Ding, Dong, Ditch

She couldn't help but add to the mystery.

I don't want to brag, and I'm not going to say that I have the best behaved child in the world, but she was pretty darn cooperative during our Winchester Mystery House Mansion Tour in San Jose, CA. With the most perfect of timing, she called out, "Oh, WOW!", to the beautiful stained glass windows and gorgeous views of the courtyard from the very top of the house. She sat comfortably in either Papa's, Mama's, Oma's, or Papa Pete's arms the entire time. AND, she even gave our tour guide a great big hug and said "Dae do" (thank you) at the end of the tour. What a sweetie.

She and I have been sick the past few days (as have others in the family, I've heard) so our nights have been somewhat short of serene. A couple of nights ago she cried and cried with a horrible stuffed-up nose until both Papa and I got up and sat with her on the couch. It's all kind of a haze to me (thank you Theraflu), but I do remember one particular instance when I was holding Sophia on my lap, with all 3 (thank you Gloria) of her blankets wrapped around us, her Papa singing and playing guitar ever so softly, she said, in the sincerest voice I've ever heard, "Dae do, Mommy". Is there anything better than that in the whole world?

Same people, same clam, different year

More on Monterey

Then...


and now.

It's hard to believe that two years ago I was not far from giving birth to our beautiful baby girl. That's right - if you can't seem to find her in that first picture, it's because she was snug in her mommy's tummy.

Jellyfish, and Penguins, and Slimy Stuff...Oh my!

Before we went on this trip down South, I started to wonder why we'd never taken Sophia to an aquarium before. There's a very nice one in Seward - we'd just never taken the 500 hundred mile drive to see it. (Maybe that's a reason in itself!) After taking her to the one in Monterey, I'm glad we waited. She seemed to be the right age to enjoy herself and not get too worn out through the whole 5 hour excursion.

Marina Dunes

She seemed to like the water a little too much.

We had an awesome time visiting my mom and her husband when we were down in the Bay Area before Christmas. Being only 100 yards or so from the beach made it easy for us to plan our daily walks by the water. Sophia loved it. We had to really watch her because she would get running and we'd almost get the impression that she planned to dive right in - or get really, really wet and cold, to say the least.