Recent milestones

Hi there, loyal blog readers...that is if there are any left of you. Yes, I know, I am becoming ridiculously bad about posting regularly. Suffice it to say that going back to work fulltime has made many things in my life "optional" that before were not. Not just blog posting, but also cooking dinner (or even going to the grocery store, for that matter), going to the gym, reading our mail, paying bills on time, getting to the dry cleaner on a regular basis (although I have become quite creative in pulling together outfits that are marginally acceptable for work out of whatever random clothes are actually clean)...you get the picture. Hectic, hectic, hectic.

But, in the midst of all of this activity, life is good. Sonia is getting bigger and more mobile every day. A number of recent milestones include:

• Figuring out how to consistently pull up to a standing position. She is so excited about doing this now that if you are somewhere where there is nothing to pull up on (say in the park on the grass), she will pout and be visibly annoyed. She is not "cruising" yet, but that is right around the corner since she does occasionally go from holding one thing (say the couch) to something very close by (like the coffee table) with a little feet movement.
• Speaking of pouting, she has developed a new super-pouty facial expression. I have yet to capture it on camera, but it involves scrunching up her entire face and is used to express extreme dislike, say for eating vegetables or being held when she would rather be standing.
• She is sort of eating more solid foods now. About 50% of the time she still spits them out, but sometimes she will actually chomp on the Cheerio (or whatever) and swallow it. Of course, when I saw "chomp" I should say gum it excessively because she still has no teeth to speak of.
• Waving -- well, kind of. Every morning we practice waving goodbye, and now sometimes she will sort of move one of her arms. We all get so excited when she does this and she is super smiley as a result, but I don't think she has figured out the cause and effect yet.
• Kind of like waving, but far more annoying, is Sonia's newfound ability to throw things. Most notably, every night when we put her down to sleep, as soon as we leave the room she immediately stands up in the crib, grabs the pacifier out of her mouth (which she gets to have when it's time to sleep), and chucks it onto the floor. Then she immediately regrets this move, wants the pacifier back, and starts to wail loudly. The fact she does this every single night either signifies that she is not smart enough to figure out that the pacifier will no longer be within reach if she hurls it across the room, or that she is a little genius who has figured out a plan to get us to come back into her room when she doesn't want to be sleeping. I'm not sure which is worse. :-)
• Perhaps our favorite milestone is that she has learned how to clap. She doesn't do it for very long (which is why the video below is so short), but she does seem to do it when she's most happy, and then of course she is all smiles because we react like idiots and start clapping maniacally back at her.

Other than that, life continues as usual. We found another house we are considering making an offer on, but since 22 other people (!) requested to see the disclosure packet for the house (the first step in making an offer), it will be a little competitive to say the least. We may not even bother to make an offer since there is so little chance of winning, and if you did win you would be the idiot who paid more than 22 other people thought the house was worth. Of course, now that I've typed that, then we'll probably win just so I have to look like a fool on my own blog. :-)