One Last Campout

This last weekend we took our final camping trip of the year. We had a great time as we always do. Check it out....


Watching the ducks and looking for fishes from the bridge. Sofia had such fun feeding the ducks from the bridge and when she would see them go by she would say "ducks..ss". That seems to be how she pluralises (is that a word?) things......add an extra ss on the end of the word.


Ahhh, more ice cream. When we read Sofia's baby signs book she can do all of the signs in the book, except the sign for ice cream. When we get to that page, she just says "Mmmmmm". I think that pretty much sums up her feelings about ice cream, although on this particular day, she turned it upside down and dug in to the cone.





Poor Barclay, he is just so patient with Sofia. She thought this was an hilarious game to pick grass and thrown it onto Barclay's back. He just sat there while she threw grass and laughed and laughed. Eventually, he got up and shook it all off. He is such a good dog......sometimes!




Bathtime in the trailor.


Snacking on cheese worms.


One tired little girl riding home. Eyes closed pretty soon after this photo was taken and she slept all the way home.

Daddy's Brekkie Do

Sofia's best Bjorn Borg impersonation. This is how Daddy reigns in the girls hair now in the morning.....pretty nifty don't you think?
And look at the mega smile. I wish I could produce a smile like that at 6:00a.m. - I mean look....it is still dark outside.

All legs

Look what has happened to our Sofia's legs!! This just blows my mind because she is still such a dinky wee thing, but I guess her legs have grown this summer. I should mention that these pants are for a 6-12 month old but none the less, new jeans are in her future now.

Jeeves' New Tactic

This is what we discovered this evening after we heard Sofia's psycho dog toy start talking and singing away, we thought, by himself. This is not the first time the dog has done it's own thing and we figured it was just time to yank the batteries, or better still, take the dog to Goodwill.

Well, it turns out that Jeeves had settled himself in with the stack of stuffed toys and was setting the dog off. You guys remember the scene from E.T.?

Miss Sofia's words

This a sampling of Miss Sofia's words. We have been practicing her cousin's names in anticipation of our trip. A little more practice on SAM's name is required. I'm not quite sure why "precious" is somehow easier to say than "SAM" but for our girl, that is the case for the time being. Anyway, here goes.....words galore until she was ready to be done with dinner.

Hangin' on the block

Sofia and Peter chalking it up. Are these not two of the cutest kids together?


Other people's toys are always so much more fun.


I love this photo. I love the look on both of their faces. Such a boy / girl thing. Peter is quite the little man with his wad of playdoh and Sof is just giving him that girl look like "what is that all about?". Too funny!


Ahhhh, my beautiful girl.

Niners and Cheese Worms

All is good in this world. Sofia and Daddy watch the Niners win (yes, a miracle) while sharing a bowl of cheese worms (grated cheese). Doesn't everybody eat cheese worms while watching football? Even Jeeves and Barclay John managed to put aside their differences and shared a seat on the sofa. What a perfect autumn Sunday afternoon.

Cookie Monster

This is the face of a girl who has just mastered one of the greatest words on the face of the planet.....COOKIE.
After dinner on Friday, Sofia looks at the pantry, points her little finger and as clear as a bell says "cookie". I think she is figuring out just how powerful words can be. Mum and Dad now clearly understand what she needs. However, with this almighty, all powerful word under her belt she probably doesn't need a whole hell of a lot more.

Jeevesa Hearts Froggie

Even Jeeves has to confess that it is okay to have a little person living in his house when she leaves such snuggly critters lying around to cuddle up with.

Who is it?

I am not sure which of Sofia's mates was on the other end of this call, but apparently they had something very funny to tell her. And yes.....that would be her father giving her the rabbit ears. This is going to be a real challenge trying to raise Sofia and Clyde together :-)

two words in one block

The words are a coming thick and fast now. Sofia got two new words in one trip around the block tonight. We stepped outside the door to take a walk around the block and she picked up a stick, showed it to me and said "Stick". Where did that come from?

Then at the end of the walk she ran up to our neighbour's door to see her dog - or something like that ;-) The dog's name is Precious and she had her own version of Precious that was pretty damn close.

Other recent favourites.....Pasta, Truck, Wow, Sit and Cool.

TOO CUTE!!

It's Official

One year to the day that we stepped into the United States with Sofia, we appeared in court this morning for Sofia's re-adoption in the state of California. Basically what this means is that Sofia will receive a birth certificate from California (still showing Guatemala as her place of birth) and her name has officially been changed from Veronica to Sofia.

The judge was super nice. She wanted to make sure that we had read all the fine print and understood that we must give Sof everything she asks for ;-) And, Sofia was pretty well behaved as well. Now, we are almost done with the paperwork although it could take up to a year to receive this new birth certificate. Once we have that in our hands, we can officially change her name on her SS card and passport and put all of the paperwork away for good. What a relief that will be!!

Grandma and Grandpa came along and joined in the celebration and we all enjoyed a wonderful brunch together.

Family Weekend

This weekend we celebrated our first year together as a family. We decided that we would forego any kind of chores or housekeeping and do all of our favourite things together (and yes, my house is still showing the after effects of that decision).

We started the day Saturday with a bicycle ride to Fairy Tale Town. Sofia wore the same dress she wore a year ago to the Embassy in Guatemala only now it is a super cute top.


We checked out all of the animals.....the donkey and the pigs were the big hits this time.


She was also pretty taken with some big dude in Sherwood Forest.


And we slid down the rabbit hole over and over and over again.


We went and rode the carousel at the mall.




We tripped down the Delta to pick up some wine (okay, so this stop was for Mummy and Daddy) but Sofia did get to run around and around in the beautiful grounds and play in the fountain.



All of this fun was just too much for the girlie to handle and at 6:30pm last night she was begging to go to bed. Not even her new bus jammies helped.

Sweet, Sweet, Sofia

One year ago today, Clyde and I were blessed with the most wonderful gift of all. Our sweet baby Sofia was placed in our arms forever. Here is just a snippet of the joy this beautiful girl has brought us. Enjoy!

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Sof in the City with Gramps

This last weekend we headed back to San Francisco to catch up with Grandpa who was in town for a couple of days. We spent the night and as usual our photos seem to revolve around eating.

Sofia did just about blow a gasket with the sheer number of buses she saw. And then the restaurant we ate at happened to have a bus stop right outside which was just too much for one little girl to handle.


Feeding her lab and feeding her Dad. Sofia likes to make sure that everyone has plenty to eat.


BUS!!! Sof and Grandpa spy the bus at the same time.


Phew.....Mummy still has a pulse after Sofia spills a glass of red wine down her new white shirt.


Hiding in the bushes waiting for the next unsuspecting bus to be pointed and yelled at.


Mmmmmmmm.....Tiramisu.


Breakfast at Moe's and sharing a Jamba with Grandpa.

Tea Party

Sofia and Clyde had themselves a little tea party the other morning. Clyde showed Sof how he could drink his "tea" without hands and not to be outdone Sof showed her Dad that she too could drink "tea" with no hands.