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From Zofia to Aaron

Left foot, Left foot, Right foot, Right

Oh boy. Sunday we left my mother's house after spending the weekend and decided we would stop at Stride Right to buy Zofia a new pair of shoes since hers were getting a little small. A sudden storm rolled through and traffic was at a stop so we decided to make the stop and hope that the traffic would clear up after the storm (it didn't the Bay Bridge was closed unbeknownst to us).

Zofia was napping so I figured I would look at shoes in the next size up (6). Steven ended up coming in with her (she has an uncanny ability to know exactly when the car stops moving from a dead sleep). We got her foot measured and one foot is a 6 and the other is a 7! holy moley, that girl has big feet.

We ended up buying a 7.5 because she wouldn't be wearing them for a couple more months so by the time she would wear them I'm sure her feet will have grown some more!

Old MacDonald had a farm, EIEIO

Here are Zofia's attempts at her animal sounds (some animals she signs as well).

dizzy bat races, anyone?

You spin me right round, baby
Right round like a record, baby
Right round round round
Dead or Alive

Zofia learned how to spin around and around and around yesterday. She just got in the middle of the living room and started spinning, albeit only twice around, but it was funny to watch and even funnier to see her dizzy :-)

She also likes looking through her legs upside down now. The other day she spent several minutes looking at various things around the house between her legs - too cute!

Her vocabulary and signing vocabulary has exploded. She's learning her animal sounds and her imitations are quite hilarious - especially her horse neighing (I'll try to get it on video and post it).

She is also cutting an amazing amount of teeth. All told she's working on 5! 2 molars and 3 canines!!

gimme a sign, any sign

We've been teaching Zofia sign language (thanks to my great friends at the "Farm" for giving us a signing book for a shower gift!). I was getting a little discouraged because she didn't seem particularly interested but she knew 2 signs - "more" and "milk". But in the last week she is signing like crazy! She knows so many signs now. One of her favorites is "airplane" which she makes every single time she hears a plane. Here's a rundown of her repertoire:
- eat
- more
- milk
- banana
- eat
- daddy
- mommy
- bird
- airplane
- bear
- monkey
- mouse
- wash
- hat

how awesome is that?!

Silly Sammy sipped six sodas and got sick sick sick

Well Zofia did not sip six sodas but she did get sick. She caught a virus and for the last 3 days had a terrible fever (over 104 at one point). I finally took her to the doctor's office yesterday and found out that she has Herpangia - a type of coxsackie virus (lovely). Coupled with temperatures soaring into the mid-high 90's, keeping her comfortable has been challenging to say the least.

Luckily it's a pretty short duration virus and she's already acting better today, meaning she didn't scream or cry for a seemingly endless time to go down for her nap.

And of course, throughout it all her appetite was unaffected - go figure.

Throw salt over your shoulder? How about broccoli?

That is Zofia's newest "trick". Anything she doesn't want to eat goes over her shoulders and on the floor. She started doing that just a couple days ago. Molly has never eaten better. She even knows the cue ("all done?") to come clean up the scraps.

Zofia LOVES being outside going for walks in the woods, picking up sticks, and playing with rocks. Luckily the weather has been terrific so we can go outside in the morning and in the evening.

Other favorites include: watermelon (absolute favorite), strawberries, peaches, blueberries, apple, rice cakes, rice crackers, and meat. Not a big fan of veggies - can't say I blame her. Lately she'll eat broccoli and cauliflower with garlic but that's about it right now.

OOOH the last 6 months!

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These boots were made for walking.... well, these feet anyway

Zofia took her first unassisted steps last Friday morning! We were in the dining room and she took 4 steps! I was so happy that Steven was home to see it. We kept trying to get her to walk but everytime she thought about it - plop! Well this morning I was putting away her diapers and noticed that she was across the room - she walked from her ottoman to her dresser! Then she did it again - wobble wobble wobble!

Before we know it she'll forget about crawling and will be zipping all around the house!!

Sooooooooo Big!

Wow, hard to believe the leaps and bounds one month can make! Zofia is now 10 months old and it's incredible to think how far she has come! She's a smiley, happy little girl.


Zofia has 6 teeth and is working on her 7th. We can always tell when she's getting ready to get a tooth because she gets the most hideous diaper rash you can imagine - pauvre bebe. But those teeth! She bites those Cheerios in half using those pretty pearly whites.


She's more independent in her playing, which is pretty awesome for me because it affords me the opportunity to actually cook, eat, and get something done! Currently her 2 favorite toys are a duck and her "bear pants" I bought at BabyGap.

She is also following instructions now which is cool, as she is associating words with objects. Her vocabulary comprehension is expanding! Words she understands include:

cat, dog, monkey, duck, book, kiss (and boy are they messy!), and ball. She understands to bring something to us. Today she was quite proud of herself as she put a ball in her cup and balanced it as she tipped the cup.

She is hilarious because in the last week she started doing SOOO BIG! Grandpop had been teaching her this and now she does this on cue. She even does this when I am talking to someone else and use the words "so big" (arms in the air!) Today she started clapping and that was pretty big news!

Zofia is also standing without support now. Usually it catches her by surprise and when she realizes that she's not holding onto anything she either grabs something or sits right down.

We play chase around the kitchen - Zofia will crawl and look over her shoulder so I'll crawl behind her and chase her. As soon as she turns a corner I go the other way to surprise her

and she always is!

playtime

Zofia's top 2 teeth broke through! (She's working on the other 2 now). And as a result of the teeth having come in, I've been given a little respite as she is happy playing by herself for a little bit! What a nice change to be able to let her play with her toys and not clinging to me having to keep her company and watch her play.

She definitely recognizes names now - she understands the association of the the word cat with our cat, molly/doggy with our dog, and daddy with, well, you get the picture. She's a master at waving hello and good-bye and is perfecting the art of raspberries. She chats with her toys while she plays. One of her favorites is the remote control - go figure.

Big Bad Wolf

Little Red Riding Hood: My what big teeth you have!

Big Bad Wolf: All the better to eat you with, my dear!

Zofia has been teething (so I think) for about 3 weeks. She was smacking her lips for about a week or so and I can only assume it was because she was not accustomed to the sensation in her gums. She's also been grumpy grumpy. But she's also sitting up from a crawl without assistance, cross-crawling, pulling up to a stand on EVERYTHING, and just yesterday started cruising along the edge of the couch. I sometimes see her crawling around blinded by crying and it takes restraint to not pick her up, but I think she must try to work through whatever is frustrating her. This isn't uncommon for her as she approaches milestones as she tends to complain while accomplishing them.

So, I've been peeking as much as she'd let me and tonight I saw, not 1, not 2, but 4 upper teeth getting ready to come in! HOLY SCHMOKES! The other week the gums were just bumpy in the front, but tonight I saw 4 white spots! Thank goodness for Hyland's Teething Tablets!!

HoHoHo and Auld Lang Syne

We celebrated our first Christmas together as a family this year. I finished up a project at work and had the luxury of vacation from the 15th - Jan 2. I thought I'd get more accomplished during that time, but it was nice to just relax and have nothing urgent to focus on except being with our daughter.

Christmas Eve Steven's father came over and we put up the tree and decorated it, had our traditional kielbasa dinner, and we all went to a Christmas Eve candlelight service. Christmas morning Steven, Zofia, and I spent sleeping in a little before we headed to my mother's house for an overnight visit.

Zofia got some pretty cool gifts - 3 outfits from my mother, a 'baby grand piano' that we bought her, a sing-along musical toy from her Aunt JoAnne and Uncle Brian, and a sack full of learning toys from her Uncle Tommy (a piggy bank, cookie jar, a stuffed cookie monster, a singing book).

New Year's came pretty quick and I made a turkey dinner for us to usher it in.

So here's to 2008!