Sophia's Favorite Pastimes

At this time in her life, Sophia's favorite things to do are to stick her fingers in her mouth and rock in her chair. She can rock all by herself but she also appreciates help when she is trying to rock herself to sleep. She likes sticking her fingers in her mouth a lot (I assume it's pretty exciting to figure out you have hands!), but sometimes goes a bit too far and it ends badly. Occasionally, she will get tired of sticking her hands in her mouth and attempt to stick her shirt/dress/blanket in her mouth. I assume the texture is quite the experience. She has also gotten into blowing spit bubbles and raspberries, as well as "talking" to us lately too.
Here is a little video of the rocking and the fingers in action!

Her daddy is a good daddy and plays classical music for her too. It might also be to help us calm down when she is fussing and can't quite tell us what the matter is and it frustrates mommy and Sophia. He knows his girls well!

Being Back to Work

Well this week is week 3 of me being back to work! It has been non stop and a bit crazy, but has been going really well, all in all. The first week, Stephen's mom watched Sophia during the week and both of his parents watched her the weekend before and after.

The first weekend, Stephen and I took a mini vacation and went to San Antonio overnight and Sea World.

Last week, we did have to get a babysitter, but Stephen actually had a couple days off so between the two of us we were able to take care of her mostly by ourselves. On Wednesday, I had the day off and Stephen's troop did a day jump to practice jumping out of helicopters, and families were encouraged to come, so we did! It was a warm but breezy day, and they had put up a tent, so we were able to stay comfortable and had a great time.

Daddy's helicopter is in the background

 

Daddy made it safely to the ground!

Later the same day, I went to the child care services office and FINALLY made some progress with daycare for Sophia. At this point, I had been waiting 4 weeks to hear back from someone about what services they could provide for her. I had been calling the office at least once a week since I had gone in to tell them I had called everyone on their list and no one had a slot open for her (two weeks before I went back to work). I was offered the services of my choice of two off post civilian day cares who were partnered with Fort Hood, with discounted tuition to make it the same price as the on post day cares. Neither were particularly conveniently located, but I am so relieved to finally have arrangements for her that I don't mind. As long as someone caring and responsible is taking care of my little girl, that is all I need to know right now.

Getting Ready

It still hasn't totally sunk in that in one week I will be going back to work. At first, I had trouble with all the free time that my maternity leave afforded me, but now that I've gotten used to it, I'm not sure how it's going to be once it's gone! When will I take long afternoon naps? When will I drive to friend's houses just to walk around the neighborhood? When will spend hours organizing and admiring Sophia's clothes that she hasn't grown into yet? When will we have sing-a-longs to the Sound of Music?

Another benefit of all my free time is that I can just do things. Yesterday evening, Stephen, Sophia and I went to a local AAA baseball game and I had just picked up the tickets in the afternoon (they were giving them away on post as part of a "Soldier's Day Out").  It was a very nice stadium, and a great evening. We took some pictures that may be my favorite family pictures to date:

 

We had a lot of fun with Sophia and she had a lot of people saying how cute she was. But how could they not?

The game ran a bit late (12 innings!) so what started as a happy baby was a bit tired and hot by the end of it all.

 

 But we still had a great time. I'm glad we get to have this family summer fun!