Sightseeing in San Francisco

We were down in San Francisco recently, where I was attending GDC (Game Developers' Conference) for my work. The conference was pretty neat, partially because what seemed to me to be the biggest-hyped game was one of ours this year - check out the banner for Prototype!



During one lunch break, I met up with Holly and Sophie, and we took Soph on the carousel in downtown San Francisco. She (and we) really enjoyed it - we went twice!





And how could we visit San Francisco without checking out the Golden Gate Bridge? We bused to the south side of it, and then walked over it and back again. It took us about half an hour each way, and we saw someone attempt a U-turn in the middle of the bridge, in busy traffic. They didn't quite make it, and ended up doing a three-point turn. Twits.




The final picture here is stitched together from a number of pictures - that's Alcatraz on the left, then the Bay Bridge, then the city, and the Golden Gate Bridge (where we're standing) on the far right.

Three small steps for Sophie...

We have an exciting video post for you today. Sophie has taken her first steps! Our thoughtful daughter made sure that Mommy, Daddy and Grandma Star were all present for this momentous event. If she can take three steps at ten and a half months, who knows what she'll be up to at a year!

Miss Sophia is 10 months old!

Our little girl is ten months old today, so I thought I'd share a photo so you can see her in all her ten month old cuteness. I believe this is the first photo that has caught any of her upper teeth! It may surprise those of you who haven't seen her in person recently, but she has four top teeth. In other developments, she continues to improve her balance and walked with me while holding only ONE of my hands today!

Here she is, covered in veggies after a very typical meal. I have a feeling she's going to like finger painting.

So like her mother

Today is one day before Sophie turns 10 months old, and she celebrated by getting sick. Nothing big, just a small cough in the morning and a general lack of energy througout the day. We ended up spending most of the day being lazy with her, recuperating in the time-honoured tradition of watching too much TV. We watched curling, we watched 4 or 5 episodes of Corner Gas, we watched the NHL all-star game, and we watched an extremely annoying episode of Star Trek. And through it all, Sophie was handling being sick the same way her mother does - by being uncharacteristically sweet and huggy. Lots of dozing in our arms, lots of hugs, lots of snuggling up. Hardly any biting at all, and next to no assisted rampaging around the house, which is how you could tell it wasn't a normal day. Poor little kiddo.

The good news is that it's really not that bad - no temperature, no extreme mucus situation, no excessively unhappy baby. Doesn't seem like she's got more teeth inbound, either, although we could be wrong. Anyway, she definitely got lots of rest today, and seems on her way back to normalcy - i.e. biting.

Bath hair

A quick shot of bath time, with Sophie sporting her fancy new Grimley-esque hairdo.

Standing practice

A couple of nights ago, Sophie really got into practicing her standing up. She was practicing this on the bed, where falling is extra soft, and if you get tired of standing, bouncing is always an option. She was so into it, every time she dropped down, she'd get right back up and try again. And she tried for so long that it became reminiscent of a boxing match - at first, she'd pop up again without hesitation, but towards the end there, she'd fall over, look woozy and disgruntled, struggle to her feet with much grunting and complaining, and then fall over again almost immediately. (Plus, she'd yell "Adrienne!" every couple of minutes... Odd child.)

Sophie by the tree

We like this picture of Sophie by the Christmas tree at my parents' place. Not much more to say, it's just got a nice feeling to it, we think.

(Note: actually posted by Seagull Boy, logged in as Enviro Girl by accident.)