I touched a shark today!!

The four of us spent Monday at the zoo. We had a BLAST!!! Here's our day... in pictures.

Touched a few sharks...
Watched the dolphin show...
Carousel Ride #1... (rode the elephant)Fed some giraffes... (up close and personal)Checked out some pretty cool animals (elephants)And tigers...Carousel Ride #2... (rode the tiger) Watching the carousel...go around...and around...and around... I know this last pic is extremely blurry... but I couldn't resist. Still think it's pretty cute.

Till next year's flex day... see ya later, Indy Zoo!!!

3/4 of a year old!

Sophie is 9 months old. It seems as if lately she has been growing by BIG leaps and bounds. I mean... everyone knows babies grow super fast in their first year... but it just seems like to me that in the last month she has changed SO much. I suppose it's not fair (or right) for me to wish it all to slow down, but so badly I wish it would...! There aren't enough hours in the day it seems to soak up all the moments... memories...experiences...etc. I suppose that's why I have this blog. Well, that...and to keep the grandma's and grandpa's updated... :)

In the last month Sophie has:

• learned and perfected the art of crawling. Seriously. She went from barely crawling (more like pivoting on her bottom) to making mad dashes from the kitchen to the bathroom in 15 seconds tops. The rate at which she crawls completely depends on whether or not Lucas is around. She LOVES being close by him. When he's playing, she's always curious about what he's doing and tries to join in. If he's not around she crawls around looking for ways to bang things together and make noise... her expertise. (Hey, I always know where she's at!)
• gone from soley baby food to enjoying a wide variety of table foods. Here's the progression so far... Cheerios, Gerber Puffs, avacado, black beans, pears, cooked carrots, and peas. She's enjoyed all of them... preferably at room temp. She's not very lady-like either...she takes large handfuls of Cheerios at one time and tries her hardest to stuff them all in her mouth.


• nodding, "Yes!" Oh, this is cute. At first when she started doing this, I was worried that maybe she was losing head control. Nope. She does it on demand. She'll nod her head up and down and giggle like crazy, probably because I do every time she does it.


• pushing out some top teeth.... lots of them according to Dr. Harper. While you can't see them very well, you can feel them coming through. I'm so proud of her... she's still doing great at night, sleeping about 11 hours straight, despite the little toothies.


• moved up to the teddy bears room at church (since she's crawling). She did great in there her first Sunday. I think she likes being with the "older" kiddos... just like it is at school. (She's the youngest in her room at TOTS.)


• wore her 1st bow in her hair (Easter Sunday). I kind of feel bad that it's taken me this long to get a bow in her hair. I'm not sure why I waited so long!!! She's got hair...I guess I just spaced it. Sorry Sophie. Please forgive me for neglecting all the cute accessories that belong in little girl's hair. I'll try to be better at it from now on...
  

Also, she's still in size 3 diapers...wearing 9 or 12 month clothes... and has yet to put on shoes. Is that bad???? I have no IDEA what shoe size she is. She's getting dedicated at church this Sunday (on Mother's Day!!) and I think her first shoes will make their debut then! Haha...

9 month check up: weight: 16 lbs. 10 oz. height: 26 1/2 in.

Yum!

Noteable "firsts" this week...

The final day of spring break--Sophie started crawling!! What was her motivation? The grass! We were hanging out on a blanket in the yard and she just decided she needed to experience more. So she took off...and hasn't looked back. Her favorite things now-- following Lucas around the house and finding the most minuscule pieces of dirt/leftovers/ect. on the carpet and attempting to eat them... I feel obligated to vacuum every single day but that's not realistic at all. (Picture below...typical scene these days...she leaves a trail whereever she goes!)

Also, Sophie had her first real solid food this week. Oh sweet sweet plain boring Cheerios. We haven't had those in the house since Lucas was her age. She had her first taste Tuesday and LOVED them. She's already graduated to feeding herself large handfuls of them!! And as you can probably assume, she's mastered that pincer grasp thing now, too. (PS-- Lucas LOVES feeding her the Cheerios...he was very proud of himself for helping out.)Avacados also came highly recommended by Aunt Amanda so we also tried those this week and again, she LOVED them.

Another first... Lucas and Sophie had their first bath together this week. Up until this point we had still been bathing her in her little infant tub on our counter, but the splashing was getting out of control. Plus, Lucas seemed really excited about the idea of them playing together in the tub. Sure enough... it was a success. And VERY cute to watch.

Another interesting first this week... Sophie falling asleep sitting UP in her crib!!! This picture doesn't quite capture the moment because my camera beeped before the picture was taken and she was startled awake. I feel so bad for her...she sits up in the crib and then can't lay herself back down!!! We're trying so hard to just let her figure it out on her own but it's so hard to watch her get frustrated and want so badly just to lay down and sleep!! (So we give in! Hey, she's teething... we figure she's going through enough with that...)

Last but not least...I suppose I should leave you with our oreo-lovin' boy.

Just hangin' around...

Sophie is taking up some of the same hobbies as her big brother!!

Yesterday Lucas requested that we put his camping tent back up. So we did (and he helped!). While getting dinner around I could hear squeals from the living room... Sophie had crawled into the tent and the two of them were laughing and squealing, having a great time. Just a sneak peek into the future I think. Love it.

One sign of summer's soon arrival...

Getting the summer hair cut...

Before:

During:

After: (LOVE this face!)

The many faces of Sophie...

Easter/Spring Break 2010...(World's Longest Post)

I have a TON of pictures to post... considering we've just had Easter as well as a week off of school for Spring Break. Here are some of our highlights since my last post.

• Nali came to visit!! Thanks for entertaining us, Nali. Come again soon!
• Sophie opened her first Easter basket...filled with lots of goodies (Thanks, Nali!)
• Lucas had his first Easter egg hunt of the year... in our living room. He especially liked the ones with edible goodies inside. :)


• Headed to Ohio for Easter with the Rupp family! The kids got all dressed up in their new outfits... thanks Grandma and Grandpa!
• Went to Great-Grandma Rupp's for Easter lunch and dinner. While there Caleb and Lucas had an Easter Egg hunt all to themselves- then later all the great-grandkids got a few swings at an Easter pinata...full of... MORE candy!!!
• The weather was amazing in Ohio so we spent a lot of time swinging...
• as well as many trips to the park on the gator... (check out this crazy monkey man!)
• With the remainder of our Spring Break week we spent time back home in Indiana... enjoying the sunshine. Lucas is really into baseball right now so we played lots of games in the backyard. So far he's enjoyed being the pitcher, catcher, and of course, batter because he gets to run all the bases when he gets a good hit.
• Thursday morning Lucas and I went to the Monon Center to go swimming while Eric and Sophie did some grocery shopping. It had been awhile since Lucas had been swimming (well, do you count hour long bubble baths????) so he was a little shy at first, but he soon got into it, just like old times. His favorite thing is to run through all of the sprinklers and squeal at the top of his lungs. Imagine that!
• We met up at Cool Creek Park with our great buddies, the Gibbs. Parker and Lucas have been in the same room at TOTS since they were babies... and now Graham and Sophie are in the same room... as babies!!
• We had our first (professional) family pictures taken... more to come on another post.
  So yes, it's been a GREAT week here at home and being with family and friends. Every year I get like this right about now...but I can't WAIT until summer. So thankful for the warmer sunnier weather so we can be outside for now. It's so nice to see neighbors out working in their yards again, go for bike rides and walks... and just enjoy all that spring has to offer.

Cute conversation...

Lucas and I have been battling itchy eyes lately...allergy season is upon us. Here's a conversation we had recently...

Me: Lucas, are your eyes itchy again?

Lucas: Yeah. Maybe God could give me new eyes!

This is for you, Dad!