Sophie's update

I had promised to do a 12 month update for Sophie - and lo and behold, she's already 13 months (evidence #1 of 2nd child syndrome...). Well, girlfriend is no longer our easy-going houseplant and hasn't been for a couple of months. She can be determined when she wants something or someone (refer to previous blog on climbing 16 stairs unsupervised). She has a temper, which is usually demonstrated against her brother (or is that "bother" ? b/c it tends to be when he is sitting on her or got his face in her face that she lets out a high pitch bellow) or the item she is not allowed to have. One of my terms of endearment for both kids is poppet and when they have a bit of temper, that's a strop (or being "stroppy"). Occasionally, I have had to refer to Soph as a stroppet (not to be confused with "strumpet").

Sophie has always known who has the working breasts in the family. But since she turned one, she now can get herself to them and by tugging on the top of my shirt, make it plain what she wants and when. Now! Turtlenecks frustrate her to no end.

On the physical side, she is petite, weighing in at 19 lbs and change at her birthday. She had a pretty healthy first year, all things considered. She weathered the chickenpox bravely but has been left with a few scars on the forehead. Her food allergies are the main concern as there are so many; we don't know the severity; and she is so fast at getting to something and putting it in her mouth - plus, let's be honest, our housekeeping is far from pristine. She has one chronic spot of eczema. Her eyes have remained a gorgous blue (looks great in denim) and strangers often comment on how big they are. Her hair is still gingery but I believe that its days are numbered. And she has the cheekiest, most gleeful smile going.

She doesn't have a favourite toy or thing to hold. She enjoys looking at books and just started to become interested in pens and crayons. Like all babies, she loves to make a beeline for whatever enters her sphere of reaching that is usually off limits - like my agenda or the phone. Oh, I forgot, she loves bedside tables - just her height and loads of "don't touch"es.

She walks but it's been a completely different progress to Seb, who stumbled along one day (for cheese) and then within 2 weeks was pivoting and almost running. Sophie took stutter steps a couple of days after her birthday and then has spent the next 4 weeks getting to "walking" - 16 steps at once. But it's officially a go, now. (Ok, evidence #2 of 2nd child syndrome, as we didn't call any grandparents to announce the news...)

She has too many clothes to cram into a set of drawers and every pair of white tights has already turned to grey. But she looks delightful in each and every outfit.

She has 8 teeth and might have a word (evidence #3 of 2nd child syndrome - we were so proud with Seb that we would have been telling everyone by now that he was "speaking"). She sometimes waves goodbye and makes a "baaah" noise, which she only makes at those times. Good enough for us.

In fact, she is extra good enough for lucky us.