Sophia on the Road

This past weekend we took Sophia on her first real vacation since the beach last summer. The three of us went to Seattle with my parents to celebrate my mother's 60th birthday. Happy Birthday!! Sophia did as well as could be expected of her on the road. She got tired of the car, and needed some outdoor time which wasn't possible due to the rain. But she slept well both nights, ate well, and made my parents very happy which was her real job for the weekend.

Amazingly, due to Paul's and my father's packing talents, all 5 of us and our equipment (stroller, crib, Mom's lift and all of our luggage) were able to fit together in one car. It was a little cramped, but Sophia loved having someone ride with her in the back seat.

While in Seattle we did all the usual touristy things: saw the Space Needle (we were there for their 45th million visitor, but alas, it was none of us), wandered the Seattle Center, spent the morning at Pike Place Market. Saturday evening we had dinner at Ivar’s Salmon House where we had an amazing salmon dinner. We ordered the family style salmon, and the 5 of us ate our fill and had left-overs for 2 days! The Pike Place Market was hosting a cheese festival while we were there, so everyone sampled free cheese and Sophia's snack for the morning was free. (She did not enjoy the pepper jack cheese, spitting it out of her mouth all over Paul's neck and shoulders.)

Sunday afternoon we went to the new Seattle Public library, a very cool, very modern library with enough staff to make me jealous. Sophia loved the children's area where she played and read books for about an hour.

Our hotel had an enormous atrium with lots of stairs for Sophia to enjoy climbing, and a pool for us to play in each evening. Sophia got a ride on the luggage cart as we were packing to leave, and distressed to have the ride over, tried to ride Grandma's lift. It didn't work which made her very confused.

It was a fantastic weekend and a wonderful way to celebrate a birthday.

In other Sophia news, she is working on feeding herself with a spoon. Sometimes the food even makes it to her mouth! She also can now cock-a-doodle-do, quack and baa like a sheep. Her favorite animal noise is roaring like a lion. She seems very proud of herself. Her favorite activity is still going on a walk and will try several times a day to pull us to the door.

"Ta-da" and other adventures

This past weekend was full of adventures for all of us, especially Sophia. Saturday we all traveled to Portland where Grandmas Darla & Nancy and I went to a ceramics show. We three have attended this event many years together and it's always a lot of fun. Paul had two oral arguments in Oregon's Supreme Court on Monday, so he needed to work a lot of the weekend. So, Sophia got to stay with her Grandpa John for the afternoon. They seemed to conspire together quite well.

After that fun, we went to Battle Ground to have dinner at Earl and Darla's. Sophia really loved rampaging in their newly remodeled backyard.

Sunday was a quiet day around here. Sophia had a cold so we took it easy. In the afternoon she had a tragic accident with playground equipment, resulting in her first black eye. In doesn't show up too well in the pictures. That evening she invented a new game, climbing on the wagon Grandpa Earl built her and saying "ta-da" while holding her arms in the air. She played this game for about a half an hour and even two days later she's still enjoying it.

Sophia has also learned to ride her airplane that she got for Christmas. For a long time this was a toy that caused great trauma, including tremendous tears when she first rode on it in December (see here). But now she can climb on it herself and push it around the house. The only problem is, she only goes backwards!

New words: "cat," "kitty," "bounce," "mine,"

"football," "grass," and "ta-da."

Crayons

I introduced Sophia to crayons. It was relatively successful. They only went in her mouth a few times and she colored the table just twice. She seemed very intrigued by them!

New words today: "fish," "banana," "bucket," "circle" and "button."