Pulling up!

Sophia's newest trick. After finding Sophia standing in her crib this morning I think we could say officially, she is pulling up to furniture. She is growing up so fast!

Bribery!!

So as most of you know I work part time and Sophia comes with me. However, as Sophia is getting older having her at work is becoming increasingly difficult. She has learned that when we are at my work the minute she fusses I respond. Consequently, she is fussing more often at work than at home. So...I stopped at Target this morning and spent an undisclosed amount of money on toys, HOPING they would keep her attention while I work. I am sure you guessed it. Bribery of my 8 month old did not work!!!!!!!!! In the future I am not really sure what to do about the fussiness at work but I do know that more toys is not the answer.

Thank goodness for weekends!

So...we have become slackers with our blog and our picture taking. A lot of nothing has been going on here. I am staying super busy between my calling in YW's, work, Aaron, Sophia and the most difficult lately...staying healthy. Aaron's work schedule has been taxing on him lately too. Needless to say this past long weekend was needed for both Aaron and I. We got to spend a ton of time together and take care of all the little things that we have wanted to do for awhile but, never had the time. Here are some pictures of Sophia in her swimsuit. We took her swimming for the first time this weekend. She was not a fan at first, settled in towards the middle and was again not a fan at the end. We think Sophia will have her fathers reserved, cautious nature. :)

Traumatic Kentucky Derby

Aaron's co-worker hosted a party today commemorating the Kentucky Derby. Knowing nothing more about the Kentucky Derby than what was taught to us via Google, we went ready to enjoy our virgin mint juleps. The company was great and the exposure to a new sport was fascinating. However, I was floored at the (what appeared to be) common practice of "euthanasia" with the horses in the race. I may be a bit naive, sheltered or even just plain ignorant but I had no idea how many horses get injured and consequently killed due to this sport. How is this okay? The horse that I was cheering for won second place and moments after crossing the finish line collapsed due to breaking both front legs. As a result of breaking both legs she was instantly "euthanised". I was caught so off guard I had to fight back the tears. Don't get me wrong I love eating my meat and am married to a big hunting fan but it just seems so barbaric to breed, raise and train a horse to run around a circle and as a result potentially get killed. Besides the miniature men riding on their backs; what is the difference between this and dog fights?

crawling?

Is our child normal? Sophia's natural, self-taught (and sometimes overwhelming) affinity for peek-a-boo seems to have morphed into a general desire to cover her face. We often find her contentedly playing peek-a-boo with herself by pulling a dishtowel, burp cloth or whatever is handy over her eyes and kicking her feet for several moments before pulling it away and laughing. However, on a few occasions in the past couple of days, Tina has caught her putting herself to sleep using the same face-covering technique. She does it without complaining one peep, usually while drinking her bottle, or shortly thereafter. Who knows? maybe she just likes it to be dark while trying to sleep!

Oh, and one more tid-bit about Sophia's personality: she loves to see and play with other children, but she is absolutely smitten with herself - her favorite thing is to look in the mirror and giggle herself silly. Hard to blame her, though, for enjoying the company of such a happy baby!

Musical Prodigy?

This weekend we went with Jamie and Steve to see and hear the BYU-I (as in, I wish I could get into the real BYU) Symphony Band, as they passed through town on their 2 week tour of the southern gulf coast. Pictured to the left is Sophia just before leaving, all dressed up in her new sun hat. In case you wondering, let us assure you that taking a six-month old to see the symphony might not be the brightest plan we've ever formulated. The band played great, at least that's what Jamie and Steve told us. They sounded alright from outside in the foyer, but I think we may have missed some of the evening's musical magic.

In other news from the Nuge', Tina has for the past week been living the American dream: house in the suburbs, one beautiful child, one perfect husband, and a mouth full of straight, pearly whites to compliment her fantastic post-baby physique (she is actually in better shape than before Sophia!). Last Monday, after 2.5 years of soreness, pinching, cutting, cleaning, picking, and general suffering, she flew down to San Antonio to have her braces removed. With transportation assistance from her Aunt Dina, Tina made it to two appointments with her orthodontist - the first to remove the braces in the morning and get fitted for her retainers; the second in the afternoon to pick up her retainers and receive final instructions. The retainers are a minor nuisance, but she's wearing them regularly and continually becoming more comfortable doing so. Keep up the good work, T!

I spent the week in Birmingham, Alabama learning how to optimize a crushed stone plant. On Saturday, after returning, I mowed the weeds in our backyard, then spread some Weed'n Feed. I'm pretty certain that stuff will end up doing more feeding than weeding, and more than likely it will feed the weeds more than the grass (since they occupy a proportionally larger area than the grass), making them even more difficult to remove. Maybe our backyard was destined for a swimming pool anyway. Or maybe just a trash pit.