Crawling, Standing and Teething... Happy 9th Month La Principessa!

And, so it goes. Tonight is the eve of Sophia's ninth month birthday.... my goodness. I want to wax poetic here about time and it's swiftness through our days and nights.... but really all I need to say is Wow. Sophia is 9 months old. It feels like yesterday that Alan brought her to me in the hospital and I looked into Alan's face superimposed upon this tiny baby and fell in love again... I seem to fall in love with her face each new day. Particularly because things change about it each new day. She's such an absolute joy and makes us laugh harder than we ever have. Nine months. Lord, have mercy.

Now, most importantly, as the title of this post intimates, Sophia is not only crawling, but she is standing up (in her crib as you can see by the photos) and she now has her two bottom front teeth peeking through with one on top trying to get out. We have devised a system of moved furniture and blockages to keep her away from the things she wants most. The giant ottoman from our chair and a half now blocks her passage into the dining room, where all of the glass resides. She spends most of the day crawling between the living room, breakfast area and kitchen. She's an expert at tupperware and wooden spoon drums, she can pull herself up on the open dishwasher door, she has found the wine rack and continues to try to pull a bottle out and we have to raise the blinds because she likes to bang them against the window. She consistently pulls herself up on the marble and wrought iron coffee table and we know this is just an emergency waiting to happen. We've gotten the "corner guards" to cushion the corners, but they don't seem to be an issue. Just watching her when she tries to lower herself back down makes me as nervous as a, a, well...as nervous as a new mother watching her child discover the strength in her arms and legs! I'm thinking about prescription medication more and more these days!

The teething saga has just begun and so far, it isn't unbearable for any of us. She's a bit crankier than usual and we're having a little trouble with her sleep habits, but it's no where near as bad as it could be. She loves her frozen teething ring and I just bought her some teething biscuits (Zwieback) today and she devoured one and made a great big mess and was happy, happy. It was fun to watch. It's wild to feel those sharp little baby teeth coming in and I'm looking forward to letting her try more and different foods now.

Sophia continues to be a happy baby most of the time and she's still as friendly as ever and not at all strange with people. She doesn't mind when we leave her with a sitter but she must be in our company when we're at home. She has developed a lovely habit of emitting a high-pitched scream when she can't have something, which isn't at all pleasant and makes me grit my teeth. Where do they learn these things? I keep telling her that "Mommy doesn't like that screaming Sophia" but she doesn't much care. Most days, I'm loving being Mommy...but lemme just say that occasionally I dream about her entering a convent in Italy at age 11 or so. I have a lovely vision: Alan and I in a nice Tuscan villa adjacent to a quaint nunnery with a very strict order where we will send little Sophia to work helping the nuns until she is old enough to take her vows. Daddy will grow grapes and olives and make wine and oil and Mommy will make all the fresh pasta for the convent. Sophia will be married to God and we won't have to worry about any slimy teenage boys chasing after her. Isn't that just the sweetest picture? If you hear of any villas for sale near convents in Italy...do let us know.

Happy Birthday La Principessa..... We love you beyond all reason.

Mommy and Daddy

Christmas In Pennsylvania!

Happy New Year One and All! We have returned from our 8-day trip to Pennsylvania and Sophia's first plane ride. It was, generally, a success! Sophia did really well on the plane, both ways, and the altitude didn't seem to bother her a bit. She was a bit fussy on the trip out at first, but that was because she was sleepy. Once we got airborne, she fell asleep and we didn't have one single passenger give us dirty looks! Here is a shot of us on the plane on the trip back from Pittsburgh.... it was hard for Daddy to get a good photo.

We had a wonderful time visiting with family and friends in Greensburg, Jeannette, Indiana and Pittsburgh. Seems we spent a lot of time running around, but that's the nature of visiting home when you have a big family and lots of friends. Both Alan's sister Sheila and my sister Jeanne were our gracious hostesses and allowed us to trash their houses for four days each. We spent Christmas eve at the DiFonso homestead, where my brother Gary and his family have made some wonderful improvements. While we really missed Daddy this first holiday after his death, his presence was in the room in everything we did. The meal was delish...which just goes to show that all of Frank and Marie's children have learned how to carry on their traditions and paid attention to how to make the important and special meals!! On Christmas, we spent the day at Sheila's with Alan's family and managed to eat ourselves into food comas while playing cards, laughing at Sophia and enjoying the company of those we love. The day after Christmas we visited Al's brother Mike and his family in Indiana PA. There were six children under the age of 4 in the house....Wow! It was great fun and total chaos and we loved it. Pat fed us...not one, but two meals..... and we left with full bellies and smiles on our faces with Sophia sleeping in her carseat on the way home!

The rest of our time was spent visiting. We had great evening in Mt. Lebanon with my childhood friends and their families at Chris and Carmen's newly remodeled home. It was so good to see these girls that I've been friends with for more years than I'm going to admit. All of their children are growing so fast..... The joke to me is that our friend Eileen has a son who starts high school this year, while I have an 8-month old! Wow. Of course, Sophia also entertained this group and paid special attention to the men (she LOVES the men!).... with most of her flirting in the direction of Rick Wilson. Not sure why, but she just batted her eyes and smiled demurely at Rick all evening. It was way cute.... On that subject, I just have to tell you that our little girl was charming to pretty much every man she came into contact with. She especially enjoyed smiling at Uncle Muggles, Uncle Lee, Uncle Dan and cousin Tommy. She was enamored with Casey and cousin Anthony as well. It seemed like every time we turned around, she was flirting with someone. Dad is worried. He's already buying firearms!

We all three ended up with head colds after being subjected to so many people travelling and during our visit, which made our trip home a little more harrowing than it would normally have been. Sophia rallied though, and did fine on the plane, which worried us because of her snotty head. She's still stuffed up as I write this and Al and I are also coughing and blowing our noses quite a bit, but we're taking it easy at home and hoping this will all pass by the time Monday rolls around. We've been relaxing quite well these first days of the new year. It's nice to be home and once I've tackled the mountain of laundry, I'll really feel good about things! So, on that note, I'll finish this post and get some photos online. To those of you that we didn't get to see while home, we apologize. Seems no matter how hard we try, we can't get to see everyone. Do remember though, that our door is always open. It's warmer in Alabama!!!

Happy New Year from the Stulls.

PS...I forgot to send thanks to all who gave Sophia such nice Christmas presents! Your generosity is much appreciated.