Sophie Update Part 2

Here is the promised conclusion to my previous blog post. After Loren and I finished school it was really all about Sophie's birthday and visiting family. I don't have any pictures from our visit to my family in January and if my parents sent me any they are in my email and it would be too much of a hassle to put them up.... Anyway....

Sophie's second 2nd birthday celebration was in West Virginia with Loren's mom, younger sister and older sister and family.

Sophie's sweet cousins made her a special train for her birthday

We missed most of the major snowstorms at home since we were gone in January, but the big piles of snow stuck around for quite a while

Playing in the snow at the library

Sophie made some doggie friends

Trying to be like daddy - she put the mouse and power cord next to her computer

Waiting for mommy, pop pop and our friend Aubrey to start a Valentine's Day race

Sophie also went on more long, solitary walks

A team fit for the circus!

Ready for her first day of daycare! We have decided to put Sophie in daycare one day a week to help us with babysitting and let her spend more time around kids her own age. So far she seems to love it.

With Ann at daycare

Hat hair

Happy Birthday to mommy!

She knows she's the best gift of all

Sophie Update Part 1

Warning: This post is basically a barrage of pictures, not in the order I wanted, to showcase what Sophie has been up to for the past few months. I realized that I didn't post any pictures from this past fall, so eat your heart out now. This post covers until we left for Christmas Break.

Here is what Sophie has been doing:

Having a happy 2nd birthday, part 2/3

Going to the Aquarium to celebrate

Making new penguin friends

Having a happy 2nd birthday, part 1/3

Partying with her friends - she runs with a sophisticated, older crowd

Taking her birthday celebration very seriously

Going to the Harvard-Yale game

Being cold in the Harvard Stadium

Practicing her undressing skills

Apparently not enjoying Wellesley Fall Welcome

Going on long, solitary walks

Using her charms to get food and attention

Dressing up as a tiger for our ward's Halloween party

And the bunny shall lie down with the tiger...

Picking out pumpkins that unfortunately never got carved

Hanging out at Wellesley's Lake Day celebration

Going to Flower Sunday at Wellesley and showing off her black eye

Watching a neighborhood street festival

Going to a picnic at Harvard

Making her parents look bad by displaying the black eye she got when she pulled a stool down on her face

Supporting mom at Convocation

I hope you enjoyed your journey backwards through time. Next time I'll try and catch you up to the present.

Harvard Crimson article

There's an article about our family in Harvard's newspaper. I think it's great that Harvard is paying some attention to their married undergrads and this article is really very positive. Check us out!

http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2010/12/15/mcginnis-married-westphal-nadler/

Babies

Several good friends of ours have either just had babies or are about to so we have been explaining pregnancy and babies to Sophie. No guys, not the birds and the bees stuff, just that some of our friends have babies in their tummies and now some of the babies are out. Sophie understands....most of the time. Case in point: after church she was being held by a college friend of ours. This female friend is beautiful and also, shall we say, well-endowed . Sophie points to her chest and says, "Baby in there."

Oops. At least our friend took it well and said that she "totally understood" why Sophie said that. Better luck next time, kiddo!

My Anniversary Surprise

Life has been ridiculously crazy since school started in September! I have had a relaxing weekend so far though, so I'm putting the extra time to use by finally writing my last post about the summer. L and I's anniversary is August 16 and he cooked up a big surprise for me! I was hoping that he was planning something fun, but really didn't have any ideas until the weekend before. I accidentally stumbled upon a packed duffle bag stuffed in one of the closets and knew something was up. Then, Loren's sister Sherilyn showed up at our apartment on Friday afternoon. She lives in New York, so this wasn't a casual visit. Loren finished working and then told me to get in the car. We said goodbye to Sherilyn and Sophie and started driving. I still had no idea what was going on. We drove and drove until we got to New Hampshire, finally arriving at Pawtuckaway State Park! We were going camping!
If you're not an outdoor type this probably doesn't sound fun to you, but let me explain. Loren and I had our first kiss on a ward camp out in Vermont and since we don't own camping gear, we don't ever have the chance to do it. Plus, Sophie was safe at home with Sherilyn so we got some time to ourselves under the stars. It turns out that Loren had rented a tent and bought sleeping bags and chairs for us to use. (He did this when I thought he was helping someone move! He's a convincing liar) We got everything set up and started a fire, made s'mores and sat back and relaxed. Loren even brought his laptop so we could finish watching Season 1 of Castle, one of my favorite tv shows.
The next day we had leftover pizza for breakfast, went on a beautiful hike and stopped by the lake. Then we drove back home to our beautiful daughter, who probably didn't miss us at all - thanks Sherilyn! I am so blessed to have a husband who would plan an adventure like this, just for me. Yes, we are busy and stressed out, but I wouldn't trade it in for something different. I'm so happy to be married to Loren and grateful that we have Sophie in our family too. I love you, Loren!
We didn't take very many pictures, but here are a few we did capture.

Some Kids Never Learn

August 12 - Mommy's lipstick

October 13 - Mommy's lip gloss

Boston Breakers Game

Yesterday we went to a college volleyball game. I played volleyball in high school and sometimes really miss playing, so it was kind of bittersweet to go to the game. Sophie had a great time though and was by far the cutest spectator. That was only the second sporting event she has been to. The first was a Boston Breakers game we went to in August. The Breakers are Boston's professional women's soccer team. They play in the giant Harvard football stadium. I'm not sure how much of the soccer game Sophie could see since we were sitting kind of high up, so she mostly amused herself by climbing around on the cement bleacher benches (thankfully she didn't ever fall and hurt herself). As a bonus to the nice weather and fun time we all had, Boston won the game, 2-0 against Atlanta (I think).

View of the Charles River, walking over to the game

We walked past the very fancy Harvard Business School and couldn't pass up a shot in front of the beautiful campus

I think Sophie should be a baby model

She loved cheering so whenever people clapped, regardless of for what team, Sophie would enthusiastically join in. We also taught her to say "Go!" and move her arms. We must have taught her well because she did the same thing at the volleyball game.

It was a fun family outing!