Sosi at the gym

I swear they're not paying me to say this, but Sonia LOVES Gymboree! She has been to Gymboree 4 times now (twice with just me, once with me & Andrew, and once with me & Niki), and The Great Sosini really enjoyed herself.

Andrew took Sonia to class on a Saturday, and he was surprised by how much he enjoyed it. I was happy that I got a chance to take some pictures while Andrew helped Sosi do each activity.

Sosi really likes the rocking rowboat, but she never wants to sit down in it-- she likes to stand!

Guess who loves bubbles?

Over Thanksgiving weekend, Niki and I took Sosi to class. This crazy kid had more fun than should be allowed. Parachute time is always a bit hit!

BUBBLES!!!

Sonia thinks that the sheer fabric scarves are way fun. Goofball!!!

Thanksgiving!

On Thanksgiving Day, Andrew, Sonia, and I packed up the car and drove down to Nashville. We cooked our actual Thanksgiving dinner today (Friday), and by "we", I mean "Andrew with a little help from me & Niki". Corey and I washed about a billion dishes, and Niki did a lot of coordinating and gestating. Niki is now 37 weeks pregnant. Eeeee!!!! I was secretly hoping that perhaps li'l Peter-in-the-belly might make an appearance while we were here, but he seems to be pretty happy to continue cooking a while longer. I did get to feel him kicking and squirming in Niki's tummy, though.

Within a few hours of our arrival, Charlotte roped Uncle Andrew (which she says kind of like "an-joo") into reading her a bunch of stories.

Charbunkle and Sosini have fun playing together (well, Charlotte attempts to show Sonia how to play with all of the toys while Sonia noms on them).

We dressed The Great Sosini up in Charlotte's old Thanksgiving outfit. Hee! She's a little turkey.

Sosi is still a huge fan of crazy Uncle Corey and the silly songs he sings.

Dan and Alicia stopped by to snuggle Sonia and tickle Charlotte.

Tomorrow, Niki and I are leaving Charlotte to hang out with her daddy and her Uncle Drew-Dawg (whoops, "Anjoo") and taking Sonia to Gymboree. Niki wants to see Sonia going bananas over the bubbles and parachute in person! We're also going to try to see Joslyne & Zozo, too. Gotta pack in as much fun as possible-- the next time I come here (in January), I'll be alone (I'm leaving Sosi with Andrew for a couple of days) because I'm coming to help out after li'l PJ is born.

Spoon fail

I had read in a couple of different places that if your baby tries to grab the spoon while you're feeding her, you should just give her a spoon of her own to hold. She'll be totally adorable and bang it on the highchair tray while you happily spoon the rest of her food into her mouth (which will open just like a baby bird's in eager anticipation of the nutrition you are providing).

Maybe I should have had Sonia read those same works of fiction....


Daddy-Daughter standoff (this was the first, but I'm sure it will certainly not be the last!):


At this point, Andrew declared FAIL on the extra spoon idea, did a little mid-feeding cleanup, and continued to try nourishing our daughter. Sonia had other ideas.


Oh well.... She's OBVIOUSLY not starving!!!!

Just like a big girl

Sonia is now sitting virtually unassisted (I have to put a pillow on the floor behind her, though, because when she's done sitting, she just falls backwards!), so we decided it was time that she start riding in shopping carts without her carrier. She loved it!!! It reminded me of this blog post that Niki did when Charlotte first got to ride in the shopping cart. Hee hee!


It was near the end of the day, so Sonia wasn't in the smiliest of moods-- I wanted to get her to smile for this last picture, so I was singing Ob-La-Di for her, and a Jewel employee walked by and laughed at me. I hope she wasn't laughing at my singing abilities! FYI, I think I put the shopping cart cover thingy on backwards. Oh well.

Sonia and Kellen

Sonia loved meeting another potential future boyfriend a few days ago-- handsome li'l Kellen Burke! He is the son of two ND Band members: my class of '99 clarinet buddy, Christy (Veldhuizen) Burke and class of '00 trombone player Andrew Burke. The whole family (including Kellen's older brother, Brandon, and older sister, Kathleen) were in town, visiting Christy's family, so Sosi and I trekked west to Elburn to hang out. The ensuing cuteness was epic. It's funny-- I remember us laughing about how much smaller Kellen is than Sonia when we were there, but in the pictures, they look pretty close to the same size. Huh.

Kellen is a little more than a month younger than Sonia, if I remember correctly. They were both rockin' overalls that day!

Brandon & Kathleen did crafts while the two lovebirds were hanging out on a blanket together.

Sonia, are you getting a little fresh? Kellen doesn't seem to mind....

Sonia loved Kellen's Nuby "Bug-a-Loop"! She cut a tooth not long after this, actually.

Kellen, do you want your bug-a-loop back?

Shoo, paparazzi! Give us some privacy! Kellen and I are holding hands, can't you see?

Baby Beluga Photo Shoot

I took these pictures while we were waiting for the pediatrician to come in our exam room to begin Sosini's 6 month checkup. Her eyelashes kill me! (Click on the pictures to make them bigger if you can't see her lashes very well.) We love our little baby beluga!

Thursday morning fun

Sonia is continuing her tour of future Notre Dame Band friends.... There has been a baby boom as of late among our Band of the Fighting Irish buddies, and we're hoping that all of these kids will march together in 18 years or so. This morning, Sonia met Nora, daughter of my piccolo-playing friend, Maureen. Nora is just a few weeks younger than Sonia-- in fact, I think their due dates were virtually on the same day. Nora has an older sister with the best name in the world: Erin! Erin is 2 years and a few months old, so she entertained herself while Maureen and I talked a million miles a minute and tried to see if Sonia and Nora would do anything more than lay next to each other (which, of course, they didn't). Gotta love those early play dates! Sonia and I had a great time, and we're excited that the Riecks live so close to us (just about 3 1/2 miles away). The western suburbs of Chicago rule!

Nora loves tummy time, so I tried to see if Sonia would get inspired and have fun on her belly. She lasted longer on her tummy than she normally does!


Sonia seemed to like the fun mat that Nora and Erin have to play on-- I should look into getting something like that for Sonia's play area that we are planning to put together in the basement.


Nora is such a smiley, happy little girl! She looks so much like her daddy, Adam, right now (almost as much as Sonia looks like her own daddy!).


Hee hee!!! They're holding hands!


Sonia really enjoyed Nora's little play center thingy-- unfortunately, I couldn't get her to smile for the camera because she was so completely fascinated by all the colors and shapes.


Hi, Erin!! Whatcha doing? She was trying to cook an egg in the oven in her way-cool play kitchen.

Happy Birthday, Grandma Jenni!

Sonia would like to wish a happy birthday to her beautiful, witty, wonderful Grandma Jenni! Sosi cannot wait for cooking lessons and puppet shows. Perhaps Grandma Jenni can read Lafcadio to her someday as well. We love you!! Happy Birthday!!

Stats

The Great Sosini had her 6 month checkup with her pediatrician this morning, and everything looks great! Dr. Murphy was happy with Sosi's growth and development. "You don't remember this," she said to Sonia, "but you used to be a pipsqueak! You have blossomed, my dear." Here are the numbers:

Weight: 19 pounds 1 ounce (90th percentile)
Height: 26.5 inches (67th percentile)
Head circumference: 17.5 inches (90th percentile)

Number of Tylenol I feel like popping at the end of the day: 12

Dr. Murphy also confirmed my suspicions-- Sonia's first tooth has broken ground! You can barely see it, but when Sosi does her flesh-eating zombie baby imitation on your knuckle, you can definitely feel it.

Here are a few pictures of Sonia sporting a super-cool sweater dress she got from my clarinet buddy, Sandra:

Tickle tickle tickle!!!! Gotta love Bobo sitting on the coffee table, checking out the action.

The celebration continues

Today, one of Sonia's Auntie Ems (the Borlik one, not the Buser-Gonzalez one) helped us celebrate Sonia's half birthday with a candle stuck in a pile of brownies. I think we have a future pyromaniac (much like her Uncle Corey) in the making.... Sosi was totally mesmerized by the flame!

The Great Sosini turns 6 months old!

Today, we celebrated Sonia's "half birthday" by attending our very first Gymboree class..... Boy, was that a hit with her! Sosini was mesmerized by the music, color, other babies, teacher, balls, and movement. Gymboree is much more exciting than our boring house. I immediately signed us up for the weekly Stage 2 class and I'm looking forward to going back next week.


During the last couple of weeks, Sonia has been swinging on swings at the playground, eating more solid food (she excitedly opens her mouth when the spoon comes her way!), playing in her Mini, watching the kitties, hanging out with potential future boyfriends, almost rolling from her back to her front, going to library story time, and sleeping a ton (she must be in a growth spurt). I like to play music for her while she eats solid food, and she seems to enjoy Benny Goodman, the Beach Boys, ABBA, the Beatles, and the Shins.



Sonia is soooooooo close to being able to sit up on her own! She barely leans against us for support. You can't keep her sitting for long, though.... She loves to stand! Obviously, Sonia needs a lot of help with balance when she stands, but it's her favorite activity. I've tried to see if she can stand while holding on to something stationary, but she's not quite ready for that yet. Sosi is on the verge of some major developmental leaps-- every day is an adventure!


One thing that is nice is only feeding Sonia 4 bottles a day. As my extended family can tell you, I really don't mind doing dishes (that's usually my contribution to meals during family holidays), but washing 8-9 bottles a day was somewhat taxing. Sonia now regularly drinks about 30 ounces per day. Her 6 month checkup with the pediatrician is on Monday, so check back then for Sonia's stats....

Sonia and her potential future boyfriends

This weekend, Sonia hung out with not one... not two... but THREE potential future boyfriends! First, on Saturday, we went with the handsome Cieslak boys to the Brookfield Zoo. Check out Ethan and Sonia sharing the super-cool Radio Flyer wagon:


I sadly failed to get a good picture of Ollie and Sonia together, but I did get this picture of Ollie showing us that he wants to enter a strong man competition when he gets older.


Then, on Sunday, Sonia met another potential future prom date-- li'l Jack Schank! Now, he is a younger man, so we'll have to see if she's into that, but they should at least be in the same grade (depending on when the school cutoffs are-- he was born in August).


Only time will tell whom she will choose.... Other candidates for the job are Aidan & Kieran Murray, James Mullen (whom Sosi will hopefully meet in December!), Kellen Burke (a younger man), and Anthony Lowe (another younger man). For right now, she seems content to hang out in her Mini Cooper with her Grover doll.

Margie Cat questions my sanity

The other day, I briefly lost my mind and agreed to babysit a 12 week old baby for three and a half hours.... I did okay, but taking care of 5 1/2 month old Sosi and 12 week old Valerie (daughter of my old ND clarinet buddy, Sandra) at the same time was really, really stressful!! There were a couple of times when both girls were crying at the same time, and I thought my head was going to explode. My mom said that twins are actually easier to take care of because they are at the same stage developmentally. Anyway, I don't think I'll be babysitting any more babies (less than walking age, that is) until Sonia gets a little older. I was definitely not cut out to be a daycare provider!

During a nice time where both girls were happy and playing, I took this picture. Marge seems to be saying, "ARE YOU INSANE?!?" Yes, Marge, yes I am.

Halloween

I think Sonia makes a pretty tasty-looking lobster! Chef Andrew could probably make a yummy seafood meal with this little crustacean.