Otherwise, why would we have waited until January to update Sofia's blog? It sank in when Darienne from California (congratulations!) wrote to say "I'm assuming everything's OK and that you're just busy since you haven't posted anything since October."
Oh, yeah. How many times did we say "we oughta post this?" Many. How many times did we actually do so? None.
Well. It's not like nothing has been going on here, folks. She's been busy growing and such. Let's check out the highlights. Yes this is four months in a single post. As Johnny Rotten once said, "Ever get the feeling you've been cheated?"
Halloween: Good lord, this goes back to Halloween!
Sofia went out as a butterfly. Those paying attention might notice that part of her costume looks awfully familiar. Like last year's Pumpkin Princess costume. We assure you that any such similarity is strictly coincidence and that we would never, ever, recycle costumes for the next season. Oh, no. Not that. Anyway, Sofia was quite busy .. first there was the Halloween party thrown by the folks in my building at Very Large Sports Network. Then my coworker K. Lee and his family arrived in time to avail themselves of the chocolately goodness being distributed in our suburban subdivision.
As of this writing the Halloween candy is not yet gone. Not even close. Not only because we limits the candy consumption pretty strictly -- we were swimming in it. Girl knows how to procure free chocolate.
Thanksgiving found us in Adams with the entire family, and hooray for that. That kept plenty us busy, but it was good to see everyone. We had dinner at Michelle’s aunt and uncle’s house and with all present, there was enough for a kid’s table. Don’t know if you can see the plastic sheeting underneath the table, but here are Amanda, Alyssa and Sofia, together for the first time in a long time:
Here’s uncles Danny and Leigh doing their jobs.
And here in Pittsfield, here’s Grandpa and Uncle Mike hanging out with their new friend. Yes, they’re watching football. Note: Mike has the family edition of "Richard Scarry's Best Storybook Ever," given to him in 1973 if memory serves. I bought Sofia her own copy when she was born, because that book was just that good.
Early December brought a visit to Annemarie and Jeff’s house, and more playtime with cousin Amanda, for her second birthday. She has grown by leaps and bounds and she and Sofia make great play friends. Not as fun: nearly running out of gas on the MassPike. We’ve never been so happy so see Millbury.
December was actually kind of a crappy month, until the holidays came. The same day I got in a car accident and Sofia threw up on me .. how’s that for crappy?
But we got through it all and the holiday was wonderful.
We hosted family down here in Connecticut on Christmas Eve, and it was a wonderful to have family here and together for the occasion. Two of the grandmas (Cathy and Gail), two uncles (Mike and Danny), Auntie Kim and Alyssa and cousin John were all here and good times were had. Of course it didn’t snow a bit … but that allowed me to make scallops wrapped in bacon on the grill, which is how they’re best prepared.
Here’s Grandma Gail and Uncle Mike with their prezzies. Mike’s wearing the hat Michelle made (and digging the Bob Seger CD he got, off-camera) while Gail tries out the arm warmers and gloves.
But the hit of the evening was easily Sofia dancing to the ballet set and DVD that Uncle Dan bought. Our little prima ballerina, who got potty trained in part because she wanted to be able to take dance lessons, took right to it. We didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. Here she is practicing Swan Lake (and here we are saving up for years of dance shoes and tutus):
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Christmas morning, Sofia discovered that Santa had been kind, indeed. This dollhouse is huge, folks. It took hours with power tools and beer … er, excuse me, it took a lot of being very good and asking Santa nicely … to get it in the house. But it was all worth it. Here’s Sofia and daddy enjoying it:
Then we went to Pittsfield to see Grandma and Grandpa and Great-Grandpa Erwin. Here’s Sofia in her beautiful holiday dress that Aunt Corrine bought her:
And yes, the holidays are incredibly tiring:
