Sophie's 1st Birthday

I know these pictures are a week late. Last Saturday, June 12th, my little girl turned 1 year old. AHHHH!! How fast did this year go? We had a watermelon themed party for our little "watermelon head." That's our nickname for Sophie. I think I've explained before we don't call her that because she has a big head. When she was a few months old she wore this little outfit with watermelons on it. Ricky called her watermelon head and she'd smile so the name just kind of stuck. It will retire soon, especially as she gets older.

Sophie got a ton of cool toys and cute clothes. She had some of her friends there and the cake was delicious. The food too, if I don't say so myself. I was pooped after that weekend, I cooked my tail off (with help from my sister and mom). Ricky smoked some pig butt's, I made homemade potato salad, pasta salad, baked beans, a watermelon fruit bowl, chips and dip, pico and guac, and some cheese balls and brie. Yum!

Sophie went to the doctor last Monday for her 12 month checkup and shots. She weighs 19 lbs, 3 oz, (20th percentile for weight) and is 29 inches long (50th percentile for height). She's getting ready to cut her 7th tooth (possibly a molar, it's really swollen back there). She said mama for the first time this past weekend!! She's starting to make more sounds, the "mmm" sounds is more prominent now. Still says her "da's" but she's babbling up a storm. Not walking yet but she's starting to stand by herself for a couple of seconds here and there. I don't think it'll be long at all. She's getting more and more steady on her feet.

I'm excited to see her develop. She does something new every week and it just melts my heart that she said mama!!

Just wanted to say Happy Father's Day to Ricky. He is such a great daddy, Sophie is lucky to have him. We enjoyed a day at the beach yesterday with the Bell family at Kiawah. Sophie went in to ocean and seemed to love it, until a wave got water in her face and then, not so much. It was a good day!

I could do this all day

You would think that changing a photo to sepia isn't such a task. I mean, I do this all the time in my little Kodak Gallery software and Picasa. But you don't have much control over the coloring. Sure you can adjust the shadows and highlights, but I've noticed that my sepia prints aren't exactly the color I want them to be (can't describe it other than a funky brown color that I'm not too fond of).

So I did another quick tutorial and changed a color photo to sepia and it totally came out "professional" looking. In my opinion. It has to do with layers, masks, all technical stuff.

I could seriously do this all day. But now my lunch break is over and I really need to get back to work!

My First Attempt at Photo Editing

I still have have high hopes of one day working from home and doing web page design stuff. If I could afford it and had the time to do it, I would go back to school in a heartbeat and take some graphic design classes. Maybe later when Sophie and baby no. 2get older. I would love to be able to work from home when the kids are in school so I can still pick them up from school, help with homework, and cook dinner, while earning some money. Not a bad idea..... may have to look into this. So I'm trying to become "self taught" during my free time. Ha ha, free time. What's that again? Between raising a soon to be toddler and training for my 1/2 marathon in 6 months, AND working full time......

So you see where free time may be a problem. Like anything, if there's a will there's a way and I can be a very determined individual.

I currently use GIMP, a free photo manipulation program that I did some of my blog design with. It doesn't come with a users manual so I've googled a lot of "how to's." I would L-O-V-E to buy Photoshop but it's like $80 or something and baby needs some shoes, so that's on the back burner for now. GIMP isn't so bad, it's just different. And free is always good.

So today I did a tutorial called Split-Toning. It's an effect where you can have a certain color for highlight and another color for shadows. I used the blue and yellow that were done on the tutorial but am going to go back and do some of my own color's another time.

So here is my before and end result. Nothing fancy or extraordinary but it's a start.

Sophie and Wylie

This child loves Wylie. She will crawl over to him in a heartbeat and love on him. In recent weeks, Sophie has learned how to give kisses. Who does she give kisses to? Not Mommy or Daddy, Wylie.

So this is a big week for us, Sophie is becoming a toddler in so many ways. I knew it was coming but it's still hard to come to terms with. More for me than her. She's moved up to the next room at school so she's back with all her buddies who are older than her. This morning I brought her in and she seemed a little reluctant to let go of me. I sat her down at the little table where all the kids were eating their breakfast and gave her cereal. She started munching and they all just kind of sat there and stared at each other. It was cute. So I put her stuff up and left, she didn't seem to notice at all.

This week also starts the transition to whole milk. Gave her some on Saturday in her sippy cup and she would drink a little and then kind of look at me funny. She drank a little bit more yesterday. So we're taking less bottles to daycare to wean her. We're on our last tub of formula so once this is gone, that's it.

No walking yet, but she did stand on her own for a couple of seconds yesterday. I think it scared her slightly because her eyes got really big and she sat down all of a sudden. So I think it'll be a challenge for her to "let go" of her bottles, for me too. It means she's heading out of baby stage and it's just weird, a good weird. I think I'll let her get used to her new changes before I start "paci take away." THAT should be fun, especially at night!

So here's some pictures and a couple of me with my new hair color. I decided to go a little darker, back to my original color. I love having the blond highlights, but this summer I just wanted something different. I like it!! Goes well with the tan.

Slacker

I've totally slacked on the blog this month, it's been a busy month! The count down has officially begun, 3 weeks till Sophie turns 1!! I can't believe how fast this year has gone, it amazes me. I'm a little sad that my baby won't be a baby much longer but I look forward to the toddler years. She's so much fun and her little personality is really coming out (or should I say attitude).

Updates:
- Pulling up and anything and everything!
- Eating table food like a champ. She's come a long way. LOVES pasta, broccoli, yogurt, goldfish, bbq, waffles and finally started eating fruit dices (for a while she seemed to be having an issue with texture). Throws the food she doesn't like on the floor.
- Walking with assistance, pushing her toys while walking. Not yet standing on her own but she's holding onto things one handed while standing.
- Babbling up a storm. Will still only say Dada, no mama yet. Oh and we think she's started "yelling" at the dogs when they bark. Because that's what we do. It's cute.
- Knows what "no" means but doesn't really want to listen :)
- Just cut her 5Th tooth with the 6th right behind it.
- claps and waves "bye bye"
- Does the "wiggle wiggle" (her signature dance move).

She's hit a ton of milestones in a short amount of time.

Let's see, what else has been going on. Just last week all three of us came down with a funky cold. Last weekend I started getting a sore throat that turned into a full on chest cold. Then the congestion set in and if things couldn't get worse I got pink eye! Then Sophie starts to cough and get a little snotty. She's fine except she got ear infection #5. Ugh. No talk of tubes until after summer OR if she gets another ear infection during the summer. The dr. told me that she has 2 things in her favor 1) Summertime is coming and 2) she's ending the first year of life. Two factors that greatly contribute to ear infections. Tubes could be a reality in the up and coming months. Not opposed to it, just another thing to deal with.

In two months I will be registering for the Kiawah half marathon. This is still something that I really want to accomplish this year, but just as I get into my running grove, something happens. Like this past week I was doing so well and averaging 4-5 days a week running and working out and then BAM! Cold and sickness sets in and I've been out of it for a week. Luckily the rest seemed to do my muscles some good because I was able to run 5 miles this morning in 46 minutes. Felt good, then coughed my brains out :)

We're all really looking forward to summer. I hope to get Sophie to the beach some and to a pool. Of course I want to get her back on the boat as well. She's only been out once and it wasn't a horrible experience but she HATED the life jacket.

Hope everyone has an awesome Memorial Day weekend!

Happy 11 Months Sophie!

Sophie is 11 months today! I can't believe that next month she's going to be a year old. Seriously, where did the year go? Updates: Sophie is eating some table food here and there. After the numerous fights we were having at home, I decided to let daycare give it a try. So far so good. Some stuff she likes, some stuff she doesn't care for. I really think it's a texture thing for her. Monday night we made some chicken, pasta, and veggies and she ate that pasta up! Fed half of it to the dogs but she even had a few bites of chicken. Sophie has also, just once, pushed her toy cube across the floor while walking. That is the first and only time she's done that, but she's pulling up like a champ!

I had a wonderful Mother's Day Sunday. Sophie got me a manicure and pedicure along with a gift card to get some new running shoes. We then went to the park and had a picnic with Gigi and Poppy, Aunt Meagan, Uncle Doug, and Addison. Maegan's mom and brother were there as well. It was fun, warmer than what they said it was going to be, but a beautiful day.

Let's see, what else is going on, other than my car drama (which I won't go into because it makes me very mad). No real updates on running lately. There aren't barely any races during the summer. All that really gets going again in the fall. I'm still running 4-6 miles 3-4 days a week. Still trying to get to the gym at 4:30 a.m. it really all depends on how little bit sleeps (now that she can stand she likes to wake up in the middle of the night and stand in her crib). Sunday I ran 6 miles around the neighborhood. Tuesday I made it to the gym but was so sore from weight training over the weekend that I settled for the elliptical.

Here are some pictures from the weekend!

Bad Day

A rainy day is never a good day. I've never heard of anyone who wakes up and says "Ah, it's raining, what a great day!" For me, and many others in the world who have longer than normal commutes to work, know that rain equals bad drivers and bad traffic.

So I've driven my long ass drive many a times in the rain. This day was not any different until I got the phone call from my wonderful husband saying "I just got to the office." See, Ricky is primarily responsible for picking up Sophie from daycare. I don't get off till 5:30 and by the time I make it over the Don Holt Bridge (AKA HELL)and through the traffic of people trying to merge onto I-26, THEN through the hoards of cars trying to get to West Ashley, it would be later than I would like Sophie to be picked up. I take her everyday, Ricky picks her up. That's our deal.

So back to the "phone call" at 5:15, Ricky still has his boss and President of his company that he as to take to the airport. Frustrated, I leave work early to rush to get Sophie. After sitting in traffic, because it's sprinkling and that just makes everyone in Charleston forget how to drive, I finally make it to Leeds Ave about 5:45. Sitting at the stop light it turns green and I proceed to go through the intersection when I all of a sudden hear screeching tires and then she hits me and I go sliding all over the damn place because it's raining and wet out. I go over to the side of the road into the grass and ALMOST down a damn hill (ironically right below me is Sophie's daycare). Luckily I was able to stop because I seriously thought I was going down the hill.

So the stupid moron woman wasn't paying a bit of attention coming off the interstate and proceeded to go ahead and make a right turn at a red light while I was passing through the intersection. She must of been going pretty fast because she nailed me good. I predict she was on her phone but I don't know that for sure.

Luckily no one was hurt, I'm a little stiff and sore today but other than that I'm fine. I think my car is fixable but we are waiting to be contacted by the insurance company (she did have insurance thank goodness!). The other driver got a ticket and has to appear in court. And that was a perfect way to end a crappy day.

LUCKILY Sophie was not in the car with me and I want to cry everytime I think "what if she was." Things could have been a lot worse so for that, I am thankful that they weren't.