Oh What a Winter!

It is incredible how quickly Sophia is changing. She is definitely developing into her own little person as she perfects her "yes" and "no". She likes to climb into our low chair all by herself to eat snacks and watch Baby Signing Time -- which is still her favorite activity, right up there with the general "babies" (meaning watching videos of babies or herself on youtube) and going for a walk to get the mail. Oh also, thanks to Uncle Andy and Auntie Kelly, the popper is also a new favorite -- Sophia will spend a significant amount of time running around the house pushing or pulling it. Her language skills are coming along very well. She loves to repeat whatever we say -- or to at least try. Now at bedtime she says "nigh nigh" and "wuh woo" while nodding with arched and expressive eyebrows. It is pretty sweet to hear your daughter try to say "I love you" to you as you tuck her in.

All around, Sophia had a great Christmas. One of her favorite gifts is a tunnel she can crawl into -- it is simply guaranteed laughter. We also had the chance to visit her Papa and Ne-Ne in Lexington where Sophia had her first experience in snowpants! And she enjoyed every minute of time spent doling out fruit and "rectangles" (little chocolates that she only knew to be small golden rectangles) to her uncles and grandparents.

We just got back from a visit to Pensacola to see the Babikows, too. Sophia is already quite the little traveler. She did amazingly with both the plane and car rides in the past month. We spent some time walking/running around the big yard at Great Granddad (yet to be named by Sophia) and Gammy's house. Sophia also demonstrated her varied taste for food, saying "more" in a really cute questioning tone every time she saw an opportunity to snack. She is always happy to try whatever you are eating; in fact, in the last two days she has eaten nearly two whole grapefruits and several mandarin oranges. She is a fruit fiend. We just hope we can finally move her to soy milk and get her completely off Alimentum. I really hope she eventually grows out of her cow's milk allergy. But all in good time.

Here are some pictures and videos for your enjoyment!

Autumn Leaves and a Fair Flower

The Schultzes have been enjoying the fair weather of autumn here in the ATL. Last weekend we explored Piedmont Park for the first time -- gorgeous! And quite expansive -- which is of course great for Sophia so that her little legs can carry her as far as she dare stray (and she dares quite far), uninhibited by the hands of Mama or Dada. She was rather dazzled by the great open fields of Piedmont; she kept stretching out her hand to the sky cooing and babbling at the sight before her, quite curious and happy in the great outdoors. It was so wonderful to see her so happy with being out in the fresh air and large, green lawns. This park is so nice -- think Central Park only cleaner with more square footage per visitor ;) There is a beautiful skyline, and it is right next to the botanical gardens. This particular afternoon was quite warm. Atlanta experienced a very early cold spurt in October which has since dwindled so that we are having a rather warm November. We are enjoying the fiery leaves, however, and look forward to a nice, cold, crisp December -- Lord willing!












And as promised, here is our fair little flower. She visited three whole houses to trick or treat for Halloween! She was quite cute, and definitely did not understand the process. She was pleased to run down the street as much as permitted though. At least she allowed us a little photo op.

Sophia and Uncle Andy gear up to trick or treat!

Sophia's first trick or treat experience ever! (Score! -- a peanut butter cup!)

Life Is a Song... Let's Sing It Together!

Well, this is Sophia's sentiment at least. Cobalt's take is a bit... different.


Sophia has been enjoying the beautiful cool fall weather with park outings and her first time on a swingset. Today we visited a generous and warm refugee family from Iraq. Sophia dazzled them with her dancing ability as she boogied to some Arab tunes. The family took great care of Sophia as they served us lunch -- Sophia really liked the Iraqi food when she took a moment from her busy play with the Iraqi kids. She also really likes to feed herself. She gets better at it every time!

No Sophias were harmed in the making of this video.

In a Year's Time...

Sophia: Days Old

It is hard to believe it has been over a year now since Sophia first showed her little chubby face. We are so thankful for her presence in our lives. She is an incredibly happy baby and makes us laugh and melts our hearts daily.

Sophia Wyona has been walking for a few months now and has progressed to a tentative run or maybe speed walking or trotting. She is getting pretty fast and likes to do laps around the dining room table. Her favorite activities are being chased, taking baths, and watching Baby Signing Time. She gets very upset when she thinks she is being denied a bath. If we start running the water, she gets so excited and will run into the bathroom ready to be stripped and plopped in the water. If, however, we run the water and then go get a towel or washcloth out of the hall closet, this gives her the impression that we are walking away from the bath and she won't be having one -- she wails! It is pretty funny. This is definitely her favorite part of the day. As for the Baby Signing Time videos, she will constantly request to watch them by signing "baby" and "please". (Both signs she learned from the video.) She also frequently signs eat, drink, wash hands, boat, sleep, banana, all done, ball, socks, shoes, more, hat, car, cracker, and dog. Her first word is Cobalt. It sounds more like Co-aal or Co-gaal, but she definitely knows that is the word we use for our pet cat. I'm not surprised that this is her first word; Cobalt gets in trouble a lot. But they have a sweet relationship -- Cobalt tolerates her, while Sophia adores him. She will often try to sit beside him on our window sills. Cobalt will back up against the side of the window squishing himself to get as far away as possible. It looks hysterical. But Cobalt does have his cuddly moments and will allow Sophia to "pet" him aka "pat" (often not so gently). Today Sophia has also really been using "da-da" and "ma-ma" a lot -- a breakthrough! For a while Cobalt was the main event. He really still is.



Thank you to everyone for celebrating Sophia's first year with us; she loves all her new toys, and we love all your prayers. Please enjoy this year in the life of Sophia:

One Month Old

Two Months Old

Three Months Old

Four Months Old

Four and a half Months Old

Five Months Old

Six Months Old

Seven Months Old

Eight Months Old
(This was the time of the scary eye problem that turned out to be not so scary.)

9 Months Old

10 Months Old

11 Months Old

1 Year Old

1 Year Old