Dear Sofia, you are 1!

My beautiful Sofia,

You are officially 1! You will always be the biggest, most unexpected, wonderful surprise I will ever receive. I didn't have to go through IVF in order to be your Mama and you were a girl, two things I never thought would happen! You are such a blessing little girl and I am so lucky to be your Mama. Apparently you wanted to make things easy on me because you have just fit in and gone with the flow from the very beginning. When you were born and I heard you screaming your head off, I looked at your Daddy and said, "Uh oh, she's already trouble!" But then they put you on my chest and I said, "Hi Sofia!" and you immediately stopped crying. You just wanted your Mama, you knew you were home! You were the most beautiful little girl I had ever seen, you always will be, and I will always remind you of that.

From the day you were born, you have been such an easy baby. You ate well, slept well and have only been sick twice. We have taken you everywhere right from the beginning and you always have seemed happy to just be with us and watch. You charm everyone you meet with your smile and those piercing blue eyes. We can't go anywhere without someone stopping us to say how beautiful you are and I always say that I agree! You keep us laughing every day with your fun loving personality. You are quite the talker too! You are constantly babbling and adding new words to your vocabulary. Your brother was/is the same way. I think we are forever going to have a very noisy house, which I am fine with! You love your books. You love to turn the pages and you study and touch every single thing on the page. You are so smart and pick things up so quickly. You can figure out how a toy works in no time. Ethan or I just have to show you how to do it and you study our movements a few times and you try it out for yourself. 

Speaking of Ethan, one of the things I have loved the most about this year has been watching you bond with your brother. I tell everyone that I literally watched him fall in love you the moment he laid eyes on you in the hospital and it's true. It was as if he knew from the first moment that he was your big brother and he would always protect you. You are obsessed with him and have watched his every move from the very beginning. He can make you laugh like crazy and you love playing with him. Your favorite thing is to play trains with him. He doesn't always love it because you usually destroy everything on the train table, but in time you will learn how to roll the trains along the track just like him. Ethan has loved bringing you to all of his favorite places this Summer, like the Morton Arboretum, the Zoo and the park. He loves pushing you on the swings and in the stroller when we go for walks. Next Summer will be even more fun since you'll be able to run alongside together. I look forward to watching your relationship grow as you get older. I'm sure there will be challenges, but you will always have each other. I'm so thankful to have my Fridays off still to spend them with you and your brother and when he goes to school in a couple of years, we will have time with just the two of us. I can't wait to do so many fun mother and daughter things with you!

You are growing and changing so much right now. You have started walking in the past few weeks and I'm still not used to watching you walk around the house! I love watching you walk and maneuver because you are very aware of what you are doing, and where you are going. You are incredibly determined. If there is something out of your reach, you will attempt to climb, crawl, whatever it takes to try and get what you want. As sad as I am that my last baby is 1, I love you at this age and its so fun to watch you become a little person with her own personality. It's exciting to see you reach new milestones and watch you learn and grow. I can't wait to see what a wonderful girl you will become!

The thing I love about you the most is your smile and happy demeanor! I love saying good morning to you and you have just the biggest smile on your face! You always have a smile on your face and I'm not just saying that. I might need to remind myself with pictures of this quality when you're 13, HA! You have blessed our lives so much Sofia and I hope you always know how loved you are. You and your brother will always be our greatest achievements. You were worth all the weeks you made me puke when you were in my belly! I cannot wait to watch you grow and change every day, week, month and year ahead.

Thank you for giving us the gift of being your parents, you are such a joy in our lives. We love you so very much,

Mommy and Daddy

October Baby: Sofia is the golden ONE!

Our pink and gold princess at 12 months! I cannot believe you are one and that it's your golden birthday. I can't wait for your party on Sunday! This photo was taken at your 1 year photo shoot, so I didn't take it, but it's too perfect! I am a little sad that we are done with your monthly theme photo shoots, they are truly a labor of love. I'm going to continue your monthly posts until you are 2 just like I did with your brother. I love looking back at these pictures to see how much you've changed and grown! You will always be our little princess, we love you so much!

Your first year month by month

Sofia's World: 11 Months

11 months and we are only 1 month away from you turning 1! We are planning you a fabulous sparkly pink and golden birthday celebration and I can't wait! You are so much fun right now, I love this age! You are the happiest baby and so much fun to be around. People are constantly commenting on how happy and smiley you are and they don't believe us when we say that is how you always are. The biggest moment this month was that you have taken a couple of steps! It won't be long know until you are running around with your brother! You crawl so fast, it's amazing to see how fast you can get somewhere. You cruise along all of the furniture and we catch you letting go to drink your bottle or play with the toy all the time.

You are really loving your books right now, especially the touch and feel ones. You love opening and closing the book, turning the pages and feeling the different textures. You look at each page so intently, absorbing all the colors, shapes and pictures of the pages. The reading is apparently paying off because your speech and comprehension just keep getting better and better. You are saying "Mama", "Baba", "YaYa", and "Dada", "Bye Bye", "Yay", "Hi", and "Yeah". You definitely have found your voice and sometimes it's ear piercing, especially when you want to eat! You understand a lot of what we say to you which is a great turning point.

Sofia, every day you surprise Daddy and I with something new. You are always just the happiest, most fun little girl all the time. As you develop and learn new things, we are just in awe of you. We are the luckiest parents alive to have you for our daughter.  We can't wait to celebrate your first year of life next month at your birthday party. We love you so much little girl!

Weight:

We won't find out until October but I would guess around 22lbs.

Height:

We measured you the other day and you are 31 inches.

Clothing Size:

You are wearing 12-18 and 18 months in clothes.

Diapers:

You are wearing size 4 Pampers and they are fitting you comfortably.

Feeding:

For the most part you eat your formula on a regular schedule of 5 times a day and 6 oz at each feeding, the same since you were 4 months old. However, I can tell you are getting sick of formula. You really just want to eat what we are eating. I can't say I blame you, but you have a few months left! You are an eating machine! There is literally not one thing we have given you that you haven't liked. When we eat in front of you, you stare at us waiting for us to give you some and if we don't, you start to scream at us! You have had eggs, chicken, beef, turkey, broccoli, carrots, sausage, pizza, bread, pasta, potatoes, tomatoes, cucumbers, zucchini, squash, mushrooms, corn, yogurt, strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, peaches, watermelon and I'm sure a bunch of things I can't remember. I am crossing every finger and toe that you stay this way and don't become picky like your brother! I'm still amazed you are eating everything you are only with two teeth too!

Hair/Eyes:

You have beautiful blonde hair and it is really growing! I love putting your hair in a sprout pony tail now! You still have beautiful blue eyes like Daddy that everyone comments on pretty they are!

Sleep:

Sleep has been fantastic. You typically go to bed around 6:30 - 7 after story time with Ethan and you sleep until 6 - 6:30 in the morning. You take 2 naps a day, usually 2 hours in the morning and 3 hours in the afternoon. Keep it up little girl!

Fun Stuff You Did This Month:

Waving and So-Big!

You are learning new tricks every day! Your latest tricks are waving and raising your hands up when we ask how big you are. It's so cute to watch you wave and you started saying bye-bye now too. 

Pigtails!
Last month you had your first ponytail and this month your hair is long enough for pigtails! They look so cute! You also had some crazy after-bath hair too!

Day out with Thomas
We went to a fun event this past month called Day out with Thomas! Trains are one of your brothers favorite things and are quickly becoming your favorite toy to play with too! It was a fun day out and you loved the train ride the most. I can't wait until next year when you and your brother can run and climb on all of the trains together!

Your first year month-by-month

September Baby: Sofia is ready for some football!

Our little cheerleader at 11 months! Sofia had way too much fun with her pom poms! I can't believe that we only have one photo shoot left. This year has gone by way too fast but we have had a lot of fun repeating some ideas we used with Ethan and coming up with new ones for our little girl.