The Big Apple!

I learned something this weekend about my daughter that I never thought could be possible. Sophia could very well be a city girl! A big city girl at that! Whether it was the yellow cabs, the stroller rides through the streets, the tall shiny buildings, the jaunts around the parks, or the stops in the neighborhood shops, Sophia was in awe.

We just got tucked in from a fabulous weekend up in New York visiting Aunt Rinnie, Uncle Edward and Mia. The weekend couldn't have been any better thanks to Rinnie's planning and Poppop's help. We visited Mia at her SmileTrain office in Manhattan and had a lunch at the ever popular ShakeShack in Madison Avenue Park. Sophia yummed up her burger and fries like a champ.


Helicopter and Boat TV kept Soph occupied at Mia's apartment while we had a tasty lunch. Check out the view- unfortunately I didn't catch it but just to the left of my shot is the Statue of Liberty.

On our way to the Brooklyn Bridge Park to get the best ice cream in New York.

Sophia checking out her shadow.

Mmmm, coffee ice cream!

Happy Birthday Sophia!!





We have had a lot of snow over the past few weeks here in Charlottesville. This past weekend we were snowed in with 9 inches! We had good friends in town which made it a blast. My best friend Karen from graduate school was down visiting from Toronto and our good friend Christa hunkered down with us for the weekend. We made smores by the fire and played board games all night. We just got another 2 inches last night and predictions have been as high as 32 inches for this weekend. We'll see!

Christmas 2009

Hopefully I haven't lost Sophia's blog audience with this delay of postings. I keep thinking I am going to have more time to get things done but things just keep getting in the way- like a toddling toddler... Enjoy these few pictures of our time in California for Christmas. Future posts will include more of these pictures as well as some fantastic ones from her Birthday Party.

Four Generations of Lipinski Women!


At the Tahoe cabin

Charlottesville: Where the Wild Thing Is

A proud father post. Sophia is taking after her Dad and loves to roar, get into mischief, and read (Still don't understand that one). Also walked on her 11 month birthday. Due to her three tooth smile we have also taken to calling her Crocasmile. Enjoy.

Sophia 10-11 months

Hello to everyone out there following Sophia's blog. Here's a quick sampling of some of the great moments we've had recently... Mylik made the trip down for Thanksgiving weekend and provided some much appreciated Sophia watching. I think I took a total of 4 2-hour naps over the holiday weekend. Thanks Mylik! Hope you come back down for Christmas ;) We all made it to the VA vs VA Tech football game. Sophia hung with the big kids and did great, despite being surrounded by the hokie fans. She especially enjoyed the beat of the marching band and cheered when the crowd cheered. She's becoming quite the clapper these days. We had a surprise snow fall this weekend. About 2-3 inches fell on Saturday afternoon so she and I went to a Christmas tree farm to pick out a tree with Aunt Christa. Soph seemed to like licking the snow, but who doesn't?

Fall = Fun and More Firsts!

October seemed to go by so much faster than September. This was partly because we went about 10 days without seeing the outside world as we all caught the dreaded H1N1. Putting that experience beside/behind us, we really did have a fantastic month.

It started off with Sophia visiting her first apple orchard/pumpkin patch with Aunt Rinnie, Mia and Pop Pop. She got a kick out of seeing the apple bushels and was in awe of the big orange objects that were all around her.

The fun activities continued and of course centered around our budding toddler. (Did I just use the word 'toddler'?) Like most babies her age, Sophia loves playing "So Big". We have tried to turn this into "Touchdown Wahoos". (See picture below in her Halloween costume practicing for the game against Duke.) She also loves peekaboo and continues to love razzing and babbling. Actually, most of our laughs have come with Sophia combining these tricks into her own interpretation of "Simon Says". The game goes like this. Sophia razzes. We razz. Sophia does So Big. We do So Big. Sophia does a razz and So Big simultaneously. We do a razz and So Big simultaneously. She then figures out a combination that is just too challenging for us to mirror and thus she wins the game. Laughter by all promptly follows.

She also cut her first tooth this month which means she is no longer "The Toothless Wonder". I was beginning to become concerned that she hadn't cut any of her teeth as a 9 month old. I'm still not quite sure why I wanted her to have teeth. As we're quickly learning, having teeth means she has to go through the "teething" ordeal... not a fun time for anyone...

She's taken her first independent steps this month too. She is cruising and transferring pretty steadily these days. Just today we watched stand on her own for a good 5 seconds.

Not really a first, but fun to watch, is Sophia surrounded by all of her books. She seems to be taking after her Aunt Rinnie as an avid reader. She often chooses to look through a book rather than playing with other toys. (See pics below).She loves being read to and has learned to turn the pages of all her books. She loves the classics "Go Dog, Go." and "Are you my mother?"

And the final obvious first you'll see is her first trip down a slide. She couldn't get enough!

We're looking forward to what firsts we get the joy of experiencing in November.

Months 8-9: Crawling, Climbing, Clapping, and Almost Cruising

I can’t believe it’s already been a month and a half since my last posting. There’s so much to catch up on so I’ll try to touch upon the highlights. In the beginning of September, we had a fantastic visit to California for Uncle Stephen and Aunt Jessica’s wedding. Sophia enjoyed meeting all of her relatives and even made it through the ceremony and part of the cocktail hour! She certainly wanted to participate in welcoming Jessica to the family by adding her own coos and razzes during the ceremony. Unfortunately we were so distracted by the weekend events that we didn’t capture many photos.



Sophia is quickly learning that moving around is much more interesting than staying still- she is crawling around everywhere and just beginning to grasp the concept of cruising. Long gone are the days that we could put her down and trust that she would stay in the same place… (audible sigh). She has particularly come to like crawling outside in the grass. Her teachers at school have mentioned more than once that “one minute she is playing in plain sight and the next she is no where to be found”. We laugh with them that this is not exactly what you want your child’s caregivers to be sharing with you. They respond by saying that she is just one of the more active babies in her class. No surprise there, I suppose.


Another activity she enjoys now is climbing stairs. She figured out how to climb up the first step and it was only up from there. We’ve since outfitted our upstairs with a baby gate and a unique safety glass banister to protect her from our loft area. However, we are quickly realizing that we need to have a gate for the bottom too. Who knew that would be important?? The things you learn as a first time parent. She is also a big fan of playing “So Big”. Mia and Poppop not only enjoy but encourage her So Big marathons. We are hoping she can learn “Touchdown UVA” this fall too, but we have come to the reconciliation that we might have to settle for “Touchdown Steelers” until UVA starts playing like we know they can. The combination of her learning to clap and experimenting with the “let’s see how many times I can drop a toy and have mommy pick it up game” has also led to some pretty amusing moments lately. Let’s just say she’s picking up on the concept of cause and effect  And last but certainly not least, Mike and I are convinced that she is starting to learn to dance. Granted it’s certainly her version of “interpretive dance” but it is dancing none the less. She has two token moves: the head bob and the chest pump. Both are hilarious. She has a great range of musical taste, as well with her two favorites being my version of the “Hokey Pokey” and Survivor’s version of the “Eye of the Tiger”. We can’t wait to see what the next few weeks bring.