it's a single mom weekend!

Well, Tim is off to Seattle for the wedding of our dear friend Peyton (he's the best man).  CONGRATULATIONS PEYTON AND APRIL! LOVE YOU GUYS!

We dropped daddy off at the airport at 2pm, and I have been working ever since (working to get her to take a nap!).  As I write, I don't hear her on the monitor anymore, so i'm crossing my fingers that she finally fell asleep.  It's 4:30pm by the way...she's a tough one!

But i'm determined to have a nice, easy-going weekend...that is after my home showing appointment tomorrow.  OH BOY, SHE'S STILL AWAKE! aaaaahhhhh!

Hopefully I can get this disaster area of a house in some type of livable order.

But cheers to a girls weekend!

p.s. we had another dr. appt today for Sophia, and her ct scan results came back negative!  our baby is healthy and happy.  Just hard-headed...now let's get her to sleep!

Pictures

Paw and Sophia- Texarkana, May 2011

Daddy and Sophia- Daytona Beach, June 2011

Miss Priss with an oversized bow, haha

Daytona Beach- June 2011

Finally a quiet moment to blog (she's napping)

Hi blog world!  It's been way too long (i say that every time).  Tim and I have been extremely busy!  With our trips to Texas and Florida, then back home to real estate and an Arabic class at Georgetown, life never stands still!  And not to mention Sophia is developing and walking so fast that we can barely keep up!

Sophia updates:
She turned 1 on May 12!  Gosh, we have a 1 year old...crazy!


She's walking everywhere (for about 2 months now).  In to EVERYTHING!  I can't baby proof our house enough!  This kid always finds something to get in to, pull off of a shelf, or put in her mouth.

She talks (babbles) NON-STOP.  It's the cutest thing because she acts like she knows exactly what she is saying, but it just comes out as mumbles (except for a few words that we can make out).  She says cracker so clearly. She'll say thank you, every now and then, daddy, ma ma when i don't ask her to.  She repeats A LOT of things we say..or she tries to anyway. It's so funny.  Most of the things she tries to repeat starts out with a D sound, so everything sounds similar.

She loves being outside and will throw a fit when you bring her in..already!  Geez, we're in trouble.  And to touch on fits, she throws them when you tell her no, take her away from something she's not suppose to do, or if you do something she doesn't like.  OH BOY!  This doesn't fly very well in my house.  AND she has started to HIT.  my little hitter!  I don't even know how to handle it..i thought we would have this quiet, reserved child (like i was)..but she's quiet the opposite...loud, outgoing, STRONG-WILLED, and hard-headed.

BUT...she. is. HILARIOUS!!!  Tim and I laugh non stop at her.  We wonder where she comes up with all of her cute little bits.  I don't get it...she has the most hilarious personality already.  It's like she knows she a jokester!

Sophia still wakes up in the middle of the night, but she's so dang cute and funny, i don't even care! haha.  She had a CT scan last week, and we are still waiting on results.  But no news is good news, says the nurse.  Her pedi wanted this done mostly as a follow-up.  She had bleeding on her brain when she was born and coupled with her night-waking, her doctor wanted to do this as mostly precautionary.  But everything should be fine.

One last thing!  Tim and I celebrated our 6 year wedding anniversary on June 11th...he surprised me with U2 concert tickets.....TWAS AMAZING!!!!!!  Bono is incredible!

I have another post coming soon about my new business venture!  Stay tuned, all (if anyone actually reads this, haha).

Ohh, and i will post pics of Sophia soon..i forgot to send them from my phone to cp.  

Time flies!

It's been a very fast 5 months since I have updated the blog.  Apologies to those who come to our blog dissapointed, :)

Most important developments over the past few months:

Sophia is almost 11 months old! April 12th to be exact.  She is hilarious and so much fun!  She is cruising around everywhere and standing on her own for a bit.  She hasn't had the guts to try and take a step, but I bet she could if she tried!

Tim got accepted into law school (University of Baltimore) and he also received the " Linguist of the Year for Department of the Army" award, which means out of the entire army!  He also got accepted into an accelerated Arabic program at Georgetown University this summer- 6 weeks long i believe.

I finally got my Real Estate License here in Maryland.  One week after I passed my exams, I signed with a Broker (1 mile from my house) as an Independent Contractor.  I'm loving it!

And we on the countdown to ending Tim's military career.  May 10 is his out-processing day.  We cannot wait!  After 6 years of service, it's his time!

Sophia will be turning 1 on May 12th, and we are having her party in Texarkana!  We are so excited to be able to celebrate her first birthday with all of our friends and family.

May 10 we fly to Texarkana for 3 weeks..Then to Florida to visit Ben, Kacey, and our new nephew, sweet little Maddox that was born yesterday, April 7th.

This summer is busy, busy, but we can't wait!  Bring on the heat!

Some of my favs that Mike and Jess took.  (thanks for the dress Aunt Jessica...and the fish shorts!) lol

  

Home Again

It's good to be back to our home in Maryland.  Tim completed his two months of training in San Angelo, TX.  Sophia and I spent the first month in Texarkana with our families, and the second month we got a furnished apartment in San Angelo with Tim.  We have been home almost two weeks, and i'm still unpacking and cleaning..sad!  All of my free time is spent working on my real estate class, which I will finish this week and take the final test. 

Sophia is growing like a flower.  "Growing like a weed" isn't as pretty.  She will hit 6 1/2 months this friday.  I can't even believe it.  She is rolling all the time, "talking" non-stop, and eating so much more baby food..so cute!  Her favorite is sweet potatoes.  Ohh, and she is teething, so you can imagine the drool. 

This past friday I made a last minute appointment for Sophia to see her Dr.  I have been concerned about her spitting up more than normal still, night waking constantly, screaming out randomly like she is in pain, and a few other things.  Of course I have researched all the symptoms, and they all lead to GER or GERD.  Gastroesophegial Reflux (disease).  Sophia does not sleep more than 3 hours at a time.  She wakes up constantly throughout the night, seeming to be uncomfortable.  Nobody gets much sleep in this house.  Anyway, the Dr. put her on prevacid (reflux medicine) and told me to call in two weeks.  If I haven't seen any change, she will refer us to a GI specialist.  Lets hope this works!

                                                    Winter hat that NanaDee made Sophia

 

A warm Russian Princess

Sophia's first Halloween (in San Angelo)

My 25th surprise birthday present from Tim! (ignore the mess)

The Happenings

So much has gone on since my last post. I have not been good about blogging, but once we make it back home to Maryland, I will post more often.

Sophia turned the big 5 months on October 12th! I can't even believe I have a five month old. And not to mention I will be 25 in 3 weeks! Where is the time going?! Anyway, Sophia has done much better with spitting up. When I was in San Angelo (my last post) we decided to switch her formula (with the help of NanaDee, Thank you!) to Parent's Choice Added Rice Starch "for babies that spit up frequently". It has been a miracle drug for her...until she got sick, but I won't get in to that. She was a totally different baby almost immediately after switching. I didn't consult her pedi on this matter, because her dr. has switched for formula several times with no success. Her dr. has staying with the same brand of formula, Enfamil, (probably because she gets paid by them), but I decided to try something new...so happy I went with my own instict. Mom's know best sometimes, right? I would go on a long tangent about how we are all brainwashed to think that only name brand anything is the best. Well, that's not always the case. Parent's Choice (walmart brand) has worked the best for Sophia thus far. And it's much cheaper. Why? Probably because they don't spend millions of dollars selling their products to Dr's and hospitals, or making their formula cans look pretty. I will leave it at that before I get angry again.

Next: Tim decided to get some of his family together in Austin on his four day weekend. Two weeks ago, I drove from Texarkana, Stephanie (his sister) drover from Houston, his cousin Megan drove from College Station, his cousin Amber and her husband Kyle drove from Tyler, and good ole Uncle Dave from Texarkana. We all met in Austin for a bit of a family reunion. At the last minute I decided to bring Sophia, so that we could just drive back to San Angelo with Tim to stay for his remaining time in training. It wasn't the best circumstances to bring an infant to Austin, but I'm glad we made the trip, because Sophia and I have been in San Angelo for the past two weeks. We three got a furnished apartment off base until November 5th. We are enjoying our time here with Tim.  We had a great time seeing everyone in Austin, and plan to make it a yearly reunion.

Oatmeal:
Sophia's pedi back in Maryland insisted that I do not start solids until she is 6 months. However, her temporary Dr. in Texarkana starts their feeding program at 4 months. So i figured since she is 5 months, we would give in a whirl. I started with 1 teaspoon rice cereal mixed with formula. She absolutely hated it. Her face was priceless. The next morning i tried Oatmeal mixed with formula..same story. I figured she just wasn't quite ready, so I would wait about a week and try it again. My wonderful friend Stephanie, who has two kiddos (we miss you girls!), one of which is only 3 weeks older than Sophia, told me to try apple juice mixed with oatmeal...Anabelle loves it. So this past monday, October 18th, I tried it once more with Steph's recommendation. Sophia loved it! ( I really prefer her to eat oatmeal over rice cereal, since it doesn't cause constipation) It's the cutest thing now! I have been giving it to her every morning and evening, and then of course her bottle afterwards. The past two days I have even given her some at lunch. I upped her feeding to 2 tablespoons each time today and she gobbled it all right up! She has gotten to the point of opening her mouth every time the spoon comes near. She hasn't quite mastered the art of putting her tongue down and closing her mouth around the spoon, but so far, she's a champ! Does anybody have any recommendations on how much oatmeal to give her each time? For now, i'm just sticking with 2 tablespoons.

Now that she is eating oatmeal, i don't feel like she is even a baby anymore (until she screams uncontrollably) haha. The Pedi in Texarkana recommends 3 weeks of oatmeal, and then go on to baby food, starting with squash and other yellows. Try each one for 3 days to make sure no rash appears and then move on. Any other ideas, moms? If not, i'll stick to that plan.

In other news, i'm still working on my real estate license course online. I should finish within a few weeks, and take the final test when we get back to Maryland. I'm very excited! We are set to make it back around November 10 or 11. Tim goes back to work on the 12th (my b-day). What a bummer! I actually cannot wait to get back home though. Our great friends Dave and Flee, whom we haven't seen in over 3 years and now have 3 girls, moved 1 1/2 hours from us in Virginia! We are so excited to see them and meet all their babies! Their twin girls are only about a month younger than Sophia and Lizzy is 3 1/2! I can't wait to get our little families together.

Ok, pictures! A bit out of order with the oatmeal pics.

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Who knew that this $15 dollar umbrella stroller would come in handy!  It swallows her right now, but she loves it!

We are back!

It's been too long since my last post. So much has happened, and Sophia is pretty much grown! I have deleted my facebook, and will blog on a regular basis now. My goal is to post on here at least once a week. I hope to keep up with it so that one day Sophia can go back and read all about her growth and milestones and how much we love her.

Sophia turned 4 months on September 12th. She actually rolled over for the first time two days ago. She rolled from her belly to her back during the night. I happened to be awake so I was able to witness the adorable experience. She is making all kinds of noises (talking all the time), and smiling non-stop. She hasn't quite giggled yet, but she is so close! I cannot wait for that sweet sound.

She went through a colicky spell that started about a month ago, but is getting over that. She has still been spitting up a lot which causes her to be fussy and not be able to sleep very well at times...so she is on her fourth kind of formula, which she just started last night. We will give it about 2 weeks to see if it makes a difference. She was on the most expensive kind, for colic, but it wasn't helping with spitting up at all, so we switched her to Similac Sensitive Tummy for Spit-Up. We pray that this new brand/kind makes a difference. On a positive note, Sophia did start sleeping through the night at 4 months. She has been sleeping from 10pm-7am on average. She may wake up once during the night and get a little fussy because her tummy bothers her, but normally giving her the pacifier puts her back to sleep.

In other news Tim, Sophia, and I have been in Texas since September 9th. Tim was sent to ALC (military training) in San Angelo, TX. This training will last for 7 weeks so we figured we should all travel to Texas so that Sophia and I could spend time with family. I actually left Texarkana yesterday and drove to San Angelo to surprise Tim. He was totally shocked! I will stay for about a week. Sophia is with her Nana Dee (Tim's mom), and i know they are having fun. I miss her so much, but I try not to worry too much because I know she is in great hands. It's tough being away. I'm torn between Sophia and Tim, so i'm trying to do my best at being a good mom and wife. It's hard when they are in two different places, but we are making it.

It's getting late here in San Angelo, so I will leave you all with a few recent pictures of our angel.