Back in Florida!

We're finally back home from our LONG trip. We had a great time seeing so many of our friends and family. Here is an album with many of our photos from the past month or so:

Summer of Sophie '09

Sophie has changed a lot in the past month! Although she was initially a little bit stressed out by all of our changing environments and by new people, by about the middle of our trip she had mellowed out a little. In the meantime, she got better at walking, tried a few new foods, and most importantly, she has really turned into a little sponge as far as communication goes. She is very good at learning (and remembering!) new words -- mostly nouns -- and their associations. Every day we teach her a new group of words, but we try not to overwhelm her. For example, the other day I taught her "floor," "wall," "ceiling," and "window." She can also say five words pretty reliably: "dada," "mama," "please" (which her Grammy Lightle taught her), "ball," and "baby" (the last one is a little shaky.) She's also working on "happy" ("app") and says "ba" for "yes" when you ask if she wants something. And she has learned to shake her head no -- I don't know if this is good or bad, but I think at this point we're happy with any communication! She's still babbling a LOT.

Also over the past month, she has learned to love water by splashing around in rain puddles and when we go swimming. That has really helped with bathtime -- she used to be absolutely terrified of the big tub. Now I can get her to sit in the baby tub IN the big tub by showing her how you can go "splish splash!" in the water there, which she gets very excited about. Just in time, because she was about to outgrow the bathroom sink!

She's still relatively picky about food, but her favorite things (besides cereal and crackers) are fruits like berries and grapes, and anything breaded, like chicken nuggets.

We're looking forward to a visit from my family in the next couple of weeks!