One of those baby updates...
Thursday the 25th was her official birthday and it was a bit of a slow and sleepy day for us, as her 8th tooth came in, making it four on the top and four on the bottom. We went out to the Rainforest Café for supper with Uncle Fox and she really enjoyed watching all the fish, but was not at all impressed by the singing wait staff. Friday we all took the train to Ottawa, which was nice to do as a family because Joel and I could take turns supervising Sophie as she ran up and down the aisles making friends with strangers. Saturday we had joint birthday party with both my mom and dad’s side of the family at my Nanny’s building’s party room. All the relatives mixed well together, all the kids had a great time running around eating way too much junk food. Sophie discovered she loves cheesies, and chips, and hot dogs, and well pretty much all the usual unhealthy kids snacks, but she enjoyed herself immensely. She wasn’t entirely sure what to do with the cake until Nanny showed her she could stick her hands in it, then there was icing everywhere. Amusingly, she fell asleep in her chair right after the cake, which we took advantage of with silly photos, but she woke up a half hour later in time to open and play with her presents.
Sunday I went with Chrissy n Mom and 4 cousins to the Cirque du Soleil Quidam while my dad got to babysit, and Joel headed back home. Dad’s been really bonding with Sophie and was quite proud of teaching her (mostly) how to play pattycake. Taking advantage of Chrissy having the week off, we mostly just chillaxed on Monday, though we took Sophie to the mall to wander around, mostly she liked the pet store where she got to play with a puppy and pet fish, and the toy store. Tuesday we went with my Babi to the Museum of Civilization , where Sophie studied the Petra exhibit with a serious look, and then ran around for hours in the children’s world exhibit section. Wednesday, my foster sister Crystal and her two girls Desiree (6) and Olivia (2) came over and we all went to play at Cosmic Adventures for the afternoon. All three girls had a great time though by the end of it my knees where sore from chasing around Olivia through the playstructure. Thursday we finally got a chance to deliver to Gus half of his xmas present and meet Spot, though Sophie doesn’t quite ‘get’ bunnies yet. It was a bit of a slower day overall as we discovered her 9th tooth had snuck in up top, one over from her set on the side, no wonder she’d been so cranky and sullen the night before. Friday we visited with Babi n Deda and Sophie got to play in a little wading pool, and then in their big pool with my mom. She loves playing in water, and though she was a little uncertain at times about the big swimming pool, she really does seem to be a water baby, now I should look into mommy n me swimming classes. Saturday mom took Sophie to Chrissy’s horseback riding lessons, which she apparently enjoyed immensely (I got to sleep in!) and then in the afternoon we went to visit Nanny. Lifeng really seems to have connected with Sophie and Miasya and Gabrielle were really good to play with Sophie, so I’m glad they all live together so she can see them every visit. Sunday we packed up and dad drove us back to Toronto, getting in just as Pam arrived for her ‘baby helping sleepover’ since Joel has to work tomorrow and the traveling has wiped me out. We all had Okonomi for supper, which Sophie apparently loves, as she ran from me to Pam and back with her mouth open like a little bird looking for more pancake. I napped for a bit and then met up with everyone for Fox’s pub birthday social, where Sophie was ‘flirting for fries’ as Joel put it.
Overall the visit went really well, and thanks to Chrissy I did get a break. My parents would give Sophie a bath and put her to bed around 10pm every night, which was perfect except that she’s wake up just after midnight and then be up until 4am. This is where Chrissy became ‘Super Auntie’ and stayed up every night with me, sometimes sending me to bed so at least one of us could sleep. Needless to say we watched a lot of late night movies to pass the time while Sophie ran around the basement playing with all her toys. She’s become a real cuddlebunny at night, especially when we flopped out on the couch to watch something to fall asleep. We discovered that Sophie also enjoyed watching Sarah Brightman’s La Luna performance (which has some cool costumes to boot) and it worked even better than the Sesame Street Sleeptime DVD to put her to sleep.
Let’s see, other general baby updates before I totally forget and then suddenly she’s two - she’s now fully toddling and she loves walking around. Sometimes she starts running but she still hasn’t entirely figured out balance or gravity but thankfully she hasn’t had any bad falls yet. She giggles easily and often, and seems to be an overall cheerful baby, or at least we never really seem to mind it when she’s not. She’s generally really friendly and smiling with everyone, though she’s not sure about being picked up by people she doesn’t know and that’s just fine by me.
She mostly comes when you call her name, and mostly stops when you firmly tell her No, which has kept her out of trouble and danger. She loves exploring everything, and is really into taking things apart and studying them. Thankfully she has shown no interest in pulling open the kitchen drawers, but we keep her out of the kitchen in general since there are just too many things that aren’t safe for her to get into at this age.
She loves cheerios as a snack with her juice, though she’s eating pretty much everything, which is great when we go out to restaurants knowing she can have some of whatever we’re having - from pizza to tempura to chicken strips. She particularly loves Babi’s home made soups for lunch which made Babi very happy. Lately she’s taking to going from Joel to me and back with her mouth open looking for bits of whatever we are eating. Oh and she’s practically weaned herself, she nurse maybe once or twice a day, usually in the morning or after one of her two naps, mostly because I’m not quite ready to get out of bed and this way we can snuggle and snooze a little longer. I think we’ve reached the stage where she does it more for comfort than sustenance, but that’s just fine with me, I’m appreciating all the bonding time we have now while I can. I really glad this whole breastfeeding thing has worked out as well as it did, and our patience in the beginning when it was a little rough totally paid off in the end. The other bonus to this is of course that Joel and I now have some more freedom to do things, so we’ve been making a point of doing more couple stuff, as well as taking turns at individual things so we each have some time to treat ourselves to a break. This has certainly gone a long way to keep us more relaxed and rejuvenated - in preparation for new and exciting parenthood tasks coming up ahead soon, like potty training!
She was sleeping pretty regularly until we traveled to Ottawa, but now that we are home she is heading toward a more normal cycle again. One of her favourite games at my parents in the middle of the night was to pull all the VHS tapes off their shelf, but we figured, hey it’s VHS, no biggie, so that was the one rampant destruction she could revel in. This trend has continued now that she’s home since Joel organized all her board books on a little shelf which she enjoys emptying so she can sit amongst a pile of books on the floor and randomly flip through them. What’s cool is that we have 4 full bookcases and she only pulls off her books on her shelf.
Other amusing baby things - she babbles all the time, only a few words (mommi, daddi, bebe, kitty) but lots of almost words, and she is very clearly trying to communicate. Right now she’s wandering around the house singing Mi!Mi!Mi!Mi! She is also chewing on everything like a puppy, we suspect that now that she’s eating so much regular food her gums are going into overdrive to push the teeth out. More teeth is cool, but teething is still painful for her, though not nearly as bad as it used to be thankfully - or at least she doesn’t get nearly as cranky as she used to.
Everywhere we go we get compliments on how happy and bright and pretty and well behaved she is. The cynic in me thinks, well what else are people going to say “you baby is ugly and looks dumb”? But all that really matters is that we think she’s the best baby we could ever have hoped for (I guess until we have another one, then they will be the two best babies ever, obviously) and I’ve given in to being pleasantly biased at how wonderful I think our daughter is. Both set of parents have made a point of telling how we are doing a great job raising their grandchild, which has been really encouraging to hear. I know I’m not perfect, and I really have no idea what I’m doing, I just try and do what I hope is right and best for her and hope it all works out. So far, I think we’ve haven’t done too bad at all, and I think the overabundance of joy we feel is a testament to that.