Sofia at 4 1/2!

I keep asking: Where have the past 4 1/2 years gone?? How has it gone by so quickly and how is it possible that Sofia will be starting Kindergarden this Fall?? Well, she certainly has grown up on us and is such a delight. She is a great combination of a girl who loves to pretend she's a princess while playing trains and explaining how the train's boiler works. There literally isn't a day that she doesn't spend a few hours playing with her trains and making up elaborate stories, including props such as little plastic animals from the zoo, small marshmallows as 'rocks' from the querry, a box for a tunnel, plastic cups of water for the train's water towers, etc. I absolutely love listening to her play and make up stories. When she isn't playing with trains, she still has a very active imagination and will pretend her big bouncy ball is named "Caroline" (a recurring favorite name) and is a friend from the forest. Sofia will be a horse, a bird, ladybug, or a butterfly or some other animal and will completely want to act the part.

She still enjoys school and her best friend is named Maggie who reminds me a lot of Sofia. They play very well together and I hear a lot of "Today, Maggie and I....." stories after school. On most Fridays she goes to Bob Jones Nature Center for a three hour nature class that focuses on a different animal such as "deer" or "penguins" for the entire class. They go on hikes down toward Grapevine lake and look for wild animals, animal tracks, and animal scatt (I can't believe she even knows the name). She absolutely adores her time at Bob Jones and I usually get asked several times during the week if it's Friday yet.

Broccoli and salmon as still her favorites, although she's recently discovered roasted cauliflower and now asks for that instead of broccoli. She's a pretty adventurous eater, although still loves a good old fashioned grilled cheese sandwich. She usually takes a peanut butter and strawberry jelly sandwich to school or a few hard boiled eggs, crackers and cheese. She's still hit or miss on meat, but seems to enjoy it more and more. Sofia loves to listen to "Papa music" which is bluegrass, and I must confess I've become a bit of a fan. We do still listen to kid's music occasionally while we drive but it's usually bluegrass and as she told her Papa the other day "It's so good. I haven't heard a bad one yet." Ha!

She adores her little sister and is usually gentle and helpful with her. Of course, she also loves playing with baby sister's toys and I'm constantly taking them from her and redirecting her to her own big bin of toys. Otherwise, she loves to talk to Olivia and is convinced she "talks" already whenever she makes a sound similar to a word. Sofia is the best entertainment a 5 month old could have, especially with her endless train stories.

Our big girl is growing up so fast


Such a beautiful girl!


She's also wearing her current favorite dress that her Grandma and Grandpa sent her


With her baby sister


I love the look on Sofia's face in this picture. So sweet!

Olivia at 5 Months

Our little girl is growing up so fast! She's five months and has gained an inch from last month and is now 26 inches long although she still weighs exactly the same: 15.2 lbs. She certainly feels like she's gained weight since I carry her around a lot of the day, but apparently she's stayed the same in the past four weeks. She does love to be held and carried around, but it seems like she enjoys seeing new things and exploring rather than sitting in one place. Although, she will sit in her Bumbo and watch her big sister play forever - she is completely captivated by Sofia's various train stories. Although she doesn't have any teeth yet, I think it may be soon since EVERYTHING goes into the mouth to be chewed on! She even tries to chew on her Bumbo seat while she's sitting in it, which is pretty difficult. She has also started grabbing things and I have to remind myself of this before taking a drink of water or coffee, since she'll try to grab at it. She started doing this in Hawaii while I'd be drinking from a cup with a lid and straw and oftentimes she'd pull the straw right out of my mouth! It's so fun to watch her play with a toy and move it from hand to hand while she's so concentrated on it! In the bath she has started playing with the Mickey and Miney Mouse figures that her cousin Chandler sent her for Christmas. It's so cute to watch her stare into their eyes and then stick their nose into her mouth to chew!

Olivia is a happy little girl who is content to hang out, especially if she's being held. She's a real snuggler who loves to be cuddled, especially at nap time. She's got a great smile that she shows off often, although to strangers she doesn't smile right away. She doesn't have any problem going off with a stranger and since I go to the gym 3-4 times a week, this is very helpful. She's completely content for me to hand her off at the child center and walk out. She doesn't fuss much over anything and will often wake up in the morning and just hang out in her crib quietly cooing and making happy noises for a long time. Her absolute favorite thing in the world is to be with her big sister and she completely lights up as soon as Sofia enters the room. Sofia's great at entertaining her too, which is such a help.

She can't roll over yet, although on her playmate she's made it over onto her side a few times. Thankfully, she's still a great sleeper who usually goes down without a fuss at 6:30 or 7pm and wakes up between 7 and 7:30am! Olivia sucks her thumb (her right thumb seems to be the favorite), although only when she's going to bed at night. At naps she takes a pacifier but otherwise she doesn't usually take it when she's going off to bed for the night. It's such a luxury to have a sleeper at this age! She's still in size 2 diapers although could probably move up to size 3 soon and it seems she's going through her clothes so quickly! She's wearing 3-6 month well, although I've bought a few 6-12 month size pants which are too long for her but the 3-6 month are a tad short.

Whose the big girl?


Not really that big, I guess....


Our pretty girl in her chair


Olivia's close up


With her big sister


Our beautiful girls!!


Grabbing toys on her play mat.

Olivia's First Food

Yesterday Olivia had her first official "solid" food experience enjoying a little bowl of baby oatmeal. She's actually sucked on various pieces of fruit in the past few weeks - grapefruit, tangerine, and pineapple, but this was her first try at actually eating and swallowing food. Of course, CK has also given her a little spoonful of gelato, which she loved. At first she wasn't completely sure what to do with the oatmeal in her mouth and kept spitting it back out, but although it seemed like every bite got spit out, I found that the little bowl was soon empty. She did keep a very pensive look on her face throughout her new meal experience.

Today, along with a little bowl of oatmeal, I also mashed up some avocado in a bowl and gave her that as well, which I think she enjoyed, although with her usual pensive look on her face. She does seem to be getting the hang of opening her mouth and eating, but still spits a lot of it out. However, again, I soon found that the bowls were empty so it must be going somewhere! Tomorrow she'll be getting some banana along with her oatmeal - we'll see how that goes down.

Very first oatmeal!


Her second day of oatmeal.....a little more interested this time.


Yum!


Such a cute little eater


Still trying to figure out the new texture she has in her mouth...


Sitting in her Bumbo while eating

Her First Oatmeal!

Here's a video of Olivia enjoying her very first bowl of oatmeal. I need to take another video that focuses on her face while she eats, since her facial expressions are very entertaining! She's just not so sure about this solid food thing yet!

Made With Love

About 95% of Olivia's clothes are hand-me-downs from Sofia which is really fantastic given that they were both born in the summer so Sofia's clothes fit Olivia perfectly for the seasons. Of course, I love clothes that are entirely Olivia's since Sofia had so many outfits that are my favorites and I'd like Olivia to have her own too. One of my absolute favorite Olivia outfits was given to me by my friend Mya who made it, as well as three other adorable outfits! It's so thoughtful of her and means so much to me to have outfits made especially for Olivia. I just love it on her!

Our little bee girl


Such a cutie!








Checking out her playmat...


Tummy Time!


Made With Love, Indeed!