S-s-s-s-nake!

I hate snakes. With a passion. While I know that the ones that we have around here are perfectly harmless, the mere sight of one slithering along just sends shivers down my spine and invokes several sleepless nights filled with nightmares of them. My phobia is bad.

I don't want to pass this fear (or complete hatred) of snakes onto Samantha. I would rather that she form her own likes and dislikes. So, I am trying to be brave whenever I see one which is happening a lot more than I would prefer lately. So, when Steve and Sam came running up to the front door to show me what they found when they were mowing the other evening, I calmly retrieved the camera and took a few pictures. Deep inside I was hyperventilating, but I put on a brave face for Sam.

Getting a closer look:

I think that she likes them ... (shudder)

Sophia is Six Months Old!

Sophia is six months old today, and the last few days have brought with them a several milestones. As mentioned in the previous posts, she tried rice cereal for the first time about six days ago and really likes it. She continues to have some at lunchtime and dinnertime and nurses regularly during the day. When she eats, she sits with just a diaper on because it makes the clean-up A LOT easier. We are working on keeping her hands out of her mouth while she is eating.


** Sophia weighs 14 lbs, 12 oz, which drops her down to the 25th percentile. The doctor assurred me that this is normal as babies start to become MORE active. Now that I have started her on some cereal, it will start to balance things out.

** Sophia has grown 2 more inches in the last two months. She measures 26.5" and this puts her in the 75th percentitle for length.

** Sophia gets a bath before bed each night now, nurses for a little bit and is usually in bed by 8 pm. She typically sleeps until about 7 am.

** Both of her bottom teeth broke through the surface on August 23rd. She has a little teething rash right now and I can tell that her teeth are still bothering her.

** She shows a real interest in drinking from a cup these days (reaching for my glass whenever I am holding her), so I let her try a sippee cup a couple of weeks ago. She did really well with it (it has a soft rubber top, almost like a bottle nipple, but is a definite sippy cup with handles on both sides). She seems a little young to be having that yet, but it is still fun to practice.

** She is still a little wobbly and is not able to sit up on her own yet, but she loves to sit and reach for her toys with some support. I suspect that she will be sitting on her own by next month.

** About a week ago, she started with some new "babbling." She likes the "short a" sound, so we have heard a lot of da-da and ba-ba in our house.

** Sophia loves her jumperoo. Her attention span is about 10 minutes in there (which is long enough for a little babe to be putting most of her weight on the ground at her age). Those 10 minutes are the happiest moments for her. No jumping yet, but she likes to move around in a circle and play with the toys.

** Sam continues to love her little sister. Whenever Sophia is crying because she feels like no one is paying attention to her, I ask Sam to go over and play with her sister. All Sam has to do is get in Sophia's line of vision, and Sophia quiets down and starts smiling immediately. They seem to have some little unspoken language between the two of them, and it melts my heart EVERY TIME.

The next six months are probably going to fly by just as fast as the first did for me. In preparation for that, I've already started planning her birthday party! It seems silly to think about that, but I love planning a party ... Sam's will come first (in November) and we have already chosen the themes!

Sam and her Baby Book

The other day, while Sophia was taking her morning nap, I took advantage of the few moments that I had to update her baby book. I was in the middle of working on it when Sam sauntered into the room and said, "What you doin', Momma?"

I explained to her that I was working on Sophia's baby book, writing things down and putting pictures in there. I then told her that I did the same thing for her when she was a baby and that she has her OWN baby book. I asked her if she wanted to look at it. Of course she did!


Getting a closer look:

Seeing the picture that was taken of me and my belly the week before I went into labor with Samantha:

Pointing out everything that she saw in the book:

I also had a few other photobooks that I had put together for her and she really enjoyed looking at them. We talked about all of the pictures in them and why they were so special. It's hard to imagine that she is going to be three years old this Fall ... it seems like just yesterday that she was my little baby.

Sophia's First Teeth

Sophia's first two teeth broke through today, just before she turns 6 months old! It's interesting that both of the bottom teeth broke through simultaneously, but the same thing happened with Samantha -- her bottom teeth broke through the surface within two days of one another (right after she turned 7 months old).

You'll notice in the picture above that she has a little "teething rash" on her chin because there has been A LOT of drooling lately. Not to mention, she has been ramming her fists and fingers into her mouth non-stop.

In the meantime, she has been doing SO WELL eating her rice cereal, using a spoon. She usually gets some cereal at lunchtime and then again at dinnertime. During the rest of the day, she continues to nurse like a champ. In another week or so, I will start introducing some solids. Hopefully, she will love those, as well!

Sophia's First Meal

Sophia got to have her first taste of "solid" foods today ... and she loved it! She will be turning six months old this week, so I decided that it was time for her to try some rice cereal. I mixed a little of the cereal with milk and she did so well with that, that I ended up mixing MORE cereal in to make it thicker. She ate the whole bowl that I made for her (well, the whole bowl wasn't full, but she ate all that I had mixed up for her).


Waiting for Momma to fix her cereal for her:

Trying the cereal for the first time:

Sam was pretty fascinated with the whole thing:

She kept pulling the bowl closer to herself!

Overall, it was a very positive experience and I am sure that she will be looking forward to more cereal tomorrow:

Picking Apples

I took the girls and headed out to the orchard again this week. The new crop of apples are starting to come in, and Sam was excited to be able to pick some of them herself. We plan to make some applesause (one of many batches for the season) this weekend with our freshly-picked apples. In fact, I am going to freeze a little of it for Sophia, just as I did with some of the peaches from last week. Within the next couple of weeks, I will start introducing solids with Sophia and look forward to building up my stock of homemade baby food in the freezer for her.

Picking her first apple:

Papa's job was simply to hold the basket:

Reaching a little higher:

And one of the best parts -- We were able to get a quick "four generation picture" with my grandpa, my dad, me and both of the girls:

The Last Days of Summer

With the month of August flying by, we are taking advantage of any last days to head down to the beach. Even if we don't go into the water, I still try to let Sam spend time on the playground. (You will notice that some of the lumber has recently been replaced and more sand has been added).

On this particular day, I just threw the kids in the car (too much stuff to carry on my own) and I surprised them with a picnic snack.

And while Sophia couldn't partake in the snack, she was still excited to be there:

As the summer draws to a close, I am reminded of all of the fun things that we got to do this summer. Steve was traveling a lot, so we didn't go on any vacations or long trips as a family, but I managed to keep Sam very occupied and I am pretty sure that she will tell you that she had "much fun" this summer if you ask her.

Picking Peaches

Yesterday, I took the girls out to the orchard to pick some peaches. Sam was so excited to do this, and I had hoped that Sophia could also partake, but we had a couple of obstacles. First, the mosquitos were so bad down in the orchard that we had to hurry to get our peaches. Secondly, Sophia was starting to develop a cold (which has now turned into coughing, wheezing and a runny nose this morning), so she wasn't really feeling like her usual happy self.

Nonetheless, I was able to get some pictures of the girls and we have a nice half bushel of peaches that are ripening in my kitchen as we speak. I plan to make a cobbler and a pie and then start getting some baby food ahead for Sophia in the freezer, starting with the peaches.


Before we left for the orchard:

Once we got there, we found that some of the branches were low:

And some of the branches were high:

No matter what, Sam always managed to get a peach:

Sophia paused for a quick picture (no smiles, but my little girl wasn't feeling well ...):

Getting ready to head back up to the storehouse with her peaches:

But, first, she couldn't resist tasting one of them!

I was so proud of my girls:

A Trip to the Park

We have a very nice park downtown and Sam likes to go down there and use the "twisty slide." I think that she can go down that slide a million times and never tire of it!

Preparing to go down the slide:

Pausing at the end for a quick picture:

Steve helped her go across these bars because she isn't quite ready to master them on her own yet ...

Sophia mostly hung out in her stroller:

But, she did get to spend a little time on the swings:

I think that both of the girls had a good time and I predict that we will be spending more time down there the rest of the summer and into the Fall. If nothing else, it's just a good opportunity for Sam to run off some extra energy and give us a change in scenery!

{Mostly} Wordless Wednesday

Lately, Sam has been wanting to wrap her hair up in a towel after her bath. Doesn't she look adorable?

Popsicles

As a fun project today (while Sophia was napping), Samantha and I made homemade popsicles! We had so much fun doing this, and I anticipate that we will be doing this more often -- especially because the popsicles were made with real fruit and real fruit juices (no food coloring or extra sugar).

First, Sam started by using stencils to cut out shapes from fruit (we used bananas, kiwis and strawberries, but apples and pears would be even more ideal):

Then we used a special tool to add the fruit to the popsicle maker before adding the juice:

Then we waited about 10 minutes (that is all!) for the popsicles to freeze:

While we were waiting for the popsicles to freeze, Sam helped me water the plants outside ... and got ALL wet. So after a quick wardrobe change, we were able to look at some of our finished products:

We only made three popsicles this morning, but we will likely make a few more after Samantha gets up from her nap this afternoon. I have LOTS of cute ideas and we can get as creative as we want with this. I love watching how excited Sam gets over these projects; she really is quite creative and she can't wait to show someone her work. Daddy is going to be SO surprised when he gets home today ...

Samantha

Samantha likes to ride on the lawn mower now. She was terrified of it last summer, but she is starting to get over some of her fears lately, and the lawnmower is one of them. The reason that she didn't like it too much in the past is because it is "too loud." Daddy solved that problem and now she wears earmuffs whenever she rides on it, even when Grandpa comes over to mow (Steve was in Mexico at the time).

One night when Steve and Sam were mowing after dinner, I happened to look out the window and see this:

I wasn't sure what was happening until I went outside and got a closer look. It turns out that they found a little frog while they were mowing and took some time to play with it. (If you look closely, you can see it on Sam's hand).

Samantha has gotten to be such a good helper in the kitchen, and she never misses an opportunity to help me bake or prepare dinner. The other night was her first time shucking ears of corn. I think that she liked it -- good, because it is one of my least favorite things to do!

Jump, Jump, Jump Around ...

This last weekend, we set up a few more toys in our house for Sophia. We have noticed that she is very strong and that she LOVES to stand up, so we thought that she might get some use out of her "jumperoo" and start enjoying her activity bouncer.

Obviously she doesn't quite understand that she can spin around in the bouncer, but she likes everything that is hanging from it and the music that it plays. And of course, she likes that she can touch the ground with her feet.

The jumperoo was even more surprising for us. Sam never really cared too much for it, but I can tell that Sophia is already liking it. I have to be careful with Sam though because she seems to think that it is a swing and that she can push her sister in like we do with her on the playground.

With the jumperoo, Sophia pushes around in a circle using her feet to propel herself. No jumping -- yet -- but she sure is happy when she is in it. And I happen to like where we placed it in the house because when Sophia pushes around, her feet get to touch and sense both the carpeting and the wood floor. I'm sure that that is very interesting for her.

And, just because I think that it is fun to look back and remember how small Samantha once was ... here is a comparison of both girls in the jumperoo: