screamer

sophia has discovered the joys of her own voice...mainly in the high pitch scream sense

she is almost always happy when she is screaming

and she cannot get enough of it either...if you lay her on her back or talk to her, she gets happier and louder

it is actually quite fun to hear her scream in happiness

here's a short clip of it...and funnily enough, she is quieter on video

she seems to like to freeze up on camera

4 month birthday!!!

so 4 months ago, we became parents

and ever since then, we've had a ton of fun watching sophia grow and develop

some of the things she has started doing lately are even more fun

she can laugh now...only does it when she feels like it but it's so much fun when she does

she loves the sound of her scream, so she does it often :)

she grabs everything in sight and brings it straight to her mouth

she can sit up in her bumbo and exersaucer...and love both (which is awesome because i can do the dishes, do my hair, or get ready to go :)

every once in awhile, she can sit up by herself for a few seconds

she loves to see everything around her

she is recognizing people...which is fun for us and of course my parents :)

sophia is a little joy, and we can't wait for the next 4 months

sleeper

sophia does not like to sleep with covers on her

sophia does not like to be swaddled

when we brought her home from the hospital, she liked to be held

but she cried everytime we would swaddle her up all tight and exactly like the nurses say that babies like to be swaddled

she would cry and cry until she got her arms free...and then sleep the day or night away

whether it was a nap or at night or in her swing or wherever, she would wiggle and wiggle until her arms got free

at night, she is still this way

i have to make sure she is truly sleeping and then tuck a blanket around her body...under her arms

if i do this, she sleeps like a baby and is content

if i try to bring her arms down and cover them up, she wakes up and cries until she gets them free

in the morning when i get her, i wonder if she even moves at night...if she doesn't, she may be taking after her daddy wen he's really really tired :)

exersaucer

during this past summer, as we excitedly anticipated the arrival of our little sophia, my mom and i hit the yard sales...and hit them hard!

for the first time ever, i, rachel stangland, went to a yard sale before it was supposed to be open

the newspaper said 8am, and it also said 'exersaucer'

unfortunately i had a doctor's appointment 45 minutes away at 8:30 am

so i went to the yard sale at 7:45 am and slowly walked up...since the garage was open...and asked if i could look a little early because of my appointment

well the girls running it were awesome and let me look around

and i got my exersaucer! and funny part 3 of my friends with little kids have the same exact exersaucer

we hadn't used it and it was getting annoying in the shed as it takes up so much space

since she was sitting up perfectly in the bumbo and liking it, i decided to pull it out and give it a go

well, she likes it

she loves the part on it that spins

she gets all excited and spins it and closes her eyes every time in surprise of the noise...so cute

although it was not that cute when she spit up on the spinning thing and continued to spin it, getting spit up everywhere

but at least she smiled during the whole time :)

here's one of her most frequent looks while sitting in the exersaucer

the buck

one of the many things that has happened in the last week and a half is that john shot himself a buck with his bow

he has been incredibly busy with school and work and had about two days that he could hunt

God must have known this because the second day he went out this season, he got a buck!

as he tells the story, he was in his tree stand, about to fall asleep, when he heard a noise

he looked down and saw a buck...looking at him

he had to get his bow ready, which meant he had to pull down his facemask, hook his release on his bow, and pull the arrow back...all without the buck hearing him

well, God must have been wanting john to get this buck bad...because the buck did not see or hear him at all

john shot the deer; unfortunately, he spined the buck, but john got down and shot the deer again...and killed him

so now we have good, organic, all natural deer meat filling our freezer up!

which means i now have to learn how to cook deer meat

catch-up

i have not been on here in forever...who knows why

probably between work, my baby girl, my husband, a broken dishwasher and broken car, and being a mom, i guess i've let some little things slip :)

it's been a fun few weeks since halloween

sophia is almost 4 months old...this sunday marks that event

i cannot believe that 4 months has passed

i love being sophia's mom and watching her as she grows

she is a gorgeous little girl, and i feel blessed to be her mom

john and i have so much fun with her

in fact, this week john got her to laugh

of course we didn't catch it on video...we caught the little noises that are her attempt to laugh, and then hiccup

it was so much fun and john and i were laughing even harder than she was

what a cute little girl she is! here's her laughing...or right after laughing and trying to recreate it

Happy Halloween everyone!!!

so we didn't really trick or treat at all...i guess when kids are this age, the only purpose for trick or treating is 1-because they are so darn cute in their outfits and 2-the parents want candy :)

but since she had an outfit and looked so cute in it, i dressed her up

we only went down to the boathouse, a local restaurant that both bekah and kristen work at

she made the rounds there...the kitchen, the waiters and waitresses, the busboys, random people who came in and happened to know my mom, etc

and of course, melody had some candy there for anyone who stopped by, so i stole some :)

we had fun and sophia was cute

maybe next year when she's up and walking it will be slightly entertaining for her too...still more for the cuteness but a little more for her sake

ps sophia's costume was a lion if you can't tell...and it said 'roar' on it and had a tail