I can't help it ...

... I just love taking pictures of this little girl!

Do not be deceived - she is not wearing a hat...

it's a pair of bloomers for a different outfit!

I love these jammies - $5.00 at Wal-mart - 

with the oh-so-convenient zipper! 

But they were 0-3 month size and she's now grown out of them!

I don't know what she was so interested in when I took this picture: 

Pink cheetah baby! 

I adore this outfit that the Allred's bought for Sophia: 

So sweet with the matching hat!

Have you ever seen such amazing eyelashes?? 

Trying New Foods

Sophia is exploring the world of pureed baby foods:

Squash

And Peas: 

But she still prefers her bottles!

San Diego Trip!

We spent the first two weeks of April in San Diego.

Here's a recap of the trip...

Packing 

Can't forget the most important item!

We stopped at my parents' house for a night,

and then woke up early to get on the road.

(We had planned on flying, but drove instead to avoid RSV exposure on the plane.)

Sophia isn't used to early mornings.

 When we stopped in St.George for Nielsen's Frozen Custard,

Sophia was thrilled to get out of her car seat.

Back in the carseat again... 

And then when we finally arrived at Danny's Grandma's house,

Sophia was delighted to meet her GG for the first time:

We stayed a night at GG's and a night at Danny's parents' house.

(no pictures of Sophia meeting her Grampy for the first time!?)

Then it was time to go to the Bayfront Hilton Hotel for Danny's work conference.

Sophia and I got to play, explore the hotel, and go on walks on the bayfront

while Danny was in the conference all day.

We were on the 27th floor, so we spent a lot of time waiting for the elevator:

Here's a picture I took of our hotel: 

It was next to a Dole warehouse/loading-dock:

We walked to the Embarcadero Park and enjoyed views of the bay.

This is a picture of the park from outside the hotel:

 

We had a view of Coronado from the park: 

Sophia was obviously riveted.

She also really enjoyed walking around the San Diego Padres'

Petco Stadium:

Actually, what she really enjoyed was romping around the King-size bed we had at the hotel: 

Sweet smile! 

All dressed up!

(Thanks to Sophia's Aunt Jessica for the flower headband!!) 

I love this glamour shot of Sophia reclined across the pillows: 

Daddy and Sophia :

The view from our hotel window: 

Last chance to play on the bed while Mama and Dada pack up! 

After the week-long conference, we were able to go back to Grammy and Grampy's house for a real vacation.

Grampy was able to put Sophia to sleep! 

We went to Sacrament Meeting...

(RSV season was over in California)

it was Sophia's first time at church

and she was amazed that so many people existed.

Sophia and Grammy right after church: 

We spent a couple of days with family members who were excited to finally meet Sophia ...

but I forgot to get pictures of that.

And then our trip began to come to a close.

We spent one last night at GG's where Sophia met this teddy bear: 

"You look differnt from most people I know..."

No sound on this video but still entertaining:

Sitting up on her own so well!

Some random pics

I love taking pictures of Sophia when she sleeps:

Here, I put her in the shirt that the hospital sent home with her.

It says Special Delivery BABY from St. Mark's Hospital.

At six months old, she fills out the 0-3 month shirt nicely. 

Sophia likes to try and eat my vitamins ... 

"What?"

(And thanks to Sophia's Aunt Melissa for the cute outfit!)

Clean Carpets

We had our carpets cleaned in March...

My little brother Scott came out to Vernal just to clean our carpets.

Here are some pics of Sophia enjoying the carpet for the first time:

She looks very small in our living room when there's no furniture...

Gotta love clean carpets!

Sophia's First Taste of "Solid" Food

I haven't posted for awhile ...

So, here is the first of a few posts to recap what we've been up to:

Sophia first enjoyed rice cereal around the first of March:

And things get a little messy.

Video of her very first experience with "Solid" Food:

Starting to Babble

I'm loving this stage of Sophia's development as she's starting to babble.  Here are some videos of her getting very close to saying, "ba."

Such a sweet little voice!

Jenny Jump-Up

We got a "jenny jump-up" for Sophia for Christmas.

It's a little too big for her...

And she doesn't get the concept of jumping, but we like to see her in it.

That is, until she's had enough.

Here is a video of her very first time in the jumper:

Sophia's Blessing

Here's the info about Sophia's blessing: Sunday, May 1st 2011 at 1:00 pm at the Aspen 5th Ward Meetinghouse (965 W 2000 N, Orem, UT).



We are planning to have a little open house around 2:30 pm at my parents' house (just down the street from where the blessing will take place).

A Few of my Favorite Things

When Sophia smiles when I say, "Come to Momma!"

When Sophia drools a little when she's sleeping.

After a long day, being able to talk with Danny about everything that happened.

The smell of her breath.

Watching her sleep.

Napping as a family.

Six Months Old!

Can you believe it's been 1/2 a year since Sophia was born?

I can't.

For me it's been a haze of

feedings every three hours,

pumping far more often than is convenient,

diaper changes,

bathtimes,

a nearly-constant layer of spit-up on my clothing,

and spending most of my time indoors and away from public places per doctor's orders. 

Fortunately,

the last couple of months

have also been filled with

lots of cuddling,

smiles,

and laughs.

***

Ever since we brought Sophia home from the NICU, we've been looking forward to April as the time we would regain our freedom and would finally be able to go out in public as a family.  But our hopes were dashed yesterday when I took Sophia to her doctor's appointment.

"RSV hit us late," he said.  "And because of the warmer weather we've had, we are seeing bronchitis as well.  There are six kids in the hospital right now from these things."

"When do you think we'll be able to take her out?" I asked.

"End of May," he said.  "Well, maybe the beginning of May," he said, reconsidering his initial prognosis.

I then told him of our plans to go to California in April.  Danny has a conference in San Diego the first week in April, so we thought we'd add a few days to the trip, make a vacation out of it, and introduce Sophia to members of Danny's family that she hasn't met yet.  The doctor asked if we were going by car or plane.  I told him by plane.  He said that an airplane is practically the worst place for germs because the air is just recirculated over and over.  Yikes.  But he also said we could go and just hope for the best. 

We're still going to go to California, but it looks like we'll be driving.

***

In other news, Sophia now weighs 12 pounds 11 ounces and is in the 2.88 percentile for her weight. 

She's still in the 27th percentile for her head circumference, but the doctor said that that's just because she has a big brain.  We liked the sound of that. :)

She has nearly grown out of her 0-3 month clothing.  Time to break out the 3-6 month outfits!

Sophia LOVES playing with her toys.  She has greatly developed the skills of holding onto things (including Mommy's and Daddy's glasses!) and bringing them to her mouth. What a big girl!

She also enjoys attempting to drink water from a glass.  Mostly she just succeeds in getting everybody wet, but it's hilarious to watch her try!


***

One other piece of exciting news:

Sophia's cousin Perrin was born today!
Congratulations to Dan and Melissa!!

Sophia's First Walk!

The past few weeks in Vernal have been in the high 30's and 40's...

and, while to some of  you that may seem pretty cold, to us it's been a heat wave!

(It got down to -10 degrees farenheit a few times!!)

So, I've been taking advantage of the warmer weather to get out of the house with Sophia

and take some walks around our neighborhood.

A big thank you to Sophia's Grandparents Bokovoy for giving us this awesome stroller/carseat combo:

It's perfect for our long walks!

We have to make sure that Sophia is bundled up because it's not that warm yet...

On our walks we have visited the Field House dinosaur museum:

(we just walked around the outside actually, since Sophia is still not going out to public places)

It took us only 15 minutes to get there from our house!

We also visited the outside of the library from across the street:

It took us 20 minutes to walk there.

My favorite building to walk around is the Uintah County fitness center:

It's only a 10-minute walk away and there is a fun walking path around the building.

We're excited to someday join the fitness center!

Just some more pictures...

After enjoying some rice cereal:

(She looks a lot like her cousin Parker in this picture)

Here she was actually trying to sit up on her own ...

and was about to fall over

We love our sweet little girl!