Happy Birthday, Sophie!

Today is Sophie's big day--her first birthday!

Here is the picture to go along with yesterday's cake posting:


Sophie told me to tell all of her adoring fans, "Peace out, yo."

Birthday Cake

In anticipation of Sophie's birthday tomorrow, I'm posting some pictures of her birthday cake. I'll post pictures of what she did with the cake tomorrow!

Ian ordered cupcakes that were arranged in the shape of a monkey head for Sophie's birthday party guests. Sophie got her own little cake to dig into. We had the party last Saturday in Millinium Park. It was a beautifully clear and breezy day.

Graduation Day

Sorry it's been so long since we've updated the blog. The end of the semester brings with it stresses and strains and many, many dinners, banquets, and ceremonies for the whole family. But we've also been getting ready for Sophie's first birthday and her baptism, which are both coming up this weekend. Much of our family is coming out for the big celebration.

In the meantime, here are some photos of Sophie on and around graduation day at Centre.

More Play

Here are some more pictures of Sophie walking around our living room. She has gotten really good at turning her toy so that she can change directions.

It takes some concentration to walk:

She must have worn herself out!

Sophie's First Words

I just realized that I haven't posted anything recently on Sophie's repetoire of words. She's currently saying the following words:

• No
• Don't
• Dog
• Look (or guck' in German)
• Ball
• Hello (reserved for pretend phone calls; hallo in German)
• Hi
• Bye Bye
• Da Da
• Buch (book)
• Ma Ma

She seems to be learning more and more every week. For a couple of language people, it's really exciting to see her language skills develop!

Sophie Walking

Okay, so the title is a little misleading since Sophie isn't walking on her own yet, but she is walking with some help. She doesn't really "cruise" yet, but she has discovered walking with the aid of a toy I bought her (used for $3!).

Also, one of her top teeth came in last week, and she enjoys feeling it with her tongue as well as making noises by clicking the bottom and top teeth together.

Puzzles and Shapes

Sophie's been enjoying putting small toys in cups and other containers lately, so Ian thought that she might be ready for her shape toy that Grandma Schmidt gave her. Although she gets frustrated easily by it and doesn't quite understand the concept of different shapes, she did understand that the shapes were supposed to go through the holes. Here she is playing with Daddy.

Yard Work

Ian and I have been busy during the last week doing much needed yard work. There's a lot to do yet, but here's some before and after pictures of what we've done. The planter right in front of our porch was overgrown with 3 bushes and an evergreen tree. Under those were mounds of vines. In addition to plants, we also found several small boulders and 3 yellow jacket hives! Luckily, the hives had been abandoned, but still a little scary.

The before picture isn't ideal, but you get the idea. You can see the top of the evergreen at the right-hand corner of the house.


We planted some azaleas, impatiens, and a couple of other flowering plants--I'm not very good with plant names.

Our next project will be to work on our vegetable garden!