How the days, weeks, MONTHS, quickly pass..........

and now our little Sophie is 9 months!!!

Since I haven't really dedicated a post to her, here she is over the last few months. 

4 months:

She discovers toys and loves them!!! She was entertained for LONG spans of time with all her colorful toys. Of all our kids, I think she got the most joy out of toys. One day I took her out to the garage and opened up the bin of baby toys and she squealed with excitement, then shoved her chubby little baby hand in there and grabbed a few toys. It was so CUTE!!

 6 months: 

She discovered food. Soon after she turned 6 months we decided to introduce the solids. She was so excited about this because she had been trying to eat our food for weeks. She was not however, a big fan of rice cereal. 

 Sitting in her bumbo gave her easy access to her feet and she really liked that.

 The introduction of food also led to the discovery of her tongue and all the fun things it could do. 

Sophie's favorite food to eat was carrots.

 Always very curious about everything! Her little fingers want to touch everything!

Sophie LOVES the water. She stayed at the pool with us for hours on swimming lesson days. 

 at 6 months, she was almost crawling. Shy was a huge incentive because she really wanted to follow her around and play with her toys. She started to get on her knees and rock back and forth.

 At 6 months also came the discovery of mini popsicles!!!!  YUM

She really loved those. 

 at 6 months the poor girl has to learn to hear the words no, 

 as she learned to walk her little walker over to the flowers, 

pick them,

 Then try to eat them.

 Sophie just loves Shy. She has taken on a lot of Shy's characteristics. She is often growling, her favorite toys are the dog toys, she often crawls over to them and picks them up with her mouth rather than using her hands, they are often found hanging out together at the dog dish, or at the dish washer, or at Sophie's walker. She usually shares her snacks with Shy while she is in there. Shy's favorite place to nap is right under Sophie's crib while she naps. 

7 months:

Sophie learned to crawl!!!

But before she crawled, she did this really funny yoga pose. She was so strong from the beginning.  

 What finally motivated this silly little munchkin to crawl was hummus. We went on a little day trip in to the woods to go 4 wheeling. While Scott was out with the kids I stayed back with Sophie. It was her nap time so we laid down together on a blanket while I fed her her bottle. Apparently I dozed off, only she stayed awake, and eyed the yummy hummus at the other end of the blanket. I suddenly awoke to the sound of Grandma calling Sophie's name in a rather shocked voice. Sophie was at the end of the blanket, covered in hummus, happy as can be! From then on, she was a crawler.

8 months:

by 8 months Sophie had gone on several camping trips. AND had had several ear infections (9 to be exact). Shortly after our return from the Oregon coast, she had to get tubes in her ears. Although she was quite distraught immediately following the surgery, she was back to her normal happy self soon after. 

at 8 months Sophie decides that finger foods are way more fun than baby food. 

 She really likes how messy and crunchy crackers can be. 

 She also tries to show us that she has a bit of a defiant streak as we struggle to get her in the car seat she pulls herself to standing then she makes a "vroom" sound, quite the character. She's got so much personality and such a fun sense of humor. 

She loves it when we take her hiking in her "princess chair"  

 She tries to grab things along the way.

 She has no fear of the water. She loves to play in the river.

 One of Sohie's favorite things to do is eat!

 Another favorite thing to do is play with Shy.

Now she is pulling herself up on everything, climbing on things and making her way up the stairs. Her newest trick is pulling herself to standing then letting go. She loves doing it best in front of  a crowd chanting her name, what a ham!!! She raises her little arm and waves it to the beat, with a huge smile across her face. 

And here she is at 9 months.  I was eating some lasagna and she kept trying to grab some off my plate so I gave her some. She was so happy. SHe loves the independence of feeding herself! 

We sure do love this HAPPY little girl.