Sophie's latest phase

This phase has just started gaining popularity in our house in the last few days, and I call it "wild smacking", or "smacking with gusto". Sophie's showing her affection (of her daddy, at least) by winding up and landing a giant smack right on daddy's forehead.

Bruises and KOs aside, it's a pretty fun phase. But aren't they all?

Long car ride zooms by

This being the weekend of the Fuoco/Vigna family gathering, we took Sophie on a road trip up to Shuswap Lake to meet about 6 million family members. The car ride up there was about 6 and a half hours, but it went pretty smoothly. (And so did the ride back.) Sophie let us know when she was hungry, and we stopped and fed her, but other than that, she travelled pretty darn well!



The trip itself was lots of fun - we got to see all sorts of family members, we got to participate in a bocce tournament, we got to eat like royalty, it was great. Thanks to all involved, we were really happy our family could be part of the gathering!

Sophie's first fireworks

Grandma Jan and Grandpa Ken came over for the weekend, and last night, we took Sophie to her first fireworks show. It was Vancouver's Celebration of Light, which featured China, Spain, and Canada. The judges decreed that Canada won, but we all know that Sophie is the only judge that matters, and here were her thoughts. Intro: Sophie slept through it. Spain: Sophie woke up, and stared at the fireworks without moving for the whole ten minutes. We all agreed, it was very engaging! Canada: Sophie stared at a tree. It was good, but if you'd rather stare at a tree, it probably could have been better. China: Sophie slept through it, even though it was pretty good. And the grand finale was excellent, as one might hope it would be, but I think Sophie slept through that, too. In conclusion, I stand by Sophie's judgement, I think Spain did a great job.

In other news, Sophie is more vocal these days, doing more than just the usual jaw-flapping yelling - she's taking care to shape her sounds more carefully, enunciating her "awooglorr" very well. Good job, little one!

A bunch of pictures

It seems like a while since I posted much up here, so I thought I'd make up for it with a schwack of pictures. Click them to see them big! Enjoy!


A big smile and a punny onesie.


She's starting to understand how some Broadlands prefer to have their picture taken. You can't really see it, but that's an attempt at bunny ears behind her head there.


Just a darn sweet pic!


Sophie and Daddy at Andy and Mia's wedding at Queen Elizabeth Park.


Sophie and Daddy hanging out in the Queen E gardens.


Sophie and Daddy by the Queen E fountain.


And sometimes, you just have to put a pair of pants on your baby's head. They sure won't let you do this when they're teenagers, unless of course, that happens to be the style at the time.

Rollin', rollin', rollin'

Sophie spent a good part of today trying her best to roll from her back to her front. She succeeded three or four times, but not without a little help from mommy or daddy. She was doing well, turning onto her left side and twisting her hips sideways, but she just couldn't finish the job by herself. I think the fact that her left arm was sticking straight forward on the mattress may have something to do with it. Anyway, this development means we'll have to keep a close eye on our little girl, she's ready to roll!

Drooling and thumb sucking

Our dear sweet Sophie has a few endearing habits. One is drooling all over herself and anything in her vicinity. She's only 15 weeks old and we don't expect any teething for several months, but Sophie seems to be practicing. To tell you the truth, I'd take drool over vomit any day!

Sophie has also discovered her hands and enjoys sucking her thumb (so far, just the right one, will she be a righty like her dad?). However, she doesn't suck her thumb in the classic, hand-in-a-fist way. She's got her own unique, fingers-in-the-eyeballs style that she seems to enjoy. It's quite humourous to watch her (does admitting that make me a bad mommy?)

The Family Tree

Today is our fifth wedding anniversary, so I thought I'd do a little reminiscing and take a look at how our family has grown. On July 7th, 2002, the day after our wedding, we planted a redwood tree at Dean's parents' home in Duncan. Last weekend, we took a photo to mark the growth of the tree and our family in the past five years. Pretty impressive, if you ask me!