6 months

Today our girl is 6 months old!  She is growing so fast!  We have a photo shoot scheduled in a pumpkin patch in a few weeks, those will be the official 6 month shots.  Until then, this is our sweet Sophie at 1/2 a year old.

Attempting to sit, a little wobbly still...

We have a doctors appointment in a few days, so I will post the official weight and length soon.

This last month we have been busy!  We participated in the 2012 Heart Walk benefiting the American Heart Association.  I've been doing this walk for four years now with the ladies from my unit at the hospital, and this year I was honored to share the day with Dan and Sophie as well!  It was an early morning in the York household, but we enjoyed our stroll together benefiting a great cause.  Thank you to my family and friends who donated money on our behalf!  Our team raised $1200!  Yay!

Early morning walk for this girl

After the Heart Walk we decided to visit Dan's old project, Disney's Art of Animation Resort.  He hasn't been there since he started his new job, and the remainder of the project had opened to the public, so we decided to see how it looked.  Here are the portions of the resort themed after The Lion King and The Little Mermaid!

We also just celebrated Dan's birthday on the 26th.  He is 39 years old!  I made a peanut butter pie for him, (thanks for the recipe Mom!) and we had a relaxing night at home.  Tomorrow night we have a babysitter, so we are having dinner at one of our favorite restaurants, Emeril's Tchoup Chop, then we're headed to Universal Studios Halloween Horror Nights!  The theme this year includes zombies from one of our favorite TV shows, The Walking Dead.  I can't wait to be scared!

We are having a blast with our little girl!  Every day she seems to be doing something new.  When I go to work a few days in a row, and I come home to her, she seems so different, like she's grown in the 12 hours I haven't been with her.  Love seeing her little face light up with a smile when I walk in the door!

Hiiiiii!

Sophie, say hello to Sophie

Another play date with Ella.  Sophie seems to be saying "So, where did your hair go Ella?"

Riding in stroller big girl style!

She is rolling all over the place.  I've heard parents say about their kids, if they are being too quiet, they are probably getting into trouble!  I had no idea this also applied to a 6 month old!  However, when she is being quiet when I have left the room, she has usually rolled to something or somewhere she shouldn't be.  The other day I came back into the room, wondering why she was being so quiet, to find her rolled off her blanket, face down on the wood floor, licking it!  Yuck!  I guess I'll have to swiffer more often...  Other times Lucy will lay down near her, and Sophie will find a way to roll over to her, usually with Lucy at her feet, and proceed to jab her in the ribs with her little feet, kicking away.  Our Lu Lu is a good, tolerant pup so far.  Thanks girl, for entertaining our Sophie and letting her beat up on you!  (This is only the beginning by the way)

Love you Lu Lu!

We got a fun contraption on loan to us from some friends of ours.  It's an exersaucer that Sophie can stand up in.  There are all sorts of sounds, rattles and music to keep her entertained.  She enjoys playing in it a few times a day.  She always looks so amazed at the lights and sounds it makes, she is so silly!

It seems that Lucy is THE most entertaining thing around from the looks of that video!

Here is a video of Sophie's latest babble

We have another busy month ahead of us.  My mom will be coming to visit for a long weekend.  We plan to get down to the business of making baby food for Sophie.  Also, Halloween is just around the corner, so what else would we be doing but making a costume for Miss Sophie's first Halloween!  You will have to check back in to see what she will be dressed as.  Dan's mom will be here around Halloween.  She has so graciously offered to watch our girl while we have people over for our annual Halloween party. 



I just love looking at these pictures side by side!

So much change in so little time! (And a lot more hair!)



 

Happy Fall Y'all!

Love

The Yorks

Five months

Yesterday marked five fantastic months with our sweet Sophie!  Time sure is flying by. Let's go back to month one...

Love this little girl!

Lots of things have been happening for this busy girl.  At 4 1/2 months, we started feeding her rice cereal in the evening for dinner.  It was hilarious to say the least.  The first bite always gets a funny face, but then she gets the hang of it and starts eating away.  Sure, most of it ends up on her face or her bib, but it's a start!  We also tried some food in a mesh "toy" for her to gnaw on.  Carrots were first, then bananas came next.  Still trying to figure out how to clean the bananas out of the mesh contraption, ick!

Yummy!  First time trying rice cereal

Carrots!

Sophie is a lot more interested in Lucy these days.  When Lucy walks past her she stares and follows her all over the room.  I will sit with Sophie on my lap and call Lucy over and Sophie will "talk" to her, smile and reach out to pet her.  Lucy is very tolerant (so far, fingers crossed), and still gets concerned when Sophie cries and comes to check things out.  This works well now since Sophie is so interested in what Lucy is doing, she will stop cying to check out what's going on.

I've also noticed that when Sophie is playing on the floor near where we keep all of Lucy's toys, she can't take her eyes off of them.  Lucy, watch out, I think we have a dog toy thief in our near future!

Here's a video I got of her giggling, I guess she's ticklish, or Mommy is just silly...

We also have a thumb sucker!  It's not something that happens all the time or even at the right time, but once in a while she will find that thumb and go to town!  It's really cute so far...

Silly face

One eye opening way that she has shown how much she has grown is when she is playing on her play mat with the toys suspended over it.  The other day she started reaching for this mirror that is positioned in the middle at the highest point.  She can reach it now!  So amazing to see her growing every day!

She is making all sorts of sounds now.  She is also mimicking the sounds we make at her.  She started making a raspberry sort of noise with a cute little trill behind it.  She loves when you repeat the noises she makes.  One evening Dan got her to start making an "mmm" sound.  So when we're feeding her, we say "mmm" and she repeats it back.  It's so crazy how quick their little minds sponge up every bit of each little thing you do.

I'm just waiting for the day that she goes mobile.  When I leave her alone in a room for a bit on a blanket, she is never in the same spot that I left her in.  From rolling over and back again, she ends up in a totally different position.  I'm suprised when I get her in the morning from her crib.  She has usually done a 180 degree turn in the crib, so when I get her she's looking at me upside down!

Ready to go mobile!

Suprisingly, I have been doing LOTS of cooking!  It's funny how things change when there is a little baby in the house.  Obviously everything revolves around her, so our evenings are touch and go.  Therefore, I try to have a meal or leftovers planned so that we can scarf something down between feeding her, bathing her, and putting her to bed in a timely manner.  I've found some great recipies on-line (along with some not so great ones).  Most of these are from searching a fun website called Pinterest.  A few of the hits follow.  Try some and enjoy!  (Dan has been cooking up some great meals for me on the weekends, but if he wants to share, he will have to write his own post here!)

Slow cooker salsa chicken


This was so easy and very tasty!  I served it with Sanish rice and black beans.  I think you could add some great stuff to the wraps as well, since it is just chicken on the inside.  (From Semi Homemade Mom Blog)

Spicy Chicken Avocado Enchiladas


This was one of the best dishes I've made in a long time!  The sauce that goes on top tastes so delicious!  You can of course make this less spicy by omitting the jalapenos, but it didn't have that much of a kick. (From the Novice Chef Blog)

Slow cooker Italian Chicken


Of course, another crock pot recipie, I find it easier to throw something in the crock pot when I have a chance with Miss Sophie rather than trying to cook at a specific time in the evening.  So easy!  And of course it was delicious.  I used chicken tenders instead of chicken breasts the first time I made this.  Not a good idea, they were a little dry.  But, the potatoes and carrots had such great flavoring.  My mouth is watering just remembering it!  (From Crock-a-doodle-do Blog)

We'll end this post with a few more pics of Sophie, yay!  Important note:  I've entered her in a Gerber photo contest, voting starts September 4th.  You can go here to vote for her once a day.

This is the photo I entered into the contest

Goin' for a stroll

Feet hanging off the swing, big girl!

We LOVE our feet!

Silly Sophie

Much Love,
The Yorks

Lollapalooza 2012

We finally made it back to Lollapalooza this year!  It's the third time we've gone together (I can't recall if Dan has been to any back in the 90's).  We seem to go every other year and thank goodness for that!  A three day concert can wear on a person, and we're not the youngsters we used to be...  Thanks to Grandma and Grandpa Swartz, we were able to head to the city by ourselves for three days while they looked after Sophie.  (Note: click on red words in this post for interesting links further detailing our weekend)

We took the Metra into the downtown station and hoped on the "L" to get up to our hotel in Lincoln Park.  It was sooo great to be back in Chicago, we absolutely love that city!  Of course, when we visit in the summer time, it is always hotter in the Midwest than it is in Orlando.  Our first day of concerts was no exception.  It was in the upper 90's for the first few days, and thanks to an end-of-the-world storm, the third day cooled of drastically and was quite pleasant.

Dan and I met up with our good friends from Orlando, Scott and Jen.  Some of the acts we saw on the first day were The Black Angels, The Afghan Whigs, Die Antwoord, Band of Skulls (twice!), Passion Pit, Dawes and Black Sabbath.  Thanks to social media, we got insider info that Band of Skulls were playing an acoustic set in a tent, so we headed over there and saw an awesome show!  Die Antwoord, a South African group, was the most entertaining that day, but Ozzy Osborne and Black Sabbath was a very close second (that man is old!).  Here is a link to a Die Antwoord video (click on the name of the band), warning: explicit language follows (in English and Afrikaans), they are "different", but there is no other way to describe this group without you seeing for yourself. =) Enjoy the mayhem...

Getting ready to see Band of Skulls

Band of Skulls...acoustic...intimate...love!

Official Lolla wristbands

Afghan Whigs

Die Antwoord

Ozzy plays the harmonica?  Who knew?

In years past, after the shows were over and we had been at concerts from noon til 10pm, we would usually head back to our hotel to shower then head out on the town.  That did not happen this time around.  We were so beat and sore by the end of every day, when we finally made it back to our room, we crashed!

The second day, after peeling ourselves out of our bed for a shower, we headed to Grant Park.  This day we saw the following shows:  JC Brooks and the Uptown Sound (great show!), GIVERS, and a little bit of Neon Indian.  The lead singer of Neon Indian announced halfway through his show that he would be singing one more tune then they were kicking them off the stage to evacuate the park.  Whaaaaaattttt!?  Come to find out, a massive storm was headed our way and Lollapalooza was being evacuated.  Somehow in the chaotic cell phone service (hard to get a message out or a call in a condensed group of hundreds of thousands of people all trying to do the exact same thing) we started getting texts from my family in the suburbs warning us to take shelter as a giant black cloud was headed our way to open up and drown us.  We were even getting text from friends in other states warning us of the impending weather.  As far as we could see at that moment, it was merely overcast (a blessing since we were frying in the sun all day), and we were waiting it out, a little rain never hurt anyone.  Side note:  Since I was still breastfeeding Sophie during this time, I was continuing to pump my milk while away from her for three days for more reasons than I think you want to know (sorry if this is too much info for some of you).  So, I was doing so while at the concerts.  I found my spot in the medical tents and did my business.  While we decided to wait out the "rain", and since no one was playing their shows, I decided to knock out a pumping session.  Only then did we realize how serious these Lolla officials were in evacuating the park.  The people in the medical tent informed me that all power was being shut off to the Grant Park grid because of the storm, so I was not able to plug my pump in.  At that point we decided to follow the masses and find a bar downtown to hide in, in hopes that the storm would pass and the festival would open back up.  After walking past many bars that were no longer letting people in because they were at capacity (where else would thousands of festival goers hide out?), the skies turned black, the wind gusted and we proceeded to get dumped on.  After standing in the rain for a few minutes, we noticed a bar letting people in again and took shelter.  Needless to say, the storm passed, and the park opened up for a few more hours for the final shows.

JC Brooks

Jen, Dan and Scott



Waiting to get back in after the storm



We bought ponchos after it rained...smart

Day three was beautiful!  We took our time in the morning to grab a delicious breakfast with our friends Shana and Eric before heading to the park.  The rain had taken away the humidity and the 90 degree weather.  Sunday we saw White Rabbits, Of Monsters and Men, Miike Snow, and Jack White.  In the end, Dan and I were tired and sore.  We were looking forward to getting back to the 'burbs to see our Sophie.  Lollapalooza delivered a great concert series this year.  Not sure if we will make it back to another Lolla any time soon.  Dare I say it??  I think were getting too old for this stuff!

Much Love,

Rock on!

Jess and Dan