Monday, January 31, 2011

Eating out with The Great Sosini....

....is always an adventure!

Dancing at Chipotle:



At the Bavarian Lodge (why must everything become a hat?):


Sunday, January 30, 2011

Sonia and Kyle at the Exploratorium

Last week, Jennifer & I took Kyle and Sosini to the Exploratorium in Skokie, and we had such a great time! The Exploratorium is small, but it is also super-cool and recently renovated. Kyle showed off his crawling skills, and Sonia enjoyed testing out all of the cool toys & exhibits.

Unfortunately, the water feature was a bit too tall for our little munchkins, but it did include these cool baby seats for the kids to splash a bit. Kyle & Sosi came out of there completely and utterly soaked, but they seemed to have fun.


Sosini had to stand on me to be able to barely reach the water.


Sonia is following in her daddy's footsteps and drumming every chance she can get! Time to start thinking about designing a sound-proof room in the basement....


Kyle has the cutest little smile!!


Sonia thought it was hilarious that she could see Kyle through some metal mesh on this playground.


Ready or not, here I come!


Oh, Sonia. Such a little Narcissus.


This is one of the ways Sonia shows she loves someone-- by rubbing her head on him or her.


Thanks for a fun time, JLo and Kyle! We love to hang out with you!

Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Sonia and the boys

Sonia has some of the coolest little friends around, and a lot of them have made guest appearances on this blog. Recently, Sosini has been learning how to pronounce her friends' names, something which I find utterly awesome. So far, she can consistently say Max ("Mac"), Ike, Sami ("Hami"), Ella ("Eyya"), Val ("Wal"), Emma, and Tracy ("Tah-hee"). We're still working on the rest!

Recently, Sonia has had the chance to hang out with Max & Ike quite a bit, much to her delight. "Max" was the very first name she learned to say-- with "Ike" following closely after-- and she asks about them all day long. People who knew me during junior high, high school, and college would not be surprised to find out that it seems my daughter is turning out to be a little boy-crazy.

One day, Ike & Max came over to play, and all three kids bonded over their love of Swiffers and mops. Thanks for cleaning my floor, kids!!




Then, they went cat hunting. Margie is such a good sport! All three kids were being pretty darn gentle with her.... We were so impressed!


Note Bobo in the background of this picture (above and to the left of Sonia's head) thinking, "Please don't notice me.... Please don't notice me.... I'm not the droid you're looking for...."


Even Marge has her limit.... She high-tailed it out of there after a few too many pokes and hugs.


Last week, all three kids were hungry after (and during!) library story time, so we took them out to lunch. While we were waiting for our food, Max, Sonia, & Ike played some Golden Tee. Sonia was sporting a cute little lavender fleece jumper handed down to her by her good buddy, Sophie.... Love it!



Sonia loves her little boy friends!

Saturday, January 22, 2011

Our little polar bear

The first two times we took Sonia out in the snow (chronicled here and here) were disastrous.... The outdoor forays were very brief and Sosini seemed positively miserable. I swear I heard "let's move to Florida" in the midst of some of her toddler gibberish. So, imagine my surprise last week when Sonia pointed out the window and said, "Go..... Snow.... Go!" I asked her if she wanted to go play outside in the snow, and she nodded solemnly. Huh. Certain she would forget all about it by the time I retrieved our snow gear, I was shocked when she sat down and started trying to pull on her snow pants. We got all bundled up and headed out into the garage.

Sonia instantly clambered clumsily into her red wagon and said, "Ride!" "You want to go for a ride in the red wagon?" I asked. Nod nod nod. Huh.


We headed down the street to check the mail. It was 32 degrees, so it actually wasn't too bad. I kept asking Sonia if she wanted to go back home, and she kept saying her new favorite word: "Nope!" So I ended up taking her for a 15 minute spin around the neighborhood. Sosini just kind of lounged in her seat and calmly watched the snowy & icy scenery go by.


When I got tired of schlepping the maharajah around (it was slippery out there!), I ignored her pleas ("Ride! Ride!") and took us back home. At first, Sonia was just as skeptical of the snow as she had been before:


But, then I pointed out the fun crunching noise that the snow made under our feet, and Sosini really started enjoying herself.


We braved the icy sidewalks again (they weren't too bad when I wasn't attempting to pull a wagon behind me), and Sonia got used to walking very carefully to avoid falling on her well-padded bum.


Before I insisted we go inside (after an hour, I was getting cold-- I don't have snuggly snow pants like Sonia does!), Sosini and I climbed the stairs up to the deck to look in the window. Margie Cat was very concerned-- what in the world were we doing out there in the freezing winter air? More importantly, could she come out and join us?


Later in the week, Sonia wanted to go outside and play again.... We walked around for a while, and I made us go back inside when I couldn't stand the cold anymore. Sonia was very, very sad that I cut our playtime short (only 30 minutes), but my legs were seriously frozen. While we were thawing out, I checked the temperature, and it was only 17 degrees. I think we have a crazy little polar bear on our hands!

Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Sonia and her Murray buddies

The Murrays came over for a fun chili dinner this past weekend, and as usual, hilarity ensued....






Sonia had so much fun with Aidan, Sophie, and Kieran! She is definitely getting more and more comfortable with hanging out with older kids.... Once her initial bout of shyness passed, Sonia spent the rest of the afternoon & evening chasing the Murray kids around and laughing hysterically. I loved watching Sophie and Aidan attempt to carry Sonia around-- it wasn't easy, because Sosini is not much smaller than them! But all the parties involved thought it was high comedy. Another highlight of the evening was the drumming exhibition that Andrew put on in the basement.... At one point, Sonia was standing on Andrew's snare drum, dancing. Oh, my. We love you, Murray family!

Monday, January 17, 2011

Grapes

Me: "Sonia, did you eat all the grapes in that little bowl you were carrying around?"

Sonia: (blank stare)


Me: "Sonia, how did all those grapes get into the cupboard of your kitchen?"

Sonia: (blink.... blink...)


Ohhhhhh, Sonia..... Well, we're definitely going to continue to strap you in while you eat meals!

Thursday, January 13, 2011

20 months old: a state of the baby address

Whoa! 20 months!! Andrew and I are on the downhill slide toward being the parents of a 2 year old. How did this happen? Sonia has been busy busy busy for the past month, so time has seemed to be flying by. She is a complete and utter goofball who makes me laugh far more than I ever would have imagined back before I was a parent.... Tonight, she "helped" me cook by standing on a chair next to me and stirring ice cubes (a la Charlotte).



I apologize if anything in this post doesn't make sense, but Sonia is in a bit of a sleep regression at the moment, and I'm a bit loopy from lack of sleep. This morning, she woke up-- for the day-- at 3:45am. Wha-wha-WHAT?!? I mean, seriously. If this is from teething, I'm ready to throw in the towel and cry uncle. Tooth #16 just popped through, so I hope once these stupid canine teeth finish erupting, we get a bit of a break before her next set of molars come in.



Sosini is getting awfully snuggly and fun to cuddle lately.... This is a far cry from when she was an infant and was much happier laying on her play mat than being held by her parents (excuse me while I remove the knife from my back, right?). When she watches television (either Yo Gabba Gabba, Sesame Street, or Wonder Pets), she loves to settle into her little kid-sized arm chair and have me lay her fleece ladybug blanket (hand-crafted by the sewing genius, my Aunt Janet) across her lap. We play "night-night" so much (which involves putting little blankets either on her or her stuffed animals & dolls) that Sonia thinks blankets are actually called "night-nights". Silly goose!



Sosi is growing at a steady pace.... She's now in 2T tops and 24 month bottoms. Her hair continues to thicken, and I'm thinking she might be outgrowing her size 6 shoes. She's still a fairly good eater, though she's got the typical toddler pickiness problems.


Now if we could only get her sleep completely straightened out....

Wednesday, January 12, 2011

Sonia and her love of footwear

I am hiding my credit cards..... I'm worried that Sonia is going to hop in her little red wagon and make her way to DSW to buy out the whole store. Girlfriend LOVES shoes! Emma made the fatal error of wearing some pretty cool boots over to our house the other day.... The Great Sosini highjacked the boots and took off. She could walk in them surprisingly well!




Note the bow in Sonia's hair.... I was able to clip one in, and Sonia instantly loved it. She kept looking in the mirror and saying "pretty! pretty!". When the bow fell out at one point, she brought it over to me and asked me to put it back in. Good girl!



A sinking feeling

Sonia had a blast playing in the sink the other day.... I'm going to have to remember to bust this activity out again sometime when Sosini is having a fussy day!