Saturday, October 31, 2009

Happy Birthday, Grandpa Dick!


Sonia wishes a happy birthday to her Grandpa Dick. Sonia loves to smile for just about anyone, but she will give her best smiles of all for her beloved grandpa. We hope you have a wonderful day, and hopefully we can cheer on another Irish victory! We love you!!

The family that drives Mini Coopers together stays together

Grandpa Spike (my dad) got Sonia an early Christmas present-- her very own Mini Cooper! Developmentally, Sonia is ready for this Combi All in One Activity Walker, so even though Christmas is a bit far away, it was time to pull the trigger. We figure that this is our one opportunity to have three different generations in our family own Mini Coopers. Behold:

Grandpa Spike's 2003 Mini Cooper S in british racing green:



My 2003 Mini Cooper in pepper white (I need to take some better glamor shots of my car-- this was the best one I had on hand....):



Sosi's 2009 Mini Cooper in chili red:



Of course, Margie Cat thinks that the chili red Mini actually belongs to her. Oh, Marge....

Friday, October 30, 2009

Taking advantage

We had some more nice weather yesterday (59 degrees, mostly cloudy with a bit of sun peeking through, dry with some pleasant breezes), so Sonia and I headed to our favorite spot-- Zach's tree at the Morton Arboretum. She was a little fussy after our photo shoot, so we didn't stay for too long, but after we got back to the car, she fell asleep and I drove around looking at the fall color for another 45 minutes.

As usual, she was extra photogenic out in the fresh air! So was Zach's tree-- the leaves are a beautiful golden color right now.



What in the world are we going to do when it gets too cold out to lay on a blanket beneath our favorite tulip tree?!?!?

Wednesday, October 28, 2009

More pictures from our weekend in Nashville

Sonia loved playing on Charlotte's beautiful quilts!



Grandma Jo fed Sonia a bottle after her looooooooooooong Saturday afternoon nap.



Grandpa Spike got a chance to feed Sosi, too!



On Sunday morning, Charlotte instructed Sonia on the proper use of utensils.



When we went to a park to play on Sunday afternoon, Uncle Corey couldn't resist taking a break from playing with Charlotte to give Sonia a little snuggle.



Sosi is awfully snuggly in her monkey hoodie that Auntie Niki gave her!



Charlotte has a lot of wisdom to share with her younger cousin.... She's practicing for when her little brother is born in December.



Sonia saw her very first episode of Sesame Street while we were in Nashville! She also got to play with Elmo, Grover, and Ernie.



BWAHAHAHA!!



Story time with Uncle Corey


We can't wait to go back to Nashville for Thanksgiving!

Go ND!

Go Irish! Beat the Cougars!


Jimmy Clausen and Nick Tausch look a bit young to be on a college football team....

Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Weekend in Nashville and Li'l Petey's baby shower

Sosini and I just had the most fabulous weekend in Nashville! We flew there (all by ourselves!) to visit Auntie Niki, Uncle Corey, cousin Charlotte, and cousin Peter-in-the-belly. Also on the agenda was a play date with Joslyne & Zoey-- or so Niki thought.... It was actually a small surprise baby shower for Peter (who is due mid-December)! Sonia & Charlotte's Grandpa Spike and Grandma JoAnn flew out for the occasion-- Niki had no idea they were coming to Tennessee. Luckily, Joslyne and I were able to surprise Niki without causing her to go into early labor.

During Charbunkle's Friday afternoon nap, Niki got some fun play time with The Great Sosini (who was wearing a onesie and pig overalls handed down from Charlotte).


This video of their snuggle time cracks me up!!! Sonia got such a great wild look in her eyes every time Niki shook the little sea horse rattle.



Sosi LOVED hanging out with Uncle Corey.... His willingness to calm her when she got fussy, sing her silly songs, read her books, and provide expert schnuggles made Sosi so happy!


Charlotte introduced Sosi to her favorite Sesame Street character-- ELMO!!!


On Saturday morning, Niki had no idea why I was a teeny bit frantic about getting us all showered and ready to go over to Joslyne, Demetri, & Zoey's house for a play date.... When Joslyne opened up the door and Niki saw the baby shower guests, she figured it out! The baby shower kicked major booty-- Blue Coast Burrito catered the affair, Joslyne fabulously decorated the house in a "Peter Peter Pumpkin Eater" theme (which of course goes well with this time of year, too), and Alicia baked a scrumptious and gorgeous cake.

I can't remember if anyone got a picture of me with Joslyne, but since Niki and I are identical twins, I'll just pretend this is me in the picture below:


Joslyne put together THE BEST slide show to remind Niki & Corey how fun it is to be a parent and to psyche them up for Peter's arrival. It was so funny!!


While Niki and Corey opened the presents, Sonia helped me keep a list of the gifts and gift-givers.


Alicia's cake was so awesome!!!! It was chocolate with raspberry filling and buttercream frosting. It still tasted good on Monday morning when I had a piece before Niki took us to the airport.


I'll post more pictures as I get them-- we took most of the pictures with my mom's and my sister's cameras. It was such a great weekend.... Although I'm exhausted and happy to be home (we missed Andrew terribly!), we can't wait to go back to Nashville for Thanksgiving!

Thursday, October 22, 2009

Johnny Jump-Up

Sonia loves her doorway jumper.... But she hasn't yet figured out how to jump in it! She just hangs around and watches the cats as they circle her, trying to figure out what in the heck is going on. Sosi likes it when I bounce the jumper up and down, so I know she's going to love it whenever she figures it all out.





Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Goofing around at the arboretum

The kid and I had an impromptu arboretum outing today.... Sosi was all decked out in some cool duds inherited from cousin Charbunkle, and she was in such a funny mood! The weather was fabulous for hanging around outside with a baby (61 degrees, overcast, and dry), so we spent about an hour and a half lounging on a blanket beneath Zach's tree. Sonia drank her lunch and enjoyed looking around at the pretty trees. The arboretum was PACKED-- the fall color has simply exploded in the last week or so, and with the temperature finally back in a normal range for fall, the entire Chicagoland area (or so it seemed) took today off of work to enjoy a bit of nature.





Sunday, October 18, 2009

Giggle girl

I had been having trouble capturing Sonia's adorable giggle on video, because I never knew what would set it off. She usually only has one or two giggling fits per day (after which she is done for the day), and they are so unpredictable.... Last week, she thought the song "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da" was giggle-worthy, but by the weekend, she would only smile as I sang about Desmond and Molly Jones. Sometimes, when I change her diaper, she giggles for no apparent reason. But as of today, we think we have discovered a ticklish spot on our silly little baby. Check out this video (apologies for the bad lighting):



We'll see if this makes her laugh tomorrow, too....

Thursday, October 15, 2009

A bit of success!

We had a bit of rice cereal success today! We also had a bit of eating-her-highchair-tray success.


In case you're curious, the red spots on her head are blood vessels that she broke whilst screaming very long and hard at the doctor's office this morning (I took her there to make sure her cold hadn't evolved into anything more sinister). She wasn't a fan of the ear exam!! It's funny-- she cried harder about the ear exam than her shots last month....

Tuesday, October 13, 2009

5 months old-- a state of the baby address

The Great Sosini is 5 months old today! According to our scale here at home, she weighs a little over 17 pounds (so THAT'S why I'm so tired at the end of the day). Sonia is definitely on the chubby end of the baby spectrum. That's all right-- I loves me the chubby babies! Her hair is starting to grow in, but it's either dark blond or light brown, so unless you look closely, she appears to be as bald as a cue ball. Niki and I were quite bald for quite a large part of our infancy, so this is not a surprise!

This picture is almost a month old now, but it still makes me laugh every time I see it, so I need to share it with the world:


I'm pretty sure the poor thing is teething.... Everything she can get in her mouth gets the NOM NOM NOM treatment, and her sleep patterns have gotten all out of whack. I'm going to try the chilled wet washcloth trick today. One of my favorite things is watching her jam Shakey the Octopus's fish in her mouth while she's on her play mat. Shakey may have lost his smile-inducing mojo, but he's making up for it in other ways.

Here's a picture of her wearing an outfit that I bought for Charlotte last summer:


I love this outfit! I'm so happy it came back to me just like a boomerang. We had to put a long-sleeved onesie on underneath the tank top because the weather has been in the high 40's and low 50's here in Chicagoland. It has also been raining so much that we haven't been able to go out on many walks with the jogger stroller. ARGH!! When we do go out walking, we either have to use thick blanket thingies that fit in & around the carrier or put Sosi in a sweater and hat. Carol Murray knitted this sweater and hat for Zach, and I think Sosini looks smashing in this hand-me-down from her big brother!


Last week, I took Sonia with me to my annual visit to the OB/GYN so she could see Dr. Hsia, the lovely woman who helped bring The Great Sosini into this world. Sosi was fussy for about half of the exam, but then she got quiet while she munched on her burp cloth. I totally forgot to get a picture of Dr. Hsia with Sosi in the delivery room 5 months ago, so we tried to make up for it with a "better late than never" photo session. Sosi was not in a posing mood! But at least this gives me an excuse to post a picture of one of Sonia's funniest expressions-- when she's getting ready to cry, she makes this "frowny face":


Sosi is almost over her very first cold. She never really had a ridiculously runny nose, but she was very congested and we had to bust out her penguin-shaped cold mist humidifier. Luckily her mood has stayed upbeat and the only change in her daytime schedule is the addition of another morning nap. I don't know how much longer that will last, so I'm enjoying her 4 naps a day while I can!

Li'l Sonia is getting so close to being able to sit up on her own! She loves to be pulled from a laying-down position into a sitting position (although this makes her spit up if we do it too soon after a feeding!) and then up into a standing position. She stands there, grinning and giggling, and it looks like she's trying to dance a jerky version of the hula as she strengthens the muscles that will help her stand more steady.

The last bit of fun Sosi news is that she has recently become more obsessed with watching the cats. When they walk by, she smiles and coos at them. Bobo has also decided that he likes the taste of the top of her head, and if I'm not watching closely enough, he'll lick her long enough to make her start crying (apparently, rough kitty tongues don't feel good on little bald babies' heads!). If you hung around with kitties this cute all day, wouldn't you watch them, too?

Thursday, October 8, 2009

Sosi and Bobo Cat have a tête à tête

Bobo: So, do you come here often, kid?

Sosi: (NOM NOM NOM NOM NOM) A-goo!


Bobo: Mmmm.... You smell fantastic.... Like a combination of Boudreaux's Butt Paste, formula, regurgitated partially-digested formula, and a certain something magical that I can't quite put my paw on.

Sosi: (blink.... blink....) Oooh-bah!


Bobo: (SLURP!) My dear, you taste as good as you smell! If I could bottle "Essence of Baby", I'd be a millionaire. Darn my lack of opposable thumbs!

Sosi: (continues nomming on Hippo Friend)


Bobo: Oh well. Back to napping in the pack & play.