Sunday, March 27, 2011

Spice Education with Daddy

I love watching Andrew give Sonia "spice education" lessons. They involve letting her sniff a bunch of spices and telling her their names. Sosini loves spice education! She is definitely a future food lover in the making.

Tuesday, March 22, 2011

This couch is awfully comfy!

Why lay on the couch when you can just lay on Daddy?


Monday, March 21, 2011

Sidewalk (driveway?) chalk art

Can you still call it "sidewalk chalk" if you use it on the driveway? Sonia got to try her hand at art on a concrete canvas this past weekend, and she loved it!




Her art all consisted of little lines drawn on top of my drawings. It was very fun to watch her do her art thing!




Hmm... Perhaps black pants weren't the best choice of clothing for chalk art.

Sunday, March 20, 2011

Lunch with The Great Sosini

Hee hee! I love sitting on a booster seat in a booth at Uncle Julio's Hacienda.


Here, Mommy! Take a bite of the ball of tortilla dough that the waiter brought out for me to play with.


BWAHAHAHAHA!!!


Whaddya mean I'm laughing so loudly that the entire restaurant is staring at us?


Sheesh. I never get to have any fun.

Saturday, March 19, 2011

Spring has sprung!

This past Wednesday, the weather was dry and the temperature was in the low 60's.... PARK TIME!!!

Sosini immediately ran to the swings. After swinging for 5 minutes, she started saying "no... down...". I was shocked-- she was done swinging already? Nope. She simply walked to the other swing and begged to get in that one. Apparently, she was trying them both out to see if one was superior.


CHEESE!


Ike & Emma came to join in the fun and enjoy the fantastic day. Sonia desperately wanted Ike to go down the slide next to her, but he was too skeptical of the arrangement.


For a long time, Sosi and Ike ignored the playground equipment and just wandered around the park, acting silly.


Buddies!

Tuesday, March 15, 2011

Happy Birthday, Andrew!

Happy birthday to my husband and best friend! Every year, for 2 1/2 months, he is a year older than me, but I always catch up in early June. Sonia wished her daddy a "happy birty" this morning, and she gave him a few birthday smooches.

In honor of Andrew's special day, I made him a red velvet cake with whipped cream cheese frosting. I am seriously the worst cake baker on the planet.... First, I chose a pan that was too small (I guess it wasn't 9"x13" after all). 15 extra minutes of baking time were required, but I was left with a lop-sided cake that had almost overflowed its pan. When I frosted the cake, I guess it wasn't 100% cool (it had been cooling for 2 hours, but apparently that wasn't enough), and it started disintegrating. So, the frosting had little speckles of cake throughout. I didn't pre-plan the placement of the candles that spelled out "HAPPY BIRTHDAY", and you can guess how that turned out. To ensure that I win the title of "Worst Cake Baker in the World", I decided to bust out some red sparkly icing and attempt to draw hearts and write Andrew's name while Sonia was whining and pulling on me.

Behold:


Other than being a touch dry, the cake ended up tasting pretty darn good. I should probably read up on some cake baking tips before I make my next birthday cake.... In the meantime, I'll stick to cupcakes.

Sunday, March 13, 2011

22 months old: a state of the baby address

Sonia Sonia Sonia.... You gallop around the house, giggling and singing. You snore and drool while you sleep. After you eat, your belly looks like you swallowed a small bowling ball. You run in place when you get mad or excited. You shriek and throw your arms in the air when you first catch sight of your friends. You let me spoon-feed you guacamole. You insist on saying bye-bye to your feet when we put you in your sleep sack before naps & bedtime. You're pretty sure if you just keep on trying, Margie Cat will one day let you pick her up. You love stickers:






What can I say? You are my sunshine and I love you so much! In two months, you will be 2 years old.... Get ready for some celebratory cupcakes and a ton of smooches!

Thursday, March 10, 2011

Love the hand-me-downs!

Yet another example of a gorgeous jumper that Sonia's buddy, Sophie, handed down.... The Great Sosini was in a crazy mood this morning when I took these pictures! She likes the horses embroidered on the jumper-- she kept saying "neigh!" and galloping around.







Thanks again for the hand-me-downs, Sophie!

Sunday, March 6, 2011

YaYa goes to the park

Even though Sonia has clearly learned how to say the "s" sound, she still pronounces her name "YaYa". There's something that mystifies her about words that begin with S, but she can say the sound in the middle and at the end of words. At any rate, it's devastatingly adorable, and I'm going to be a little sad when she gets her name's pronunciation straightened out! My other favorite words she mis-pronounces include:

Nommas = Thomas, as in Thomas the Tank Engine.... it almost sounds like she's saying "namaste"

yuts = lunch

Yats = Lance, as in DJ Lance Rock on Yo Gabba Gabba

geeps = grapes

huggy = hungry

The longest sentences that Sosinini has constructed so far are 3 words, and they typically revolve around announcing that someone is consuming some sort of food: "Daddy eat pickles" or "YaYa eat yogurt".

Recently, Sonia has started telling me that not only is "YaYa huggy", but other people and/or toys are "huggy" as well. When we were at the DuPage Children's Museum last week, Sonia told me she was hungry. It wasn't quite time for lunch, so to stall her, I told her we had to change her diaper first. While she was on the changing table, she informed me that Ike (who was at the museum with us) was hungry as well. "Ike huggy," she said, nodding solemnly. Goofball!

On Thursday of this past week, the weather was dry AND in the temperature was in the 40's (which to us felt like a heat wave), so Sonia and I ventured to the park for the first time in 2011. She was in heaven! Sosini climbed on the playground equipment, swung on the swings, and chased squirrels. We lasted almost an hour until we were both getting a little chilly. Get here soon, warm weather!!!



Where did the squirrel go, Mommy?


I see him! I see him!


Come back here, squirrel! I just want to give you a hug!



After I took this picture, I realized that she was excitedly pointing out two teen-aged boys who were riding bikes through the park.


Time to swing on the big-girl swings! Note her filthy jeans.... I should stock up on stain remover in anticipation of spring's arrival!

Wednesday, March 2, 2011

Poor little sick girl

I forgot I had this picture on the camera.... When Sosi was sick with a cough, cold, and mild ear infection a couple of weeks ago, she got all snuggled up on the couch to eat popcorn with Ming-Ming (one of the characters from The Wonder Pets).


I totally think keeping warm underneath her fantastic fleece ladybug blanket (handmade by her Greatest Aunt Janet) helped speed up Sosini's recovery.

Tuesday, March 1, 2011

Oven Socks

Sonia, WHY are you wearing oven mitts as socks?!?