25-27 months

In my last posting I had said with summer starting I could post more…I lied! Summer was busier than ever and we had a blast! Sophia and I are finally getting back into the swing of things with me back to work and Sophia back to school full time.

Like I said this summer has been wonderful. Mike worked a lot as any new business owner does but he was able to take some time off to enjoy the summer with “his girls.” Since I worked the summer program in July Sophia continued on her regular school schedule for July. I think she welcomed the social interaction of her friends because June was so wet and soggy we spent much of our time indoors. We were able to sneak a few outdoor fun days in before more rain came. We had a few play dates and we went strawberry picking. Sophia had a blast! Mainly because she could wear her boots and splash in the mud puddles. Since Sophia still can’t eat strawberries we picked them for Nana Deb to eat. July, even though it was busy with work and school, was still a great month!

The best part of the month was that Sophia became a big cousin!

Benjamin Keefe Anzelmo

born on July 8, 2009

9 pounds.

It was the most amazing moment to watch my sister and my brother-in-law become parents. They have been such a big part of Sophia’s life that Mike and I can only hope to be as amazing to their son as they are to our daughter. I am sure you are all wondering how Sophia has taken to a new baby in the family…SHE LOVES HIM! She tells everyone, “That’s my cousin. Ben-a-min (as Sophia says it).” Whenever he is around she is right there helping people take care of him. She feeds him, holds him, changes his diapers, burps him, checks on him when he is sleeping….she is a little mother hen! She is not one bit jealous. Instead she makes him center of attention whenever she can.

In between making trips to see Ben we also had tons of playdates, outing and trips to the beach.

We went on a blueberry picking adventure with our friends Camden and Ellison and their mommy Jodi.

Fourth of July we stuck with tradition and went to East Boston to see the Constitution sail and to fireworks that night.

We did manage to fit a horseback ride in there too.

Mike and I celebrated our 3 year anniversary on the July 23rd. Three years, Wow! My mom took Sophia overnight as a kind gesture to Mike and me. Kind it was! Sophia got sick in the middle of the night and we didn’t have to clean it up…Happy Anniversary to us!

Sophia and I spent a night away from Daddy when we went up to Nana Deb and Don’s camp. Daddy had a lot of work to do one weekend and we wanted to get away… so off we went. Sophia and I had a great time with Auntie A, Ben, Nana, and Don on that trip.

Daddy had some time off in August so we fit in as much “Ferrara Family Time” as we could. We went to York Animal Kingdom , Southwick Zoo, and many, many parks. My favorite memory of this summer was going to Hampton beach during Hurricane Bill. Mike and Sophia flew her kite and I took in the beauty of it all.
As for Sophia’s health she is doing AWESOME! At the beginning of the summer we re-tested Sophia’s soy and milk allergies. Both came back negative. So we started her on soy. No reaction…Yah! We were supposed to wait 6 months before starting milk buy after 3 months and no problems we got the OK to start milk. We are slowly working up the amount day-by-day and so far she is doing great. She is up to two ounces a day. She has had very small amounts of cheese and a single lick of ice cream. Hated the cheese LOVED the ice cream. As for her constipation, she has not needed Myrelax for the last 3 months. She has been very healthy up until this weekend when she got an ear infection. It was pretty painful because the tube was clogged and the pressure of the fluid cleaned it out. Ouch!

Developmentally, she continues to do great. Her language is amazing. She cracks us up all the time with the things that come out of her mouth. One day I asked her to come into her room so I could change her pampers and she responded, “That’s OK, I all set.” Other common phrases are “Listen,” “No, Mommy/Daddy do it,” “Go away,” “I do it myself,” “Frosting please,” “Time out, Daddy” (when he does something that she doesn’t like), “I love you, babe,” “Group hug,” “Frozen french fries, please” and “No nap…no bed!” These are the saying but there are many, many more. She has a great personality. She is a perfect mix of Mike and me. She has Mike’s mechanical abilities, his love for being outside, bikes and trains. Her mind when figuring out a problem works just like Mikes. She has my perseverance, stubbornness, and silliness.

Like me, she loves to be around people and always knows what’s going in everywhere. She had a lot of accomplishments this summer but her biggest one this summer was learning to peddle her bike. Now Mike and Sophia can go on bike rides around the neighborhood.Well, that was our summer. We have so much to look forward to this fall. Sophia is taking dance lessons and will be starting them this Saturday. I will post some pictures as soon as they are taken. We will have tons to share over the next few months with all the fall activities, Halloween and Thanksgiving around the corner.

I hope everyone had a great summer like we did and I look forward to sharing more of our memories with you as we make them.

22-24 Months

I am so sorry that it has taken me so long to write. Life around here has been crazy as usual with work and the "layoff drama", Mike working hard at his new company, baby showers, birthday parties and of course weekly trips to the farm. Though life is busy we love every bit of it.

Easter was fun this year. Sophia still doesn't understand the concept of the Easter bunny but she enjoyed all the other fun Easter things you can do.

She loves painting her eggs. She wanted to do them all by herself. She really enjoyed using the wax crayon and drawing on them before putting them in the dye.

She loves looking for her eggs too! Nana Deb gave her a little pocket book with a bunny face on it and that is what she used Easter morning together the eggs.

I am sure you want to know how Sophia’s 2nd birthday went. It was great!

She understood that it was her special day. Her birthday fell on a Saturday this year so on Friday she celebrated her birthday with her school friends. She was princess of the day. On Saturday we had a small group of her closest friends and family over for a cookout.

In the morning while I was preparing for the party Daddy and Sophia went to Build-A- Bear. She made a pink bear and named it Pinkie. This is a tradition that started on her 1st birthday and hopefully will continue for many years. The one thing she was asking for since her friend Jake’s party last Feb. was to blow out birthday candles.

Since she can’t eat cake yet, I made her a cake out of Styrofoam and sent her friends home with Elmo cupcakes to eat.

We ended the night with sparklers. In case you couldn't get the theme, lol,...It was a Sesame Street party and it was a blast!

Besides her birthday Sophia has been very busy the last few months. The weekend before her birthday she attended her Auntie Adrienne’s baby shower. It seems so long ago since Adrienne is due anytime in the next 2 weeks. Sophia is due too! She thinks that she has a baby in her belly. If you ask her where her baby is she will raise her shirt and show you her belly. I don’t think she fully understands yet that Ben is going to come out and be part of the family, but when he is here she is going to be so happy. She loves babies and I know that she is going to be a great big cousin.

Sophia also had her end of the school year recital. Like always she stood out in the crowd of children. She walked out in front of the crowd and was all smiles. When she found me in the crowd of people she screamed, “Mama” and ran for me screaming and gave me a big hug. Of course this gets everyone’s attention. Then when the music started she ran up to dance. As soon as people started laughing and clapping she got scared and began to cry and ran to my mom. She spent the rest of the show in my lap telling me she wanted to “just watch…dance next time.”

Sophia sleeps in a “big girl” bed now. She helped her Daddy build it. It took her no time to get used to it. The first night she slept through the night and is now back to waking between 1 and 3am. She hasn’t figured out that she can get out of it on her own yet. She still will call for us when she wakes up. Usually I will tend to her at night and she will go back to sleep without much resistance. But there have been a few nights that she has ended up back in our bed. I can’t help it she is the best cuddler!

The last few months have been the months of, “firsts.” She had her first ride on a horse and loved it. She has a picture from that ride and she brings it everywhere she goes to show people that she rode a horse (actually a pony…don’t tell her!) Once she is 3 she will start riding lessons called “Peanuts and Ponies” at a farm by our house.

She also had her first ride on a carousel. She enjoyed the animals that were stationary while the ride went around.

She bought her first fishing rod with Daddy.

Another exciting first was Sophia’s first sleepover. Eli, Rachel and Dave’s beautiful little boy, slept over a few nights ago. We surprised her when she got home from school with him laying on the floor waiting for her. As soon as she saw him she was in his face. She helped me feed him, dress him, clean him, change his diaper….anything and everything I would let her do she would do. She was a great help. It was a great trial run for Mike and me with 2 kids. I think we did great. Bedtime was tough with 2 kids in the same room. We need to rethink the whole set-up before we decide to bring a new baby home.

She went bowling for the first time with her older friend Joey, who she just adores! The balls were a little heavy for her but she was determined to do it herself. Her balls rolled so slow because she didn't have enough upper body strength to get them down the alley at a speed they would knock the pins down.

She also had her second sleepover at her Nana Deb and Don’s house. I did much better with this sleepover then I did with her first. No tears this time. She was so excited I couldn’t bring myself to be sad because I knew she was so happy to be there. They went food shopping (Sophia’s new favorite activity), to the park, fed the birds, and just spent time together. Sophia kept telling us that she was going to see the coo-coo clock and sleep on Don’s pillow in Nana’s bed. She is the boss in that house!

Medically, she is doing well. We to the allergist over April vacation. We did the patch tests again for soy and milk. Sophia didn’t mind as much as I thought she would with the metal disks on her back. Me on the other hand… hated every bit of it and was bothered the entire time thinking about how uncomfortable she must have been. But it was well worth it because the tests came back negative!So a week later we had our appointment with the GI doctor and nutritionist. Finally we came up with a schedule to begin introducing milk and soy into her diet. We have started her on soy milk. She is doing well on it. She won’t drink it every day and when she does I have to load it with chocolate syrup. Did I mention she will only drink it out of my disposable hot beverage cups? We have been increasing the amount every time she drinks it and decreasing the formula to get her off the bottle by July. She will stay on soy for 6 months. Then we will try her on milk for 6 months. Once we know how she does with those two foods then we will test the wheat and gluten and if all is well proceed to introducing them into her diet. So we have about another year before she is on a non-restrictive diet. It is a long road but we are look forward to the day we can give her birthday candles in a nice big chocolate cake with milk chocolate frosting!

Again I am sorry that it took me so long to write. With school over and more time on my hands I will try to post more often. We are going to have a great summer and I can’t wait to share all our memories with all of you.