Semi-recognizable sounds

I know, even as a relatively new father with an over-active imagination, that it's too soon to expect Sophie to be talking. But still, she's making some sounds that could, I think, be counted as proto-speech. The two most enjoyable ones she makes are, of course, the "ma-ma-ma" sounds (when she's particularly upset), and the "da-da-da" sounds - which she was making just now, so that I had to interrupt my blog writing, and go pick her up and spin her around and give her hugs and smiles and dance her around. Good times...

Instilling a love of sci-fi thrillers early

What can I say? Our girl has daddy's taste in books... Just look how into "Sphere" she is here!

Face-making contest

Holly and Sophie were just playing a little game, wherein they were taking turns making faces at each other. As an impartial observer, I have to give the victory to Sophie, although she did employ some underhanded (i.e. disgusting) tactics. Here's a quick play-by-play, with Sophie lying down and Holly kneeling over her, face to face:

Holly: smile
Sophie: smile
Holly: stick tongue out
Sophie: stick tongue out
Holly: stick tongue out, then give a big open-mouth smile
Sophie: big open-mouth smile
Holly: big open-mouth smile, Sophie (simultaneously): sneeze vigourously into Holly's big open-mouth smile

Game over.

Sophie at the Wolf and Hound

So we (me, Hol, and Auntie Janet) took Sophie out for dinner at the Irish pub, the Wolf and Hound. We had just finished our meal, and I was trying to compute the tip, when Sophie (being held in Mommy's arms) casually kicked a glass of water, sending it toppling off our table to shatter on the floor. We shamefacedly added a few bucks to the tip, and told the bartender that Sophie had reached her limit. A good time was had by all.

Test video

So it looks like Blogger has a video option now, which I'm going to test. I tested it by uploading an 18MB raw video, which is about 4 seconds of Sophie swimming in a pool with Mommy. If you feel like waiting until it downloads, go for it - although, we'll try out a few things to upload lighter videos in the future. Enjoy!

Update! Pictures! Large baby!

Sophie had a regularly-scheduled doctor's visit today, and she's now up to 19 lbs, 13 ozs, at the tender age of 5 months. The doctor said she's eating the right amount, so we're not overfeeding her or anything, she's just a big baby! Just like Mommy and Daddy were!

Here are a few pics to round out the post. (Click the images for bigger versions.)


Sophie has recently started grabbing her feet, and has been considering putting one of them in her mouth


Sophie and a fuzzy sheepskin


Holly reading Sophie a classic... "Pat the Bunny"


Cow in the headlights

Quick clarification

I've had a number of confused comments about the "Sophie's latest phase" post. Seems that people are under the impression that our daughter is sweetness and roses, and that "smacking" meant "giving little kisses". To set the record straight, "smacking" means, in fact, "winding up with a tiny fist and then letting a wild punch fly, attempting to do Daddy a serious injury, or at least knock his glasses off". When she starts giving little kisses, I'll do another post - if I'm still conscious.