I thought I'd update with just a few photos to share what we've been up to in recent weeks. We are enjoying summer very much...although we could do without such high temps! We've had to spend a little more time indoors than we'd like, but we still try to get out and enjoy the sun in shorter bursts. We had a fun picnic with friends last week and the girls are enjoying the little pool in our backyard.
**Some FABULOUS news on the Sophie front---
Sophie amazed us all last night when she took one forward stride in crawling. She did this several times. She has not yet made more than one move forward, BUT she is getting there! I had tears in my eyes, which of course my dear husband just had to shake his head about (boys will never understand happy tears)! Needless to say, there was a round of applause from Isabelle, Jason and me when she made these attempts. She has been independently getting into a somewhat awkward hands and knees from sitting for a few weeks now and so I know she is going to get there!!!
Another great bit of news that we received from Dr. Ramsey is that the x-rays of her hip and spine looked normal so she will not have to have those scans repeated until she is 3 years old. Yay!
GOD IS GOOD!!
Sophia loves to put everyone's shoes on! She's especially into sandals right now. Once she gets them on she scoots her little self all around with them. :)
We all enjoyed the Des Moines Arts Festival in June, despite the rainy night we chose to go. Isabelle and Jayda especially liked dancing to a live band that was playing.
Isabelle's new favorite... Orange Leaf, a frozen yogurt bar. She points it out everytime we drive by so I'm sure we'll be returning soon. I'd be okay with that!
Sophie doesn't want to drink anything we give her, but she'll gladly drink the pool water. As with anything lately, if it's on her own terms, she's good with it!
We've been enjoying lots of homemade popsicles this summer! Isabelle usually chooses the flavor-- our most recent favorite is mango banana with coconut milk. Yum!
Our little munchkin... she's all about her walker... until you get her in it.
Isabelle enjoyed the Science Center with two of her friends Luke (my friend Meggie's son) and Matthew (my friend Katie's son). We don't get to see them nearly enough!
Isabelle made Jason "chocolate pie" for Father's Day. She made the pudding pie and topped it with Cool-Whip all by herself!
We hope you all had a happy 4th of July!! We enjoyed spending the week of the 4th with my brother, sister-in-law, and their two beautiful girls. As many of you know, they live in Texas so we don't get to see them often. I love when the cousins can all get together... it's so fun to watch them!
Above Sophie is taking a turn squeezing the lemons for our fresh squeezed lemonade!
The older girls taking turns squeezing the lemons. It was delicious!
We spent a weekend with Jason's family and enjoyed seeing everyone. Isabelle taught Sophia how to play the piano. :) As you can imagine, it didn't take much at all for Sophie to join right in. She even used "righty" some!
Sophia and Great Grandma Vivian Karwal... two beautiful ladies!
Isabelle loves playing dress up! In fact, we recently organized her closet/toy area in her room and she insisted that she have a basket for dress-up upstairs too... the girls already have a gigantic tub of dress-up attire and accessories downstairs. Here she is at Grandma Deb and Grandpa Bryan's house. She had her first overnight with them all by herself and had so much fun!
Finally, I am sharing a video of Sophia and one of her recent feats! She has been working very hard for a long time on learning how to drink from a cup. She is doing better and better with an open cup and while we will still have to do most of her fluids through syringe or with us assisting the open cup, she is gaining independence in this skill for sure! We are so proud of her! As I indicated earlier, if it's her idea or something she can do independently, she's happy... and you can bet that we are cheering her on! (We would love to say good riddance to the syringes!)
