Sophie on the Move
The last couple of months have been almost all positive with the baby girl. At about 7 and a half months, Sophie started crawling. Uh oh, the baby is mobile!
Since she started crawling, she's gotten better and better at it. One of the ways I learned how active she was came when she fell off our bed, just as I was reaching to pull her back. She's quick!
It's not funny, but kind of funny, when she wants to be with mommy and daddy, she "cry crawls" to us and grabs our ankles. When she gets to us, she normally calms down.
Baby Proofing
When cousin Alex came in town after Memorial Day, he gave us a preview of what we're going to need to do in order to baby proof the apartment. One of the tough things we'll have to figure out is how to handle the dog food. Sophie has found the entertainment of emptying Bali's bowl. I get it, the texture of the dog food is interesting, but I know Sophie trying to eat kibble will come next. Hmm, maybe we should let her? Might be the best lesson!
Along those same lines, Sophie is finding out how much fun doors can be. Open, close, open, close. She hasn't pinched her fingers yet, but I'm sure that will happen shortly.
Food Fun
Like all parts of parenting, there's a million and one ways to teach a baby to eat. We decided to go with traditional baby food mashes, and then introduce some solids. So far, Sophie likes the orange foods best (carrots and sweet potatoes). One night while at the Marblestones, we found out she's like me and enjoys watermelon.
We haven't yet advanced to serving her adult food cut up from our meals, but we'll get there.
Speaking the Tooth
Around the turn of 8 months, Sophie got her first two teeth in. We found out at a restaurant when Sophie was playing with a metal spoon and we heard it clank. A quick peek inside, and wouldn't ya know it, two tiny little teeth sticking out.
Family Time
We had some great family time the last couple of weeks. It started with going to Dallas for Mother's Day. Amanda was cool to share her first one with my family. We made a quick trip of it, with the most important part to me being time spent with my grandparents. We also got to see Amanda's grandparents, so it was great all around. On Sunday, we had a brunch with everyone. It's always fun to have my parents, my brothers and their wives, and all the kids get together.
A couple weeks later, Evan, Susanne and their kiddos came to stay with us over Shavuot. One of the days, we took the kids to the Houston Children's Museum, which was quite fun. I'm sure we'll be back! We also had some great friends come over for holiday meals. All in all, was fun to have them in town, especially getting to watch Sophie interact with Alex and Becca.
The week after that, we left for a quick trip to LA for Gram's birthday. It was my first time taking Sophie on a plane (Amanda made an LA trip with her back when she was 3 months old). The best thing was getting to see people's reactions when they saw her. Faces just lit up, and Sophie was happy to be the star of the show. She busted out her "Queen Elizabeth" wave, and more smiles. People showered her with compliments, with the most common being about how beautiful her eyes were (gets 'em from her mama).
In LA, we had a blast with everyone. I would say we had a lot of quality "be with" time. We watched some shows, hung out, ate our faces off, and then we celebrated Marilyn's birthday. It was a perfect birthday dinner for her, with everyone pitching in to make it happen.
Side note: I wrote this while on a plane back from Max Markowitz's bachelor party in Nashville. Max and I have been friends since we were 3, and I pray Sophie gets to have a lifelong friend like that one day.
Father's Day
Last part of this blog is about a true first for me, being a dad on Father's Day. Amanda had Sophie and Bali team up to make me a beautiful picture frame with foot and paw prints on the outside, and a picture of the two of them together on the inside. Amanda then continued the arts and crafts theme with a wood R. On it are "Rosenhouse Rules" we've come up with, such as Be Confident, Act in Kindness, Faith and Family First and Love Hard.
From there we went for steak lunch and then relaxed the rest of the day. While it was all simple, it was wonderful.
Being Sophie's dad is a real treat. There's the love, the laughter, the crying, the questioning. It's all part of a journey that changes each day. As Amanda recently told me, "We spent 9 months wondering who she'd be, and now 9 months discovering who she is." And to think, Amanda says I'm the one with words.
