If I ever intended to write monthly updates (or at least some regular ones) I failed. I hope I have taken enough photos to document Sofia's changes (there have been many), but since Seth has updated my computer (it's over 7 years old but feels like a brand new one!), I am feeling a little more motivated to sit down and use it!
Being a parent to Sofia has been So. Much. Fun. Either people didn't really mention how fun parenting was or maybe the fun disappears and they forgot ;) or maybe I just didn't really understand enough to hear them... but having a kid is Great fun! I fill my days watching my sweet girl grow, change, learn, and play.
We have used signs off and on since Sofia was 6 months old. Most of which she hasn't quite picked up. I think maybe I got a little discouraged and wasn't as consistent with a number of signs. She picked up the milk sign about a month ago. She also started doing the all done sign. Then these two signs became one in the same, and they stood for everything she was trying to say from milk to get me out of this high chair to give me that [insert object] now. Recently she started doing the sign pictured above. We think it stands for more (which is actually done by pinching your fingers all together and then meeting them at the tips). Here she's telling me she wants me to push her some more.
After Christmas I went through Sofia's toys to sort some of her baby ones out, organize her bins, and make room for all her new toys. She found this while I was sorting and began stacking. It's not the easiest task for her because those wooden circles just don't go on the way they are supposed to! Yet, it is amazing to see her be able to do something new (which happens at least once daily & I don't think I'll ever grow tired of seeing!)
This is another example of the fun. What fun it was for me to throw all her stuffed toys on top of her and bury her on the couch!
While we try to limit screen time, Sofia has discovered a love for Daddy's computer. She moves the mouse and watches it move around the screen. He's quite proud of his baby computer nerd. If you look at this next week's daily photos, you'll also see one of her "playing" a computer game. Oh... I don't think I can leave the baby unsupervised with Daddy any longer!
I remember a while back my sister-in-law asked me for ideas of snacks to feed my niece. I don't think I was much help, nor did I understand why she (the queen of awesome snack trays) needed any advice from me... Now I do. Sofia eats a little bit of a lot of stuff. I am often standing in the kitchen trying to figure out what else I can feed her. She does have a few favorites lately though - kale puffs (with puffed rice -the puffed millet just won't do), avocado, pinto beans, pears and apples, and broccoli. As for our food testing situation. It's been almost a year since we started cutting foods. We continue to add foods back in testing them for 3 days at a time. Right now we are testing oranges. Yum. We've also had lots of successes, and our only recently failure was butter. Sooo no dairy in our near future. With our more recent successes, we've found a few places that we can eat out - 2 yummy burger places and 2 breakfast places. I do need to try to find a few more places... our diet is just so specific that it's kind of hard... We don't quite fit a vegan diet (we do with no dairy but we can't do soy and that seems to be a common sub) or a vegetarian (meat eaters here). We can eat paleo for the most part, but paleo restaurants aren't that common. I also like to eat at places that make it easy to know what their ingredients are, and also accommodating and understanding to food issues.
Sofia continues to love reading and books. Her favorites are flip books, and luckily our wonderful library has some great options for her. And speaking of the library. Little Miss loves to go there. The sweet little chairs and table are quite fun to climb up and sit at (all by herself). Her mama needs to make her mind up about what chair and table set to get her, and soon! She needs to have her own! (I think we'll just go with the Ikea set and get it already.)