Sonia Lou Retton on her own!

Sonia just started a new phase in her already storied gymnastics career: big girl class without Mommy!

In honor of moving up to the new class level, we bought her a cute little black leotard from Target.

My camera was having trouble with the lighting, so the flash was sometimes on, sometimes off during this photo session.

Cheesy cheese cheese!!

She decided to wear a beautiful yellow tutu skirt (that Grandma Jenni and Grandpa Dick sent her) over her leotard, and that inspired her to do some crazy dance moves.

Exactly 20 minutes after I snapped this last picture, Sonia was sitting in a heap on the gym floor, sobbing for Mommy.  Whoops.  I'm still not 100% sure what flipped her out, but I have a couple of guesses.  She has historically felt a bit nervous around strange adult men, and when she realized that the warm-up stretches were going to be led by three male coaches, she might have gotten overwhelmed.  Also, three different classes (about 20 kids in total) warm up together before breaking off into their separate groups, so perhaps the number of kids made her brain short-circuit.  At any rate, I had to go out into the gym with her as we just sat on the sidelines and watched her class for the entire hour.  ARGH!!!!

Things are looking up, though....  When I realized that the 10:10am classes were filled with kids she had never met while the 9:00am classes contained four kids that she knows (including her BFF/neighbor, Aanya), I switched her to the 9:00am slot. With a few familiar faces to buoy her confidence, week #2 went better: Sonia actually stayed in the gym with her class while I watched through the windows, and she even participated in about 10-15 minutes of the hour-long class.  She had her third class today, and although she still refused to take part in the warm-up (why, Sonia, why?!?), she participated happily throughout the rest of the class.  So, I'm sure by the end of this session, she's going to be back to her old happy gymnast self.

Favorites

I have been plowing through George R. R. Martin's series "A Song of Ice and Fire" (the series of books that is the basis for HBO's series "Game of Thrones"), so that's why I've been neglecting the blog as of late.  But, now that I have finished all 5 novels (not sure how I'm going to be able to wait for the final two to be written and released), I'm back in action!  Here are some of my favorite pictures of Sonia that I have taken during the last month or so:

At Peck Farm in Geneva:

At Willowbrook Wildlife Center in Glen Ellyn (on two different days):

At Ty Warner Spray Park in Westmont:

I love my crazy little Sonia Balogna!

Another first: a visit to the dentist

Earlier this week, Sonia had her very first dental check-up and cleaning!  We're probably long overdue in bringing her to the dentist, but the dentist said that Sosini's teeth look perfect.

Sonia approved of the toys in the waiting room!

Given Sonia's past history of being nervous around unfamiliar men (she spends most of her daily life around mommies), I requested one of the female dentists in our dental practice.  Sonia seemed instantly comfortable with the dentist herself, but still a bit unsure about what was going on.  It's easy to forget how alien and weird a dentist's office is until you try to see it for the first time with the shaky understanding of a 3-year-old.  The dentist was a pro at dealing with little kids.  She first showed Sonia how she could squirt water into a cup and suck it back up.

Then, I climbed into the chair and put Sonia on my lap, and we proceeded with the check up.  The dentist went step by step, doing everything on me first (while Sonia watched with keen interest).  Sonia did GREAT!  The dentist was able to "count" all of Sonia's teeth, do a bit of polishing (!!), and floss her.  Sosini impressed me so much!  Just look at this happy girl, post-checkup:

The dentist was a good sport and posed with my little goofy-boo.

Time to start trying to floss Sonia's teeth every night....  Night #1 went well.  We'll see how long that lasts!  Sonia is pretty good about brushing her teeth (she's been using big kid toothpaste without swallowing it at all for almost a year now), so hopefully she'll be good about being flossed, too.

Sonia and Ike

Sonia and one of her bestest buddies, Isaac (aka Ike or Ikey), have been working hard at being ridiculously adorable lately.  Witness:

Posing with the Dick Tracy statue on the riverwalk in Naperville:

I absolutely love covered bridge pictures....

Sonia stood on a bench and performed an original rock opera about penguins.  It was more than a little bit nutty.

Tee hee....  Giggling about nothing.

Both Ikey and Sosini decided it would be hilarious to wear their bathing suits on their heads before playing at the Dragonfly Landing splash pad.

Following the leader, the leader, the leader (you know, the song from Peter Pan)

Buddies!!!!!!

Cousin convention June 2012, part 3

The last day of the cousin convention was so much fun....  It began with an Uncle-Nephew dance party.  First, they had to find Peter's favorite song on the silly farm-themed fridge toy:

Then, they boogied like champs.

We invited Ike over for a sprinkler/pool/water table party.  Petey and Ikey remind me so much of each other that it was really fun to get them together-- we figured that either they would be best friends or they'd fight like cats and dogs.  They were a bit wary of each other at first, but then they had a great time.

Oh, Charlotte....  You are such a funny little girl!!  

If a kid is wearing sunglasses, everything he/she does is automatically 10 times cuter.  I love Petey's shades!

Sonia loves her jungle pool!  And I love that swimsuit....

Warming up in the sun....  Thank goodness for sunblock!

A meeting of the minds in the jungle pool....

PIZZA!!  (Don't worry-- Sonia didn't eat that entire piece all by herself!  I shared it with her.)

Post-lunch shenanigans... Ikey and Petey both put on their cool-dude shades and raced around the house like loons.

Ikey always loves to hang out with cute older girls....

Before Charbunkle and Pizza-Pie headed back to TN, the kids all snuggled up together to watch Huckle Cat solve mysteries in Busy Town.  I love the serious looks on their faces....  Such a funny little group of goofballs.

Cousin convention June 2012, part 2

Miraculously, all 3 kids slept really well the whole visit....  I am so happy we seem to be moving beyond the days of yore when my sister and I were zombies every time we got our kids together because Petey and Sonia would decide that sleeping had gone out of style.  On Thursday morning, the kids started out with a rousing game of doctor:

After we got the kids dressed (via the assembly line, of course), we took them to Monkey Joe's to have a blast, jumping their hearts out.  We didn't bother taking any still pictures there because the lighting makes it impossible to capture anything but blurs.  I still need to edit the billions of short videos we took with the Flip video there, because the world needs to see the wackiness that is Charbunkle, Petey, and Sosini at MJ's.  Somehow, we didn't take any pictures during the rest of the day, either.  Huh.  From what I remember, Petey took a nap, the girls played in the basement, and all was well.

Anyway, on Friday morning, we took the kids to the Willowbrook Wildlife Center.  Sonia and I love that place so much, and Grandma JoJo, Charlotte, & Peter decided they loved it, too.

Peter spent the entire time inhaling Cheerios as fast as he could:

I love this cute cousin picture!

Hey, it's a woodchuck!

The kids would like to make sure the adults understand that the sign applies to the animals, not the kids.

Grandma JoJo and her Pizza-Pie (who is still mowing through Cheerios)!

The kids always love this hilarious little butterfly observation house....

More Cheerios!

The kids loved these little chairs....  Now everyone is snacking!  Good thing, too, because I forgot our lunches at home.  WHOOPS!

After we got home and lunched, Petey went down for a nap and the girls hung out with me & Grandma JoJo as we waited for Niki to get back from Michigan (having made an offer on a house!!).  They thought my light-up 10x magnifying mirror was hilarious....

And they enjoyed making some beautiful beaded jewelry!

After Niki got home, we poured over the 98 (!!) pictures she had taken of the house that she & Corey had decided to buy.  It is beautiful, and I can't wait to see it in person!  Luckily, Niki & the kids got to stay around for another day of fun before they headed back to Tennessee to start the long packing process.  Blog post to come....