March 2005 Archives

I bought this book called 'Cradle the Thought' which is kind of a what's going on with your baby week by week journal that asks cute questions about what is going on with you and your baby. My favorite question that it asks once per month is "Does your baby have any nicknames?" There never seems to be enough room in the book to answer this question so I thought I would dump them all out here.

Sophie, Soapy, Soapy Jeans, Peanut, Peanut Butter (Dad's favorite thing), Peanut Butter Pie, Umma Gumma, Chubby Bear, Chubby Bunny, Chubby Monkey, Chubby Cheeks, Pumpkin, Pumpkin Pie, Hot Tamale, Your Highness (thanks to the folks at her day care), Sugar Buns, Crazy Baby Head, Stinker, Stinker Pants (thanks to Grammy), Poopy Pants, Grumpy Pants, Munchkin & Munchkin Head.

Looking at this list makes me wonder, is it normal for a baby to have so many nicknames? Are we totally screwing her chances of ever recognizing her actual name?

The Easter Bunny came and brought Sophie a bonnet!

Thanks Grammy!

Brandie has been asking me to write something for the Tiny e website but I have had a bit of writers block. I have been searching for my inspiration and passion in order to write a piece that would live up to Brandie and Jake's witty writing style. I really want to make a valuable contribution to the Tiny e site. Now, I think I've got it!!!

Let me introduce myself first--- I swear I really do know Brandie and Jake and am not just some random person surfing the net looking for places to post my story!

Brandie and I met our freshman year of college at Idaho State University. We got along so well that she ended up moving into my dorm room after my previous roommate moved out. So, that is how we first met and we have kept in-touch ever since. I still live in Idaho and work at Boise State University. My job is to work with students on finding the career that fits their interests, skills, and values. "What would you really like to do?" Yes, I am that person at the university.

I could go on all day about my career, because believe me I have some hilarious stories about the students I meet! I would rather tell you that I got engaged last week and am planning on getting married this summer!!

My boyfriend (Kelly), my sister, her husband, Kelly's friend and his wife, and I all went on a cruise to Mexico March 13-20 and on the ship is where he proposed. I am still getting over the fact that almost everyone knew but me. I had absolutely no idea, I was extremely surprised and even more surprised when he pulled out a ring. On the ship there are two formal nights where you dress in your best formal wear and have dinner. They take all these cheesy highschool dance pictures and make you feel like your at the prom all over again. Before dinner Kelly and I met my sister and husband and his friend and wife at the Viking Crown Lounge. The Viking Crown was located on the top of the ship (floor 10) and had huge windows that over looked the ocean. We sat and had drinks, chatted, and stared out the window at the ocean. Or I guess I should say I sat and chatted, had drinks and stared out the window at the ocean. Everyone else knew what was about to happen and was probably thinking more about the upcoming proposal than my lively conversation. My sister made a toast and asked if anyone else had something to say. That is when Kelly sprang into action! He said he had something to say to me and pulled out a poem he had written and began reading it to me. I don't think that there are very many moments in life where you can actually pinpoint when your life changed. When he started reading the poem I had that moment, I knew my entire life was about to change. The rest is actually a blur of emotions.

I love Kelly so much and am so excited to be with him forever! He is my everything and I can't wait to marry him and start our family and go through life together.
Through this entire story I have refrained from adding song lyrics. I can no longer hold myself back--I think in song lyrics.

"If I could save time in a bottle, The first thing that I'd like to do
Is to save every day till eternity passes away, Just to spend them with you"
You gotta love Jim Croce!!

We got up with Sophie's early Saturday morning feeding and departed in the midst of a big rain storm for Reno. On the way we added some minutes to our OnStar and gave the Scis a call. It was good to talk to Anthony, and the speaker phone combined with the sound quality made it really fun for everyone to participate (Sophie included).

It was snowing pretty heavily in the mountains, chains weren't required but traffic was only going 20-25 mph over Donner Summit. We made it to Brandie's cousin's soccer game just outside of Reno around 11. It was raining there, and quite windy. After the soccer game Mary and Joe treated everyone to lunch at On the Border, then we went over to their house to rest a bit before heading up to the lake. Eula got to run around a bit in their backyard as well, which was nice since she'd been stuck in the back of the wagon all morning.

Chains were required up Spooner Summit, but we didn't have to put ours on because of the Passat's 4-Motion. It handled the snow without a hitch, we only slid a little pulling into the driveway of our rental at the lake. Our last experience driving in a Sierra snowstorm was quite different (in the Jetta last year, sliding our way over Echo Summit), so we were both very pleased with the wagon's performance.

The Tahoe area ended up getting 16 inches Saturday night, and our power went out repeatedly (we happened to be up at 3:30am when it went out the first time). Our favorite breakfast place ended up being without power all Sunday morning, so we made do with breakfast in the rental. Aunt Kathie came over after lunch and Jesse shortly after, and we had a nice relaxing afternoon visiting with them while it continued to snow outside. For dinner we went to Beacon, a restaurant right on the lake at Camp Richardson (near where we saw the salmon running last fall). It was really something to see the lake in the middle of a storm, and dinner was excellent.

Sophie was up again very early Monday (3:30am), "talking" to the track lighting we had left on a very dim setting so we could see to put her pacifier back in. The power seemed to be surging, causing the lights to pulsate a little, which she was enjoying quite a bit. Later on, after a takeout breakfast from Sprout's we showered and started packing up the car.

It was supposed to snow all day again Monday, but we caught a break in the weather and made it to Sacramento before it started raining. Sophie has apparently started teething so she cried for about 3 hours before she finally fell asleep in the car. She must have really worn herself out, because she didn't wake up again until we were home!

Please drop a comment to wish Brandie her best birthday ever! Click here to see pictures from the trip, unfortunately we didn't get any snow pics!

For the last week and a half Sophie has been going through about two outfits per day while at day care due to "blow outs". Jake and I really didn't think it meant anything other than more laundry when we got home. Then on Friday one of Sophie's care givers suggested that Sophie may need to move up to the next size of diapers. Really? The package says "for babies up to 15 lbs" and even though Sophie is looking more like a butterball turkey everyday, she definitely isn't 15 lbs yet. But this woman has 4 kids and 2 grandchildren so we decided not to instantly dismiss her advice. Jake was planning a Costco trip that weekend anyhow and decided to just pick up the size three diapers while he was there on Saturday. Friday night, she peed through twice in the middle of the night and it seemed so obvious that her diapers were too small. First thing Saturday, Jake was off to Costco and returned with the size three's. The new diapers seem huge, but I have to admit, not one leak through or blow out since.

Also that week, I stopped by the daycare with a girlfriend of mine to check in on Sophie and show my friend the facility. As we were hanging out, Stella was remarking at how cute Sophie was and asked if she was wearing shorts. They were actually her pants but were so small that they hiked up her legs. If the diapers were too small, was it possible that her clothes were too small as well? I decided to take a peek into her closet and see what was what. I cleaned out every 0-3 month item other than three pair of pants and a dress that I plan on using as a shirt.

There's no denying it, our little girl is growing up. It makes me sad to pack all of her tiny clothes away. The hat she got from the hospital, her little belly shirts that let her belly button heal, all the "baby's first Christmas" outfits. If this is how I feel after three months, how am I ever going to make it through all the milestones like Kindergarten, braces, college, marriage etc.?

Eula spent Friday at the vet, after tearing one of her pads nearly off on her morning walk. We never could find what she hurt herself on, but suspect it might have been glass. Her front leg is all bandaged up now, and when we're not able to keep a close eye on her she has to wear the plastic e-cone. She was quite loopy while she was coming off the anesthesia, all her usual skittishness was gone: she acted very much like your average labrador.

She had a difficult time resting with the cone on, so we took it off after we made sure she wasn't going to chew her bandage off. She listens well to the "leave it" command, so we've been able to keep it off except when we're not at home.

We've had a beautiful week of weather here. During the week it got almost too hot (about 80 or so) but today it was perfect: 69 and breezy. We drove to Novato the long way, to get pics for the empty frames in our living room. They'll be nice to have when everything's dried up again!

We went to IKEA two weeks ago and bought a bookshelf that was roughly the size of the hole in our stairwell (24"x41" compared to 24"x32"). This weekend I finally got around to resizing it and installing it into the stairwell. It came out pretty nice, for what it is!

Today Sophie laughed for us for the first time. I had picked her up from daycare and brought her back to the office for the last hour or so of the day. Brandie was talking to her and tickled under her arms, and she let out a laugh. From a distance it sounded a bit like her cry when she's mad, but upon closer inspection it was clearly a chuckle.

Hope your big day was the best yet! Looking forward to celebrating yours and Brandie's together soon!

It's hard to believe, but our little Sophie turns three months old today! She's so much different now, it's really something to see.

Here's is a sequence of pics taken after she's woken up from a nap. When I first looked into her crib, she was wide awake and just looking around quietly. She started her smiling routine, so I ran and grabbed the camera. It's pretty typical first thing in the morning too, what a way to wake up!

Last night was the first time she went through the entire bath process without crying! She loves to kick and splash the water, but doesn't seem to connect the water hitting her face with her own movement yet.

She's also quite talkative, no real words yet but she seems to try and mimic the general noises you make - "I love YOU!" turns into "ah ah OOH!"

But we're probably reading into it ;) At any rate, please drop her a comment!