Namesake, Sophie en Sophie

My first day with Sophie the Giraffe. Already love gumming up her hooves!

A sweet nap with Sophie on the way to see my friend Brayden.

Sharing my green beans with Sophie!

Sharing my Sophie with Papa at our house on Isle of Palms.

On a 6am beach walk with Papa at Isle of Palms.

Sweet Carolina 4th of July

What do Southerners do? We feed people.

I pureed my way through the weekend for the youngest palette of the bunch, making a few new foods for her eating pleasure. Pureed Champagne Mangoes, Apples with cinnamon, Organic Carrots and Broccoli, and Watermelon. **Watermelon not pictured because pureeing watermelon leaves you with... pink water... not easy to spoon feed to an infant. So the watermelon wound up being used for mom and dad in some adult bevvies.

We have an Independence Day dinner tradition that started two years ago while we stayed in a cabin in Hot Springs, NC with Maddox and Coop: Tyler Florence's doubled dipped Buttermilk Fried Chicken and cherry tomatoes with buttermilk blue cheese dressing. Heaven. I also whipped up my specialty baked brie with apricots and pecans... need a double diet week from all that goodness. Yep, I gained back the 2lbs I lost, so I guess I won't be hitting my goal this week.

In other words, Sophie's first July 4th weekend was a success. The weather was practically perfect in every way - these are the Carolina weekends we live for. We took Sophie on long walks, played in her new water spray playmat, visited the swings at the park, and went to a neighborhood cookout. What about fireworks, you ask? The babe goes to sleep at 6:30, and our pooches flip out at the sound of fireworks... so, no, none for us this year. We vaguely heard the sonic booms from the comfort of our basement though. It was great to have Bryan home for a long weekend, and I will be sad to send him off to work tomorrow. But... big trip coming up this weekend, and we're getting excited to run away for a little while!

Sophie enjoying her backyard toy that finally arrived in the mail!

Sophie en Sophie on our front porch ready for festivities!

Red, white and blue!

Me and my little watermelon at the neighborhood cookout (she only lasted an hour, alas, but our good neighbor friends brought us a plate of amazing food a little later)! Might be the only time she wears this outfit on camera, the hat is already almost too small!

Reasons Not to Write a Blog/Intro

Top five reasons not to write a blog: 1. No one will read it (except my own mother ((love you Mom))). 2. Unintentionally rub people the wrong way (SPOILER ALERT: this is my blog and you will be subject to my opinions should you chose to continue). 3. Time consuming - do I really need another reason to sit in front of the computer? 4. Can't think of a catchy title. 5. How permanent are these things? Will my daughter be reading this in 16 years and have more reasons to be horribly embarrassed by her un-cool mom?

I've been considering writing a blog for almost a year now. My life has changed dramatically in the last 12 months which I'm sure to catch you up on throughout the posts. Most remarkably, I went from a career woman to a stay-at-home-MOM. Today marks my little one's 6 months on the Earth; and while she naps upstairs, I'm entering into the unknown... the world of blogs.

Being a new mom, my view on the world can shift on a dime as I experience things for the first time again through her eyes - or I see something that screams "Danger!" like never before (i.e. the IKEA metal lantern by the fireplace that she rolled into this morning). I posted something on FB recently about wanting to lose the baby weight and a quip on my distaste for raisins which garnered 28 or so comments (but who is counting)... so I thought... people might actually read what I write and find it mildly entertaining.

What to call my blog? Well, my universe now revolves around a little one I like to call Sophie. And her universe revolves around a rubber teething giraffe also named Sophie. It was the only thing I could think of on the fly, so, Sophie en Sophie was born.

What should you expect to read here, you ask? Good question. Expect the unexpected, I guess. Just my random thoughts as they come - daily, weekly, who knows. Please don't expect grammatically and punctually perfect prose (I promise to use the spell check though).