Happy Birthday, Brock!

Brock turned the big 3-5 on April 16th. We started the celebration with dinner with some friends at Kobe followed by cake and ice cream afterwards at our house. Followed with a simple birthday celebration with his parents on Saturday. He requested sloppy joes for his birthday dinner and I was certainly happy to oblige this request. Put it together with a couple of side and presto the meal was complete. Happy Birthday Hunny! Hope you had a great weekend!

Opening gifts from his parents

Sophie loved Daddy's card! We listened to it over and over and over again!

Quick Update

Just a quick update.

We went to the doctor yesterday with Sophie to have her ears checked. My mommy radar had a feeling that the ear infection was there but was hoping I was wrong. The doctor looked at her ear and the one that she had the ear infection in before was clear but the other one was now infected. Her pediatrician decided to do a test called a tympanogram. It was a simple test where they stick a probe one at a time in each ear. She did this to determine if fluid was present in the middle ear. When they tested Sophie she had a flat line on both ears which they said indicated that there was fluid in the middle ear. They have put her on stronger antibiotic to treat the current ear infection and they have referred her to an audiologist and ENT. They want to make sure that it hasn't affected her hearing and also what is the best course of treatment for Sophie.

She has appointments with both the morning of the 14th of April and will find out more then. I think Brock and I are both just ready for her to feel better and the ear infections to stop. But we are confident we are on the right road.

Ear Infections...OUCH!

It has been a rough couple of weeks for us on the health front. The Thursday after her party, Sophie woke up in the middle of the night screaming. I went in after about 1 hour, I was able to get her back to sleep. When we woke up the next morning she seemed fine, so I chalked it up to either a nightmare or possibly cutting more teeth. When I went to go and pick up Sophie after school she seemed warm and I thought maybe was running a fever. While it seemed like it was just low grade, Sophie was wiped and we decided it was best to bring Sophie into the pediatrician before the weekend. Sure enough, she had an ear infection and was put on an antibiotic.

About one week after she finished up her antibiotic, I noticed that she was tugging on her ear again. I didn't want to take any chances so I took her in just to get her ear checked. Good thing I did! Another ear infection! They put her on a different antibiotic to see if her body was responding to the antibiotic she was on the last time. We have to take her back on the 29th for another ear check. If the ear infection is still there then we will determine the best course of action for her. For now, we are just keeping our fingers crossed!

Learning so much!

Sophie has been doing so well at preschool. The first couple of days were rough while she adjusted to her new environment. But now she all but takes off her coat when we get there. You can just tell that she really enjoys herself there and we can tell that she is learning so much! Her vocabulary is getting stronger and her social skills are just flourishing. She has already made a little friend, Arin.

Each day, the preschool sends home a sheet of paper that lets us know how Sophie is doing. Their day is broken up into 4 categories (not including nap) and the children get a smiley faces on their sheet when they do well. Sophie has gotten smiley faces for all the categories on all of her sheets. The teachers do so well with the kids and Sophie is learning so much.

Sophie's First Haircut

It was definitely time for our little girl to get her first haircut. Her hair was getting so long and really needed to get a trim. So I made an appointment with Cookie Cutters, a local children's salon.

We arrived and Sophie was fine while we waited for our turn. I'm sure it was in part to the toys they had in the waiting area. But as soon as it was her turn for her haircut, she was less then thrilled. But below is some before, during and after photos.

Front Before

Back Before

Daddy, I don't like this.

After

Giving the new hairdo a twirl

Happy 2nd Birthday Sophie and First Day of Preschool

Our little girl has turned two! It's hard for us to believe that she is turning two. It seems like just yesterday we were walking up the ramp to the mother/baby unit of the hospital anticipating her arrival and now here we are two years later.

Brock and I decided to take her birthday off work as we had in the past. It was so nice to be able to just spend the day with her. The morning of her birthday we headed over to her preschool and brought in a birthday treat for their morning snack. The kids sang happy birthday to her and her teacher, Miss Mandi, left her a special birthday greeting in her cubby. The kids were so cute!

After our visit, we ran a few errands and then headed home for naptime. After nap, it was time for the professional pictures. She was so cute. And did very well with the pictures. We then headed over to Logan's Roadhouse for dinner to celebrate. It was a great meal. We laughed and giggled. Daddy and Sophie played "Monkey See Monkey Do". It was so much fun to watch her and see her personality shining through. After dinner, we headed home for playtime. She and I played catch for a bit, then she took a ride on her Barbie ATV that we got her for Christmas, and we also took the commemorative picture.

Friday, Brock headed back to work while I stayed home and spent the day with Sophie. We ran a few errands in the morning then played for a bit before naptime. Shortly after waking up from nap, Daddy came home and we played before heading to bed for the night.

Saturday was Sophie's party. We had about 30 of our friends and family came over to our house to celebrate. We had ordered fried chicken, and I made a pasta salad, roasted potatoes, and a broccoli cheese rice casserole. After dinner, we had a fabulous cake! It was so great to see everyone and enjoy the day with them. Brock and I would again like to thank everyone who was able to come and join us. It was so great to have you there to join in the festivities.

Today was a big day for Sophie. She started preschool at Bright Horizons. We started the morning by getting her all ready at home. She insisted the Tigger also needed his hair combed so she took care of getting him all ready. We then took a few pictures to memorialize the day and headed off to school. We got there about 8:00 a.m., got her all settled and headed out. When I picked her up about three so that we could take her for her well baby shots we got a full report of the day. She did so well for her first day and even slept on the cots with no problems. In fact, Miss Mandi told us that she was the first one to fall asleep. It really might be time for us to consider switching her over to her toddler bed.

After school, we headed over to her pediatrician for her well baby check-up which she passed with flying colors. They had absolutely no concerns. She still doesn't like the doctor's office. Although she did give both her pediatrician and the nurse a high five. She only had to get one shot (her second dose of Hep A). Here are her current states from the appointment:

Weight: 26 lbs 6 oz (50 percentile)
Height: 35" (80th percentile)

She now doesn't have to go back till she turns 3.

The Birthday Girl

Cheese!

Monkey See, Monkey Do

Catch Mommy!

She's two :)

Riding around on my automobile

Wearing Daddy's Cub hat

The Cake

Boy it was YUMMY!

Some of the party guests

More party guests watching the Olympics

The birthday girl in her party dress

Austin, it was great to see the Browns!

Some of the gang

Singing Happy Birthday!

Making a wish and blowing out the candles with Mommy's help

Yummy Cake

Opening gifts with Daddy

Gift bags are fun!

Dance Dance Dance!

Getting ready for the first day of Preschool

Getting Tigger ready for Preschool

Mommy and Sophie on her first day of preschool

And sharing a giggle!

Daddy and Sophie on her first day of preschool

First day of preschool

Updates...Updates...and more updates

I have been so incredibly bad when it comes to blogging. So there is many updates.

Sophie is growing into quite a little girl. Before we know it her 2nd birthday will be here! It's amazing to us that in just over a month, our little angel will be 2.

We've started really settling into our house. I still haven't decided where I want to hang pictures. My goal when we moved was to get to a livable state, get through the holidays, and Sophie's birthday and then I can work on going through the remainder of boxes and getting pictures hung on the wall. I don't think Brock or I are in any hurry to start tackling the chore. But we both know that we have to tackle it at some point.

The holidays were great. It's amazing to us how much more fun the holidays are with Sophie in our lives. We took her over to see Santa at State Farm again this year. It is so great that State Farm organizes this for us. Sophie was so cute when we got there. She kept asking "Santa, where are you?" She did great sitting with him and didn't even cry. After she saw Santa was another story. She started acting out. I think that part of it was that she was so tired.

Christmas was a bit rough for her when it came to health. Right before Christmas, she got a mild case of pink eye. It was not fun having to put drops into her eye. I don't think that either one of us (me or Sophie) enjoyed it one bit. Shortly after the holidays, she got an ear infection. At first we thought it might have been because of teething but when she spiked a fever when knew it was more then just teeth. Off to the pediatrician we went and sure enough it was an ear infection. The infection seemed to linger forever. It lasted for over a week even on antibiotics. She seems to be doing much better now! Thank goodness. I hate it when she doesn't feel well. Just breaks my heart!

From a celebration perspective, Christmas was great! Sophie was so into Santa. He brought her a new kitchen. Which she absolutely LOVES! She is always telling us that "Sophie cooking" She also got a few baby dolls for Christmas which was a big hit. She is very motherly and loves walking the baby in the stroller that she also got.

New Years was pretty uneventful but also fun! With Sophie being sick, we decided it was best for us to just stay in out of the sub zero weather. Brock and I ordered in dinner. We played with Sophie till she went to bed and then watched a movie and the ball drop in NYC.

Sophie has really picked up on the repeating. Thank goodness Brock and I have been very careful about the words that we use around her. Although there is a funny story. As I'm sure it is in some other towns, we have some drivers that really just shouldn't be on the road. I have a habit that when someone does something rather ignorant while we're driving (i.e. cutting us off, going through a stop sign, etc), I'll say "dude, seriously". Well the other day we were getting ready to go out. I went out to the car, got Sophie into her car seat, got in the car, buckled in, etc. Just as I started started the car I hear from the back seat, "Dude, seriously". Needless to say, I was laughing hysterically. Of course, she didn't say it as clear but it was easy enough to know what she said. Thank goodness we've been careful or what she said could have been definitely worse.

To close this post, here are some pictures from our adventures over the past couple of months (in no particular order because the darn blog wasn't let me move then nicely so I gave up LOL):

Snow on our back deck during the first snowfall of 2010

Sophie and Grandpa having tea!

Sophie and Grandpa

Opening the table/chair


Taking her baby for a walk Christmas Day

Playing with the wrapping Christmas Day.

YEAH To Santa!

Santa Visit at State Farm 12/5/2009

Brock hanging up the Christmas lights

Playing in the pantry Christmas Eve

Opening Presents

Daddy and Sophie

Picking out the perfect Christmas Tree.

CHEESE!

Our Christmas Wreath