Legs have a purpose!

In the past few days Sophia has learned that she can push down with her legs, lock her knees and stand up. It is quite the exciting development! She was not doing this Tuesday, but Wednesday when I got home from work I was holding her in my lap, her hands in each of mine and she pulled herself up. Imagine my surprise! Since then, she and Paul have been practicing this new skill a lot and she seems to find it quite entertaining.

In other news, today Paul and Sophia came to have lunch with me which was great fun. It is always a treat to get to see my family during the work day!

I'm posting what may be one of the last pictures of Sophia in her bouncy seat. She is really running out of patience for this reliable piece of equipment. She has spent a lot of time in bouncy seats the past few months, but she is no longer particularly content in them. We need to move on to more exciting equipment!

Escaping the Heat

This weekend as our home experienced 100+ degree weather, we escaped to the beach to help our friends Christina, Peter and Miriam unpack in their new home. Apparently, helping friends move in sounded better than the heat! It's always good to be with these friends, and it was lovely weather at the coast. While there we had spaghetti, which Miriam had great fun eating, Sophia learned to pay the piano with some help from Dad, and we hope we left their home with fewer packed boxes than we found it.

Today Sophia went to get her picture taken. They look like they turned out pretty well. After the photo session Paul put her in this adorable onesie that her Aunt Amy sent her. Amy said that every baby needs an organic cotton dinosaur onesie. Sophia was pretty comfortable, so she certainly agrees!

A Library Shower

Friday there was a lovely shower at the library where I work for Sophia and Haylie, another new baby. Haylie is only a month younger than Sophia, but it is amazing what a difference a month makes! This was Sophia's first chance to be the "big girl" and she really enjoyed it. Although the picture shows her sleeping, she actually spent most of the party looking around and sitting up (with assistance).

My good friend and coworker Robin (below) worked really hard on this shower and we appreciate all she has done for us. In addition, she has been a real mentor to me at work and a good friend during the stress of the past few years and all the time waiting for Sophia. I'm lucky to know her.

People were amazingly generous and I'm lucky to work with such nice people.

THREE MONTHS OLD

Well, we can hardly believe it, but Sophia is three months old today.

We are so excited and, as you can see, so is she. We are so happy and lucky to have her in our lives! Bryn is at work today, so it is a Sophie and dad day around the house. Bryn took this nice picture of Sophia and I this morning before she left for work.

For lunch, Sophia and I met with Grandpa John, who was in town for a presentation this morning. Sophia was a good girl, and she slept through most of lunch. But I got this good picture of her communing with her grandpa.

It is supposed to get very warm around here this weekend, so we'll have to turn up the A/C and break out Sophia's best "cool" clothes. She has some excellent summer-wear that we have been waiting to try out, and now we have the opportunity.

Father's Day

Sophia and I tried our best to make Paul's first father's day a good one. Sophia was so excited about it she woke us up about 5 AM. After a diaper change and a bottle, she and Paul slept on the couch for several hours.

Then we went out to breakfast and later for a lovely walk in a park.



In the late afternoon we had both sets of parents and Barry over for dinner. We'd hate to leave our dad's out of the father's day festivities. As usual, Sophia provided most of the entertainment for everyone.













John decided that Sophia's play-mat looked like so much fun that he had to try it out for himself. He decided that she was a lucky girl and he wants one more adult-sized. I think this photo will be of great use to any opponent the next time he is up for election.













Today we're having a nice day around the house, except for lovely lunches with friends. Sophia is having a sleepy day and so we're taking advantage of that to relax ourselves to recover from yesterday's festivities.

I want my Daddy!

This morning Paul is golfing with Barry and Sophia and I are home alone. She is pretty sure this is not her normal routine and is rather grumpy about life. She wants her daddy home! I imagine that me taking pictures mid-tantrum didn't help either.

Just so you know that all hasn't been unhappy lately, here is a cute picture taken Thursday. Of course, that was when Paul was home with Sophia. But what do you expect?

June 15 UPDATE

The past several days have involved pretty much the usual routine. Sophia and I have taken walks, run errands, and gone out to lunch a few times. On Tuesday, we heard the weather was going to be bad in the afternoon, so we went out for our walk early in the day. After the walk, it still was not raining, so Sophia helped me move tools from the garage into my new shed at the side of the house. We've really been working on her strength training lately, but the snow shovel was a bit much for her. By the end of the day after all of that walking and other hard work, Sophia was zonked.

I'm not sure what mommy's need for a nap was :-) Thankfully, Abby stayed awake to watch over everything and everyone.

On Wednesday, we found a day care provider for Sophia once I return to work. Karen is an in-home care provider who lives nearby. We really liked her and her day care area. Unfortunately, she did not have any opening for Sophia until August 21, and I have to go back to work on July 17. We are in the process of finding temporary day care for Sophia from July 17-August 11 (when we go to the beach for a week). Even though the start dates don't match up perfectly, we were so impressed with Karen, that we decided that we would make it work.

Today, Sophia and I went out to lunch with my former boss at the Oregon Court of Appeals, Judge David Brewer, and his Judicial Assistant, Nancy. I have known Nancy and Dave since 2000, when I clerked at the Court of Appeals, and they were thrilled to meet Sophia.

Sophia seemed pretty pleased to meet both of them as well. (And, as a side note, Sophia was thrilled with her daddy's outstanding victory in the Court of Appeals in State v. Siegel, on Wednesday.)

Apparently, Derek Simmons, my former co-clerk who worked with me at the Court of Appeals, has been telling Nancy and Dave that he is a better daddy than I am...

Sophia begs to differ. She's never seen that Derek guy do anything for her! Seriously though, Derek is a pretty good daddy, but Judge Brewer has implied to me on more than one occasion that, "Derek is a crackpot. He's been getting me in trouble with his 'journalistic license' for years." Nothing more need be said.

(NOTE: The opinions expressed in this blog are purely those of the overly active imagination of Sophia's dad. Judge Brewer would probably never actually use the work "crackpot" to describe Derek.)

Well, Sophia is still napping after our adventure, but she will soon wake up hungry. Then, we are off to the bookmobile to see mommy!

Weekend Round-up

This weekend got off to a very exciting start with the news that my cousin Cortney has a new baby boy! Calvin was born Friday evening and we couldn't be more thrilled for Cortney and Jon.

We've had a nice weekend, even though I had to work on Saturday. Paul and Sophia came to the bookmobile and Sophia helped me check out books to people and met some of our patrons.





Sophia was having a fairly messy day, and by the time I got home from work on Saturday she was on her third outfit of the day. After an afternoon snack, we went out to Minto Brown Park and took a family walk. It was bright and sunny, so we tried out sunglasses and a hat on Sophia. Although we thought she was quite adorable, she was less than thrilled with the ensemble.

Last night Sophia slept the longest she ever had at one stretch: from 9:30 until 6 AM. Her mom and dad were very grateful. Well rested, today we had a lot of fun. Our friends Steve, Maryann and Bailey came down for lunch. Bailey is about a month older than Sophia and it is just amazing what a difference a month makes.

After a weekend full of so many big events, it is no wonder that Sophia was asleep tonight by 8:30. She was exhausted. We're hoping for another good sleep tonight.

We speak for Sophia

One of the fun parts of a baby who cannot yet talk for herself is talking for her. Tonight as Paul was playing with Sophia on the floor he had this conversation about the lion swinging over her head. (Both sides of the conversation are Paul.)

Sophia "I didn't know lions could fly!"
Paul, "Admit it, you didn't know they couldn't. "

It's a bit sad the things that amuse us now.

I am also vaguely concerned that her first sentence is going to be "Mommy, you and Daddy have been putting a lot of words in my mouth."

OUT TO LUNCH

For the second day in a row, Sophia and dad went out to lunch with one of dad's friends. Today, we went to the Court Street Dairy Lunch with Paul's former law clerk, Michael. I'm not sure why it is called the "Dairy Lunch," as I rarely have anything "dairy" there. But, the burgers and fries are quite good. Sophia slept through much of lunch, but once she realized she was not getting any fries, demanded to be held for a little while.
Not too much on the agenda for this weekend. Bryn works this Saturday, and Paul's friends from high school, Steve and Maryanne, and their new baby, Bailey, will be joining us for lunch in Salem on Sunday.

HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND!

Adoption Day!

Today was a very big day for our family, it was Sophia's Adoption Day! Today we went to court and a judge finalized Sophia's adoption. We could have done this in the mail, but we preferred to do it in court. It seemed more official this way. Both sets of grandparents came, and we also invited Christy from the adoption agency and all the people who were references for us with the agency: Paul's brother Barry, my coworker Janet, our friend Joanne, and our friend Derek who came with his sons Gabe and Alex. Our other reference Christina couldn't come because she is at a conference in Idaho and she was greatly missed. Our lawyer Robin was also there.

The judge really put effort into making this a special event for all of us. She talked about the duties we were taking on as a parents, and the duties Sophia has as our child to obey us and care for us (I'm hoping we get a copy of this speech to have Sophia read at a latter date). She had us promise to take good care of her, and she had our family and friends promise to love her and take care of her.

The most amazing part was that Sophia was fast asleep during all of the gathering and waiting. But as soon as court started she woke right up and watched the judge the entire time she was talking. She paid close attention! When the judge does adoptions of older children she usually has the child come up and bang the gavel at the end. Sophia is kind of small for that, so she invited our friend Alex to do it. We all got a kick out of that.

After some pictures with the judge we all went back to our house for a nice lunch and time to hang out and play together. It was a very special day and it's amazing to me that after this long journey we have a child of our very own. She's quite a miracle!

New Camera!

Earl and Darla gave me a new camera for my birthday. What a wonderful gift! I've never used a camera so much in my life as I have since Sophia came and our digital camera was pretty big and heavy. This new one is small and has many wonderful features - including a date function. I love it. Today I'm playing with it and here is one of my first Sophia pictures. She really loves the mobile over her crib and we can leave her in her crib watching it for up to 10 minutes while we get things done around the house. Unfortunately, the mobile only lasts for about 2 minutes so we have to keep running back in there to wind it back up, but since it keeps her happy, it's worth it.

First of June

Bryn is back to work today, and next week she returns to her regular 30 hour per week schedule. So, dad and Sophie had many activities planned and goals to accomplish, beginning with....
















.....BREAKFAST.
Yes, indeed. A good time was had by all.



After breakfast, dad and Sophia did a little work around the house and then ran some errands. As is typical of Sophia lately, she did not really enjoy the car ride. As much as Bryn and I try to explain to her that she has no choice in the matter so she may as well get used to it, she persists in objecting to the rides.


After returning home and taking a quick nap, it was time for our afternoon walk. Today, the bookmobile stopped in our neighborhood, so Sophia and I made a point of going to see mommy at work. As you can see, Bryn liked having the company of a little assistant for a few minutes.

All that fun and entertainment has really zonked both dad and Sophia.

So, now it is off to the kitchen to try to figure out what to make for dinner. This Mr. Mom thing really is alot of work! I barely have time to update the blog! Until tomorrow...