A Weekend on the Town

This past weekend Erik and I decided to take advantage of some of the fun things Nashville has to offer and expose Sophie to a bit of culture. So Saturday morning we went to the Nashville Farmer's Market. Sophie was completely overwhelmed by all the sights, sounds and smells of the market. Since she handled that pretty well we decided to venture over to The Frist Art Museum for their free day. Sophie was mostly unimpressed by the exhibits (as were her parents), but seemed to get a lot happier in the children's exhibit (as did her parents). While in one of the exhibits she was determined to engage some of the museum employees in conversation (LOUD conversation), but they did not return her enthusiasm and we quickly popped the pacifier in her mouth.

Then Sunday night we went to an outdoor ampitheater to hear "The Wannabeatles" - a local Beatles tribute band. We took a picnic and had a great time with some friends from church. Sophie seemed to like the music and tried a few times to sing along. Overall we had a great family weekend - we're so blessed to have so many fun things to do w/ our kiddo.

Overwhelmed at the market

We took Sophie to Erik's favorite part of The Frist - the children's section. She loved looking at all the other kids and the shapes and colors. She "colored" her first picture for us - a process which included dumping all the crayons out then taking one and hitting in on the paper repeatedly. It's the most beautiful thing I've ever seen. This picture is taken w/ a model they had for drawing - Sophie enjoyed playing w/ his movable fingers...

...and it was whilst playing w/ said fingers that we discovered what we have long feared - our daughter is a Trekkie.

This is post-art exploration...she is a bit sleepy.

Our view of The Wannabeatles

It started to rain so Sophie took shelter under a blanket

During most of the concert she chilled in her stroller and talked to her "Grandma Jan" (a dear friend from our church body)

Catching up

So it has been awhile since I've posted and I thought I would do one big post to catch up a bit. My (Catherine) mom was here last week and watched Sophie in the mornings while I worked VBS at our church. Sophie loved playing w/ her Gran and learned some bad habits (like blowing bubbles with a straw in her water). It was also nice to have Gran here so Erik and I could go on a couple of dates. Although we love our precious daughter so much it's nice to occasionally get away and have some fun.

So here are some of the things Sophie has been up to lately:

Playing w/ her friends - Ava...

...and Cate.

Eating her blanket (made by Gran)

Discovering nature

Loving on Mommy and Gran

Being "Twinkies" w/ Mommy

Hanging around w/ Daddy

Sporting 80's fashions whilst trying to crawl

Blowing bubbles

and flying!

In Good Standing w/ Daddy

Recently we have been working with Sophie on standing. Since she was tiny she has been quite lazy about straightening her legs and bearing weight, so her doctor said we needed to force her to do some of this. So we've discovered that we can distract her by placing fun things in front of her so she forgets she's standing. Unfortuantely on this occasion the only "fun things" we had for her were ads from the newspaper, which she immediately decided to eat.

It's only natural that standing wouldn't be that fun when you have such huge thighs to hold up.

Caught red-handed

This is Sophie's "shock face." I'm pretty sure we'll see this for years to come when she is completely embarassed by what her dad has just said or done.

And this is her, "I love my daddy face." It's a little late, but Happy Father's Day to Erik, Roger and Tom! Sophie loves you all!

Bathtime and Gigi

Erik's mom, Carol (a.k.a. GIGI) came to visit over the weekend, along with Uncle Kyle and a short visit from Uncle Pete and Aunt Jenny. Carol was so sweet to watch Sophie while I ran some errands, had a VBS meeting, and on Saturday while Erik and I worked on filming a short he's been working on. Gigi and Sophie went on lots of nature walks and Sophie was very entertained by her Gigi's fun animal noises. Carol also worked with Sophie on her crawling - we're taking "baby steps" with it, but no official crawling has occurred as yet.


Here are some pics of a fun bath and a couple w/ Gigi:

These are her superhero shots - "BATH GIRL" to the rescue (w/ her slightly confused sidekick - "COW DUCK")



Gigi making some fun noises for Sophie

Growing Up

This first picture just makes me realize how quickly Sophie is growing up. She is constantly learning and developing and we are loving it. Not much news today...she is teething like crazy and won't even let me look at her gums, much less touch them. Apparently Erik and I both cut our first teeth late so this has been a long process for her, but she may have them soon! She is getting excited to see her Gigi, Uncle Kyle, Uncle Pete and Aunt Jenny this weekend (or she would be if she knew they were coming). For now, here are some pics of her playing w/ her baby.

There is a tree outside her window that she is mesmerized by.

Pool Party

Last Friday Sophie had a little pool party with her friends Ava and Cate. Unfortunately Cate had to nap during most of the party, but you'll see her giving her toes a dip in the 2nd picture. Now that Sophie is more aware of other babies she is also more aware of their toys, and consistently wants whatever toy Ava happens to be playing with. Ava is more than happy to share, but we are attempting to start early with teaching Sophie that she can't always get what she wants. Ah, the grass is always greener...