Sophia's first DC trip (and more)

Sorry for taking so long to post something new. Quite a bit has happened since I last posted. For example:

• Sophia had her first travel adventure (trip to DC)
• Sophia met her tia (aunt) Elizabeth, tio Diego, and 3 Spanish Cousins
• Sophia had her first babysitting experience (Grandpa)
  
• Sophia turned 2 months old (August 5)
• Sophia is cooing and giggling
• Sophia met her maternal grandmother (aka, Meme)

Hopefully the pix and video may make it worthwhile. To pique your interest, I'll start with a picture that I think may be my fave so far.

"Highlights" from Sophia's first trip to DC
Let me just start by saying that we knew the car trip would be longer than the ~5 hours we were used to. (Stop to feed, change diapers, etc.) We did not expect that it would take us 9 hours of total travel time to get to New Market, MD. Mind you, that's because we got to Tyson's Corner at around 6:00 pm Friday afternoon. Middle of DC rush hour. No thanks. We stopped and ate dinner. (2 hours at Tysons.)

Sophia Met the rest of Dave's immediate family
Sophia got to meet her Aunt Elizabeth (Dave's sister), her husband Diego, and 3 kids - Diego, Pablo, & Cristina. She also got to meet her uncle Paul (another of Dave's brothers), his wife Renee, and 2 of their 3 kids - Catalina and Mariana. (Isabela wasn't able to make it, but Sophia can't wait to meet her cousin.) It's always great to see the family, but, for obvious reasons, this time was special. It is so wonderful to see everyone, especially the kids, get so genuinely excited about meeting Sophia. Makes you really appreciate family.

Probably one of the more memorable events was going to Buca di Beppo. It is a very loud restaurant. Baby Sophia hadn't napped much that day. She spent just about the entire time zonked out on uncle Paul's shoulder. It was pretty amazing that she stayed put. (Pictures in the slide show.) There are also some adorable pix of Sophia's cousin Cristina holding Sophia. Cristina really wanted to hold her new cousin but was really nervous about what to do if she cried. Well, it lasted about 10 seconds.

2 month check up
Sophia had her 2 month check up on 8/5. She got 4 vaccinations and was not necessarily her cheerful self for the next couple of days. That was to be expected. We were pleased with her physical progress.

Weight: ll lbs 8.5oz. (70th percentile)
Height: 23 1/4" (75th percentile)
Head Circum: 15 1/2" (70th percentile)

Considering that she was at 50th, 50th, and 60th, respectively, one month before, we are very happy.

Sophia met the first of her maternal relatives
Mommy Michele's momma (aka, Meme) came up from Florida and spent an extended weekend with us. Sophia really enjoyed this time as the two of them got to spend some quality time together. In fact, some of that time was so that Mom and Dad could go out on a date.
(THANK YOU!! THANK YOU!! THANK YOU!! THANK YOU!! THANK YOU!! )
We went out to the movies. Our choices were "Dark Knight" and "Mamma Mia!". We both selected "Mamma Mia!". Despite my friend John Straffin's protestations, I will relinquish neither my geek card nor my man card. (I'm still singing ABBA songs a week later. :) )

Most Recent Pix
(Gotta admit, there are a quite a few, so I didn't name and / or describe them all. Sorry.)
(For those of you who don't like Flash or just want to see the photos directly on Flickr, click here.)




A Collection of Videos
Here are a couple of recent videos of Sophia smiling and laughing.
Mommy Michele giving Sophia some kisses one morning



Sophia enjoying playing with Mommy

Quick Update since Daddy Dave's been slackin'

Just wanted to give everyone a quick update on Sophia since we have not posted much in a while.

Here are 4 quick pix. 2 of Sophia smiling and 2 of our friends visiting from Kentucky. More to come soon. (Daddy Dave promises.)

Sophia picked up a toy

This is my 1st post ... it is being done w/ 1 hand so please forgive.

I went into the kitchen and she had picked up the toy & was shaking it. She was still doing it after I ran upstairs & got the camera.

Sophia loves kisses ... she smiles & giggles when we give her kisses.

Last nite, she was getting upset b/c she kept grabbing her own hair & pulling it. We would pull her hand off & she'd do it again. It was sad and funny at the same time. She did it twice.

One month in and we are still sane

Sophia celebrated one month on Saturday. (Time flies) I am happy to report that Daddy Dave, Mommy Michele, and Sophia are all doing well. (Couldn't really think of anything alliterative to go with Sophia.)

First month highlights and learnins :) -

• Friends and family are very generous and supportive
• Babies can sleep through almost anything. But only during the day.
• Mommy Michele is amazing. (Stamina, instincts, sacrifice.)
• Flex Spending is one of the best things we ever did.
• It's amazing how much time and effort we had to spend working with our respective HR groups to get time off, benefits changes, etc. Not a small amount of time.
  
• Truly fascinating how "everything else" just doesn't seem that important anymore.

Anyway, on to what may be of actual interest. Sophia is doing well. Today we took her to the doctor. She is 9lbs 2.5oz. That's in the 50% range. Considering that just 11 days ago she was at 7lbs 11.5oz (still below birth weight) we are very happy with recent progress. She's in the same ranges for head size and length. (I feel like I am describing a swordfish catch.) Well, we are happy with 18.6% increase. Hopefully she can keep that up.

And as is my custom, I'll finish this post with some pix and a video.

Pictures of Sophia
(Note: for those of you on non-Flash supporting devices, you can view the pics here)


Video of Sophia
A silly video of Sophia moving around. I had some requests for "action footage" so here ya go.

Meet the Abuelos

Been a while since I posted. Believe it or not, we've been busy. ;) The biggest thing to happen of late was a visit from the paternal grandparents. We were also pleasantly surprised by the unexpected visit from two of Sophia's uncles: tio Michael and tio Peter.

Some Pictures
Some pix from the last couple of weeks. I was looking for pictures of Sophia with her uncles Michael or Peter, but I think that I took all those pix experimenting with Uncle Peter's camera. (oops)

A Video
I thought this was a pretty funny clip. Sophia holding on to her own bottle. Swear I didn't set this up.

Sophia's first week home

We have been home from the hospital almost a week. Life is a little different than before. We couldn't be happier. Everyone told me beforehand, "kiss sleep good-bye". I think we were both prepared for that. We are tired (at times exhausted), but it's not as bad as I thought.

I was chatting with my friend Mike about this and we think that it's not the lack of sleep, necessarily, it's the loss of down time. There is no such thing anymore. We are now "on" all the time. Down time is for showers (sometimes), eating (thanks, everyone!), and staring at Sophia in her crib. With that segue, here are some pix from Sophia's first week home.

Remaining Images from Hospital Stay

Sophia is sleeping and I am sneaking some time to share the latest.

• We are tired.
• We love her more daily.
• We think with all the manuals out there, someone would have prepped us. :)
• Dave is utterly humbled by his wife's endurance, strength of will, and devotion to our child.
• We are both immensely grateful for the generosity of our friends and family. This process would be infinitely more challenging without all of you. Thank you.
  

Now, on to what you actually care about. ;)

Latest Pix



Funny Video of Sophia with the hiccups