Turkey Day Visiting and Fun

We have had a wonderful couple of days visiting with our family and friends this holiday season. Wednesday was Sophia's 8 Month Birthday. We can't believe it. I know I say that on every birthday of hers but 8 months? Already? We took her to get her Christmas photos taken. The photos are great. She was in a super mood and had a great morning nap so she was very happy and of course, looked so cute in her little christmas dresses. On Thursday we made a fire and hung out together in the morning having a great time before going to Auntie Dee's for Thanksgiving dinner. Then, Friday we drove out to Pottstown and visited with the Oxenford family. Today, Saturday we are visiting with our dear friends and Sophie's Ohio godfamily, the Snedikers (photos from this visit will be posted later). We all went to The Please Touch Museum and then came back and played Wii and ate Indian food. It doesn't get any better than that really...

Our little family is so blessed. We are deeply thankful for all of our wonderful friends and family!

Family photo of the MacDougall visit last weekend

At Auntie Dee's with Dee Ree and Pop Pop. Yes, Sophie is wearing an Eagles outfit (we think that's why they won!)

Daddy's Little Cheerleader

Obligatory Shock and Awe photo (it was a 27 lb bird after all)

Dancing with her Pop Pop

Fun in front of the fire


Playing with Aunt Pat

Standing Up with Poppy

Hanging out with Yoshi


Sophie, Daddy, and Nanny (wearing her hand-made sweater that Ruth made)

Visit with Grandma and Grandpop MacDougall and Aunt Lacey

This past weekend Grandma and Grandpop MacDougall and Aunt Lacey drove all the way up from Charleston, SC to visit for the weekend. Unfortunately, Sophie got a bad cold and was pretty sick on both of the two days they were here but we all still made the best of it and had a nice time. Thank you for making the drive up, Grandpop Grandma and Aunt Lacey! We love you! Come back soon, ok?

Busy week and weekend

We had a very very busy and fun week last week with lots of visiting. This was all leading up to the wonderful weekend of visiting with Grandma and Grandpop MacDougall and Aunt Lacey who made a drive all the way up from Charleston, SC to come visit Sophie for the weekend (if there's anything that can prompt 26 hours of driving in the car for a weekend, it's an 8 month old grand-daughter!) Unfortunately, Sophie started to have a bit of a cold toward the end of the week last week which took a very bad turn for the worse on Saturday (their first full day here). Saturday was bad. Sophie had a constantly and violently running nose all day. She spiked a fever of 104.5 in the morning. She slept all morning in a fever induced haze. She rallied a bit later in the day but not much and you could tell the poor kid felt awful. Sunday was somewhat improved and her nose stopped running quite as much as it was and she seemed to be improving. Monday morning, aside from the runny nose, she seemed much much better as we waved Grandma and Grandpop and Aunt Lacey off for their long drive back to South Carolina. Oh well... Just another reason to have a visit with them again soon. I will post photos from our visit with them tomorrow. For now, let's catch up with all the visiting from last week....

We drove to Pottstown on Monday for a surprise visit with Nanny, Poppy, Aunt Pat and Cousin Caely


On Tuesday we had a nice chicken dinner with Dee Ree and Pop Pop.

On Wednesday we went to Gymboree (no photo).

On Thursday we went to New Jersey to go visit GGMom. See? Here she is helping Sophie with her crawling. This is Sophie's NJ Great-Grandmother!! Sophie's other Great Grandmother lives in Ariozna. She is so very fortunate to get to know them both! We love them both so very much!!


On Friday, it snowed. Sophie's first snow!

Later on Friday, we all went to the Grand Illumination where they turn on all the holiday lights in Peddler's Village. We do this every year with our wonderful friends and Sophie's PA Godfamily, the Federwitz Family. This was Sophie's first time there. I guess she had fun. She enjoyed "talking" to the carousel at Giggleberry Fair. I'm not so sure how much she loved the freezing cold winter air while waiting for the lights to turn on, especially if she had her cold brewing. Poor little Peanut! But we had a great time with the whole Federwitz Family and can't wait to do it again next year.

Journey to the edge of the mat

Sophia has really started exploring her space more and more. She is falling down onto her tummy more in her attempts to crawl. She is turning around 360 degrees while seated. She is experimenting with new positions of her legs and she is scooting along on her butt. Just last night she scooted all the way off her playmats (making mommy extremely nervous). It was so cute!! Here is a video of her practicing for the big crawl event!

Playing with her brothers

Sophie loves to play with her brothers (Mr. Chen and Ollie) and has discovered the joys of holding strings in their general direction. Jim made this killer toy of a sock filled with catnap from Grandma Kathy that had many strings attached to it. The boys loved it but I think Sophie liked it even more actually. See the look of joy and pride on her face that she is able to entertain them so???

Big News

Sophie started to teach herself how to crawl this weekend!!! In the past 48 hrs she has made HUGE strides toward crawling. First, we noticed her lunging forward more and more lately from the seated position. Then, we noticed she could turn herself all around 180 degrees or more. Then, today, Jim said "look she is crawling" (I was in the other room so actually missed it) when she was on the floor and apparently lunged toward a new crib toy we got her and stayed sort of up on her hands and knees moving toward the toy. Then, after dinner she normally sits on her play mats and plays until she gets tired. Well, tonight she kept turning herself around and kept lunging forward and either falling down or catching herself on her hands. It's been amazing to watch this process. She seems determined to keep trying out her new skills even if it ticks her off that she is on her tummy or that she falls more. We predict she will be full out crawling by Thanksgiving, possibly even by the time her Grandma and Grandpa MacDougall and Aunt Lacey get here for their visit this weekend. We are both so proud and thrilled and yet also terrified and making lists of babyproofing things we need to go get like NOW.

Visiting with Nanny and Poppy

Here are some photos from our recent visit with Nanny and Poppy. We were all so happy to see them. It's been many weeks since we saw them last and it was great fun to have them here all day. They even played on the floor with me and brought me my first baby doll. Thank you Nanny and Poppy! I love you and can't wait to see you again soon!

Smiley Sophie

Our little Piano Player

For the longest time Sophie would not touch the keys on this little piano - she only would touch the bars. We both kept playing it for her and she would just touch the bars or turn it completely over and bang on the back. We were remarking about this to one another one time when low and behold - she started playing away on it.

Some other things that Sophie does now:
- Rolls her hands (we think it might be from "The Wheels on the Bus" motion as learned at daycare)
- Lays back on her own
- Says "dugga dugga dugga" a lot
- Drinks from a cup
- Eats yougurt
- Waves
- Screams at the top of her lungs for fun and pleasure

Prune Face