Sophia is 20 Months Old!

Lots of new updates this month!

Sophia is 20 months old now and changing so fast.

It makes me wonder what a different little girl we'll have by the time we reach her second birthday!

Some of the highlights of Sophie's 20th month include:

Thanksgiving celebrations, visiting the Lights Before Christmas display at the zoo and putting up our own Christmas decorations, spending almost the entire month at home with daddy & Will while mommy goes to work, celebrating St. Nicholas Day on December 6th and visiting Santa multiple times, counting down to Christmas and reading lots of new books, wearing her first pair of pigtails, watching the Polar Express and playing hard, Pajama Brunch and sledding! Wow! It's been a fun month.

Some of Sophie's biggest changes in the last month include:

1) Weaning nursing, which went very well.

2) Dropping her morning nap (most every day).

Her current sleep routine is 7-7:30 p.m. bedtime, 7-8 a.m. wake time, 12:30 nap time for 2-3 hours. Often during nap, we will hear her wake up after an hour and kick the wall between her crib rails a bunch before falling asleep for another hour or two. Silly girl.

3) Getting three more new cuspid teeth!

Remember I said she had gotten one last month, with two more on the brink? Well those two came in and the final cuspid followed shortly after. So she has 16 teeth in all now and we should be in the clear until after her 2nd birthday when the 2nd set of molars come through.

Some behavioral things going on with Sophie right now include poor listening skills and total nonchalance for any discipline. We've tried stern-voiced scolding, redirection, removing her from situation, (mild) hand slapping, etc. But nothing seems to phase her. She just goes right on doing whatever we told her not to or acts like she doesn't hear us or is exempt from listening. Sophie does hear just fine... which is evident by her immediate picking up of speed with whatever she's doing. If she takes something she's not supposed to and we call her name, she starts running away faster and giggling when we catch up to her. If we tell her to stop touching something she's not supposed to, it's like her hands start working double time trying to create as much destruction as she can muster before we get to her. Her favorite misbehaviors these days include: constantly unplugging the Christmas tree lights and pulling on the light strands or other tree decor, sticking her fingers and toys in the dogs water bowl, grabbing and playing with the house phone and remotes, pulling anything within her reach off of counters or out of cabinets/drawers (most everything is latched with just a few exceptions of non-dangerous drawers/cabinets... and she knows just which ones those are), stealing Will's toys and running away with them, climbing onto the table, reaching into the wine cabinet to rustle the glasses (again, this is latched but she can squeeze her little arm into the ~1.5" opening that it allows and swat at the wine glasses hanging inside), etc.

She is definitely ornery... but gosh darn it, she's the cutest little stinker I know.

Nonetheless, it can be frustrating at times and I'm often unaware of what the best form of discipline is for her right now. I guess just consistency and patience, huh?


Don't know if I mentioned this already, but Sophie's been forward facing in the car seat for a little while now. I honestly don't remember when we switched her, but it's been awhile. I know it's safer to rear-face as long as possible, but I do have to confess that I like being able to see her this way.
One of Sophie's favorite, silly activities right now is climbing and hiding under/behind small spaces. I know kids love being in small spaces because it makes them feel bigger and secure, so we will often find her hiding under tables and chairs, under her high chair, in corners beside furniture, in the bathroom between the toilet and the wall (eww), in Will's room between his bed and the wall, etc. I like to turn it into a game of hide and seek and she loves this. I think we're going to be building some forts or getting out Will's tent again pretty soon for more small-space play.

Lot of chatting and jibber-jabbering from this girl. I don't know how much of this is "new" or what I've left off the list, but these are some of the things we hear most often:

- "cup", "eat", "bite", "cack-o" (cracker)
-TV characters: "Dora", "Dee-go", "Boots", "Ba-Pa" (backpack)

-saying thank you: "Dank, mommy. Dank." or just "Dank, dank, dank!"

-sorta-sentences: "Where daddy go?" and "No sing, mommy!" (haha)
-"towel", "bat" (bath), "jammie", "tees" (teeth), "diaper", "soap", "boat", "shubel" (she has a toy shovel in the tub), "baby", "sipper" (slipper)

-"co" (coat), "hat", "jack-o" (jacket), "sock", "shoe"

-"horsey", "cat", "seep" (sheep), "bear", "bunny"

-"Santa"... or, rather "No Santa!" :)

-occasionally still calls Will "O", but now mostly "Wi-ow" (like "widow" without the "d")

-calls herself "Soapy"

-also says Cecilia and Stella pretty well, but not Mya (Isn't that strange? Mya should be the easiest!)

-pointing finger and saying "No!" a lot

-if you offer her something that she wants, she smiles and says "es! es! es!" in a sort of whisper (that means yes, and we think it's so cute)

-"appo" (apple), something that doesn't really sound like "banana" but I know that's what she means ;)

Other randoms:
- Sophie knows quite a lot of her body parts. Her favorites are her elbows and belly. :)
- She is getting pretty good at drinking from a regular cup and using a spoon.
- She's also getting pretty good at her shape sorter toy and stacking blocks.
- Sophie's patience level is far too short to start practicing colors and shapes right now. It's just over her head and she doesn't sit still long enough to listen.
- But she can count to three, thanks to all the times her daddy has counted "1, 2, 3" before tickling her, tossing her into the air, etc.

This picture was taken at Oak Shade Grove in the breezeway. There are a couple of "German raccoon statues" (umm... okay?) out there and Sophie thought they were just great! She kept walking back and forth from one to the other saying "Hi, coon! Hi!" :)

We are looking forward to what the new year brings.

Can you believe it's almost 2011?
Happy 20 Months, Sophia!
We love you, sweet, silly girl!!