As usual, it’s been a long time between updates but hopefully the three hours I just spent organizing and uploading photos will make up for it. First, there is the trip to beautiful Bok Tower Gardens with Kelly’s parents.

Second, there’s Sophie’s eleventh month photos.

And finally, the main event: Sophie’s first birthday party photos!

Kelly, Sophie and I would like to say a big thanks to everyone who called with well-wishes or attended Sophie’s first birthday party. It was a blast and Sophie had a wonderful time. (She slept like a rock that night.) Thank you for making the day special.

The only hard part was not having enough time to spend with everyone. It’s amazing how easy it is to take quality time with friends and family for granted. When you are young, you can’t seem to get away from your family and vacations to relatives are frequent and mandatory. Eventually, you go to college, get a job, have children, and you realize that you can’t find enough time to spend with the people who matter most. It’s an odd society we’ve created for ourselves.

I think that is one of the reasons things like social networking sites like Facebook have attracted so many people beyond the young and trendy. With Facebook, I communicate with friends and family around the world in small spurts throughout the day. Just like I did throughout childhood and school; before a job demanded my social times to be segmented into breaks, weekends, and vacations. We’re social creatures by design and we do more than enjoy regular human interaction, we require it.
I recently saw a new scientific study that discovered getting together with friends to chat about your problems actually causes your body to release a chemical that strengthens and repairs your DNA structure. Think about that the next time you “waste time” chatting around the water cooler or take a long lunch.

We decided to go to breakfast just the two of us to enjoy some freedom, however all we did was lament about not having Sophie with us. We sat and thought about what she was doing, if the daycare worker was putting her down for a nap, if she was still crying and if we should just go back and get her. I really don’t remember if breakfast tasted good or not.

After breakfast Greg and I came home and both of us passed out in bed for two hours. We both woke up at noon and felt a lot better. When 12:45 hit, Greg and I jumped in the Scion and drove over to the daycare to get Sophie. We really couldn’t wait until 1:00. She was asleep in the arms of the daycare worker when she arrived. They said she cried pretty much the whole time, wouldn’t sleep or eat. She finally passed out at 12:25 in the daycare worker’s arms and wouldn’t let her get up to put her in the crib. She was VERY happy to see Greg and I. When she saw me she started squeal and reached out for me. I took her and gave her a big hug and kiss. This is going to be a difficult week for all of us. **sigh**

She also loves books. We bought the small board books from the Dr. Seuss collection. You can actually put all of her toys next to the pile of books and she will commando crawl to the books every time. She squeals with delight when we pull them out. Sometimes it gets so bad we have to hide them because she will not be satisfied until we read them to her 5 or 6 times. I know this sounds like a great thing to have, a child who loves books, however reading Hop on Pop six times each and every day can get monotonous. So far, her favorites are, Hop on Pop, Put Me in the Zoo, Are You my Mother?, Hands, Hands, Fingers, Thumb and the ever popular, Mr. Brown Can Moo, Can You? She has others, but these are her top five. Hopefully, we can get a video of dad reading her books to her, it is fun to watch.

However, the time is coming, August 4, that she goes to day care. Four hours every morning from 9-1. Greg will drop her off and Kelly will pick her up. We pray that she enjoys it and learns a lot. Day care will give me a chance to go back to work more hours and for Greg to get home at 5:30 instead of 7:30. Yay!!! We can eat at a normal dinner time. We will let you know how the whole day care thing goes. We are praying for the best.

The other new happening from the Wonderful World of Sophie™ is naps. For some reason, in her third month, the girl wonder stopped sleeping during the day thereby dashing all hopes of mom and dad accomplishing anything beyond doing the hokey-pokey. (Because really, that’s what it’s all about.) Thankfully, that all changed this month as she is now open to the idea of taking naps in the morning and afternoon. I say “open to the idea” because sometimes we puts her down but… she no sleepy. I’m sure you parental veterans have some great advice on napping. Please feel free to share.

Sophie Laughing

Sophie Talking

CRAFTYMOM13: “My babies head keeps spinning round and round. Does that mean he’s began teething?”

I’ve spent a good part of this week experiencing an unpleasant sense of tiredness, moodiness, frustration, and a general feeling of being psychologically off kilter. The worst part is that I couldn’t figure out why I was feeling so down and, therefore, couldn’t do much about it.
Thankfully, when Kelly and I talked about it, she said something that described my situation perfectly. I’m going through a bit of culture shock. Not exactly the same thing that happens in another country but Sophie has quite literally turned our world upside down. The “honeymoon” phase is over and all of my normal coping mechanisms don’t work anymore. I’m at the point where you psychologically reject or accept the drastically new situation. Obviously I am accepting of my new reality but it surprises me how intense life with our new child can become sometimes.
All of you experienced parents can begin snickering now. ;-D

NEW STUFF

My mom shot a great video of Sophie and Kelly dancing. We just had to share this:

Also, more photos have been added to Sophie’s “Second Month” photo set on Flickr:

Kelly is recovering still and I am doing my best not to get sick. My parents brought Kelly’s mom yesterday so we are well taken care of. The hospital staff at Lakeland Regional are fantastic and we have both been telling the nurses how under appreciated they are.

My ability to share stuff online will go down a little while we attempt to establish a routine with Sophie but I will still put up pics to our Flickr account. www.flickr.com/photos/tarobot

So, here is to normal size babies and getting my body back. 4.5 weeks to go!

Greg and I are getting ready to go to Michigan and spend time with my family. My mom has planned a shower with friends and family. It will be nice to see everyone. It will be weird to be looking so different, when everyone hasn’t seen me grow. But it will be fun.

I have my next doctor’s appointment on August 6th. Nothing earth shattering, just the normal stuff. I will write again when something spectacular happens.