Merry Christmas, Happy New Year and Happy 9mo Sophia

Wow time flies when you are having fun and Sophia has had a lot of fun this month. December always proves to be a busy month with the holidays but Sophia adds a new dimension to busy. This month she decided that four teeth simply were not enough and has been working on cutting four more. Luckily this time it has not made her as puky as it did the first time. Despite teething she still remains her happy bubbly self. Sophia has also decided that laying and playing is for the birds and she has decided that it is time to get up and play. While she had become very adept at sitting these days she really wants to be mobile and is bouncing on her hands and knees and loves to pull herself to a stand either on furniture or with our fingers. She gets the biggest grin on her face when she pulls herself up and then starts bouncing. Eating orally continues to be a challenge for Sophia but even with teething she is willing to give it a try. Over the holidays she got to nibble on a bunch of calorie laden table foods such as potatoes and gravy, green beeners, jello, squash, ham, turkey, candy canes and of course a cookie morsel or two. While we were in Cincinnati they really encouraged us to introduce her to table foods due to their higher calorie count then baby food. The higher calories will help our skinny Minnie to possibly plump up a bit or at least help her maintain her weight since she uses more calories then the typical baby to do every day activities. Another big change on the feeding front is that she is now on Simulac Sensitive formula and off of Elecare. Simulac is a milk based product while Elecare was an amino acid based. This change signals that her diet is becoming more like a typical babies at 9 mo although the volume that she takes is less. Sophia gets 130ml (around 4 1/2 oz) of 30 calorie formula six times a day where as other babies at this point are taking 6-10 oz of 20 calorie formula 5-6 times a day.

Another big thing for Sophia is that she is being weaned off her Sildenifil (for her Pulmonary Hypertension) by the end of this week she'll be completely off of it and then January 24th we'll go get an Echo cardiogram to make sure her Pulmonary Hypertension has remained at the normal level. If it is still normal three weeks after being off of the medicine then she'll be free of another medicine and they will monitor the hypertension hit at check ups. With this medicine gone she'll be down to one prescription. Yeeeaaah Sophie!

Looking beyond the food, teeth and her prescription changes she really enjoyed the holidays as well. Christmas was full of hustle and bustle on the on the 22nd Sophia celebrated with Aunt Sarah and Kevin. On the 23rd Sophia and Liam celebrated Christmas with the Hubers, Grandma Martha, Grandpa Cal, Great grandma Irene, Jake, Heather, Marleen and Justin. Christmas Eve was spent with Great Grandma Dorothy, Cindy, Glen and Britta. The fun continued Christmas day with presents from Santa at home and then off to Mama and Papa Bobs to celebrate with Scooter, Sherri and Max. Sophia did wonderful through all of the commotion and really ripped the packages open like a pro. While she did not get to see her GAS and GUD from Kentucky she really enjoyed the beautiful quilt and cool moose they sent up for her and she giggled and giggled when her brother Liam played with the really cool finger puppets he got from them as well.

December ended with fun at the Children's museum where they celebrated New years every hour on the hour and Sophia sported a New years Tiara (yep I did say tiara- stop laughing and get back up on your chairs). Sophia and Liam both slept though the New Year celebration at Mama and Papa's. 2010 was an epic year for Sophia and we all hope and pray that 2011 will hold many more wonderful stories.