Week of April 26

A couple of photos of Sophie's 3 month birthday. Oh, how time flies. She's getting quite good at holding herself up while on her tummy!

Smiley girl-taken today after a nap. She always wakes up happy and smiley no matter what time of day. Dave and I are still stumped.....no idea who she inherited that from!! Probably Grandma Williams!!

A moment of brother and sister time. Sophie continues to be infatuated by Jake, following his every move and giving him some of her best smiles. Jake continues to have his moments of loving Sophie and times when he would rather she leave town. He is also a bit of a challenge to photograph lately either saying "cheese" forever which makes his eyes squinty or giving me this look. He must get that serious glare from his Uncle Eric!

Comparisons!

Jacob at 12 weeks and 5 days old. Sophie at 12 weeks and 2 days old.

I just wanted to post these two photos for all to compare. Many people tell me that Jake and Sophie look a lot alike. Sometimes they do but they look quite different overall, I think. See what you think!!

Week of April 19th

Brother and sister sharing a moment....Sophie looks almost as large as Jake in this photo!

Sophie hanging out with Jake in his room on Monday of this past week. Jake LOVES to read any chance that he can get and is finally taking some time to enjoy reading by himself every now and then. I was sorting some of his clothes in his room and put Sophie in his bed to keep an eye on her, well he thought this was a great chance to cuddle in by Sophie and read (or more likely...he was protecting his turf!).

Sophie likes being on the floor with her head up a bit-so this toy seems to be perfect for her right now. She is still working hard on trying to roll over-always to her right. We'll keep her practicing and see what happens............

Big boo-boos!! Jake was helping Daddy refill the bird feeder outside of his room and decided that standing on a small boulder and saying, "look at me, Daddy" was a good idea. Before Dave could say anything he fell off onto a budding hosta plant with last years dried "sticks" pointing straight up! Lots of owies!! He didn't even cry, though. What a brave boy.

Other things this week:

• Jake has been learning all about birds at daycare. He also attended a zoo class about birds on Sunday. Both learning sessions have been very timely as he has just been infatuated with all things "bird" for a few weeks now. He loves to eat breakfast and watch out the window at the bird activity in the backyard. He has learned to accurately identify chickadees, goldfinches, robins, and cardinals! Yet more confirmation that we have an animal/bird lover on our hands.
• Jake has been having what we think are growing pains waking him up in the middle of the night several nights this week. He cries that his legs hurt him. Dave and I both remember the feeling of growing pains as kids. Not fun.
• Jake continues to amaze us every single day with the new things he says, the length of his sentences, and his progress with learning pronoun use. He is becoming quite a talker just like his daddy!!
• Sophie has started to come into a bit more of a nighttime routine with sleep (and I think it has helped that we realized that she is now 3 months old and that we did not need to wake her up to eat at midnight before we went to bed...in order to get a couple of hours of sleep). I know, I know...never wake a sleeping baby but with her colicky symptoms she was waking up every 2-4 hours to eat so we tried to plan the wake up times by waking her at about midnight. Anyway.....she now goes to sleep around 10PM to Midnight and sleeps for 4-6 hours, wakes for a bottle, and goes back to sleep for 3 hours or so. She's started to have a bit more scheduled naps, too. We are starting to emerge from newborn sleep fog!! Now, I hope I didn't just jinx us!!
• Soph has also discovered that she has hands that do things! She rubs her eyes when she is tired which I think is amazing because it's truly the first sign that she can give us, other than crying, that she needs something. She is also starting to reach for things and put her arms around us when we are holding her. We forgot how fast infants learn things and I find that I am so very grateful that we kept a calendar of when Jake did what/learned new things because we reference it all the time to see where Sophie is at compared to Jake and prove to ourselves that we really should not be this surprised that Sophie found her hands at 12 weeks!!

I forgot to add this photo to those that I uploaded earlier today. Such a cute story goes along with this photo. I was very brave one morning and took both Jake and Sophie to WalMart for a few things I needed. I really dislike WalMart but thought it was the best way to do "one stop shopping" for my photos, a couple of groceries, and some sundries. I think I was more nervous about taking two kids to the store by myself than if I had to give a presentation to 100 people (and those that know me know that the prospect of a presentation would give me a nervous breakdown!) but Jake was such a good boy that I told him that he could pick out a treat. I knew that this might be a mistake, especially at WalMart with all the choices, but he said right away that he wanted an apple. I just beamed thinking that we have done something right when he asks us for an apple as a treat! Anyway...he chose the largest apple that I think I have ever seen! He did a pretty good job eating it. Here is his proud moment showing off his treat.

Early Spring

Some early spring shots of Sophie!

Here is Sophie in the Bebe' Pod for the first time! She is such a strong girl. She's been holding her head up since she has been born. She can now "stand" on our laps when we hold her for several minutes. So strange to see her "sitting."

I went in to change Sophie this morning and look who I found lounging on her changing table! Bacchus refused to leave when I put Sophie down so they had to share the changing pad while I cleaned up Sophie. Neither seemed to mind.

One very happy baby. She continues to LOVE the changing table. No matter what is going on, she smiles and giggles everytime she is lying on that changing table. She's getting so big! We think that she may roll over soon. When she is on the floor she tries sooo hard to roll over onto her right side. Time flies. She is 11 weeks old this week.

Easter

Sophie in her first Easter dress just before church. I'm sure it will be the first of many!

Jake having fun searching for eggs in the yard. We had a nice Easter Sunday with lots of sun and fairly warm weather-at least for WI in April!

On the go finding more eggs (real ones this time) at Boppa's house. He kept trying to open the eggs and didn't get why they didn't open up to candy inside! He squeezed quite a few-egg salad quick!!

Below is Sophie ready for Easter dinner.....one year from now and she'll be actually be eating with us!!