Sophia @ 2 1/2 and First Days of Camp at First Baptist Smyrna

So I feel like when I blog lately (which isn't often, I'll admit) my focus at times is to summarize our lives and happenings around Will so he can look back one day and see what fun things we did his first year. I used to update what little Miss was up to and I haven't in awhile so before she continues to grow like a weed and blow away I thought I'd pause and memorialize in writing what our little Sophia Mofia Bofia has been up to.

I feel like I look at Sophia some days and I am looking at a picture from my childhood.  She has such an uncanny likeness to me as a kid that it blows me away.  I guess I shouldn't be that surprised since she is my daughter but it still just hits me some days that I made this amazing little person who happens to be my little mini me.  She loves her mommy and loves doing everything I do from painting her nails to cooking, putting on make up (not that I let her :)... Couldn't love this little punkie any more!

love checking on her sleeping before I go to bed.  She looks so peaceful

sassy pants

Sophia is just shy of 2 and half and I feel like not only does she grow like a weed and is so tall for her age but she's always learning and absorbing so much these days and she blows me away with things she does and says.

At 28 months here's my best summary:

• She can count to 5 and loves to quickly do so when playing hide and seek with mommy.
• She practically knows all the letters of the alphabet and will point to them or say them when you ask her what a certain letter is
• She loves watching Super Why on GPB tv and has learned so much about letters from the show
• She loves Sesame Street and always wants to pick out the Cookie Monster or Elmo diapers to put on
• She's a jumping monster and loves jumping all over the house and jumping/dancing when her favorite songs come on... same thing for running.  She could run around the house 50 times asking you to chase her "run with mommy" and she never gets tired
• Loves to say "it's heavy"
• Can ride her scooter all by herself and loves playing outside
  
  
  
  
  
• LOVES swimming and is fearless in the water with and without her floaties (just know she'll be a little fishy in no time)
• loves her mimi and abuela and asks for them all the time
• is starting to really make friends and loves her some Colton (her neighborhood boyfriend).
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
   
• She still loves her cousins too, especially Garrett and gets so hyper and excited when he comes over 
  
  
  
  
• Gives the best most sweetest hugs and besitos when you ask her to
• knows how to share very well - though sometimes you still have to remind her to do so
• Is mommy's big helper when it comes to baby Will or "baby Wool"/"Bubba" as she says 
  
• Loves to kill Will with kindness though when it comes to huggies and still plays a little too rough with him although she adores her little brother and he loves her too.  They are so cute together and can't wait for them to really play when Will gets older 
  
  
   poor baby doesn't have a chance ;)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• She is quite the picky eater these days but still loves her some corn.  Girl could eat corn for breakfast, lunch and dinner and would ask for "more Corn!"
• is Super Sweet but also a Terrible Two and Super WHINEY!  Dear Lord, help us some days!
• sleeps pretty good- usually from around 8:30 to 8:30 (though as of late it's getting earlier like 8:30 to 7ish)
• she has a growing vocabulary every day and still throws out a mix of Spanish
• She loves car rides and gets excited every time we go out
• She loves pretend playing with her kitchen, tea sets, pizza, cupcakes
• She loves Reading books and often wants you to read her whole library before bed
• She goes to sleep with the lights dimmed and books in her crib so she can read them to her animals
• She can escape the crib but did once or twice and must have fallen and not liked the result so thankfully she still calls out to us and sleeps in the crib
• She has weaned her paci use a lot during the day but still uses it as a shield for comfort in new situations and at night to sleep 
  
• She's Miss Independent often and loves having a say in what clothes she'll wear, which shoes, which bathing suit and bows to put on
• She doesn't like smiling for cameras and can be quite a little stinker when you ask her to

All in all, she's just your normal 2 year old who's surprising us by the day and I'm loving the new phase she's entering into though I get sad seeing my first baby grow up before me so fast.

This week she started her first days at what will be her preschool come September 1st at Smyrna First Baptist.  She's in a day camp with the teachers who will be her teachers for the year, Mrs. Deborah and Mrs. Jennifer and it's been an experience for sure. 

We had been trying to talk to her about school for the past week or so building it up and just reminding her that she'd be going.  We kept saying how fun it was going to be and how she'd be able to go and make friends and play but don't think she got the message.  

She was excited to get ready on Monday morning and thought it was fun putting on her little backpack and posing for pictures on our front porch.  She was even excited to drive there and say bye to Daddy and Baby Will but when we walked into the building she knew something was up and instantly wanted me to hold her ("hold you mommy") and was searching my bag for her woo woo (paci).  It wasn't there since I had read they didn't allow them.  Anyway, when we got to the classroom she did not want to enter AT ALL.  Poor thing was practically ripped from my arms and I was told they'd let me know if they needed me but I never got a call so I assumed all was well.  

When I went to pick her up at 1 she broke down seeing me and ran over to the gate at the classroom door.  She couldn't get out fast enough... poor thing! lol  Her teacher told me to bring a lovie or something she's attached to the next day so a paci it was!

Day 2 went much better with her paci and today after day 3 of crying entering the building and classroom seemed like she loved school just a little bit because she was calm when I picked her up and then tried to run back into the building when we got to the parking lot.  She actually cried NOT wanting to go home.  Crazy girl!  But I was relieved she like it today and seemed to finally eat some of her lunch.

I know slowly by surely she'll grow to love school like I did and I can't wait to see how she does this fall.  It's a new chapter we're entering into and while it makes me sad to see her grow up, it's part of life and I'm excited at the same time.  

Summertime!

I know summer is officially over for all intents and purposes on Labor Day weekend but with Sophia starting camp this week and preschool in 2 weeks it just seems like it's wrapped up.  I can summarize the summer in several words:  fast, fun, at times overwhelming and draining.  Quite honestly since I started back to work the word drowning is how I feel at times.  I have never been busier with work and at times feel like between work and taking care of the kids/ finding time to play with them and enjoy them and having family time with Trey there's just no time for anything else some weeks.  I keep telling Trey with how busy I've been traveling and working nonstop it feels like it's always Friday.  More on that later.

But all in all, as I said this summer has been amazing and flew by as they all do- way too fast!  While work has been a beast it's been fun at times too.  The timing of me returning to work coincided with a lot of my client's annual summer conferences and where does one go on a conference in the summer but the beach (can't complain when they invite me to work at the beach ;) !  My first work trip back at the end of June I didn't want to leave Will behind at just 3.5 months old so we loaded up the family and everyone came in tote down to Perdido Key, AL.  It's a great little beach town on the border of AL and FL and it was nice to have a work/play trip.  While I had to work more than I hoped it was still nice to have my family there to spend late afternoons at the beach and enjoy the local restaurants.  I can definitely see the allure for families to vacation there and Trey and I both agreed it'd be a good spot to return to.  Can't beat the Gulf water and sand either...

Being silly with mommy on our road trip

Then not even a week later we packed up the kids and the car again and headed to Wilmington for 4th of July!  It was Will's first trip to Wilmington and he did great.  Sophia attempted to attack the puppies with her aggressive loving every time she saw them but had such a great time and bonded with Mimi on the trip.  We all enjoyed taking the boat out and enjoying the beach at Duneridge... helped that Bill and Barbara reserved the cabana by the pool so we could bring Sophia's pack and play every day for her to nap.  It was a nice bonus that we got to stick around that Sunday to celebrate the twins' 1st birthday party!  We had a great time watching the fireworks from Mimi and Dadaw's new place on the intercoastal.  Can't beat that view!

this view would never get old!

pure livin'  This kid knows how to relax. (here on shell island)

Loving her some Mimi time!

Go 'merica!

meeting Uncle Cameron

4th of July is not complete around our house without our annual flag cake

early morning Wal-mart run on 4th of July for our cake supplies

daddy can't wait to take his little girl fishing!

meeting Aunt Julie and Uncle George and getting his first intro to Capt'n Bills

We packed up Sunday after the party and headed to Columbia for my work appointment Monday morning (no rest for the weary).  I have to say... it was nice having my family come along for my first overnight trips and nice we could swing a family trip in en route.

Next up in July my baby boy was 4 months old!!!  I really should've posted this one last month because it is hard to remember all details even 2 weeks later but I was happy to get a good report at his 4 month check up.  He was still a teeny tiny little nugget at only 12 lbs 3 oz.  He was in the 2nd percentile for weight but at least his thrush was gone, his jaundice cleared and his doctor said he was gaining and growing just fine in proportion to how teeny tiny he was at birth so not to worry.  That's all I needed to hear.

His doctor also said he could sleep through the night but I was hesitant to push him for a few more weeks since he was so tiny and always seemed to cry of starvation in the night.  But back to the drowning this summer bit... I really don't now how Trey and I survived July because it seemed like Will woke up about 3 times a night for 3 weeks in a row.  You can guess who had to help him since even though Trey would try to attempt a futile pacifier plug, baby Will just wanted la leche.  I thought some days I was going to die.  It was just so exhausting never sleeping more than 2-2.5 hours straight in the night and then waking up and working a solid day (while also taking breaks to pump or feed Will).  Then as I said, my travel schedule picked up so also throwing that into the mix and just feeling like I was always running around I think made me feel a little crazy the past month.

Anyway, a migraine or two in the past week was a tell tale sign that things needed to change (didn't help that our nanny just doesn't seem to be getting the hang of taking care of 2 kids which has compounded my daily stress levels but that's a story for another day).  All this brings us to the best news ever.... Drum roll please!!!!  We finally decided to put Will in his crib around 4 months and the past week we've been sleep training him and he's really getting it! (knock on wood).  Not saying the little guy doesn't whimper in the night but we can usually just go in there give him his pacifier and he's good until at least 6:30.  Given we hadn't had a consecutive 4 hours of sleep in weeks, him sleeping from about 8/8:30 until 6:30 or 7 has been AMAZING!  Both Trey and I feel like new people which has been great since work hasn't slowed down much.

Will's first night in his crib (we learned giving him a sleep sack worked much better!)

Other than trips and work, we also had a good time on the weekends this summer spending lazy days by the pool, doing dinner dates with friends, enjoying festivals the city has to offer (We had a great time at the Piedmont Ice Cream Festival and afterward let Sophia run around in the fountains at Centennial Park... she was a little timid so I took one for the team - secretly I was dying to jump in anyway since it was around 100 degrees!  Seriously- this has been a hot summer!!!)

All in all, it's been a great summer filled with laughs, family and good times.  I've loved watching Sophia learn more and more by the day and be super sweet with her brother or her "bubba" as she calls him.  She loves him to death at times but I catch glimpses of the two of them giggling at each other and makes my heart melt.  I know they'll be best buddies soon enough.  I'll have to post more on that later.

she loves watching Super Why with Will

So, while it's always sad to see summer go I know fall will bring with it many more fun memories for our party of 4.  Can't wait to see how Sophia finishes the week with her first Camp and how she'll do in the 2s preschool class in 2 weeks.

I'm also loving the phase Will is entering into now because he's the cutest little smiliest thing ever.  I know I'll blink and he'll be in Sophia's shoes starting school in no time.

 More on Will @ 5 months and Sophia's Camp at First Baptist next time...