Wanted: Warm Weather

Sonia is all ready for summer-- she has a swim suit, a sun hat, sunblock, and the desire to crawl EVERYWHERE!



We've been teased with good weather a few times so far this spring, but I have lived in the Midwest long enough now to know that we're probably not done with wintry weather yet.... Tomorrow, Sosi and I are going to take advantage of a 78 degree, partly cloudy day and have a fun picnic lunch with the Olejniks at the Morton Arboretum. This past weekend, we scrubbed and re-sealed our rooftop deck (it's over the garage, right off of our master bedroom) so that Bobo, Margie, Sosini, and I can play out there. It's kind of like a big playpen! And this afternoon, I took Sonia out to crawl around in grass for the first time-- she was really suspicious of that prickly green stuff!

Speaking of green stuff, The Great Sosini's new favorite food is dill pickles. She likes to nom on them until they're mushy, but she doesn't actually chew and swallow pieces of them. I think she needs a few more teeth first. Tooth #5 is still hanging out, right under the surface, but it still hasn't broken through. Pop out already, you silly tooth!

Baby, be of use (part II)

Folding laundry (more like pulling it out of the basket and waving it around while yelling, "Ba-ba-ga-ma-ba!")


Putting away groceries (actually, I believe she might be re-organizing the pantry)


The housework lessons continue.... Next up, scooping the kitty litter (at least if she has her way)!

The Crawling Menace

Nothing is safe from a curious, crawling baby. NOTHING!



(Click here to watch the video if you don't see it embedded above.)

Moving and Nomming

Sonia continues to pull up to a standing position every single chance she gets, and she crawls faster and faster every day. She can't sit still! One of her favorite things to do is to stand up and then take a couple of noms on whatever it was she just used to pull herself up. Now that she has 4 teeth (and I think I feel a 5th about to appear), she can do some serious nomming damage! Oh, Sonia....

She looks so proud of her new mobility!


Every once in a while, she sits still long enough to inspect a toy or two, but then she moves on to her next adventure.


She LOVES my cell phone. Every once in a while, I lock the keypad and let her press the buttons. Oh, how she loves buttons. I have to hover and keep her from sticking the phone in her mouth, though!


"You think I'm going to play with your cell phone without trying to nom it? Fuggedaboutit!"

Part Two

This is actually "part two" of two different posts: "Why, yes...." and "Sonia Marie, guardian of the cat door". On Saturday, when Sonia managed to get into the cats' water bowl (yes, it says "TUNA BREATH" on it), I happened to have the camera nearby. It's family tradition to capture pictures of babies playing in the cat/dog food & water (bonus points for catching the babies in the act of eating the cat food, right Grandma Jojo?!?). Anyway, Sosini SOAKED herself, needing a complete head-to-toe outfit change afterward.




If you click on that last picture to make it bigger, you can see the trail of water from her hand to the bowl. Please ignore this poor child's forehead bruises.... She's still learning how to pull herself up on stuff without falling and conking her noggin. I feel so terrible!

A little while after her costume change, "Sonia Marie, guardian of the cat door" had a fun surprise when Daddy's head in the doorway appeared instead of a kitty!






In other Sonia news, her right front tooth FINALLY popped out sometime during the night-- this poor child has been in obvious teething discomfort for at least a week. I hope we get a bit of a break before the next tooth comes in!

Why, yes....

....I might have just crawled over and splashed in the cats' water bowl, spread a handful of catfood on the floor, and pulled Margie Cat's tail. Why do you ask?

A visit from Grandpa Dick and Grandma Jenni

Sonia's paternal grandparents, Dick & Jenni, came to visit this past weekend, and we had such a nice time! We took The Great Sosini out to eat at Noodles & Co. (where we met up with a friend of Jenni's), drove through the Morton Arboretum, took The Great Sosini out to eat again (this time at The View), and spent tons of time playing. The paparazzi snapped many, many pictures of play time.


Grandma Jenni let Sosini help her do a little online shopping, too.


Andrew gave Sosinini her first official drum lesson!


Drum lesson #2


Playing with Grandpa Dick


Horseplaying with Grandpa Dick


Dick & Jenni recently went on a 2-week cruise to Antarctica (!!!!) and they brought Sosi back a penguin.....


Grandpa Dick decided that one of Sonia's "drums" would make a good hat. Sosini thought it was pretty funny! It was probably a little cold on her hairless noggin....


We had a great time! See you in May!

Happy Birthday to Andrew!

Sonia would like to wish her fabulous father a very happy birthday!


I had to take this Sosi-gram picture with her in her high chair because she is way too mobile now! I couldn't get her to sit still long enough (or stop trying to steal the sign).

Anyway, happy birthday to my husband! He and I have been together since August 1999 (we were married in April 2004), so he has been putting up with me for over 10 years now. Through thick and thin, every bump in the road that we encounter brings us closer together. I would not have made it through the loss of our beloved Zachary Evan without Andrew's love and support. He is my best friend and the one with whom I will happily grow old. I love you, Andrew!

I could not imagine a more perfect daddy for Sonia.... She loves him sooooooooo much! One of these days, I'm going to have Andrew record (via Flip video) Sonia's happy reaction when she first sees him upon his arrival home every evening. I never knew a baby could smile so wide, squeal so excitedly, and wave her arms so crazily.


Andrew may only get to spend 15 minutes a night during the week and weekends with his daughter, but he is amazingly in tune with her schedule. On the weekends, I can take off for a couple of hours to do the shopping for the week (Sosi and I have such a full dance card these days that we don't have much time for mid-week errands), and he knows exactly when to feed her and put her down for naps. Part of it is that he knows what I typically do (he listens better than I give him credit for!), and part of it is that he is really, really good at reading Sonia's signals. I brag to anyone who will listen about the three days Sosi and Andrew spent alone together in January.... What a fantastic daddy!! This picture cracks me up because of the amused expression he has on his face while watching his silly little girl have fun on the beach.


I love the way Andrew's mind works-- Sonia has so much fun with him! I put her in a shoe box (because I have that baby-in-a-box addiction), and Andrew started pushing it around like a little choo-choo train. This past weekend, when Andrew's parents came to visit (more pictures from all the fun we had to be posted later), I took a two-hour nap because I had a horrible bout of insomnia on Friday night. I woke up to find that while I was peacefully snoozing upstairs, Andrew had been giving Sosi drum lessons on his drum practice pad. BWAHAHAHA!!!



We love you, Andrew/Daddy!

10 months young: a state of the baby address

How did 10 months go by since the day the nurses were calling my OB/GYN, telling her to drive faster because she might miss Sonia's birth?

This baby is like a little Energizer Bunny.... She just keeps going and going and going and going. Sosini is going through a phase where she sleeps only about 10-11 hours at night and then takes (at most) three half-hour naps (for a grand total of 1 1/2 hours of naptime) per day. Some of her playgroup buddies take two naps a day for several hours each time. It's hard not to notice a tinge of green (AKA jealousy) in my complexion when I look in the mirror. There's a wide range of normal when it comes to sleep, and lucky us (sarcasm!), Sonia is on the lower end. I love my baby, but I keep telling her that absence makes the heart grow fonder....



According to Sonia, I am a human jungle gym. All of my shirts are getting stretched out because she grabs hold and pulls herself up before I can stop her. She has also discovered my hair, and she loves to yank on it. How do you teach a 10 month-old empathy? One thing she has started to do lately is to lay her little head against my chest while I'm holding her. It's so sweet! She also sometimes plays "shy girl" and playfully hides her face when someone is saying hello to her.



Sosinini will pull up on ANYTHING! Baby-proofing is going slowly-- we watch, and she shows us what we need to move/remove/hide/block. I installed a KidCo baby gate at the top of the stairs, and MAN was that a pain in the booty. But Sosi is crawling faster and faster, so we feel much safer with the gate up.


I bought a "big girl" car seat (a convertible seat that can face forward or backward), and I didn't feel comfortable with how it fit in my Mini Cooper. According to a reputable website, this particular seat supposedly fits in a 2003 Mini, and while it is possible to get the car seat in place and belted in, the car seat doesn't sit securely on the Mini's scooped back seat-- it rocks way too much. I took the car seat and my car to our local police department, and after watching a 6 foot tall policeman crouch in the backseat of the Mini for an hour and 15 minutes, cutting up a foam pool noodle and trying out both the latch system and the seat belt to secure the car seat, we declared failure. So, Andrew and I are still trying to figure out what our plan is (switch cars? try another seat? walk everywhere?). Once I can turn Sonia's car seat facing forward, we are far less limited in the options as far as what will fit in the Mini. Her legs are a little scrunched in the infant seat, but she still fits in it safely (the policeman confirmed it). So, we can take our time determining the solution.

I took this picture with my cell phone, and I apologize for the blurriness (she won't sit still!), but how hilarious is that ornery expression on her face?!?



We love our Great Sosini! Her capacity to make me laugh and smile is infinite. Now, if only she would sleep a bit longer....

Baby, be of use

As inspired by the hilarious books from the "Baby Be of Use" series (given to Sonia by her Aunt Jessica), I have decided to get Sonia to start cleaning the house. So far, she can Swiffer and empty the dishwasher.

All right, I'll admit.... it's more accurate to say that she can nom on a Swiffer (ew!! I put a stop to that as soon as I saw it) and roll the lower level of the dishwasher in and out. But she is well on her way to becoming my little housekeeper!

I still remember, at age 10 or so, whining to my mother (while being a brat about having to do a couple of chores like dusting) that she had kids just to make them help her with the housework. She didn't disagree.

And the winner is.....

If we were giving out a prize for the most hilarious baby gift that Sonia received, I do believe that Scott & Michelle Vosdoganes would win. Check out this onesie:


Sonia loves her Dallas cowgirl "Add a Kid" shirt! Apparently, it came from the DFW airport.


Sosini also loved when Scott & Michelle came over on Saturday and played with her. Scott makes awesome silly faces-- Sonia was grinning and cracking up the whole time! She was also a pretty good girl when we all went out to lunch at Granny's, our favorite greasy-spoon diner (on Rt. 53 in Lisle).


Sonia is going to be 10 months old on Saturday. Why is time speeding by so fast all of a sudden?!?

Sonia Marie, guardian of the cat door

About a year ago, my father (Sonia's Grandpa Spike) installed a cat door into the door that leads to the stairs going down into the basement. The cat litter is down there, and until then, we had just left the door open so that the kitties could come and go as they pleased. It was a bit perilous when babies & toddlers came over to visit, so we knew we had to do something about it before we had a mobile baby. I first became thankful for the cat door when Sonia started moving all over the place while in her Mini Cooper walker toy. More than once, I have seen her banging the walker into the door, and I have called my father to thank him for his handyman skills!

Now that she's crawling, Sonia has recently discovered the cat door, and she crawls over to it to peer down into the basement. Sometimes, one or both cats will be stranded on the stairs, waiting for Sosi to move so they can get by. Yesterday (right after she tore off the "Play Like a Champion Today" sign that was stuck over the cat door-- ARGH!), she held both cats hostage for a good 5 minutes while she yelled random babble down at them.

Sonia: "Hey! Mom! Margie's getting out! Should I stop her?"


Bobo: "Hey! Ya wanna move it, sister?"


(captions courtesy of Grandpa Spike)

In other Sonia news, she has started scraping her bottom and top teeth together, most likely in an attempt to drive me insane. That noise might be worse than nails on a chalkboard.... I hear that almost every baby does it and she'll stop doing it soon, but that's little comfort when she's grinding away. ACK!!!

Also, Sonia thinks the dishwasher is hilarious.

Leaps and bounds

Sonia's development has been exploding over the last week and a half! First, she started crawling forward. During the past 9 days, she has been refining her technique, but she still has a bit of a "hitch in her giddy-up" (as my hilarious parents put it)-- there's a lot of unnecessary straightening of the legs and every once in a while, she pulls both knees forward at the same time. But it's getting smoother and smoother! Here's a video of her crawling just this afternoon:



Then, yesterday during a play date with four of her little buddies from our play group, Sosini figured out how to pull herself up into a standing position. I snapped this picture right before she did it, and then I was too busy congratulating her on her feat to remember to take a picture of her standing!


You can almost see the little wheels in her head turning, figure out exactly what she needs to do to get to a standing position. Today, she pulled herself up at least 20 times, and while I did get a cell phone video of her new talent, the video isn't good enough quality to post, so I'll keep trying to get it on the Flip.

OH! And, I keep forgetting to mention that Little Miss Thang cut her top left front tooth last week. Woot! I think the other top tooth is coming through soon (she's drooling, nomming, being a bit crabby) and I'm expecting a few nights of bad sleep before tooth #4 makes its appearance.

In other Sonia news, she takes two steps forward and one step back in terms of eating solid food. Some days, she simply refuses to eat from a spoon. Other days, she accepts anything I try to feed her. Sosi is getting proficient at feeding herself, but she refuses to eat anything other than yogurt melts, goldfish, Cheerios, Corn Chex, teething biscuits, and sometimes cheese. She just stares at any and all fruits, veggies, meat, whole wheat pasta, etc. that I place on her tray. As I tell her that I have just given her some nummy num-nums that I'm sure she'll love, Sosini stares up at me, wondering why I am attempting to feed her poison.

Happy birthday to Sonia's wonderful godfather!

The Great Sosini would like to wish her godfather, Mike "Gonzo" Gonzalez a very happy birthday today!


No, not THIS Gonzo:


THIS Gonzo!


Andrew and I consider Gonzo to be our shared best friend.... We have both known Gonzo since the fall of 1995, and we can't imagine our lives without him. Gonzo is kind, sensitive, funny, smart, and a master organizer of awesome activities/outings/dinners/parties-- everybody should have a Gonzo in their lives to force them out of their comfort zones to have more fun than you could imagine was possible. He also brought another great friend into our lives by marrying the amazing Emily Buser, who is Sosini's godmother.

Happy birthday, Gonzo!