Silly, toothless grins

Sonia had so many silly, toothless grins (none of which I managed to capture in a photo, unfortunately) for her Grandpa and Grandma Malahowski when they visited this past weekend! She kick-kick-kicked on the play mat, fussed less than usual, and looked as cute as possible. Sosi seemed to be very happy to see Grandma Jenni and Dick. We're so glad they could come and see us!

Schnuggling with Gramps

Grandma Jenni and Grandpa Dick brought Sonia the most beautiful gift.... A gorgeous silver cup with "Sonia Marie Malahowski" etched on it! We can't wait for her to use it (perhaps in about a year?).

Grandpa Dick took Sosi on an hour-long walk around the neighborhood! He says they had a fabulous conversation in which they solved all of the world's problems. After they returned home, Sonia was so wiped out by all the fresh air that she slept for an hour and a half!

A sprinkly Thursday afternoon walk at the Morton Arboretum

Sosi and I went to the arboretum again with our buddies, the Murrays, yesterday. We had such a blast! Even though it rained a wee bit on us while we were walking to Zach's tree, once we got there, the tree provided cover for our little band of wanderers (don't worry-- there was no danger of lightning!). Then, it stopped raining altogether and we set off for a walk around Lake Marmo. Unfortunately, my faulty (some say it's actually absent) internal compass led us astray, but luckily, Carol was paying closer attention and guided us successfully back to our cars! I should probably make sure that a map of the arboretum is always in my diaper bag for future forays....

Good idea to set the auto timer on the camera, Carolean!

Sophie and Aidan hugging Zach's tree

Carol hauled Sonia and Kieran up this hill with no problems.... She said that the stroller seemed extra-light with Sonia as Kieran's co-passenger instead of either Sophie or Aidan.

Sophie, you look as pretty as a picture!

Isn't my godson, Kieran, such a handsome little dude?!?

Look at those chubby cheeks on Sonia! I am no longer worried about her weight gain. :)

Aidan is one tough guy with his ND football.

Happy birthday to Sosi's Grandpa Spike!

You love puns, you have many silly sayings, and you sang goofy songs to me while I was growing up. You're also the best baby butt bumper I know. In short, you're a great dad, and a fabulous grandpa. Happy birthday to you!

Sonia meets a bunch of her extended family

The birthday girl (Great-Grandma Jane) and Great-Aunt Mary Jane:

Great-Grandpa Tony (and MJ again!):


Uncle Jordan:

Aunt Jessica:

Uncle Corey:


Great-Aunt Janet:

My cousin, Lindsay:

Sonia also met her Great-Grandma Meem (pictured in a previous post), Great-Grandpa Pop, Great-Uncle Bart, Great-Aunt Toni, Great-Uncle Eric, and my cousins Tiffany, Emma, & Audrey. I'll try and rustle up some pictures of those meetings (if we captured any-- it was pure mayhem all weekend!) to post later.

More from our Arizona trip -- Daddy time!

Sonia snoozed during the entire flight to Phoenix. Good girl!!!


My mom was able to snap this picture of Sosi smiling while my dad was holding her. Sosi was smiling at Andrew, of course! She saves all of her best smiles for her handsome daddy. Wouldn't you do the same if you had the Drew-Dawg as your pops?


During the party, Andrew fed Sonia one of her rare bottles of formula before she spat a bunch of it right back up.... Poor Sosi is just not used to how fast the liquid comes out of a bottle as opposed to when she nurses! She thinks formula is quite tasty, though.


Andrew took Sonia on her first swinging experience while we were in AZ. Niki and Charlotte provided some much-needed moral support!


We had such a fun time in Arizona that it was quite heart-breaking to come home to a partially flooded basement. More on that nightmare later.

Back from AZ and a flood of emotions/water

It's been killing me not to mention on this blog that we had been gearing up for Sonia's first plane flight on July 17th, but our destination was a surprise 80th birthday party for my fabulous Grandma Jane (my dad's mother), and she's a loyal blog reader. But now that we're back, I can post all I want! I should see if I can find the time to type in the list of things that I packed for Sonia. I came up with the list over the course of several nights during nocturnal feedings, and it's huge! We used almost every single thing, too. Traveling light (which I have always considered one of my talents) is a thing of the past.

It will take me a while to post all of the stories and pictures that deserve to be shared, so I'm going to have to do it in little chunks.

First, here are some hilarious pictures of my maternal grandmother, Peggy Scott (aka "Meem"), meeting Sonia for the first time:






More to come when Sonia has her next nap time!

Uh, this one is mine, too.

Marge, honestly!

Sonia is 2 months old!

Sonia and I just got back from her two month well-baby visit to the doctor, and everything looks great! Here are her stats:

• She weighs 8 lbs 11 oz (7th percentile)
• She is 21" long (8th percentile)
• Her head circumference is 37.5 cm (19th percentile)

Her "percentiles" are all on the low side because really, she's only 5 weeks past her due date but she's being compared to other babies who are, on average, 2 whole months past their due date.

The doctor said that she looks great, and we didn't really have any problems to discuss. Because of her size, the doctor said that Sonia probably won't sleep through the night until she is 4 or 5 months old. Sonia got 3 shots and an oral vaccination, and she did so well! Not much squalling at all. Her 4 month well-baby visit will be on Monday, September 14th. I can't wait to see what she'll weigh then!

Sosi is such a great kid! She can go about 5 hours in between feedings at night (she does that about once every other night), she's loooooving her playmat time, she watches the cats very curiously, and she's holding her head up very well! I'm considering shaving my head because she keeps trying to pull out fistfulls of my hair (ow!). Sometimes, she has trouble sleeping because she's gassy (no, I don't eat a lot of dairy, and yes, I avoid the classically gas-inducing foods-- mostly because I don't like them in the first place!). But overall, she is a fabulous little baby! If you haven't already met her, we can't wait until you do!

Sonia rocking a cute onesie from Adam and Amanda Fitzpatrick:

During a visit to ABN AMRO, Sonia got some cuddles from JLo while Michelle fed her daughter, Abby, who is 4 weeks younger than Sonia:

The picture quality isn't all that great, but during the ABN AMRO visit, I finally got a picture one of her silly grins! Don't you love how her little shorts have scootched up so that they are right up under her armpits? She looks like a little Urkel from "Family Matters".....

With apologies to all non-Star Trek fans....

How is Sonia Marie Malahowski like the Borg? Andrew and I have to constantly vary our weapons against her (well, not against her, but her fussiness). To be fair, our gorgeous little girl has very few fussy periods per day-- seriously, I think it might be only once or twice a day that I think, "Gee, she's being fussy!". But, she gets fussy nonetheless, and we have to calm her. One day, the swaddle will work. The next day, it has to be the swaddle, one of our thumbs in her mouth, and standing in the darkened bathroom with the fan running. The next day, she has to be held against your chest with your thumb in her mouth. The glider in the nursery works sometime, but other times, it doesn't. Just like the Borg, Sonia ADAPTS.

The Enterprise constantly had to vary its phaser settings and shield harmonics to hold off the Borg long enough to either escape or somehow win the battle (and avoid being assimilated into the Borg Collective).

Resistance is futile, Mr. Duck! You will be assimilated into the Fussbudget Collective!

One more video post

My Flip camcorder is getting a workout! As requested, here are two playtime videos. Sosi loves playtime!!

Get ready for a cutesplosion

"Cutesplosion" is, of course, the scientific term for a video of a baby sneezing 4 times in a row while wearing a ridiculously cute cherry onesie.

Bath Time!

Have I mentioned how much I love our Flip Mino Camcorder? It allows me to take videos like this (not to worry-- it's rated G):