Hair Report

Our little fuzz head has gone through some hair changes in the last 3½ months. Let's take a look back...

OCTOBER

NOVEMBER

DECEMBER

And here we are today. She's fuzzier and lighter. But still just as cute.

So They All Rolled Over . . .

Sophie learned this new trick yesterday. She's only been able to do it in the morning, and on our bed. The mattress might be a little slanted to aid her, but maybe not. She gets pretty upset when she ends up on her belly though - it's not one of her favorite places to be.

Our Own Winter Wonderland

This is what we woke up to this morning.

And this.

Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow

No, we didn't go to Utah for the weekend.

This is the view from our back yard, here in ARIZONA.

Graduation Day

This is Sophie yesterday right after her nap. (note the swing)

This is her today during her nap.

Sophie is now 3 months old, and after a few weening weeks, has graduated to her own crib! So far she really likes it because she gets new white slats to look at, and she has a better view of the ceiling fan.

As you can also see in picture #2, she is also learning to nap without a swaddle. She has one arm out, which she uses to pull at her ear, rub her eye, and finally, lounge casually behind her head. She's not so good at the non-swaddle. That dang arm tends to wake her up from her naps earlier than she would normally like.

SOPHIE (you know you want to see her in real life)

Tons of Family Fun

Jake, Sophie, & I went for a leisurely bike ride this afternoon. It's the second time we've gone. Sophie's not quite sure what to think of it yet, but she doesn't not like it.

Money-Saving Tip

Consumer Reports did a study of dishwashing detergents. They compared the liquids, powders, and tablets of all the major brands as well as the generics in things like water spots, cooked on eggs, and general cleaning. Guess who came out on top.

Walmart's Great Value brand powder detergent. It beat out all the other fancy brands.

Save some pennies!

Chores

I don't have much motivation to clean. Unless we're having company or going out of town, cleaning the entire house is just not my idea of a good time. However, as a stay-at-home Mom, cleaning is now my JOB. And I tend to take my jobs very seriously.

Now, don't get me wrong. Just because I'm the one that stays at home, I don't feel like it's my responsibility to do ALL the cleaning. Jake actually likes to clean more than I do (really, he hates messes more than I do), so he does his fair share of cleaning. Maybe more than his fair share.

But now that I'm fully recovered from delivery, and now that the holidays are behind us, and now that Jake is back in school, I'm really starting to focus more on my home responsibilities.

Usually when I think of cleaning, I'm overwhelmed by it (same applies to exercising), so I do nothing. Well now, I've set up a chore schedule for myself, so I only need to do a little bit each day. Every weekday is assigned to a different room - Kitchen, Family Room, Nursery, etc. So each day I know that if I clean just that one room, by the end of the week, all the rooms in the house will have been cleaned. Now, by the end of the week, not all the rooms in the house will have stayed clean, but at least the mess is less than a week old, and is manageable. Also, if I clean the family room on Tuesday, it's easier to just pick up the small messes throughout the week to keep it clean.

Other chores are also spread out throughout the month - Mondays I alternate between cleaning bathrooms and dusting, sweeping on Wednesdays, and I only mop and file once a month.

I put all these chores on our calendar to remind me what I need to do each day. I also made a list of the "as needed" chores, such as weeding and laundry, so that I remember them. And, I made a list of projects I'd like to complete, such as organizing the hall closet. I think I'll assign one Saturday a month to work on projects.

Anyway, it works for me. It (1) helps me to feel better about cleaning the house and (2) reminds me to do the not-so-frequent chores, like mopping.

Maybe once I get really going on it, I can add an exercise chart.

It's My Blogiversary!

I started this blog exactly one year ago today. I started it because Jake and I were starting to try to get pregnant, and I thought it would be a good time to document events in my life. (We found out we were pregnant 11 days after starting this.)

I've really enjoyed my year of blogging, and here's to the next year.

Hidden Talents

Jake claims to have zero artistic talents.

I beg to differ.

A Letter from Sophie

Dear family and friends,

I had a great time hanging out with everyone over Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas. In those 3 months, I almost spent an entire month with you! Well, now I need to spend some time at home. It's hard for my parents to travel with me so often.

Luckily, I only live about an hour and a half from most of you. So my question is, what are you doing for Martin Luther King Jr Day? I'll be hanging out here. In fact, I'll be here all weekend. If you want to come visit for a day, that would be awesome. Or if you want to make it an overnight affair, we could play games on Sunday and then hang out on Monday.

Anyway, I'm getting really big and doing new fun stuff every day. I hope you come see me soon!

~Sophie

Three Months

Ever since Sophie's 3-month birthday on Sunday, she's been all about doing big-girl things. She loves to sit up in Jake's lap and look out into the room, she loves batting at her toys, and she loves being propped into a sitting position in her Boppy.


On Sunday, her cousin Kiley came over and showed her some cool big-girl tricks like kicking your legs up in the air, wiggling you whole body, and standing up straight when someone is holding you. Sophie watched Kiley intently and learned a lot.

Confession of an Addiction

I have a confession. I have a serious addiction. It's quite ridiculous, but aren't most addictions? I'm not much of a video game player. The only games I like are Tetris, Dr. Mario, and Mario Kart. And at the moment, we own none of these games.

While I can't blame my addiction solely on that problem, I think it aids it. MY ADDICTION: I waste hours and hours of my time (not all at once, and not while Sophie is awake) playing Minesweeper.

Minesweeper, to most people, is just a game that comes with your computer (unless you own a Mac) that you don't bother trying to play. Ever. Well, I do. All the time. And I'm pretty good at it. That, of course, came with practice. Lots and lots of practice.

It's horrible. I find myself in front of the computer playing game after game, thinking to myself, "I should be doing something productive right now". And then I think, "OK, I'm going to stop and do something else.....right after I win one more game."

One reason I don't have very good motivation to tame my addiction is that it's football season. Which would I rather do? Sit in front of a football game in the family room, or idle my time away with Minesweeper? (or clean the bathroom, but who wants to do that when the rest of the household is in front of the TV?) But that's not a very good excuse. Cause next month I'll just use basketball season as my excuse. How terrible of me to look for ways to blame my bad habit on something else.

Anyway, I figure if I get my embarassing addiction publicized, it will give me more motivation to quit. I should make a list of things I can do besides minesweeper.

1. Sew (I need to find a project first though)
2. Send nice e-mails to friends
3. Write
4. Draw
5. Cook
6. File stuff in the office
7. Learn how to knit
8. Read
9.

I'm out of ideas at the moment. All I can think of are more chore-related items (like #6) and I don't want to write them down.

OUR Garage

After about a year and a half in our house, we finally turned our garage into OUR garage. Before now, we were trying to fit our stuff onto the garage shelving and into the garage closet that came with the house. Now, thanks to basically all of our Christmas gifts (bikes, garage shelves, Lowe's gift cards, storage bins) we've turned our garage into exactly what works for us. It's so nice to not have random piles of junk all over the garage, and a closet piled full of stuff. I believe shelves are the key to organization.

Here's Jake at this very moment installing the last of our shelving into the closet. This closet shares a wall with Sophie's room.

Sophie is currently sleeping, even with all that drilling in her wall. What a good girl (thank goodness for white noise!) (p.s. Her room really is dark, I used the "night" option on my camera to take this picture)