Leaps and Bounds

I wanted to do a long-overdue update on how Chase has been growing up so fast! Since he turned two, he has just been growing by leaps and bounds in his vocabulary and his ability to communicate. His favorite things these days are :

Elmo (still),

bouncing balls,

giving his sister (and some of his stuffed animals) kisses,

swinging, and pointing out colors.

I haven't kept up with all of his words but I did record some of his newer ones:

hi
bye
door (he says "doe-wa")
apple
dip
kiwi (which he says "kwi-wi".. it's so cute)
Asher (his cousin whom he gets confused with Sophie)
bus
quack
beep
baby ("bee-bee")
boat
coat
star
teeth
toothbrush
chu-chu (for train)
ow or owee
tree
up
down
eyes
nose
toe
back
sit
stop
poo-poo (which he says "po-po")
pee-pee
cow
red
green
blue
brown
grey
black ("braaack!")
yellow (which he says "sewo")
orange ("owange")
swing
stuck
ball (which has somehow turned into "ball-nah")
car (aka car-nah)
kiss ("keese")
ticky (for tickle)
glasses
help
share ("sherrrr")
hop
go
one, two, three (yep he can count)
ooh-ooh (for monkey)
moose
mole
treat
meat
mine
bread
swing
"get down"
cheese
meow
all done
crunchy (sounds more like "quanchy")
thank you

Here is Chase praying with Da-da before he goes to bed. So sweet. We love our little guy.

Who does Sophie look like, you ask?

Many people have asked us who we think Sophie looks like. As a newborn, it's pretty hard to tell since babies' features change so quickly. Almost daily. But am still convinced Sophie looks most like her brother when he was born.

Sophie stretched out in bed

Chase stretched out in bed

Sophie with her soothie paci

Chase with his soothie paci

Sophie's chubby cheeks

Chase's chubby cheeks

Sophie looking at Grammy B

Chase looking at Grammy B


Sophie wide awake

Chase wide awake

After looking back through pictures, I'm thankful that they are dated b/c I might have trouble distinguishing which baby is which later in life!

I think the most distinctive differences are:

• Their skin coloring (Sophie came out purplish and is still paler than Chase who came out a little jaundiced which made him look tan).

• Their hair (even though their hair probably looks identical in pictures, Sophie's is already long enough that it is spiraling so I think she will have fairly curly hair early on. Chase's curls didn't come til much later when his hair turned golden brown. Her hair almost looks black and I think Chase's started out just dark brown.)

• Their Fingers/Hands/Feet/Toes (Sophie is a lot skinnier and longer than I remember Chase being. The pictures don't really do justice to how thin she is.)

• Their ears ( Chase def has my long Indian lobes and Sophie's ears look smaller.)

What do you think?

Welcome Sophia Elizabeth!

We'd like to introduce the newest member of our family! Little miss Sophia Elizabeth! (We call her "Sophie".) We chose Sophia because it means "wisdom" in Greek and we chose Elizabeth because it means "consecrated to God" and is also the middle name of my maternal grandmother -a woman of great faith-and Brian's youngest sister, Catherine. (Brian actually got to help pick out his sister's middle name when she was born, or at least give suggestions, so that's pretty special that he liked the name Elizabeth even at 11 yrs old.)

She came at 41 wks and 1 day so she must've been pretty comfy in there. Here's the cake to prove it.

Once I got past my due date, I thought maybe sweets would be a bribe worth making an appearance for.

Sophie arrived on Saturday, June 12th at 9:01 a.m. She weighed 7 lb .5 oz and is 20.5 inches long. She's got lots of dark brown hair (almost looks black) and has really long fingers and toes and really skinny legs and arms. I think besides her hair, her most distinctive characteristic is probably her lips. She has cute lips that she purses and pouts with. :)

Here are the pix of our little girl:

Sophie, the thinker ( I guess Sophia -"wisdom"- is a good fit for her name)

Enjoying my new little bundle

Gotta love the giant soothie paci

Sophie meets her brother for the first time! Chase did great being gentle. He loves to give her pat-pats on her head and stroke her hair.

Word to ya motha! Doesn't she look like a little rapstar? Ha! Ha!

Ready to go home

Here is daddy, Chase and Miss Sophie for their first couch photo. Chase was very concerned when he discovered her umbilical cord scab. He kept pointing and screaming "Mama, Ow-wa!" (meaning "Mom, she has an owee- do something!!")

Big Brother Chase!

Pretty in pink....

("Don't let the chubby cheeks fool you. I'm long and skinny!")



Football hold

"Daddy-kisses make me smile!" (This pix melts my heart!)