Christmas Day 2011

Surprisingly, Sam slept in on Christmas morning! Usually, she is up by at least 7 am every morning, but with all of the excitement of our Christmas Eve party, she stayed in bed until 8 am on Christmas morning. That was nice because it gave Steve and myself a little bit of time to get the coffee going and breakfast started. (I wanted the girls to eat breakfast before opening gifts -- I know, it seems cruel, but it went over just fine. While I knew that Sam could wait to have her breakfast until all of the gifts were opened, I knew that Sophia would be starving and not happy at all).

On Christmas morning, all of the stockings (even the cats') were hung by the chimney with care:

And presents around the tree:

My girls waiting to do stockings:

Sophia with her stocking:

Sam got a slinky in her stocking:

Nemo fruit snacks:

"Buddy" from Dinosaur Train:

The look on my face is a little bit bizarre here, but I was showing Samantha that Santa brought Sophia her own piggy bank (one of the things that Sam asked Santa to bring this year -- "a piggy bank for Sophia."):

Posing later with her new piggy bank:

And Santa brought Sam exactly what she asked for, a Baby Alive doll:

Sophia was pretty happy about the bunny hat from Santa (I call her "Bunny" a lot):

In the afternoon, we celebrated the holiday with my family at our house. We also celebrated my brother's birthday (which is the day after Christmas). Sam begged Uncle Jake to let her help blow out the candles. He obliged, of course.

A birthday kiss for Uncle Jake:

Then the girls set to work opening gifts from my family.

Sam was tired because she missed her nap:

But Sophia was rested and ready:

Sophia (and Sam) were pretty excited about Sophia's new musical table:

And Sophia's new activity block:

It was a wonderful holiday season for us. We got to spend time with both sides of our families, and I have SO enjoyed building traditions with the girls this year. I've also taken a few moments to look back on our time LAST year and how different our lives were then; we had no idea if we were having a boy or a girl then -- just that the little one would be joining our lives in two short months. Sam was too little to understand the magic of Santa Claus then, but this year, it was so special to watch her eyes light in amazement and wonder. Here's to another great year of memory-making!

Sophia is Ten Months Old

On Monday, Sophia turned ten months old. She is at such a fun age right now, where she in interacting more with her toys and with Samantha. But what makes things even more enjoyable for me is that she is quite predictable. It's easy to guess what her immediate needs are based on the time of day -- if she's tired; if she's hungry, etc.

She seems to be gaining more weight now with the addition of yogurts, puddings, cheese and protein. It's diffcult though because she has always been such a voracious eater that she will continue to stuff her mouth until she makes herself sick, if we aren't careful. And she cries if we "cut her off," and take her food away, knowing that she has had enough. I'll take her to the doctor in another 2 weeks for a weight-check, just to verify that she is still maintaining her weight.

A big milestone for her this last week (December 22), was that she discovered how to sit up in her crib by herself. Yes, I went upstairs to get her after her afternoon nap and she was sitting up, looking at me. Steve has since lowered the crib down, for fear that she may soon learn to stand up in there, as well.

She is not officially crawling yet, but inches along on her belly with determination. Her main method of movement -- and she's VERY fast at it -- is rolling from one place to another. And she can maneuver from a sitting position to laying on her belly in a matter of seconds. I am grateful that Sam keeps a pretty close eye on her and informs me if she is somewhere that she shouldn't be.

Sophia loves books right now. She has recently discovered how fun it is to turn pages, and Sam loves to read to her. We recently went through a lot of Sam's old books (from when she was that age) and picked some that are perfect for Sophia right now. She'll sit on the floor for quite a while with them, entertaining herself.

Complete fascination:

Now that most of the holidays are over, we will start thinking about Sophia's birthday party at the end of February. That's a busy month for us -- lots of birthdays -- but I wouldn't have it any other way!

Christmas Eve 2011

We celebrated Christmas Eve at our house with Steve's family (like we did last year). We enjoyed a wonderful spaghetti dinner before we all gathered in the livingroom to open gifts. It was a little overwhelming for Samantha to understand the concept that each gift had a name tag on it -- they weren't all for her. She was really good about helping to pass the gifts out and everyone seemed willing to let her "help" them open their gifts!


Posing for a family pic:

Another quick family picture:

One of the highlights for Sam was opening this big present from Steve's parents:

Inside was a "big T-Rex," just what Sam had asked Santa for this year. We explained to Sam that Santa didn't have enough room in his sleigh for such a BIG present, so he asked Grandma and Grandpa if they could get one for her. She was in love ... and has slept with it in her bed every night now.

Sophia had a lot of fun opening gifts, as well.

At one point, the girls had matching gifts to open from Aunt Deb:

Matching monkey shirts:

This kept Sophia occupied for a little while:

Every Christmas, it is a tradition that the last gift that is opened on Christmas Eve is a new pair of pajamas. The pajamas are to be worn to bed that night and the next morning when opening the gifts from Santa. Here are the girls opening their (matching) pajamas:

Changing Sophia into her pajamas before bed:

Shortly after Sophia went to bed (at her normal time of 8 pm), Sam set to work, getting her snacks together for Santa and his reindeer.

Sprinkling the "reindeer food" with glitter in the front lawn:

And some corn:

Arranging cookies on the plate for Santa:

Mixing up some hot cocoa for Santa:

And stirring it:

And lastly, leaving her note for Santa:

Off to bed:

Reindeer Food

Last night, Samantha and I made "reindeer food" together. I explained to her that in addition to the corn that we would be setting outside in a dish for Santa's reindeer on Christmas Eve (aka our whitetail deer from the woods behind us), that we would be making another treat for them. We will be sprinkling this treat out in the front lawn on Christmas Eve so that the deer have a little something extra to nibble on that night.

I printed out a special tag to put on our package and we set to work last night filling the bag with a few odds and ends for the deer. (Sam was fresh out of the bathtub, so her hair was EXTRA curly)!

We started with some oatmeal:

Then added some crushed up tortilla chips:

Followed by some raisins:

And finally, glitter! The glitter, when sprinkled on the front lawn and illuminated by the moonlight, helps the reindeer to know that they need to come to our house.

The finished product ... waiting to be spinkled on Christmas Eve:

Bubble Babies

Every once in a while, we give Sophia a bath in the "big girl bathtub" upstairs with Samantha. But for the most part, the majority of her baths are in the kitchen sink. She loves to be in there with the warm water, but her biggest fascination these days is with the bubbles and her toys.

She is a BIG splasher! By the time the event is over, there is usually water all over the place and often running down my kitchen windows behind her. She laughs and giggles so loud though, that it just makes us smile ...

Above is another comparison picture of the girls taken at the same age (9 months) in the kitchen sink during bathtime, with LOTS of bubbles. Of course, Samantha's picture was taken at our old house.

As you can see, both girls are pretty happy with bathtime. Sam's hair (what little you can see of it in the picture) was dark, while Sophia's is still much lighter in color. Sam has a little round face, while Sophia's is more narrow. And their eyes? Sam's are brown now and Sophia's continue to be blue.

Christmas Cuties

This was the picture for our Christmas cards this year, and I think that it turned out pretty good. I knew that I wanted to have a picture of the girls in front of the Christmas tree, but wasn't exactly sure how I would pull that one off, considering that Sophia can't stand yet. I knew that I would need to have them propped up a little higher than the base of the tree (which continues to remain bare, at least until Christmas Eve, because I can't afford to have my "helpers" ripping paper before our big celebration!). This picture was taken by myself (I didn't have any photo assistants), and I was lucky enough to get some decent "smiles" from the girls before anyone toppled off of the footstool!

And then, I was able to get a couple pictures of the girls by themselves:

I was so happy after our little "photo shoot" that day. It's a tough age to be taking pictures of both girls without any sort of meltdown, especially taking a picture of both of them together. It only makes me appreciate pictures and memories a little more ...