Tomato Time

Samantha has waited a long two months to be able to harvest her crop of grape tomatoes.  She has watched the plants grow larger with each passing day, and her anticipation grew as she witnessed the green tomatoes slowly turn from orange to red. 

I set her free last week, with a bowl in hand, to choose the most red ones on the plants. 

She did a great job of being selective, and we have managed to gather a handful of them every other day for the last week.  I supsect that we will continue for another week or so (maybe longer).

Of course, Samantha doesn't seem to make it into the house with her complete gathering ... She always manages to sample a few on the back deck!

Sophia is 17 Months Old

Sophia is 17 months old today, and I officially have a "walker."  She took her first steps two weeks ago, and she hasn't looked back!  Well, she does crawl once in a while, but for the most part, she prefers to walk ... and she is now starting to master running!  She wobbles once in a while, but I would have to say that she is pretty steady for someone who only learned to use her two feet and balance a mere two weeks ago.

And with this new-found independence, she has started climbing up on everything!  She loves to sit at the bar in our kitchen.

I don't mind if she SITS there, but she prefers to stand on chairs.

My girl knows how to accessorize. Beaded necklaces are a must, and she will often choose her own pair of shoes to go with her outfit (and put them on herself).

Sophia practices independent eating a lot these days.  She wants to use her own fork and feed herself.  And I let her.  Frankly, the idea of her making a big mess doesn't scare me simply because she hates a mess just as much as I do.  If one small crumb manages to stick to her fingers, she makes me clean it off before she will proceed.  She prefers to have a cloth nearby and will consistently wipe her mouth between messy bites of food.  

Yes, no meal will commence on her part unless she has a fork in hand.  And her aim is spot-on everytime.



Her vocaulary seems to be progressing more and more every day.  She prefers the "b" sound, and therefore, says a lot of "b words" -- ball, bubble, bye, burp, etc.  She will attempt any word that we ask her to say, and Sam would like all of the credit for teaching her to say "uh-oh!"

Along with her increasing vocabulary, her comprehesion is unbelievable.  She takes directives so easily and is so willing to comply.  She knows everything by name and tries to communicate with some words, but mostly gestures.

Sophia has gotten very good at puzzles, and even better with blocks.  She will stack them together (either wooden blocks or legos) and make gigantic towers. 

When she is done, she exclaims, "ta-da!" every single time!

Her final tooth (with the exception of her 2nd molars -- those will come in closer to 2 years of age) just broke through the gums yesterday.  I knew that it was going to happen soon because she refused to eat much for two days in a row and her normally consistent sleeping patterns were terribly interrupted.  This whole teething experience with her has been so difficult because all of her teeth seemed to come in at once.  Maybe it's better that way -- just to get it over with -- but it was hard to see her so uncomfortable.
 
Finally, her hair is starting to come in a little thicker, at least in some spots.  If you look closely at the picture below, you will see a little "duck tail" curl (or some fuzz) at the back.  Maybe she will have curly hair like her momma and sister???!!  Only time will tell ...
 
 

 
Next month marks a year and a half that Sophia has been a part of our family.  I have to think really hard to remember what it was like before she joined us because she seems to fit just so perfectly. 
 
Her and Samantha are absolutely "joined at the hip," and do everything together -- sometimes with verbal communication and sometimes with just inaudible cues.  They seem to understand one another so well, and often I find myself closing my eyes and relishing these moments, knowing how fast my girls are growing up and changing. 

To Be Outside Again

This last week brought with it a couple of rainy days in a row.  While it was definitely a welcomed change for most (the grass and fields needed it after such a long dryspell in our area), the reality of it for the girls was that we had to spend those days inside.  It has been a long time since we have been cooped up and not able to go for just a simple walk down our street.

While Sam learned to fill her days with "inside activities," such as painting watercolor masterpieces ...

And Sophia opted to move onto more advanced puzzles ...

What we really yearned for was a chance to simply soak up some warm sunshine.  It didn't matter what we did; it could be as simple as just taking "snack time" outside.

 

Or taking time to smell the flowers, which were certainly appreciating the long rains that had moved through.

While the cement was undoubtedly hot to the touch, Sophia didn't seem to mind one bit. 

In fact, she has been spending about 50% of her time this week walking.  This is amazing to me because she only took her first steps one week ago.  She is gaining confidence by the minute ... so much so, that she tried to run away from me yesterday -- on two feet!  It was hilarious.

And finally, the girls settled down in the grass to blow bubbles. 

Sophia gets frustrated easily when she isn't able to fit her bubble-wand into the bubbles just perfectly.  So, after a minute of observing her sister's obvious disgruntlement, Sam came up with a solution all on her own. 

She would dunk the wand herself and hold it so that Sophia could blow.  Yup, it was perfect harmony.

I just can't seem to say enough how lucky I feel to have these two little girls all of my own.  They play so well together, and Samantha seems to understand her sister completely.  The other day, Sam told me that she is "Sophia's best friend."  Awwww ....

Sam watches Sophia like a hawk, warning her to "stay on her bottom," and if she senses any danger, Sam notifies me immediately.  She encourages Sophia on a regular basis and praises her for even the most simple thing.  I'm just in awe of the relationship that they have ...

Samantha's Jalapeno Plant

About six weeks ago, Samantha planted two tomato plants and one jalapeno plant.  We would love to plant more, but with the numerous deer that travel through our backyard on a regular basis, it would be senseless to plant a huge garden.  Maybe one day, we might have a nice, fenced in area to plant.  But in the meantime, a few pots on our back deck suit us just fine.

The tomato plants are growing very tall and are producing lots of little grape tomatoes.  We are just waiting for them to start turning red.

As for the jalapeno plant, that has already started growing little jalapenos all over it.  In fact, we were able to harvest our first one last week.

Posing with her first pick of the season:

Obviously, Sam wasn't going to be eating the jalapeno herself.  She picked it just for me, so that I could enjoy it on my tacos that I made for dinner that night.  (Steve might have enjoyed some of it too, but he was out of town).  Pretty soon, it will be time to pick a couple more!

The Hippo Pool

It seems that we are getting a lot of use out of the hippo pool the last few days.  Sophia is at the perfect age to enjoy it and I like the ease that comes with simply pulling the girls out of the pool when they are done and bringing them inside; there's no messy sand to deal with and the girls are relatively clean (with the exception of a thick layer of sunscreen).

We really should just get a larger pool so that both girls can enjoy it, but for now, this suffices.  Sophia feels comfortable climbing in and out of this size pool, and Sam is conscious of the limited room when she is in there.

My posing princess:

The girls do a lot of splashing in the pool ... and they giggle right out loud!

And this girl has no fear -- she just stands right up in the slippery pool!

Sam and Sophia play a little game with each other where they both stand up in the pool and then sit down at the same time, creating a huge splash.  (It still amazes me how they communicate together and understand each other so well).

Splash!

Giving her sister a kiss ... (sigh) ... it just melts my heart.

Warming up in the sun:

Letting her sister use the squirt gun on her:



And finally, Sophia discovered the hose and deemed that it was her personal job to try and turn it on.

I finally made her understand that she is not to touch the hose -- only Momma!

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In other news:  Sophia took her first steps last Friday (July 13th).  She took three steps in a row, unassisted, while we were playing in Sam's room that morning.  That evening, she walked across Sam's room to me -- about a total of 12 steps!  I was so excited (and so was Samantha)!  She is continuing to take multiple steps, both with us encouraging her and also on her own will.  This is a major milestone for her and I love the independence that is finally starting to show ...

Down at the Park

One morning this week, my mom was here and we decided to take the girls to the park downtown.  We originally planned to head to the beach, but it was a little chilly that morning (less than 60 degrees outside), so we opted for jeans and a change in plans.

Sophia was so happy that she was able to sit in a swing all by herself:

And Samantha ran straight for the "rock climbing wall."

While at the park, it's difficult to keep Sophia completely occupied right now.  Because she doesn't walk by herself yet (and only crawls), we have to carry her from one piece of equipment to another; we can't just let her run free.  Sophia loves to go down the slide -- she giggles the whole time -- but again, she needs supervision.  Luckily, Sam was willing to go down the slide with her a few times.

And, of course, she was willing to go down the big slide with both Sam and myself.

The girls got a lot of exercise that morning -- there are so many things to climb on down there.

And this Momma kept busy lugging Sophia around and pushing the girls on the swings.

I even got to swing for a little bit (with the cutest little 16 month old girl in my lap).

Pausing for a little break:

By the time that we headed home, the girls were tired out and it was starting to warm up outside.  When we arrived home, we shed our jeans for some comfortable shorts and played for bit inside before my brother came over to visit.  He surprised the girls with a gift for each one of them.  Sophia got a new ball, which she LOVES ... and Sam got a new stuffed animal and a book to go with it.  Uncle Jake was even nice enough to sit down and read it with them.

Water Weekend

On Sunday, completely out of the blue, Steve asked me where "Sam's summer inflatables" were.  This was a box that was packed up two years ago when we moved.  It contained her ladybug float and her small hippo pool (and apparently, a partial package of swim diapers).  I knew exactly where the box was, and dashed down the basement to retrieve them.  Sophia was at the perfect age to be able to enjoy them now ...

We set up the hippo pool in the front yard -- kind of a spontaneous decision, right before naptime.  The girls were both just too excited to wait, so we stripped them down and let them enjoy themselves in the cold water.  (Sam is obviously too big for the pool, but we obliged because it wouldn't be fair to make her sit on the sidelines.  Besides, Sophia wanted her to join in).

I guess the word, "excited" is a bit of an understatement ...

Yes, we saw a lot of smiles in that small half hour of time.

They splashed and giggled ... 

And we laughed right along with them!

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After their naps, we promised to take them down to the beach so that Sophia could use her ladybug float.  She was content sitting in the float, as long as she could reach the bottom. 

She even let Sam pull her along for a short distance.

But if the truth be known, she would rather play in the sand or sit at the water's edge.

Sam is learning how to swim these days.  She's getting better and better each time she gets in the water.

Sophia is learning how to swim, also. 

She would rather be out in the water with her daddy, instead of using the float, I guess.

Yes, the beach is one of our favorite places to be these days ...

When everything is so busy, an hour at the lake can be just what we need.