These boots were made for walking....

and that's just what they'll do.  Well, it happened one month after I predicted but we can finally say, Sophie is now officially walking on her own.  From one day to the next, she decided she could do it.  Yesterday, she took off about a dozen times all by herself.  And of course, when we are ready with the camera, she is busy doing something else and when the camera isn't around, away she goes.  We did manage to get a few videos of this major milestone.

Christmas in Calgary

Well, it has been a while since Christmas came and went. It's just been so hard to find the time to sit and blog. I am sure you all understand. Anyways, here is a brief look at what we were up to for our holidays.

We had decided that we didn't want to travel for Christmas this year so we hosted instead.  We had Nana, Papa and Aunt Janae come over Christmas Eve and stay until Boxing Day.  We had three days of great food, delicious treats and wonderful company.

Christmas day was a whirlwind of activity.  Surprisingly enough, scheduling the opening of gifts was a bit of a challenge.  After a delicious brunch, we anxiously waited for Hunter, who didn't arrive here until after noon. We were attending chuch at 1 pm so there just wasn't any time for presents at that point.  By the time we got home, Sophie was exhausted and needed a nap.  I think it was around 3 pm before we finally got around to opening the gifts.  Of course, it was well worth the wait and everyone was spoiled as usual. 

Sophie really enjoyed her first Christmas; she particularly liked the wrapping, ribbons and bows.  We briefly considered hiding some presents and rewrapping them for next year since there was only one gift she really seemed to notice.  But we thought she would eventually figure us out when she was older and looked back at the pictures.  The present she squealed for was a book with animal puzzle pieces that can be placed on the different pages.  It continues to be her favorite toy but has seen better days.  The front cover is standing on its last  leg.

She has thoroughly enjoyed it.

We had all the Van Ormans for dinner Boxing Day.  Ally came in a beautiful Christmas dress made mostly of sparkles.  This dress must have been magical because it left a trail of sparkles wherever she went.  She was sure to leave her magical trail in every room while she was here and to this day, our couches are still covered in sparkles!  We had our gift exchange before dinner, where each couple buys for another couple and the cousins exchange one gift as well.  We got a very cool pocket video cam from Jordan and Cyd.  I have tried to take some great videos but it is a bit hard when I have to hold Sophie's hand while recording.  The only shot I really seem to get is the back of her head.  Once she is on her own I will be able to take more.  Ryan and I made turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, gravy, veggies and a salad for dinner.  Ryan's mom took care of dessert.  We had two choices, a pumpkin dessert or a cranberry cake; I think almost everyone had a tough time choosing and just sampled a bit of each just to be fair.

For New Year's, we went to my Mom and Dad's house in Red Deer.  We had a wonderful dinner together and Mom, Dad, Mamie, Pepere, Julien, Chantelle and Ryan spent the evening playing games.  Unfortunately, I had to sit out of the games portion of our evening.  Sophie was having a particularly bad night with her teeth.  I spent most of the evening rocking her and trying to get her to sleep.  We spent the night and headed home the next day.

The rest of our Christmas/December pictures are here

The Adventures of Sophie

Ryan was away on business for a few days so I haven't had a lot of free time to blog about Christmas yet.  It is still on my list of things to do.  I did want to do a quick post about Sophie this week since what she loves to do most, changes so often. 

On the list for this week:

Playing a game of cat and mouse with Baron.  She will go up to him and get his attention, then run away in hopes of him chasing her.  If he doesn't come after her, she will turn around and go back to try and get his attention again.  If he does come after her, she runs around a corner and hides until her finds her.  Then she squeals with delight and runs away, looking for another corner to hide behind.

 Also, climbing up and down stairs has been a pick of the week.  We go up and down the stairs many times a day.  Of course this is all being done while holding mom's index finger in her left hand.  This is so her right hand is free to pick up anything she thinks is interesting along the way.

And finally, playing with the potatoes.  Sophie has a few cupboards that she knows she can play with whatever she finds inside.  Her new favorite cupboard has a bag of potatoes so she pulls out the bag, empties the potatoes on the floor, picks her favorite potato and chews away.  We are currently working on her second top tooth.  It has been a long and painful month with little sleep (her first top tooth came through December 24th) .  However, she is pleasant during the daytime and for that I am thankful.

Running with the Bulls

It is hard to believe that in one week, Sophie will be 10 months old. What is also amazing is the leaps and bounds she has made over the past few months.  It is really quite surprising how fast time has gone by since I have been busy watching Sophie grow.

Sohie is now walking, correction, running around the house while holding only one of my hands.  I don`t even need to go to the gym with the amount of exercise I get, accompanying her everywhere.  She doesn`t seem to really need my hand for balance; it is more for reassurance.  Because she is still so young, she isn`t quite ready to let go of her mommy yet.  She made a big break through last week, when she mastered transitioning from lying down to sitting up to pulling herself up on anything within her reach.  The unfortunate part is she is short like her mom and doesn`t have as many options to pull herself up on as some might.  But there is enough to practice with.  Sophie was so dedicated to learning these skills that she would practice them in the middle of the night.  For several nights, I would wake to find her not sleeping but sitting up.  I couldn`t quite tell if she was asleep or awake while doing this.  She seems satisfied enough with her new abilities now that she has stopped rehearsing at night.  However, it has made nap and bed time a bit more challenging.  Sometimes I put her down in her crib and a few minutes later when I peek in to make sure she is asleep, she is standing with her arms outstretched, waiting for me to rescue her. 

Sophie is so much fun to play with. She loves to mimick the sounds and actions we make, and enjoys when we copy her as well.  Sticking out and clicking her tongue, and making kissing noises are just a few of the noises she likes to make.  Once she gets going she can be quite silly and is all giggles.  This, of course, gets us laughing which she loves more than anything and encourages her to continue. 

Other things Sophie loves to do:
stare, point and coo at the Christmas tree.  Surprisingly enough, "no" has worked pretty well so far at keeping her hands off the tree;
open and close doors and drawers, which makes me jump in fear if it happens when I'm not looking, I then wait for the howl to know whether her fingers have suffered or not.  So far it hasn't happened but it is only a matter of time;
pick up and carry things from one end of the house to the other, especially shoes.  We are constantly putting things back where they belong;
dance (which is mostly bending her knees and bobbing up and down) to music, especially Christmas music which her mom loves to play all day long when Dad isn't home to complain.  We tried to include a video but she was more interested in the camera;
blow bubbles in the tub;
babble to herself or to us.  She is going to be a chatty one;
read the same book over and over and over.  Flipping the pages is the most fun.  Sometimes I don't actually get to finish reading what is on the page before she is ready to move on.  She will actually, more often than not, choose a book to read instead of playing with her toys, provided there is someone around to hand the book to and read it to her.

One thing that hasn`t changed is Sophie`s teething situation.  She still only has two teeth although she continues to have restless nights, is constantly pulling on her ears and chews on everything.  However, the really bad nights aren't nearly as often as they used to be.  She seeems to be a bit better at ignoring the pain.  Ryan started giving her a bottle of formula just before bed and this seems to help her sleep better at night as well.  I thought we would have to fight her to take a bottle since she has never used one up until now but she took it no problem.

Ryan and I went on our first date since having Sophie a couple weekends ago.  We went out for lunch and then to a movie, while leaving Sophie at home with Mamie and Pepere for the day.  Oh, and Ginger came to help as well.  It was great.   We only called home once and it was because we saw that someone had called from the house.   Of course, I needed to know what was going on, there must be something if they are calling. It was only Hunter who wanted to know if he could open the bag of Christmas jelly beans.   Phew!  All went well and Sophie was pleasant enough for her sitters that they even agreed to do it again for us.  Yeah for us!  It was nice just having some time alone with Ryan.  I tried to make an effort to not talk only about Sophie the whole time, but it really is difficult when she is the biggest part of my life right now.  I am sure this will get easier as she gets older and more independent.

Here is a link to our December Photos so far.

Happy Halloween!

This was Sophie's first Halloween and it sounds like it might be Hunter's last.  He almost didn't go trick or treating this year but changed his mind at the last minute. 

Sophie was dressed up as a cat and helped me hand out candy...sort of.

Hunter went trick or treating with Matthew and his friend.  Like every year, he came home with way too much candy.  Anyone want some?

Sophie's Baptism

Sophie was baptised Saturday, October 29th, at St. Peter's Church by Father Nelson.  A special thank you Natalie and Rob, who are Sophie's godparents, and to all those who came and shared this important event with us.

To see more pictures of Sophie's baptism, click here.

Finally mobile...sort of

Sophie just doesn't like to get down on her hands and knees.  Can you blame her?

Crawling is for the birds, really.  Oh, and Sophie's second tooth came in yesterday.  Another week full of success!