Morning Hair

Gotta love that little mo-hawk!

So Grown Up!

I've decided I should start doing a monthly post about the girls and their developmental milestones. I'm horrible at keeping track of things, so maybe this will be a reasonable way to keep track of how they are growing! I've given up on the baby books...

Little Tori is our "big" girl in the house. This month she has advanced quite a bit in her speech. I've been worried about her because she hasn't started saying too many words, unlike our neighbor who talks a ton! I know you are not supposed to compare, but sometimes you just can't help it. Just when I was really starting to get worried, she started saying a whole bunch of new words!

Here's a list of what we hear regularly: Hi, bye bye (which she also says when going to bed), mama, dada, yeah (apparently we say "yeah" more than "yes"), no, uh-oh, please ("eeee"), Jude, car, woof woof (whenever Cosmo barks), head, nose, eyes, mouth, and mole (while pointing to the one beside my nose.

Most of her communication includes gestures, her favorite include pointing, waving, flapping her arms and blowing kisses. She really understands quite a lot, it's just a matter of time before her babble is understandable.

Tori also enjoys helping me around the house. She likes to help bake cookies, get spices out of the cabinet (I often find spices stashed in random places), vacuum and sweep. We're working on putting things away and now after she empties a cabinet, I can often coax her to fill it back up! Thank God! :)

Baby Sophie is also growing fast! She has almost outgrown her bouncy seat, so I'm going to borrow an exersaucer from a friend for her to sit in while I cook etc. This is necessary for two reasons, one because I don't quite trust her older sister to take great care of her, and two, because she is now mobile! When I lay her down on the floor, she rolls and scoots all around! Often she ends up under the coffee table.

Sophie is definitely a people person. She loves to interact and smiles so big when Tori or Jude give her attention. She looks you right in the eye and coos and squawks quite intentionally. She also loves exploring faces, which is often painful because her nails are constantly in need of clipping. Her bottom two teeth are in, and I suspect more will arrive soon based on the amount of drool and hand chewing that occurs. She is really quite sweet. We ofter refer to her as our "jolly baby."


The girls have been getting along pretty well. Sophie loves it when Tori gives her attention and talks to her. This has started happening more and more. Now, when Sophie is laying on the ground scooting around, Tori will end up laying down next to her for a little while. Sometimes in the morning I let Tori sit in her high chair eating a leisurely breakfast and Sophie will sit next to her in her bouncy seat while I work in the kitchen. This month, they've started "talking" to each other during these interludes. It's so cute!

As well as they get along most of the time, as sisters, of course they have their moments of jealousy. As of now, this is occurring more on Tori's part than Sophie's. If I'm sitting holding Sophie on my lap, Tori will come up and squeeze her way onto my lap between us. Recently, she's especially wanting attention while I feed Sophie. I try to talk and sing with her and teach her that she doesn't have to be in my lap to have my attention. Tori also finds it difficult to share toys with Sophie. If Sophie touches something she is playing with, squawks and arm flapping are sure to occur. To combat this, I've had her bring Sophie a toy instead. This seems to be working well. Working on sharing will be a continuing project.

That's all for now, more milestones to come next month!

Little Squeaker

Ever since her first day of life, I've called Sophie my Little Squeaker. She used to make these cute little grunts that sounded like squeaks! Over the past 5 months as she's grown, her squeaks have changed, and often resemble squawks more than anything. I turned on the webcam because she was in a talkative mood and this is what I got! I apologize for the length, but I thought some of you who don't get to see Sohpie on a regular basis would enjoy it none-the-less.

Yes I did have to clean all the drool up after this!

Baptized with Wisdom

On Sunday, our little Sophia Marie was baptized! How exciting for us as parents to witness the sacrament which represents God's sign of His covenant on our daughter!

At our church, when a child is baptized the parents choose a verse to read that will act as a banner over the child's life. For Sophie, who's name means "wisdom" in Greek, we chose Proverbs 3:1-6 which says,

"My son, do not forget my teaching, but keep my commands in your heart, for they will prolong your life many years and bring you prosperity. Let love and faithfulness never leave you; bind them around your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart. Then you will win favor and a good name in the sight of God and man. Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and he will make your paths straight."

The rest of the chapter goes on to describe wisdom as more profitable than silver and precious that rubies. We hope and pray that our little girl will cling to God and grow in wisdom and knowledge of Him as she grows!

I was very nervous before the church service, not because we had to go up front, and not even because I read the scripture verse, but because we took Tori up front with us. She was very squirmy during the service before the baptism, but once we went up front, she calmed down and looked out at the crowd. I held her of course, to keep her from running around! She really did quite well and the only distracting, but cute, things she managed to get away with were playing with my hair and pointing to the communion bread and saying, "Eeee!" which means "please" for those of you who don't speak Tori's language. Sophie was an angel the whole time and just looked up at Pastor Ron the whole time he spoke. She looked so precious in all white. The dress she wore was the same dress I wore in 1984 when I was baptized! Tori also wore it when she was baptized in 2008. Such fun!

I'm sad to say most of the pictures from the service ended up quite blurry because of the lighting, but here is one of our family afterwards!