Sophia is 23 Months Old

Sophia is 23 months old today.  That means that this is the last monthly post ... because in exactly one month, she will be two.  When asked, she says that she will be "three."  I guess that the word "three" must be a lot easier to say than "two."  She even giggles when she says it, knowing that she is wrong.

I've started preparing her for her upcoming birthday -- we talk about how old she is going to be, how we are going to sing "happy birthday" to her and blow out candles, and how all of our family and friends will be there to celebrate with us.  Birthdays are a big deal to me and I love all of the details that go into planning them.  Even if my kids are too young to remember those details now, they will always have pictures to look back on and know just much their momma cared about that special date in her life. 

Sophia's 2nd birthday will have a sock monkey theme.  Preparations are underway, including a small photo shoot with the little monkey herself.  The sock monkey costume featured in this picture was Samantha's first Halloween costume. 

With her birthday right around the corner, the "terrible twos" have started in full force.  (Samantha seemed to skip that phase and instead, went through what I deemed the "terrible threes").  In the last couple of weeks, there has been a lot of defiance, a lot of the word, "no," and an incredible amount of "me" and "mine."  While I understand this phase (and hope that it is short-lived), it can still be grueling.  And it is pretty hard on Sam because she DOESN'T understand why her sister is all of a sudden developing such a stubborn personality.

The potty-training continues to go well.  There are very few daytime pee accidents; she uses the potty on a regular basis.  We are still working on the poop accidents, though.  While these have continued to diminish and she tells me immediately after she has one of those accidents, she still isn't quite comfortable doing that on the potty on a regular basis.  I am content with that.  We make progress everyday and I remind myself that she isn't even two years old yet.  The fact that she grasps so much of the concept right now is rewarding enough.

Her vocabulary is increasing on a daily basis.  I understand most of her words, and she does a great job of conveying exactly what she wants.  Some words are more pronounced than others, but she will definitely attempt any word that you ask of her.  Right now, she only uses one- or two-word phrases, but I am pretty sure that the use of sentences is right around the corner.  The letter "s" at the beginning of a word gives her difficulty, but she stresses that letter if it is at the end of a word.  Pretty interesting.

Sophia is a my "climber."  She scales furniture, chairs, boxes, etc. with little to no difficulty.  And she has no fear.  The other day, this was the scene that met my eyes as I rounded the corner:

She had stacked her Elmo chair on top of our bench, climbed up and was enjoying her snack there. 

Sophia loves cars, trucks, trains ... anything that she can drive.  Whenever I take Samantha into her preschool, I let Sophia play there for a few minutes.  Without fail, one of her first destinations is the car track.  There is usually another little boy playing there and she goes right over and joins in.  She just loves it.  When we were at the mall, she couldn't resist "driving" one of the cars there.  She's almost an expert.

With the new baby coming in just a few short months, we are working on preparing Sophia for the little one's arrival, much like we did with Samantha.  She seems to be a natural with babies and baby dolls, and I am hoping that that alone makes the transition easy.  A little part of me is nervous though because she is not as independent as Sam was at this same age.  Sophia depends a lot on me to do activities with her and to hold her on a more regular basis.  Only time will tell ...

The Upcoming Holiday

Now that the Christmas decorations have been packed away (some snowmen and snowflake decorations are still adorning our house though), our house just seems so empty and plain.  It isn't; it just seems that way because all of the bling, glitter, lights and evergreen foliage is gone. 

To combat some of the "emptiness," we decorated several of our windows (and the basement door) with gel clings for Valentine's Day.  But I wanted something more, so I planned a painting project for the girls to do last weekend when the weather was cold and blustery. 

About 4 minutes into the project, it became obvious that it just wasn't the best idea to attempt a painting project with two girls by myself.  Smeared paint all over the counter and on clothing dictated that we go to Plan B.  I seem to do a lot of that these days.  And that's ok.

So, instead ... we decorated hearts and arranged them all over the pantry door.  The girls were able to use their own creativity to glue the hearts into whatever pattern they wanted (glue sticks are SO much better controlled than paint at this age) and they took turns taping the hearts the pantry door.  It was a major success.



Samantha always takes her job so seriously ...



Taking turns sticking their creations on the pantry door:

It took Sophia a couple of tries before she understood that the tape needed to be on the BACK on the heart in order for it to stick on the door:

Samantha would clap with excitement every time another heart was added to the door:



The final masterpiece ... a much more festive door:

Snow Pictures

Before the unseasonably warm temperatures moved in this week, the girls were able to take advantage of the snow.  Sophia is getting better and better about walking in the white, powdery dust; Sam is just a natural.

I told Steve that he needs to get down some of the beach toys that are packed away on the highest shelf in the garage.  I think that the girls would really enjoy using them -- some rakes, pails, shovels, etc.  In the meantime, Sam found her snow shovel and made good use of it ...

 

The girls also seem to have quite a bit of fun with the sled.  Samantha will pull Sophia around in it until she gets tired and then I'll spend a good deal of time pulling both of them around (until I get tired!).

Baby # 3 - Ultrasound

I had my 20-week ultrasound for Baby #3 on Monday.  I always seem to go to these appointments with a lump in my throat, filled with apprehension and hoping that all is healthy and well with the Little One.  For me, I always choose to be surprised on the gender of the baby.  It is just so much more magical and special to me to find out what my little baby is on the day that he/she is born and placed in my arms. 

It happens everytime -- I shed a few tears watching as this little being (weighing 3/4 pound right now) bounces happily across the screen, showing all of its beautifully and perfectly formed parts.  This time was no different -- Baby #3 is perfect in every way.  Ten fingers and ten toes, four chambers to the heart, no swelling in the brain, etc. 

The biggest news came from the size measurements of the baby that I have affectionately deemed my "Little One" from the beginning.  This baby is measuring on the large side -- the 87th percentile, to be exact.  That means that if I were to go to term, this baby would be around 8 lbs, 10 oz.  For a small person like me, that is a HUGE baby. 

I will be having a repeat c-section this time around and the size of the baby affirms that my risk of any kind of pre-term birth on my own is minimal.  This baby will never be able to drop down into my birth canal.  My scar tissue from the last c-section has thickened quite a bit (which is a good thing) so we also don't have to worry about that rupturing.

So, for now ... when the month of May arrives, we will talk about our delivery options with the doctor and determine when we will get to meet our newest bundle of joy.  It might be a little sooner than I originally thought depending on my comfort level. 

In the meantime, I continue to be in awe over this little profile picture:

"The Shelf"

For a while now, I have wanted to get some sort of shelving unit for Samantha's room; one that would discretely store a lot of her various toys, dolls, blocks, etc.  Up until now, these things had been scattered throughout the room in varying baskets, totes, and even a laundry basket. 

Once I found what I had in mind (and it was on sale), we set out on a mission to secure the shelving unit, along with some fabric baskets to use in the cubicles.  It turned out to be a little bit more involved than I anticipated because I had to send Steve to a different store in order to get a white unit, like I had in mind.  But, it was worth the wait of a few extra days ...

The girls were so happy to be able to "help" their daddy put it together this morning (and I was eager to restore some order to Sam's room, as well).

Getting all of the shelves in order:

Helping to put the wooden dowels in place:

After a few minutes, Sophia realized that it was a little more fun to play with the Potato Head family over in the corner:

Sam, on the other hand, was still very involved in the project:

Once the shelving unit was completely assembled, the girls piled up onto Samantha's bed, which was filled with stuffed animals from around the room, so that I could vacuum the surrounding area.  Her room was in definite need a thorough vacuuming and this was the perfect excuse.  The girls despise the vacuum and stayed clear of it while I completed the task.

After the room was vacuumed, the girls joined in and helped to put the fabric bins in place:

And, the final masterpiece:

It is such a nice addition to the room -- it's both functional and pleasing to the eye (because it goes along with the colors of her room so nicely).  The whole time that we were putting it together, Samantha kept saying, "My shelf is so fantastic, don't you think, Momma?"  Or, "Don't you just love my new shelf, Daddy?" 

Yes.  Yes, we do.