18 months!

This Friday (the 28th) my little girl will "turn" 18 months!  It's really crazy to think how fast time passes.  She's such a funny little girl & I'm so glad she's in our lives.  Here's what's been happening with Sofia lately.
-I won't know until Friday exactly how much she weighs & how tall she is, but she's still a fairly petit little girl.  She generally eats more than Steven, though, & drinks milk like it's going out of style, so I'm really not too worried ;)  (Seriously, she drinks a TON of milk.  I'll buy the 2-gallon pack at Costco & we'll easily go through it in about 10 days.  Not much of that milk is used by the rest of the family. Milk-aholic.)
-She loves her big brother, even though they don't always get along.  Steven is usually the one to start fights or hit her, but she's learned that if she pulls his hair he will stop bugging her.  They generally play pretty nicely together, though.  Steven is really good about getting making sure she gets a treat if he's getting one or he'll get her milk out of the fridge if I ask him to.  Sofia, in turn, loves to give Steven hugs & kisses when they're going to bed, even though Steven doesn't always like this.  They love "dancing" in the car together to the music on the radio ("dancing" mostly includes flailing the arms about...but it's cute!).  This afternoon, they were chasing each other around the house & having a great time doing it.  It was a bit challenging at first, but I'm really glad they are so close in age because I think they'll be great friends growing up.
-Sofia definitely gets more & more of her own little personality as time goes on.  She can definitely be a little diva & will stick her lower lip out & pout if she doesn't get what she wants.  Most of the time, though, she is a happy little girl.  She likes to give kisses, which are still mostly just her putting her open mouth on your cheek for a while, but now she's got the sound to go with it.  She'll say "mwaaahhhh" as she does it - very cute! 
-She's starting to get to the "helpful" stage, which I love.  She knows how to throw stuff away & loves to help put the silverware from the dishwasher into the drawer.  In fact, she loves doing that so much that if she notices me doing the dishes, she will take the dirty silverware from the dishwasher & put those away.  That gets a little annoying but I'm glad she likes to help!  I need to savor it while it lasts, right?
-She isn't really talking much yet, she's much more of a grunter.  Her affirmative answer is just a very muddled "uh-huh".  However, she does sign some words like "please", "thank you", "more", "milk".  She can usually get what she wants without talking, though, so I don't think she really sees a need yet.  She does say the words, "Hi" & "bye" (both while waving which is very cute), "mommy", "daddy" & "papa" (grandpa) & a very muddled version of "grandma" which sounds very similar to "papa".  I'm trying to get her to say "Fifi" for her name because I think it would be much easier than "Sofia" but it's really just two "F" sounds.  Like I said before, if she gets what she wants without talking, in her mind, where's the incentive?
Sofia LOVES whipped cream...but really, who doesn't?  She was just using this strawberry as a vehicle to get her more whipped cream.  She's definitely my daughter ;)

Sofia's our little artist.  She loves to color & I will find her on her stomach on the floor coloring like this.  It's fun to see because Steven never did this. 

Notice she's got her milk that she carries with her everywhere...

 Both Steven & Sofia love our neighbors' cats.  Whenever we are outside & see any of the cats, both of the kids get really excited.  The cats are usually pretty patient with them, too, which is great.

 Sofia's really excited face

 This was at a little carnival at our condo.  The goal was to throw these little ping-pong balls & get them into the bowls that were floating in the little kiddie pool.  Sofia was actually pretty good at it but she seriously stood like this for a full minute before throwing.  She did this each time she threw the ball...

 Ah, sibling love.  Sofia sharing her cereal with Steven

 Sometimes Sofia will wake up & you can tell she could really use more sleep.  This usually only happens in the morning because Steven is not quiet when he gets up.  This was in the afternoon, though, after she'd gotten up from her nap.  I was in the kitchen doing something when I noticed Sofia had been really quiet for a while.  I looked in the living room & found her like this.  I didn't want to move her & wake her up, so I left her there & tried to be fairly quiet.  Fortunately, Steven was still asleep this whole time & she actually slept for about an hour like this. 

My Baby turns 3!!

It doesn't seem like very long ago that this little man was born!  I can't believe we celebrated his THIRD birthday just a few weekends ago! 

Steven's actual birthday was on Sunday, September 11th, but we took him out on Saturday. I thought he would enjoy going to the zoo so we took him there for a few hours in the morning. He wasn't over the moon about it but he had a good time. Josh thought it would be really fun to take him to Chuck-E-Cheese's as well and he had told him that we were going. Steven had no idea what Chuck-E-Cheese was but he was excited to tell people that we were going there. That day I was checking my email and found a good deal for a different but similar place called Planet Play. We were able to go for about half of the regular price which was really great. They had a pizza, salad, pasta, and dessert buffet which wasn't too bad. Obviously Steven was too little to play a lot of the games but there were a few he really liked. He also liked going on the Go Karts with Josh. He was able to even get a few little prizes from the games he won. Sofia really liked walking around and watching all the kids play. There was a toddler area that she really liked, too, because it had a slide she could get up and go down herself. She also thought the lights on the games were very mesmerizing.

On Sunday (his actual birthday) we had our families over for cake & ice cream.  I had been craving white cake with strawberry filling & a whipped cream frosting so I decided to make for the cake.  I amended it a little because Steven said he wanted a chocolate cake.  It turned out really good, in my opinion, but of course Steven didn't eat any of the cake himself. 

This year his birthday was a lot of fun.  He's old enough now to kind of understand what's going on & be excited about it.  If you ask him when his birthday he will tell you "September 11th".  He got a lot of great things for his birthday & he will proudly tell anyone who wants to know (or doesn't, it doesn't really matter to him ;) ), "I got this for my birthday" or things of that nature.  It's pretty cute. 

This little man definitely has a mind of his own.  He is generally a pretty sweet boy and will tell me things like, "I love you, Mommy.  And I love Daddy & I Love Sofia."  or "No, Mommy, you can't go to work.  You have to stay here with us." (that one kills me every time!)  He will also say stuff like, "Thanks for making dinner, Mommy" (he calls all meals "dinner"). or, "Good job, Mommy!"  He's also usually very sweet to Sofia & will try to comfort her when she's sad.  He's also big enough to help me out with a lot of stuff.  He can open the fridge & get Sofia's sippy with milk out for me or help me with other stuff.  He is incredibly independent & wants to do nearly everything by himself.  On the flipside, he definitely can have a temper & be very stubborn.  He will hit Sofia sometimes or scream at me or refuse to do the things I ask.  Fortunately for me, though, the good moods outweigh the bad.  He also has a TON of energy.  I can tell when he's getting bored beause he's been cooped up inside for too long because he'll start getting all crazy & will try to wrestle you or jump on stuff, etc.  We've found that when that happens, if we tell him to go run around for a little bit, it helps calm him down.  Another little side note: a few weeks ago my mother-in-law asked if we wanted an extra Uno game she'd found in her house.  Josh showed Steven how to play & he LOVES it!  He will ask to play it all the time.  It's really a very simple game & he knows his numbers & colors very well so he caught on pretty quickly.  He doesn't quite get that it's a bad thing to have to draw more cards but he does get the whole "skipping" concept & finds it very funny to skip someone. 

I'm so glad to have this little guy in our family!  I can't imagine life without him :)

Josh, Steven, & Sofia at the zoo

Steven riding on the minature merri-go-round at Planet Play

Steven & Josh enjoying some air hockey

Steven & Josh about to race go carts

Josh helping Steven open his presents on his birthday

Steven modeling his new vest Grandma got him

Giving hugs to his cousins for his birthday presents

Josh with the birthday cake