K.I.T.

Keeping in touch with our family and friends is very important to us. It's one of the reasons why I started this blog. Just because we have family far away, it doesn't mean Sophie can't still be close with them. One of the ways we keep in touch with Aunt Libby is to Skype with her. Sophie loves to Skype and and was giving Libby kisses through the computer the other day.

The Balls are Back!

The ball display is back at Target and Sophie couldn't be any happier. This girl loves her balls. We took home a big yellow one.

The Big Tease-y

These days when Sophie asks to give Lulu a bone, she's smart about it. She likes to stretch out the fun by teasing her dog sister as long as possible. She'll hold the bone up high, or behind her back and force Lulu to follow her around begging for it. Sophie loves this little game of "chase" but I'm sure Lulu is sick of it. In the end everyone wins though, Lulu gets a bone and Sophie laughs and claps for her.

Twins?

While hanging out with her partner in crime, Ellen, we often were asked if the girls were twins! At just eight days apart, they are so very similar in size and even personality at times. It was fun for them to ride in the car and the stroller together.

Road Trippin' with the Girls

Sophie and I enjoyed some quality girl time this past weekend when we took our road trip to the coast. We drove over to Shell Beach with our friends Annie and Ellen to visit Sarah and her girls Kendall and Katelyn. Our friend Trinity and her son Reed met us in Shell Beach too. We strolled, we played at the park, we explored a children's museum and enjoyed some quality bonding time with friends.

Sophie and Ellen ready for a stroll

Kendall and her baby sister Katelyn

Climbing!

Sliding!

More climbing!

Exploring!

Shopping the "Farmer's Market"

I love my sunglasses!

BFFs

Sophie and I spent the long weekend over on the coast where I hung with some moms and she bonded with some kiddie friends. I'm still sorting through all the pictures, but here's a great shot that took us only 30 tries!

Left to right, Sophie, Katelyn, Kendall, Ellen and Reed!

Milkshakes for Breakfast

Last week when Sophie had a little cold, I made a batch of milkshakes for breakfasts. That's right, milkshakes. It was super healthy though, just a slightly modified version of the green smoothie we tried a few weeks back. She gobbled it up, but I have to admit that I probably loved it even more than she did.

Breakfast Milkshake

1 frozen banana 

(make your life easier and slice this up before freezing)

4 ounces vanilla greek yogurt

1 tablespoon Biscoff spread

1 cup almond milk

Blend it all up and you have a creamy, dreamy shake for breakfast! You can also use any sort of nut butter like peanut butter or almond butter in place of the Biscoff and regular or soy milk instead of the almond milk.

Sweet Treats

Valentine's Day lead to Sophie eating more sweets in one day then I would normally let her have in a month! I've only recently let her have some bits of chocolate and she love, love, loved her very first cake pop. Her Papa gave it to her for Valentine's Day and I was hesitant to let her try it, but she gobbled a few bites and then left it on the windowsill for me to find later.

Sweet Sixteen

I couldn't resist celebrating Valentine's Day and Sophie turning sixteen months on this special day with fourteen heart-shaped balloons. She loves balloons lately and it was such a fun and easy way to make her day. We left them all floating individually in the living room so she came out to a ceiling full of balloons. Later in the day, we tied them up in a big bunch and let her run around outside with them.

Happy Valentine's Day!

We're celebrating the love over here and sixteen months of sloppy kisses, sweet snuggles and squeezable cheeks with our little Sophie.

At sixteen months, Sophie's vocabulary is growing every day. In addition to Mama and Dada, she now says Baba and Papa when pointing to one of her grandpas and great-grandpas. Mama seems to now work for grandmas and great-grandmas too! She likes pointing out people in pictures and naming them. She loves to say "bone" and then asks to get a bone for her dog sister from the pantry. She also loves to tease the dog by carrying it around for a while before actually handing it over! She's added raspberries and blackberries to her list of favorite foods and surprised me by asking for a "cracker" the other morning. She's big into climbing these days and loves jumping on the couch or the bed. She's obsessed with bubbles and loves being outside. Luckily for us, we've had such a mild winter that we can be outside most days of the week. Sophie is a busy girl in her play kitchen these days and while she can't say them herself yet, she loves to bring you cupcakes, cookies, tea, milk or juice from her kitchen when  you ask for them. She'll even pour your cup of tea and loves to cheers!

The Saturday Post

Can you dig it?

Feeding Nacho

We all know that Sophie is an animal lover. She loves them in person, in books, or at the zoo. As part of her animal obsession, she has recently decided that Nacho, the neighborhood cat, deserves to be fed by hand. While our dog Lulu loves this treatment and would follow Sophie around all day just to catch a crumb, Nacho could care less. We usually feed Nacho two to three times a day because Sophie loves it so much. I have to keep the servings small or we'd have one giant cat on our hands! We used to just feed Nacho and then watch from behind the screen door or through the little window, as seen here. These days, Sophie has decided to plop herself down next to the cat and attempts to hand feed her each piece of food.

P.S. Don't you love that sweet little curl in the back? I do.

Friends

It's so sweet to see our little girl making friends. She is coming into a very cute phase where she is interacting more with other kids around her and actually playing with them. She talks to them in gibberish, gives out hugs and open mouth kisses, and even holds hands.

Sacrifices

We all have to make sacrifices as parents. Some are big and some are small. I may not always, or very often at all, get to wash and blow dry my hair these days. I may not wear dry clean only sweaters very often knowing they won't last longer than one wearing. I may not get as much sleep as I would like because I stay up late doing all the little things I couldn't get done during the day. You know, important stuff like Pinterest and blogging.

Some sacrifices are really more like compromises. Like in the morning, when Sophie wants to feed herself her yogurt, I just as often as not let her do it. I could sit by her side and carefully spoon feed her each bite, avoiding the mess all together but that's not what she wants. And who wants to start the morning with a battle? So even though I know she will end up looking like this, it gives me a few extra minutes to clean up the breakfast dishes, or more realistically, the dinner dishes leftover from last night.

Soakin' in the Sun

We enjoyed a few beautiful days in Lake Tahoe this past weekend. Although they haven't had much snow up there this winter, the weather was just right to make for a great day of snowboarding for Chase and a warm, sunny day of lounging by the ice skating rink in North Star Village for Sophie and me.

New Heights

I shouldn't climb this? Are you sure about that, Mom?