Family, Food, Fun, and Fireworks - Celebrating the Fourth!

What a Fourth of July weekend. We have been busy busy all weekend and Sophie has just loved every minute of it.

We started off the celebrations on Friday night by taking Sophie (and all of us really) to her first drive-in movie at the Trenton drive-in. We watched Toy Story 3 and Grownups. Such a neat experience. The weather was perfect and we had a blast!

On Saturday, we continued the celebrations with quite a full day. Jason took Sophie to the Soddy Daisy Car Show and then out on the boat for a bit.

I met up with them at Camp Columbus where we took Sophie swimming in the lake and she played on the swingset.

Later that evening, we went down to Coolidge Park for the Chattanooga Symphony's Pops on the River celebration. What a blast! Sophie and Finley danced, went on the carousel, listened the music, and watched the fireworks.

On Sunday, we spent the afternoon at Chester Frost with just Jason, me, Sophie, and Belle lounging in the sun, swimming, and hanging out.

Sunday night, our neighborhood put on quite the fireworks display. I can't even begin to think about how much money was spent on their fireworks, but it was so relaxing to sit on our back deck and watch such a great display.

What a full but amazing holiday weekend. We had such a great time celebrating the fourth with family and friends.

Water Baby

Sophie is turning into quite the water baby. She is so happy in the water. She has now been swimming in the pool and the lake several times and has been on her first boat ride. Bath time is great! She loves to kick and splash and just relax.

Swim Time

Over Memorial Day weekend, we took Sophie swimming for the first time. We took her to the pool at the country club - we were one of only a handful of people there so it was nice for it to be somewhat calm for her first trip into the pool. There was rain/thunder earlier in the day so I think that scared off most everyone else. She liked being in the water and splashing around.

On Memorial Day, Jason took Sophie swimming in the lake at his parents house. It was much colder than the heated pool from the day before, but she seemed to have fun.

After all that fun, I decided to go buy her a baby pool so she could splash at home. She really is liking that! And getting used to being in the water.

Fun pictures -

6 Months

Cannot believe Sophie is already 6 months old. People always say how fast the times goes, but its just amazing how true that really is.

Sophie is doing great! She is sitting up on her own for some period of time - sometimes as much as 15 minutes at a time. She is reaching for and grabbing everything. It's so cute to see her really playing with her toys.

We had a great doctors appointment yesterday for her 6 month check up. Sophie is a tiny one - she is 14 lb 3 oz and 24 inches. She is in the 17th and 5th percentiles. Doctor said she's probably just at a plateau and will hit a growth spurt soon, especially as she eats more solid foods - which she is now supposed to get 5 times a day! She is now eating oatmeal, bananas, apples, sweet potatoes, and peas. She is liking to eat more and more - now that I think she understands what's going on.

We had her 6 month pictures taken on Sunday - here are a few of the shots!

What a Month

It seems like this month has been soo fast. We've been so busy and having so much fun though! Sophie is now 5 months old - and up to 15.5 pounds (give or take some - this was via the unscientific method of weighing me and then weighing me holding her and subtracting). But Sophie is ready to be mobile! She is rolling over like a champ now - it's so amazing to watch what was so frustrating for her just 4 short weeks ago, she now breezes through. She has started barrel rolling which is hilarious to watch. She will do two or three complete roll-overs in a row.

She's doing better at eating her cereal - we try to have cereal once a day in the afternoon when we get home. I'm thinking about starting some veggies this week. I'm planning to do homemade baby food, so I've been researching a lot of methods, ideas, and recipes. It seems simple, fun, and healthy so we'll see how it goes!

We took Sophie to her first (and second) Lookouts game this month. She did soo well and loved to people-watch. We also celebrated her daddy's 30th birthday by playing paintball (well not Sophie - but several of our friends and family :-)) and had a big birthday dinner celebration.

Enough blabbing - here's some pictures from the last month:

Sophie Rolls Over

Two nights ago, we laid Sophie down in her crib to go to sleep and she immediately turned onto her side. So, I tried to turn her back over to her back - unsuccessfully repeating this process two or three times until I finally just let her sleep on her side. It was so cute to watch!

It was obvious that she would start to roll over any day now...and last night - she DID! Jason had her down on her activity mat and she would get up on her side but still couldn't get her hip over - but she was soo close. So, I got down there with them and tried to "help" her over. We did that a few times and then she ended up getting all the way over but couldn't get her arm out from underneath her - this made her very upset! But a little persistence pays off - and she finally got it! And got it again and again. We are so proud! It's so great to watch her develop - she's getting soo big already!

First Cereal

Sophie turned four months old last week and we had an excellent checkup at the doctor. She is now 12 lb. 14 oz and 23 1/2 inches. She is right around the 35th percentile for height and weight. Doctor seemed pleased with her growth even though she was 50th percentile at our last appointment. She said we can start solid food whenever we are ready and/or she acts like she's ready.

So, tonight, we decided we would see how it would go. She seemed like she was having fun in her highchair and she acted like she liked it - whenever it wasn't in her mouth. She made the funniest - i'm not sure about this - faces when it went in her mouth but then she would smile/laugh/babble. Here's our video of her first cereal (pardon the baby-speak voices of Jason and I)