I had to do it...

"Ga Guh"

Two big things happened this past Monday.

1. Sophie stood up on her own...like, without holding onto anything. She has done it for like one second a million times before, but this was for such a long time. I don't even think she knew she was doing it, and she hasn't done it since.

2. She may have said her first real word. Well, I guess I don't really know what determines what a baby's first word is...I mean, she has pointed at me and said, "Mama", she has pointed at Pete and said, "Dada", and a few other things like that, but she also goes around saying, "Mamamamama" all day long and pointing at other things. Anyway, this seemed different. She kept pointing at the dogs and saying, "Ga Guh." AKA, "dog". She even pointed at a dog in a book today and said it.

Either way, I am guessing this means that both talking and walking are just around the corner! How exciting!

Squinchy/Squishy Face

Pete blames this face on Sam.

Baby Legs

I love Baby Legs. Please observe her knees when I forget to put them on.

Curly-Haired Baby

Sophie, like her father as a baby, has curly-hair tendencies. So, since it is about a million degrees out and really humid, her hair tends to do this. Do you see those little ringlets?

Ha ha!

Why so sad?

She isn't really sad. As usual, she is the happiest baby in the world. Also,

1. Her two front teeth popped through.
2. She has started a cute little screaming thing. She screams, we scream, she screams, we scream. The higher the better.

Her First Trip to the Zoo

9-Month Pictures

I had to skip over a couple months of pictures. There are just too many. So, here are a couple from the past few weeks.

I am a bad blogger. We have tons of new pictures that I need to post, but they will have to wait. Things have been crazy around here. It has been a long, emotional summer, and I have fallen behind on everything...including this blog.

Sophie, on a positive note, is doing great! I absolutely love this age. She is so much fun, and she really is her own little person. Here are some updates:

1. She is a great eater. Her favorite thing is cheese...in any form. Cottage cheese, shredded cheese, cheesy pasta, melted cheese, etc. She really is a true Wisconsinite. :) She doesn't really like baby food anymore. She only wants to eat things if she can pick them up.

2. She is still pretty big for her age. At her 9-month appointment, she was a little over 20 pounds (78th percentile) and 28 inches long (82nd percentile). Her head is still smallish (24th percentile), but I really am over worrying about that.

3. She is always happy. She smiles and laughs all day long. She claps, gives high fives, lifts her arms for "so big", crawls around, walks holding our hands, crawls up stairs, climbs up stairs holding our hands, pulls herself up, and so much more.

4. It seems like she has a new sound every week or so. For that week, she says that sound over and over. She says "mamama", "nananan", "bababab", "gagagaga", "dadadada". My personal favorite is when she "blows bubbles"...saying "bbbbb".

5. She seems to know a lot of words. She USUALLY looks at Pete when I ask where Daddy is, Pete is convinced she says "mamama" when she wants me, she looks at the dogs when I ask where the doggies are, she says "numnumnum" when she wants more food, she can SOMETIMES point to certain things in books or on my face when asked, etc.

6. She loves the water. We took her in the lake at Pete's cabin, and I have been bringing her to the pool as often as I can. She LOVES it!

7. She has been consistently napping for a long, long time. She is down (or up) to two naps. One mid-morning, and one in the late afternoon. She also still goes to bed at 8:00 PM and gets up around 8:00 AM. Sometimes she wakes up once or twice, but she usually goes back to sleep quickly.

And so much more. She is just perfect, and we are so lucky. I will post pictures soon!