Quick Learner

I have started asking Sophia for her pacifier before I nurse her, rather than just taking it out of her mouth without warning.  Two nights ago I sat down in the rocking chair, ready to nurse her and I asked, "May I have your binky please?"  She smiled at me and let the binky drop into my hand.

Our Little Sophie Bear!

Sophia prefers standing practice to tummy time:

She really enjoys walking too!

We love this little teddy bear outfit that Sophia's Grandma Teddi sent to her:

It's so nice (and especially convenient for me) because it's a hat, blanket and socks all in one...

it keeps her nice and cozy warm on these cold Vernal days.

Here is Sophia before being fed:

Grr!

And this is Sophia after Daddy has given her her bottle:

Such a sweet li'l bear... 

Can you tell that this girl LOVES to eat?

And a bonus video, just for fun:

She loves her daddy!

(A note about these videos:  you can make them full screen

if you click on the four arrows in the right corner.)

New Home, New Challenges

We're finally starting to get settled in our new place here in Vernal ... but the unpacking is going incredibly slowly.  But we've got the essentials out, and I get to spend my time feeding, changing, cuddling and playing with Sophia.  She has started smiling at us and it's amazing!  My favorite thing is when she wakes up from a nap and I go over to her bed to pick her up ... I say, "Hi, Sophia Marie!" and after about two seconds, she gets a look of recognition in her eyes and breaks into a big smile.  Does it get any better than that??

Here are some videos and pictures of our little princess:

Gotta love those jowls and double-chin!

Danny and I think Sophia is gaining all her weight in her head

because we're always telling her how beautiful she is

and it's giving her a big head.

She's even getting rolls on her arms:

And she's starting to drool more...

Here we are at Thanksgiving:

We put Sophia in a dress for Thanksgiving:

I love the matching cardigan!

Squirming on Daddy's lap:

Sitting up on Mommy and Daddy's bed:

Ho-hum...

Sorry this video is sideways...

I tried to get her to smile, but it didn't work ...

But I caught a bit of a smile in this video:

Another series of pictures and video of trying to get Sophia to smile:



Here's Sophia thinking she's pretty cool:

Here, I thought she was going to smile,

But she just ended up spitting up.

Success!

Looking so chubby!!

Yikes!

I took these last pictures today. 

Sophia was being smiley so I thought I'd try to catch her smiling on camera.

This is as close as I got to a smile:

I think she looks like a little elf with ears poking out of her hat here:

Such lovely lashes!

Here Sophia goes with the bold fashion choice of blue:

But I think she pulls it off!

Cheeky little girl!

Sophia gets very active in the evenings:

We love our little girl!!

On Friday we took Sophia to DinosaurLand Pediatrics to see her new doctor Dr. Kwok.

He is a neo-natologist and helps run the NICU at the Ashley Valley Regional medical center here in Vernal.  We feel really lucky to find another great doctor for Sophia.

She weighed in at 8 pounds 8 ounces, and is now 21 inches long - the size of a large-ish newborn!

Dr. Kwok, after finding out that Sophia weighed 3 lbs 14 oz when she was born less than 3 months ago, said that Sophia's growth was "excellent."

We're so proud!

On the nice list ...

Sophia must want something big for Christmas because she has been SO good the past few days.

She had her 2-month check-up on the 1st and she weighed 7 pound 15 ounces (she almost certainly weighs 8 pounds by now; she's getting some adorable rolls on her thighs).  She also got all of her shots.  The nurse who administered thte shots was so fast with the shots that Sophia barely had time to realize that it hurt and to cry before it was all over.  She cried for a second, but as soon as Danny picked her up she stopped crying.  We expected her to wail and scream but she didn't.

That is, until later that night.  She must have felt pretty crummy because we had never seen her cry and scream so much.  But we gave her a little infant Tylenol and she was able to sleep through the worst of it.  What a good little girl!

We have also been working on packing in preparation for our move tomorrow (see my othe blog for pics of our new house: http://brendabokovoybulletins.blogspot.com/ ).  It's been difficult to get much packing done during the day when I'm on my own taking care of Sophia.  But for the past few days Sophia has been so cooperative to take loong naps during the day so I could get some stuff done.  She's such an angel baby!

A few other updates:

Our insurance company denied payment for Synagis shots (very expensive RSV antibody medication) ... because she was born at 35 weeks and 2 days - the cut-off is 34 weeks and 6 days.

Because Sophia's not getting Synagis, her pediatrician recommended that we wait to take her out until at least March; February is the peak of RSV season.  That seems like a really long time to me, but whatever we need to do to keep her healthy is most important.

We are now debating when to have her baby blessing.  We had originally planned for January or February, but with th doctor's new recommendations, we're now thinking maybe March.  However, we recently talked to someone whose 2-year-old contracted RSV in March ... so we're considering April.  But by then she'll be over 6 months old.  So, I guess we have some decisions to make.

One last thing:  I'll be posting more pics of Sophia as soon as we get internet set up in our new place!