Live. Laugh. Love.: Sophia is 23 Months!

For the record... this has been the fastest month of her life... for me anyway.

And also - I think you'll agree - the cutest!! :) I have a whole sleu of cute pictures to share from the last month. I love that picture above - isn't she a riot?

Sophie is just such a happy, joyful child and she suddenly loves to have her picture taken and say "cheese". Taking her picture has become so easy and even more fun! In fact, it's almost more of a challenge to get candid shots now, because she freezes a smile directly at me and says "cheeeeeese" almost immediately when she sees my camera. :)

Let's see...

Here are some updates:

Sophie's sleep habits are still pretty consistent. Bedtime: 7-7:30. Wake time: 7:15-8 (nice!). Nap: usually about two hours... sometimes three. She just recently went through a wakeful period and weird sleep habits with her most recent cold and ear infection this past weekend. Boo. But I think we're back to normal again.

Eating is okay. She's still more likely than Will to eat whatever main dish we're having but she can definitely be picky. And her fruit and vegetable intake has gotten more choosy. Current guaranteed favorites fruits and veggies are: winter squash (hands down, always and forever), blueberries, avocado (in the form of a smoothie), grapes and corn. Choices that are usually accepted, but it depends on the day include: banana, broccoli, peas, green beans, pineapple, apple, pear, cauliflower and summer squash. And the ones that are most always refused (but I still keep offering anyway) are: strawberries, raspberries, oranges, raw bell peppers, raw carrots, tomatoes and potatoes. We haven't had things like peaches and plums since last summer so we'll have to see how those go when they're available again.

Sophie eats all kinds of dairy like it's her job, though she's become much less of a cheese-aholic, occasionally even refusing it. I think yogurt is probably her favorite food and she loves cottage cheese too. Just this last week, I switched her to 1% milk like the rest of the family. From the ages of one and two, the extra fat and calories from whole milk are important for a toddler's brain development. So since she turned one, we've been stocking both 1% and whole milk in the fridge. We got used to that routine, but it'll be nice to have all three gallons that we go through each week be the same variety. I'm pretty confident that Sophie gets a sufficient amount of healthy fats from other foods in her diet (such as other dairy foods, avocados, oil in cooking, nuts, eggs and other proteins) to not need the whole milk any longer. I will still continue to buy whole milk cottage cheese and (plain) yogurt for her though.

Sophie's usually pretty good with all grains, but meats just depend on the day.

Behavior: in general, Sophie is mostly happy and pleasant. She does throw impressive fits when she can't have something she wants or if she and Will are fighting over something. She can also be very clingy and unreasonable when she's tired or hasn't seen me all day. But otherwise, Sophie's smiles are contagious and she is just a jolly kid.

I think these next two pictures look like a mixture of Casey and I. I love her expressions in both.

Potty update: Sophie usually pees on the potty at least twice a day still. This last weekend, I put her in a pull up for the morning and she did very well peeing on the potty every time I brought her to it to try. She wasn't feeling very well though so I didn't want to push her while she was sick. I'm hoping this coming weekend we can try again and start getting serious about heading towards pull-ups and big girl undies.

This picture makes me laugh. I don't know what she was pointing at. :)

More new words and phrases:

-"See ya soon!"

-"ock-a-pus" (octopus), "pork-a-pine" (porcupine)

-"Twist! Twist! Twist!" (showing me how she twists her torso from side to side)

-"Hola, Dora!"

-"I pretty!" (when I finish dressing her - this is because Craig tells her she's pretty whenever he's responsible for dressing her)

-"Party hat!" (when she puts a plastic cup upside down on her head in the bath tub - not sure where she got this, but it was her idea)

-Sophie saw me wearing my coat one morning when I came in her room to kiss her goodbye before work. She very sweetly and sadly asked "Soapy's coat?" It was so cute and it broke my heart to have to leave her.

-"Change Soapy's diaper, mommy."

-"Seatbelt, mommy!" (when I put her in the baby swing and didn't fasten the waist belt around her... I wasn't worried about her falling out, but apparently she was!)

-Sophie was laying in bed beside me when she woke really early one morning during her ear infection bout. She was laying pretty quietly but refused to go back to sleep, and I was exhausted. She kept recounting for me who was sleeping and who was awake. "Daddy seeping... Will seeping... Soapy awake... mommy awake... Brutus seeping." Mommy didn't want to be awake, but it was cute to hear.

-"gee-gasses" (sunglasses)

-Sophie's books were temporarily stored in her closet this weekend while I was painting her room. She asked me "Where are the books, mommy?" in a very proper and complete sentence. :)

-"stegasaurus" and "T-Rex" (the girl has no choice but to learn dinosaurs with Will around :) )

-And I know I've mentioned her counting fetish recently. She can now count to 10, usually skipping 8. So yesterday I heard "1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, 10, 13, 13, 13, 13". LOL

She has really loved playing outside recently and copying whatever Will is doing. She loves to run around, swing, slide and get pushed on the tricycle.