time we put her down, usually between 8-9pm, she will sleep for 4-6 hours! (Trust me, that's huge in my books).  Then she will go another 3-4 hours before she needs more food.

-We give her a bath every night to get her used to a routine and settle her down for the night, she is splashing us more and more every night, her legs just don't stop kicking!

-She loves getting her hair washed, hates getting it dried with the towel

This is what happens when Dad "does" my hair. Just a tousle with the towel

-She found her hands, sort of.  She will use one hand to grab the other hand to bring it to her mouth.  She can't keep that hand in her mouth like she want to, but she gets a few good sucks on the fingers.  She will accidentally grab her toys while on her play mat.  When she does there is a death grip on said toy.  Dan has witnessed the death grip while holding her with no shirt on.  Our sweet girl will grab a hold of his chest hairs and pull!  You don't want to instinctively pull her hand away because it hurts so bad as this would yank all those hairs out.  Rather, wait until the grip loosens a bit to gently remove the hand from the hairs. (I've witnessed this too with the hair on my head, it's usually a good idea for me to keep it pulled back)

-She has started to roll onto her side.  Doesn't quite make it all the way over.  Then lifts her legs up bringing her back to her back.

-Speaking of rolls, she has a few, on her cute little thighs :)

OK, maybe just one roll each thigh

-She can find the TV in any room, and is instantly drawn into whatever happens to be on.

A few things she does that I just can't get enough of:

-The way she yawns and makes a little noise at the end like she is always sooo tired

-The way she sneezes one time and when the second one doesn't come out she makes a really loud sigh

-The way she smiles at Dan and I whenever we talk to her

Dan got to celebrate his first fathers day!  Since my mom was in town we had to twist her arm to babysit for us so we could have a day to ourselves.  I took Dan to the Hard Rock Hotel pool on Saturday where we spent the day soaking up the sun and imbibing in a few adult beverages.  Sunday was spent at home being lazy.  My mom made us a home cooked meal and we all just relaxed.

Daddy and daughter watching TV

A few more pictures of her first swim!

Loving every minute with our cutie!

Love
Jess, Dan, Sophie and Lucy

10 weeks

Our little Sophie turned 10 weeks this Wednesday!  I can't believe how big she is getting...

At her 2 month appointment she weighed in at 10 lbs 10 oz and was 23 1/4 inches long. That's 50th percentile for weight and 80th percentile for length, that's my girl!  Downside to the appointment is that they loaded my little girl up with vaccines.  We started with an oral vaccine with no problem, it had a sweet taste to it.  Then the nurse had to give her three different shots.  She got them done in record time, in fact once the first one went it, Sophie started to scream, and it was that mouth-wide-open-face-turning-red scream with no sound coming out and no breath taken in until that last shot was done.  Then it was ear piercing wailing.  My poor girl.  Nothing a mommy couldn't soothe, and thank goodness it was feeding time!  She had her first little band aids on which were so cute.  She was a little extra fussy that evening but the next morning she was back to her normal smiling self.

A little timeline to see how she has changed over the last month!

Our fiends Jason and Stacey have a new pool and have been host to quite a number of pool parties this summer.  Sophie enjoys all the attention she gets and loves listening to the loud music, she is quite the party animal.  Although, she manages to sleep through most of these parties.  We finally found her a swimsuit that was small enough.  She modeled it at the last party, such a pretty little lady!

We also enjoy hanging out at Scott and Jen's pool.  The other day she put her little feet in and had a good splash!

Watching as her little feet make a splash!

Sophie attended her first "play date".  Actually, it was probably more for these exhausted mommies, not much a 2 month old and 3 week old can do on a play date.  The other baby in this picture is Ella, she is my co-workers first child.  Ella weighs in at 6lbs 13 oz in this photo.  Sophie looks like a giant compared to this tiny one.

Sophie: "No mom, I didn't pinch her!"

Grandpa Bob came for a long weekend recently.  We had a great time just hanging out.  He even got to change some diapers!  One in particular was "dirty" and got up Sophie's back and onto her clothes.  This all happened while he was giving me a break for a nap and he made it through the fiasco all on his own!  Way to go Grandpa!!  We were able to check out Dan's new project at Disney called The Art of Animation Resort, that had it's grand opening earlier in the week.  The "Finding Nemo" part of the resort is open so we went to check out the pool.  It was such a beautiful day that we sat at the pool bar and enjoyed a few adult beverages.  Next week we will be able to stay at the "Cars" part of the resort for a test stay since Dan was on the project.  Blog and pictures to follow.

Sleepy girl with her Grandpa

Entertaining a 10 week old is hard.  Here are some things she likes to do and a few things that just entertain this mommy...

I'm amazed at how long she will talk to and watch her birdies in her crib

Not quite time to hold herself up, but it entertains me

Biting Sophie the giraffe, yum!

Silly face

Morning smile

Add caption

Does this monkey make my butt look big??

Love this sweet face

A few seconds that we enjoyed tummy time...

Serious Sophie

Grandma is coming to visit over Father's Day weekend and we can't wait!

Love
Jess, Dan, Sophie, and Lucy

Seven weeks!

Our little girl is seven weeks already!  It might be cliche to say this, but kids change so fast and I feel like it was just yesterday that I was meeting her in the labor and delivery room.  This week it seems she has changed in many ways just over night!  All of a sudden she is smiling at us intentionally and looks at you when you're talking and actually pays attention.  When you talk to her she will sometimes coo back at you, and she is constantly moving her mouth while you are talking, almost trying to "mimic" what she sees.

A smile!

She is starting to enjoy playtime a little more these days.  It seems the thing that interests her the most is just looking at your face while you're talking to her. She will tolerate any activity for at least 5 minutes, after that if she's bored with it, boy will she let you know.  Tummy time doesn't last too long either, but I can't believe how well she is holding her head up, so strong!  Sophie is doing better while in her swing, because she is noticing more things, I think she is interested in the music and the mobile moving above her.

Lucy and Sophie are getting along just fine.  Lucy really likes to lick Sophie's feet, but gets an occasional go at her hands and mouth when we least expect it.  Sometimes Sophie is in her crib looking at her mobile while I do something for 5 seconds.  She will start kicking her legs like crazy in excitement, and she ends up kicking the bumper pad on the crib.  When Lucy is on the outside of this, she sees the bumper moving and starts sniffing it and getting excited to see what's on the other side.  Most of the time I lift the bumper up so she can see the tiny feet.  But in the picture below, Lucy had to see for herself what was making all that commotion.

Reminds me of a scene from Lady and the Tramp...

Playtime with Lu Lu

I've learned how to do almost any task around the house with one hand, while wearing her in the sling, or sometimes even while breastfeeding (now that's talent!).  Of course she loves to be in the sling while I'm vacuuming, she will fall asleep in a minute!

Her full head of dark hair is even changing.  It almost looks like she has gotten highlights, the roots are getting lighter.  She has light eyebrows and light eyelashes, so I'm wondering if her hair will follow suit.  At seven weeks she was 10 lbs 5 oz, this girl is getting so big!  Her dark blue eyes have even seemed to lighten up a little, I could only hope that she keeps those pretty baby blues!



7 weeks!

I'll end this post with some cute bath photos!  Who doesn't love bath photos!?

Yikes!

bath hair

curly bath hair



Love

Dan, Jess, Sophie, and Lucy

PS-Don't forget to check previous posts, I was catching up for the last month, there are 4 new posts total!

Meeting more of the family

Not long after "Auntie" Mel left us, Aunt Regina and Aunt Linda came to visit.  It was a short visit but Sophie got to spend some quality time with her great Aunts.  They were kind enough to send Dan and I out on the town for an evening too!  They had no idea what they had gotten themselves into, as Sophie was a little demanding of people's attention at the time.  When Dan and I came home, those Aunts looked exhausted!

Meeting Great Aunt Linda for the first time!

They have no idea what they're in for

Playtime!

Cozy with Great Aunt Regina

When Sophie's first diaper needed to be changed when the Aunts arrived, Aunt Linda was holding her and offered for Aunt Regina to change it, she stated that they would do it in "shifts" and that Linda was more than welcome to take the first "shift".  Linda got a messy one and it seemed Sophie always gave her the "dirty" diapers.  Before they left Regina claimed to have had a go with the dirty diaper as well.

Just two days after the Aunts visit, we were on our way to south Florida to see Grandma and Grandpa York and to see Dan's cousin Jeff get married!  (We have been a very loved family with all the visits, and it has kept this new mommy and daddy very busy!)

On our way to the wedding we stopped in Naples to see Grandpa Don and Grandma Sally.  They were so kind and gave us a bunch of gifts for little Sophie.  One gift in particular was a teddy bear that sang a song.  This bear was so loud that Sally played it from across the room one time when Sophie was crying.  After I told her that this child loves loud sounds to get her to calm down, the bear made it's way to Sophie while she was sitting in Grandpa's lap.  She was mesmerized!

Sophie and Grandpa Don

When the bear wasn't cutting it, Don would sing to Sophie while she was laying on his chest like in the picture above.  He has a very deep voice and she loved every bit of it!

After spending the night with Grandma and Grandpa, we headed to Captiva Island in south Florida just outside of Fort Meyers.  Dan's cousin Jeff was getting married and Sophie was getting to meet even more of the family!  Aunt Donna and Grandma Elaine were there, and that's where Sophie met her Aunt Donna for the first time.

Lunch with Aunt Donna

Pretty dress Grandma Elaine bought. This girl never stops moving! This is one of the less blurry shots

Talented Daddy and Sophie

Beautiful beach wedding

Love the Baby Bjorn!

Happy Family!

Chillin' with Grandma at the wedding reception

While on the beautiful island, Sophie made it to the beach for the first time!  Of course she didn't get to play in the sand, but she was quite content sitting under the umbrella with mommy and feeling the ocean breeze blowing through her hair.  The next day, Donna and Elaine offered to watch Sophie for us while we went to the pool for a few hours of adult time and adult drinks.  We had a great time with the family and friends of the wedding party, and enjoyed a "bucket" of voodoo juice while basking in the sun.  This is the result of those few fun hours.

Tired Daddy and Sophie

Elaine and Donna came back to Orlando with us after the wedding to spend more time with Sophie.  After they left, Dan and I celebrated my first Mother's Day with brunch and mimosas with our friends Scott and Jen.  It was a nice and relaxing day.  I still can't believe I'm a mom!  I love every moment with this little girl!

Love
Dan, Jess, Sophie and Lucy

PS-If you're reading this post first and it's been awhile since you've been to the website, don't forget to go back a few posts, as I have been "catching up" for the past month!