Suzy barks, Esen jumps out of bed to quiet her before she wakes Sophia.  Suzy barks again, Esen again jumps out of bed to threaten her again about waking Sophia.  Suzy stops barking, but continues a low growl.  Hmmm... as Suzy's mama, I know that something is up.  Based on her behavior and the tone of the growl, I no longer think that it's just a cat in the yard, so I pull my big body out of bed to go figure out what she's trying to tell us.  Suzy, is there trouble down by the Old Mill?  Nope... it's something in the front yard, so I open up one shutter and let her look through... her eyes immediately tell me where to look, but I don't see anything right away.  Suzy gets more and more tense, so I keep looking until I see some movement behind the tree closest to the front door.  It's something big... big enough that I'm initially concerned that a person is hiding behind the tree (I don't have my glasses on, by the way), but then a few more seconds go by and I see a BIG BURLY RACCOON!!  He's climbing down the tree and he is about as big as Suzy (with shorter legs, of course).  I call Esen to come take a look and as we're watching, a second, then a third, then a FOURTH raccoon come down the same tree and they all hang out in the front yard!!  By this time I am sprinting out to the garage to make sure the side door is secure so that they can't get in to harm the kitties.  Lucy and Ethel look at me as if to say, "SEE!?  This is why we are so freaked out all the time!!"  Now it all becomes clear... poor Lucy was probably attacked by a raccoon and the mangy little buggers have likely been coming by every night to peer in the garage door and torment the cats (I imagine the raccoon leader hissing through the screen door, "I'm gonna get you little kitty cat... I'm gonna finish the job I started and then eat all of your delicious kitty food.").  I can hear them rustling around on the side of the house just feet from the screen door, but their movement doesn't actually set off our ridiculously insensitive motion-sensitive light, so I can't see what they're up to.  I'm sure as hell not going out there, so I checked the door again and went back to bed.  Looks like Lucy and Ethel will remain in permanent residence in the garage... can't see them going back out to our wild backyard to fight it out with the raccoons any time soon.

is still BIG!  We had Sophia's 18-month check-up today... the weigh-in, the measuring, etc:

Weight:  24 pounds (50th percentile)

Height:   just under 36 inches, or 3 feet (100th percentile)

 

 

Everything else checked out just fine.  As I posted a while back, Sophia has spent the last month doing some breathing treatments to help her lungs recover from a particularly bad cold (and probably the effects of the crappy air quality from the massive forest fires).  There was some concern that allergies were also exacerbating her cough and breathing, so we did a simple blood test to check.  (Aside:  by "simple" what I really mean to say is that I had to hold her down with all my strength last Friday while a nice nurse stuck a needle in her arm and retrieved a whole vial of blood... we were both crying afterwards.)  The good news is that she's not allergic to anything (not even dust mites or ragweed, which are my big problems).  I am just relieved to know she wasn't allergic to dogs or something given my sister Sally's animal allergies and asthma.  I mean, if I had to choose between Suzy and Sophia, it's just not clear who would get booted out to the live in the garage.  :)

It's nice to hit a round number... "Oh, she's a year-and-a-half" is just so easy to say.  I'm really ready to stop that whole counting-in-months business.  I mean, when someone tells you their kid is 19 months old, don't you just want to say, "Oh, you mean, not quite 2?"  I think parents are supposed to care about these details, but I'm over it.  This is the last month that I'm taking Sophia's picture with the pink pig (well, maybe I'll do it on her birthdays or something just for old time's sake).  She was such a gem while I did it this time, too.  I told her that I wanted to take her picture and plopped her on the chair and she actually kind of posed and took instructions.

 

Then I asked her to kiss the pig, which she took very seriously... I mean, there was puckering and maybe even some tongue involved:

 

Finally, I asked her to give me a big smile and boy-oh-boy did she comply!!

I don't mean to imply that she listens all the time or anything, but it is kind of nice that she can follow basic instructions when she wants to.  :)

 

I have some other cute things from this week to share.  Our little techno-geek got ahold of both my old and new cell phones and decided that it would be optimal to use both simultaneously (again, future on Wall Street, no?):

 

We were trying to get some cute pictures of her yesterday and she was being really silly in my arms:

 

But my favorite gem of the week is a video.  Let me provide just a little bit of background.  Sophia has this book with little flaps that she lifts to reveal fun things and one of the flaps is over a mouse hole.  When she lifts it, there's a cute mouse and I squeal, "EEEK!  A mouse!!!" and she giggles her fool head off.  Well, one of her other favorite books (Goodnight Moon) has a tiny little mouse somewhere in every one of the colored pages and she loves picking out the mouse (which I swear I couldn't see without my glasses, that's how tiny it is).  She's started doing the "EEEK!  A mouse!" routine with this book as well and Esen caught it video today (permanent link: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=614099099578517988&hl=en):

    

 

We didn't do anything too special for Sophia's "half-birthday" today.  Our old neighbor on 51st Street hosted a BBQ, so we went over there (with Suzy, too, who loves Arlo the dog)... Sophia said, "Arlo, Arlo, Arlo..." most of the day (before and after).  It was about 100 degrees today, so we didn't last very long at this outdoor event.  To cool off (and blow some time) we opted to head to the pet store.  In my opinion, the pet store is an amazing place.  It's like going to the zoo, but it's air conditioned and not smelly!  Sophia got to see cats and dogs (there was a training class just letting out) and fish, but this time she was particularly enamored with the birds and hamster/gerbil/guinea pig crowd:

 

She also got to see the elusive chinchilla (crazy little guy) and some snakes:

I like that she gets to see some of the things from her books in person... and that she can pretty safely run around with damaging anything, and did I mention the air conditioning?  :)  On our way back to the house we stopped to get a smoothie, which she always enjoys, and then just chilled out at home.  Our big girl was in bed with her "babies" by 8pm.  That's the best half-birthday present I could ever ask for!

 

I went to a La Leche League meeting yesterday... went to the meeting last month, too, but it had been a while before that one since my spring teaching schedule conflicted with the meeting times.  I haven't talked much about breastfeeding on the blog in recent months because I wasn't really sure if I was up for people voicing their opinions about extended breastfeeding.  I always intended to nurse Sophia for a year as the current guidelines indicate, but (in the beginning) I wasn't sure if I'd last that long and really wasn't sure how I'd feel about it at the one-year point.  Even though Sophia has always been a really good eater (of solid foods), she continued to ask for nursing about 3 times a day even at a year old and it just seemed natural to continue.  There were plenty of times when the extended nursing was a life-saver... it got her to sleep on airplane trips, it soothed her when she'd fall and skin her knee, and it was often the only thing that really seemed to comfort her during all those nasty ear infections this past spring.  Mostly I continued because it just wasn't much of an imposition... most days she just wanted to nurse after we picked her up from daycare, as if to just reconnect with me after a whole day apart.  Gone were the days of nursing her to sleep, so it just didn't feel like a burden.

 

Once I found out I was pregnant again and got the clearance from the doctor about continuing to nurse, I started to do a lot of reading about nursing during pregnancy and nursing multiple children who are close in age.  Now I realize this latter concept (called tandem nursing) probably sounds completely insane to some of you, but I know multiple women who have done it and it's just not that rare (particularly in California where extended nursing through age 3+ is really quite common, too).  As with most things, I wanted to read enough to feel well-informed and then make the choice we were comfortable with and that would be best for Sophia.

 

It wasn't until the Hawaii trip that I felt pretty certain that I wanted to wean Sophia before the baby was born.  She was so sick on that trip that she nursed a TON.  I was also pretty big by then and nursing sitting on a hotel bed was so uncomfortable... and it was so hot!  When we came back and she got healthier, I resolved to be more proactive about weaning.  Up until then, I had just employed a "don't offer / don't refuse" policy where she had to ask for it and I would only nurse in the house (no more whipping it out in public).  Thanks to some clever suggestions from La Leche mothers at the previous meeting and a ton of support from Esen (including a good "talking-to" where he told me that I had to stop being such a wuss about saying no to her), we made lots of progress in about a week.  That was nearly a month ago and she hasn't nursed since.  She continued to request milk periodically in the first week or two, but hasn't even asked for it in quite a while.  I was truly amazed at how easy it was after that first week.  Granted, we picked up a few other bad habits in the process... like eating multiple popsicles together when we get home from daycare.  I guess one bonding activity just needed to be replaced by a new one.

 

I had one episode of emotional crisis over the whole weaning thing.  After about a week with no nursing, it occurred to me that I couldn't remember the last time Sophia nursed.  I had hoped that I would *know* it was the last time and that I would file that last little sweet interaction away in my brain and heart to cherish, but the last time came and went without fanfare... probably because I didn't think it would be the last time, so I didn't notice.  This broke my heart just a bit because it was such an end of an era... an era that belonged only to Sophia and I, and that was frequently so wonderful.  Then a break-through happened for me one night around 3am.  Sophia woke up crying and Esen went in to comfort her.  This has been standard practice for a long time in our house because, historically, if I went in she would want to nurse and then I'd be stuck.  On this particular night, Sophia was really crying hard and crying out for me... "Mama!  Mama!  Mamaaaaa!"  I broke down and went in, took her from Esen's arms, and just stood there with her.  She put her head on my shoulder and listened to me just whispering in her ear... I swayed a little and rubbed her back and told her how much I loved her and she calmed down instantly.  After just a couple of minutes, I put her back into her crib and she drifted back to sleep.  It was one of the first nights that I found I could offer her comfort in a new way... she didn't sign for milk in distress like she always had in those situations... she was just content to get some physical contact from me.  This simple event was the first time that she'd sent me a clear signal that she was done with breastfeeding and it made me sad and relieved all at the same time.  I cry just thinking about it now because it was such an emotional realization.  I suspect the end of breastfeeding might be more emotionally taxing (for me at least) than sending her off to the first grade will be.  Only time will tell.

 

Although it's pretty typical for kids to quit for weeks and then want to resume breastfeeding, I'm pretty sure that Sophia is done.  I look back on the whole experience with such fondness, but I am relieved now that it's done.  I wonder what she'll do when she sees the new baby nursing... she probably won't remember that she ever nursed.  According to some friends, even if she requests milk at that point, she probably won't remember how to suck properly and will lose interest.  Again, we'll know in about a month or so.  Scary how quickly that's coming up!!  I'm glad my body has had this little rest... the breastfeeding Olympics are set to begin again soon!!

It sounds like the title of a children's book, doesn't it?  We're without daycare this week since the campus daycare closes for a few weeks before the semester starts and Sophia can't start at the new place until she's 18 months old (which happens this weekend).  Esen had her half days on Monday and Tuesday and all day today; I have her Thursday and Friday all day.  I think he was getting a little stir crazy today and opted to take Sophia to the zoo.  The simple recap can apparently be summed up in one picture:

"Up! Up! Up!"  Just what you want to do when on a nice hot August day... carry a kid!  As a result, Esen's arms are too tired to write this blog post himself and most of the pictures he took are self-portraits with Sophia in his arms.  Here's a selection:

Sophia wasn't very forthcoming when I got home and asked her which animals she saw.  She did her cute roar/growl, however, so I knew that there must have been some big cats on the tour (both jaguars and tigers apparently).  The number of animals she can point out is absolutely insane at this point (note that she doesn't *say* any of these words, but can identify all of the following in her books or on her quilt when asked): cow, duck, pig, rooster, horse, sheep, and other typical farm animals, dog, cat, bunny, and other typical domestic pets, camel, snake, scorpion, kangaroo, koala, jaguar, platypus, bandicoot, rat, penguin, hippo, giraffe, croc/alligator, yak, owl, bear, deer, moose, goose, frog, fish, panda, crab, ant, bee, butterfly, whale, tiger, and probably a handful more that I can't recall right now.  Oh, and while I'm bragging, did I mention that she knows these in English and Turkish?  I take this all as a good sign and it comforts me a great deal on those days when I think about the fact that she still only says about a dozen words.  I'm sure you'll all be happy to remind me of my concerns once she starts talking and won't shut up.  :)

It was so nice and cool... that was my favorite part.  I don't think I was hot once.  Given my history with hot, hot, hot East Coast beaches, the chilly beaches of Northern California still mystify me.  Wearing long pants and a sweatshirt to the beach in AUGUST just seems so counterintuitive.  Our friends Michal and Bryce (and their 4-year-old daughter, Noa) joined us for one night and it was so much fun.  Sophia was content to follow Noa around the house and both girls shared so nicely.  Here's a video of them ganging up on Bryce (permanent link: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7540724740583310988&hl=en):

  

It sure seemed quiet the second night when it was just us.  Of course, Sophia was so exhausted after her beach shenanigans that she went to bed ridiculously early (7pm on Sat. night and 6pm on Sun. night!).  Esen and I haven't had that much evening to ourselves (without a babysitter) in quite a while.  Well, I know you're all waiting for the pictures and videos, so here you go!

 

Fathers with their daughters (pregnant mothers were both lounging and watching):

 

Father with his dog (another thing I'm not so good at these days is running around with Suzy):

Here's a video of some of the running action (permanent link: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=9020534419281096093&hl=en)... it's worth noting that Esen was only willing to race Suzy after she had worn herself out a little bit.  :)

  

 

Building sand castles (sort of):

 

Flapping our arms like the seagulls:

 

We did have some sun on Sunday afternoon, so we were able to strip off one layer of clothing.  Of course, that's when I chose to take a bunch of black-and-whites, so you can't really tell the difference in most of the pictures.  Sophia liked to get her hands all sandy and then have them wiped off with the little towel that I brought along to clean off Suzy's paws.

 

My favorite picture of Suzy, who clearly enjoyed the beach more than the rest of us combined:

Suzy would go tearing off in one direction to chase seagulls and the go barking off in the other direction to play with another dog.  We gave her lots of treats everytime she came back to us, so she mostly stayed out of trouble and managed to exhaust herself completely.  Her silliness really seems to come out on the beach... see, for example, this video (permanent link: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-3585344098734998287&hl=en):

  

 

Sophia taking this sand business VERY seriously:

 

Self portrait taken in the 3 seconds where we weren't keeping our eyes on the girls:

 

My personal favorite:

Poor Esen carried Sophia a lot (in addition to loading and unloading everything on both ends of the trip).  I mean, I do a lot of complaining about the effect of my enormous belly on my lower back, but I'm amazed that he can still walk in an upright position given all my slack he's been forced to pick up in recent months.

 

That's all I've got (and all I've got energy for).  It's bedtime!!

We're headed to the California coast tomorrow morning for a little weekend get-a-way with friends (friends who are also soon expecting kid #2 and want one last trip before things get really crazy).  We're renting a house in Dillon Beach, which is just north of San Francisco on Route 1.  The best part of the trip (at least a priori) is the prospect of cooler weather... nights in the 50s and days maybe reaching 80.  I might even pack a sweater (since I happen to have some maternity sweaters from the first time around).  We also get to bring Suzy and Suzy can be so fun on the beach.

 

We again had a babysitter for Sophia last night.  Laura, one of the student teachers at the Sac State daycare center came over for a few hours so that Esen and I could make a trip out to Ikea.  Quite a romantic date, huh?  I mean, he bought me a Swedish meatball dinner... what can top that for romance?!  Sophia sees Laura every single day, but when we opened the door and Laura was there, Sophia acted like she had just won the lottery.  There were squeals of delight and giggles and hugs... clearly more affection than Esen and I get on most occasions!  She cried when we left, but I sort of think that might have been for show to hide that she was actually happy we were leaving her alone with Laura.  :)  They were playing sweetly when we came home about 3 hours later and this is the hairdo that Sophia was sporting:

This pigtails resemble devil horns just a little too much, but we thought they were cute enough to replicate this morning.  She's amazingly tolerant to having her hair done, never even flinching when I have to pull a little bit to get a pigtail out of such short hair!

 

Sophia has gotten increasingly into animals and the noises/gestures they make.  She is currently quite fond of penguins, so I was trying to come up with a penguin gesture (since I have no idea what noise they make).  I was teaching her to clap her hands in front of her when Esen pointed out that seals clap, penguins just waddle.  Ooops.  I was trying to remedy my mistake when this video was made (note that Sophia also flaps her arms like a butterfly and makes a silly smiley face on command).  (permanent link: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=4567410835727886109&hl=en)

You'll notice that the green bedroom is finally empty... now to assemble that Ikea daybed.  I'll get to that after our cool, relaxing weekend in Dillon Beach.  Look for a picture and video-filled post Monday night!

Ah, the "Charley horse"... this painful muscle cramp in the leg gets its name apparently from athlete's being kicked or kneed in the leg (like a horse) by an opponent.  It's a term that also describes a muscle cramp that doesn't stem from an injury but rather from some vitamin deficiency or dehydration or hormonal imbalance... like in pregnancy!  I had a lot of them in my third trimester with Sophia.  I'd wake up screaming and grabbing my calf muscle (as best as I could actually reach that part of my body by then) and gently massage it a little until the muscle relaxed enough that I could straighten my leg and foot.  Really painful and always, always, always in the middle of the night. 

 

A brief aside on my (previous) view of this ailment:  You know, when I was a kid, we did a fair amount of waterskiing with my dad's side of the family.  My Uncle Dave had a boat and he took us skiing out at his place on the Missouri River.  Now, I know that my Uncle Dave reads this blog, so I can't say anything bad about him, but my memory is that he didn't always like to wear a life jacket when he went skiing back then (this is "kid memory" so who knows how accurate it is... I'm sure he'll let me know if I misrepresent him.  Also that was 30 years ago... we also did other stupid stuff like light fireworks off at each other).  I remember my Aunt Marlene (and probably my Grandma Sautner) chastising him about the life jacket, particularly because he used to get Charley horses and they were afraid that a bad leg cramp would prevent him from swimming and he would sink to the bottom of the river and drown.  My whole life, I always thought such a warning was a little extreme... probably just the overly-cautious rantings of a concerned wife and mother. 

 

After the Charley horse I experienced last night, I can totally understand how a person might drown if something like that occured while in water over their head.  It was so incredibly horrible that I hardly cared whether or not I woke Sophia (or the neighbors) up with my cries.  I would put the pain up there with my worst labor contractions (but this lasted a little longer)... the sort of pain where any kind of movement makes things worse, but you can't help but writhing around.  My foot was completely locked (toes pointed) and my knee was locked in a bent position and I was literally unable to move either without screaming.  Hormones can do this!?!?  Holy crap.  That's messed up.  I slept badly afterwards because I was so intent on keeping my legs straight to avoid another event and this morning I feel like I've run a marathon on just my left leg.  Since they say that a potassium deficiency is often a cause, I will spend the day eating bananas.  I may be making monkey noises by bedtime, but it'll be worth it if I avoid another night like that.

I thought I was tired last night, but I've reached a new level.  That said, we had another really productive day, so it was worth it.  We did start off the day with a birthday party over in Davis.  It was a "dance party" theme, which proved to be a bit hit (not for Sophia who was content to watch from our arms mostly).  All the kids got goodie bags that had dance-themed items and they were opened at various points along a walk through the park.  It started with grass skirts and doing the hula:

 

Then the limbo:

 

And then they wrapped it up with some hip hop.  Sophia (along with some coaxing from me) got a little into at this stage, but I didn't get any pictures.  Truthfully, she was more interested in the bagels than anything else.  :)  She told us she was sleepy after a few hours, so Esen carried her back to the car where she fell asleep as soon as we started the drive home.  I took a few pictures of her latest hairstyle... this is thanks to daycare, where they put this silly little pony tail in last week and now she requests it.

 

We all had a nice afternoon nap and then we got to work putting together the rest of the Ikea furniture that we bought last week.  Sophia was a HUGE help, as you might imagine.  She disappeared for a little while and was so very quiet in her room that we begin to wonder what she was up to.  This is what we saw when we snuck back there:

She had found some Christmas books that I had stashed in her closet and was busily reading about Santa Clause and snowmen.  Once I really got to work with the furniture and she heard the jingle of screws and nuts and bolts, however, she came running out to help.  She likes to pick up as much hardware as her little fingers can hold and then drop it around the room.  Putting together chairs takes two of us as a result... one person to assemble while the other person tracks down hardware Sophia has misplaced (while also occasionally saving her from running around with a screwdriver).  The whole thing reminded me of that British game show "Distraction" where contestants are subjected to various painful and humiliating things while trying to answer trivia questions.  At one point Esen took Sophia to the grocery store so that I could get started on assembling the dining room table.  They got back at sort of a crucial point in construction, so I opted to get her involved.  Armed with a screwdriver and an allen wrench, she followed me around making sure that the screws were all tight.  It worked quite well and I think she picked up a few skills, although it was pretty tricky keeping her away from the electric drill as she LOVES all things mechanical or technological.  Here are a few pictures of the fruits of our labors.

 

Our eat-in kitchen:

We downsized to a square table since we just don't need anything bigger on a regular basis, but there are two built-in leaves that easily pull out of each end to convert this to a 6 or an 8 person table.  Esen talked me into the nice modern chairs.  Yes, they're white, but they are slip covers, so I suspect they'll get plenty of trips to the washer.  Sophia's booster seat is already installed, but I opted for a white towel under it to help me keep my sanity.

 

The other pieces of furniture that we previously assembled have been serving us quite well.  We put a small table and a couple of chairs (similar to the dining chairs) in the previous dining room across from the loveseat.  This gives us a place to sit and work, plop our laptops, etc. and we can still store a bin of toys underneath:

 

We've pulled some green into the red/orange/gold color pallet, so we added a simple green armchair to the main living room:

We're contemplating a second one to make a nice little seating pair, but then I'm not sure where Sophia's little red table would fit in and she really uses it quite a bit.  We'll have to see.  I'm a little bit torn between functionality and what would look nice.  The next trip to Ikea will be for a daybed to put in the third bedroom and that will take up the entire back of my car, so we won't be tempted to buy anything else on that trip.

 

Have a good week everyone!

The dog is washed, the baby is washed, Esen and I are still dirty... what else is new?  We're too tired to do much about it now.  Despite our mid-afternoon nap, we've had a productive day... tidied up the garage, finished emptying out the third bedroom (now we just have to set up a bed for our impending fall guests), and otherwise made progress toward living in a more organized and settled environment.  As you might imagine, the "nesting" instinct is kicking in a little bit with only about a month and a half to go before M2 is scheduled to arrive.  I have this unsettling feeling that she'll show up early, so I'm feeling some pressure to work through the pre-baby to-do list a little more quickly.  Fortunately, Esen is humoring me and going along with everything that I ask him to lift and move and bend over to grab for me.  Tonight he even made me a mostly-virgin mojito and dinner.  What a keeper.

 

Tomorrow we're headed to a four-year-old's birthday party.  While it promises to be pretty low-key event, it will be our introduction into the wonderful world of little girl parties and gift bags and such.  I have some idea of what this sort of thing involves, but I think that Esen will be shocked.  Just a few weeks later we have a three-year-old's birthday party that will likely be a bigger "to do."  Good thing we have a few years before we need to worry about such things.  I'll try to take some pictures of Sophia watching the four-year-olds in awe and post tomorrow...

 

Esen thinks she looks like a busy Wall Street trader.  I just wonder if *we* look that serious when we talk on the phone... she was ALL business.

Even though I'm the one who is supposed to declare cravings and demand specific foods at all hours of the day and night, Esen requested some good Southern BBQ last night on the way home from work.  I'm always game for a pork BBQ sandwhich that reminds me of the good ol' days in Virginny, so we headed out to Sandra Dee's... the best (only?) Soul/Southern food place in town.  Sophia was content to wolf down a side order of mac-n-cheese (that's ridiculously creamy and probably already started clogging her little arteries).  In a brief and uncharacteristic display of anti-California machismo, Esen said, "I'm tired of all this avocado and tofu she's been eating... are we raising a sissy-Californian?!" and then he promptly fed her some gator.  That's right.  My little not-quite-year-and-a-half-year-old had alligator for dinner.  Nice.

It's 9pm and Sophia just went to bed.  Lots of energy in that one tonight.  The good news is that she was in an extra good mood, so we didn't hardly mind the late bedtime.  That said, it's been a longish day for me... I was at UC-Berkeley today to present some research and so it was more running around than this pregnant body is used to.  I'm looking forward to bedtime myself, but thought I'd post a few cute items from the weekend before I forget or get too busy.

 

We had a productive Friday... not at work, but at IKEA!  We finally bought some of the furniture that we've been talking about and planning for, and then put it together.  Not all of it, mind you... the new kitchen table and chairs is still in boxes until we can get rid of the set that we currently have.  Still, I feel like we're making progress in making the house more comfortable.  We took both cars and filled them up... good thing we went while Sophia was in daycare. 

 

Saturday we had our friends Lauren and Maria over.  They came with their six month old twins and boy did that add some excitement!!  Sophia was interested, but didn't want to touch the babies for the first hour or so.  She just kept circling closer and closer (like a shark) until she was playing with their toes and petting them (like a puppy) by the end of the night.  They sure were cute (and such well-behaved little guests)!  We certainly remember how hard it is to get out of the house with a little one and give Lauren and Maria big props for doing it with two!

Lauren with chunky-man Evan:

Maria holding crashed out Eliana:

 

We enjoyed remembering the easy, non-mobile baby stage... you just plop them and they stay!!  Imagine that!!  Esen came away from the evening looking forward to having a baby around again soon.  I came away with that sneaky feeling of dread that I have to pop out this baby all-too-soon.  Crap... I'm not really looking forward to that part so much. 

 

Sunday was a pretty low-key day.  We ran some errands in afternoon, but started our trip by swinging into Dairy Queen for a blizzard!!  Sophia definitely enjoyed it ("nom, nom, nom!!" were her exact words, which I think translates to, "Holy crap!  This is so much better than a smoothie!") and she demonstrated the effects of the sugar high quite nicely in the aisles of Target.  I shopped for bath matts and new sheets while Esen sprinted around after her, frequently saving her from running head first into someone's on-coming cart.  She was oblivious and happy.  :)  Before heading home we went by the pet store where she likes to look at the kitties and the fish and the parakeets and the hamsters.  The display of fish tanks really draws her in... perhaps because there are so many and the fish are all so active, but I also think it's because there is a fish tank in her current classroom.  At this point the pet store is better than the zoo... air conditioned, free, and doesn't smell like monkeys.  :)

 

Tonight after dinner, Sophia discovered a pair of my shoes that aren't normally out.  She demonstrated that she's quite skilled in walking around in "heels" and, despite the fact that the video is a full two minutes long, this activity went on for at least 10!  It was just the right amount of exercise to get her into bed, so I'm going to try to remember this and pull out the shoes when we need a quick, tiresome activity that doesn't require any movement on our part!  (permanent link: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-1218719392655914659&hl=en)