Four months

Hello! I am FOUR months old, can you believe four months?!

Since the time change, I enjoy going to bed at 5:15pm and sleeping through the night!

I still do not like bottles, but I blame my mommy entirely.

I love to roll over and sleep on my belly with my bottom in the air.

I'm sitting up in my Bumbo all the time.

I am already in my 6 month clothes (which are super cute, BTW).

I am pretty much the most chill baby, ever!

BUSY

I have recently given up on trying to play show tunes and classical cds - things that I like to sing along with to Sophie - and I've caved to the ditties of Leap Frog and Fisher Price. The bright side is, as Bryan pointed out to me this morning, that my mental song library should be doubling at this point (he caught me jamming out with Sophie to her Leap Frog fridge DJ: five little birdies, sittin way up high...). She has taken to bouncing and waving her arms to music, which is pretty cute in my opinion.

Yaya bought her a music table (and a hundred other things!) that sings a song about being busy and having so much to do. It made me laugh because I always say how busy Sophie is scooting around the house. She loves to crawl with toys in her hands (we call them her snow shoes) and, honestly, I could just go on and on gushing about baby girl and her tricks. Sophie gets more fun every day, we just love her so much. She still sleeps like a dream, tries new food, doesn't protest about the stroller or the car seat and I try to thank my lucky stars for having such an agreeable, loving baby girl!

I've been working to expand Sophie's ever-changing palette, and some new items she has taken to (all organic, of course!) include green peas (as puree and as finger food), ground beef with roasted red pepper, tomato and zucchini puree, and cheesy chicken and carrot risotto.

In addition to Sophie's daily busy-ness, our family has been on the go as well! I took a weekend trip with my sister-in-law to Gatlinburg sans kids, Bryan and I stayed the night in Asheville for a beautiful Biltmore wedding, we did some pumpkin hunting at a local farm, and the previous post features our trip to Florida and Alabama. Other than that, we've been enjoying wonderful Carolina weather, taking long walks, doing a little advance Christmas shopping and just enjoying life ;)

Mom and Dad's big night out, Biltmore wedding style!

Family fun on Hodges Farm in Charlotte.

Little stink, 10 months old and showing off

her two pearly whites.

What's been going on?

A lot of this (pulling up, standing):

And a little of that (getting some fresh air at the park):

And today is this kid's birthday
(but don't ask him how old, because he isn't sure).
I love you, Bryan!!

It's been a busy few weeks at the Barber household. Shawn (Bryan's youngest brother) came for a weekend before starting his Junior year of high school, and Yaya also came in town for a visit. We hosted our Ears 'N Beers party (with you guessed it, yummy corn dishes, homemade compound butters, cornbread, corn hole, and beer). I started working with a personal trainer who is ah-mazing. I am serving for the 3rd year on the Charlotte Seminole Club board and we hosted our 2010 season kickoff event uptown. Sophie and I switched to a new music class closer to home and we LOVE it, and she made it through an entire church service in the nursery (no small feat for her or me)! I've been whipping up some new dishes in the kitchen with all of our Absolute Organics produce which introduced eggplant and kale to my refrigerator for the first time. Sophie had a birthday pool party last weekend that was so much fun - it's got me planning her December party already (ok, ok, I started planning that a month ago). And finally, Sophie is now the proud bearer of two bottom teeth. I had no idea how sharp they would be... it hurts when she bites... can I file those things down?!

Next Wednesday will be a rough day for us. Please send up some doggy prayers for little Miss Maddox. The good news is that she doesn't have osteoarthitis as we thought. The bad news is that she has been limping around since winter because of what was a partially torn - now fully torn - ACL. So... I've done my research, chosen a procedure and the doctor, and 12 weeks from next Wednesday hopefully we'll have our old Maddox back. Anyone who knows me know that this canine is my first born and she means the world to me. All I can do is hope that the doctor has a successful surgery and that we are able to provide her with the comfort and rehab that she needs to gain back her puppy-like bounce. I love you, sweet Maddox!

Just numbers...

A little ditty on numbers for your reading pleasure today.

• Every single day I see the clock at 11:14 (which is my birthday).

• 30 30 30 30 30 30 30 30 30. There, I said it. I'm turning 30 this year.

• I took my 1000th camera phone pic on the BB this past weekend.

• Stink turned 8 months today.

• My number 1 favorite artist released a new cd today. Go out and get it: Ray LaMontagne, God Willin' & the Creek Don't Rise.

Big birthday plans this year! Planning is something I really enjoy and, boy, have I been planning for this one.

And maybe this is a surprise; maybe it's not: I'm not talking about a big blow-out expensive themed party. Nothing of the sort. I've been thinking a lot about the turn of three great decades, and ways I can challenge myself and/or give back to show appreciation and thanks for all that has been given to me over the past 29 years. In trying to identify some challenging tasks for myself to complete in my 30th year as a currently stay-at-home-mom, here were some of the ideas (that were tabled):


Give 30 pints of blood - well you can't do that in a year, because you wouldn't be, um, alive.

Have 30 kids - just call me Mrs. Duggar.

Run 30 races - I decided even I don't enjoy running that much.

Visit 30 states - not in the budget.

Sew 30 outfits for Sophie - she'll outgrow them in a matter of months, then they'll go in a storage box.

Sell 30 photographs and donate money to charity - haven't taken a sell-able photo in a lonnnng time.

So............ I know you are wondering. What is the big plan, then? STAY TUNED!

The 1000th picture taken with my camera phone.
Sophie shopping with Papa for some new scrubs.

Sophie's musical education

I need to enlist the help of friends from my past musical life for a very important task. Sophie has really enjoyed my recent renditions of Rent, Les Mis, Annie Get Your Gun and Hello Dolly recently... but I can't always remember the words and it sure would be more fun for me to have something to sing along with. I can fake some of them, but making up the words to Schoolhouse Rock is just wrong (Interplanet Janet sitting here on Capitol Hill... that-a-way to confuse a small child). Although we love every part of Kindermusik, mommy needs something a little more familiar to sing to Sophie and I just can't picture Ms Betsy or Ms Nancy from class belting out a little "Take Me or Leave Me" from Rent... that would be... weird.

YOUR TASK SHOULD YOU CHOSE TO ACCEPT IT: I'm not trying to encourage piracy, but hoping some of y'all could burn me some cd's of a few of my favorite musicals? Please send me a message or leave a comment if you can conveniently contribute to Sophie's continuing musical education :)

Schoolhouse Rock
Mary Poppins
Cats
Wicked
Songs For A New World
Les Miserables
Into The Woods
Westside Story
Company
Annie Get Your Gun
RENT
Annie
Anything Goes
Godspell
Once Upon A Mattress
Titanic

Be Here Now

Towards the end of my pregnancy, everyone under the sun began saying, "I bet you are SO ready to have that baby already!" Of course we were, and we just wanted to see the little hiccuping, kicking, squirming babe. I wasn't ready to wish away my last few weeks of quiet and unlimited opportunity to sleep and be alone with my husband, however. We did a really good job of spending QT together, traveling, eating out and being with friends. No regrets on our life pre-baby.

Much in the same way, after the birth everyone immediately asks, "When are you going to go for number two?" I looooove babies and I think Sophie is the tops, but I realize that even on my toughest day with her, that life will never ever be this easy again as we add to the Barber brood. I do not, for a second, want to wish away our sweet little simple life or to fast forward to when naps are predictable and she is walking and talking. So when her nap interferes with my lunch date, or she rejects the gym daycare, I try to just be here, now.

Be Here Now

Ray LaMontagne

Don't let your mind get weary and confused
You will be still, don't try
Don't let your heart get heavy child
Inside you there's a strength that lies

Don't let your soul get lonely child
It's only time, it will go by
Don't look for love in faces, places
It's in you, that's where you'll find kindness

Be here now, here now
Be here now, here now

Don't lose your faith in me and
I will try not to lose faith in you
Don't put your trust in walls
'Cause walls will only crush you when they fall

Firsts

This has been a week of notable "firsts" around the Barber household.

First swim lesson - Sophie used her arms to get to the rubber duckies, even kicked a little! She "floated" on her back, too. Who knows what other swim skills my infant would have excelled in next. No, really. We'll never know because our first swim lesson was cut short by some toddler up-chucking in the pool.

First Kindermusik class - this was the first class we actually paid for. She loved the free class. I went to Egypt and back instead of following the GPS to class and got us there 30 minutes late, Soph missed a nap, and the only song she liked was Mama Paquita (fussed through the rest).

First trip to the gym baby-drop-off - didn't go as well as planned. Mea culpa because I went to check on her and she saw me (unbeknownst to me) and she cried hysterically as I walked away.

First trip to Target with not ONE impulse purchase. Baby steps.

First homemade baby food - apples were food of choice (partly because I bought a giant package of them from Costco and knew by Tuesday that we weren't going to be eating them all before they spoiled). And she actually liked my apples, but doesn't like the jarred apples.

How you like them apples? :)

My little swimmer happy as a clam after swim lessons!