Still a monkey

Remember this?

And this?

The other day I sent Liz off to write her spelling words three times each. This is where she chose to do it.

Sometimes I embrace the fact that my kids have trouble sitting on their butts and I do things like let Matt build a rock wall in Josh's room. Other times it irritates me a bit, like the other day when I tied Tali to her chair at breakfast with the tie on her bathrobe. Hey, it worked.

September Sophie

Fun pictures of Sophie at the end of September, when she was three months old.

She has been fascinated with her hands, feet and tongue for about two months :)

First day of school!

Yesterday was the first day of school here. Of course I knew that Josh was starting 5th grade, but when his teacher said, "Welcome to 5th grade, Josh" it really caught me off guard. I can't believe he's that old. Liz is in 2nd grade and that is easier for me to stomach. Even though they're just two years and two months apart, Josh barely made the Kindergarten cut-off but missed it.


Both kids were a little disappointed that summer was winding down, but the night before school started, they both got pretty excited. They both picked out outfits to wear. Josh even wore jeans instead of his usual athletic shorts/pants. I didn't have to encourage Liz to dress up at all. She takes care of that on her own. I did have to coax her out of the bathroom after she had spend 20 minutes on her hair. Silly girl.

It looks like it's going to be a good year. Josh has Mr. Carroll and Liz has Mrs. Barrett. They both love their teachers already and are excited to see their friends everyday again.

Tali will start pre-school in about two weeks. I thought she'd be pretty bored with Josh and Liz being gone all day. So far she's been content to play with all their toys while they're gone, but I'm sure she'll be more than ready for pre-school soon.

The many faces of Sophie

Grandma & Grandpa's Alaskan adventures

Josh changing his 1st diaper

Mighty Bikes race

Weighing Sophie on the bike scale

Josh & Liz take the train home from Seward with Grandma & Grandpa

On the train

Sea Lifr Center with G&G

Don't want to go to bed at the hotel

Haha

Three 4th of July girls

Happy Birthday Tali! Those are Liz's Chinese characters on her forehead :)

Mt. Marathon!

On the cruise ship

Happy Birthday Tali, 4th of July, Mt. Marathon, Grandma & Grandpa Jensen & Sophie, Sophie, Sophie

The 4th of July weekend was a big one for us! We headed down to Seward on July 3rd for the big Independence Day celebration, Tali's birthday and Mount Marathon. Tali loves having her birthday in Seward because we get to stay in a hotel, go to the hot tub, watch the fireworks that they set off "just for her," and this year we got to pick Grandma and Grandpa Jensen up from a cruise ship, just for her birthday. What an adventure! We trekked around the sprawling metropolis of Seward (population about 3000) all day, checking out the street vendors and watching all the races. We were a little over-booked this year, having two family members racing and carting around a newborn, so we somehow missed out on gorging ourselves with hand-dipped ice-cream bars, corn fritters and funnel cake. Next year! But I will be racing next year too!



I described the Mount Marathon race in my blog last year. Matt and Josh both raced and they both did awesome. Matt finished 10th overall. He was 5th to the top, but had some serious calf cramps on the bomber descent and was able to hold onto 10th. This was Josh's first year attempting the race, Juniors race halfway to the top and then descend back to the start/finish. It's pretty treacherous, so Josh and Matt drove to Seward a couple times to get Josh acquainted with the mountain and the best route. Josh followed their plan like a seasoned expert and finished the race with a very impressive time and place. He's nine and he finished 1st for all kids under 10, 5th in his age group (9-11), and 59th/300 overall for all juniors (under 18) and he loved every minute of it. I'm so glad that he enjoys crazy athletic stuff like this. When he crosed the finish line, they called him "Little Novakovich." Go Josh! You're a little mountain climber!

Before the race

On the road to the finish line. Check out that stride!

Finished . . . and happy!

Standing with his two personal cheerleaders/podium girls :)

Random . . . Josh is always jumping his bike. This is his new mini BMX bike.

Sophie, Sophie, Sophie

Sound asleep on Grandpa Novakovich. They babysat while we went to see Knight & Day (good movie, by the way). It's amazing how three hours out of the house sans kids can really do mom some good!

Josh really has a knack for putting little Sophie to sleep.

Where's Sophie?

Sophie really knows how to yawn.

Coming soon: More pics of Grandma & Grandpa Jensen's trip.

Sophie

We're all in love with baby Sophie. She's just beautiful, adorable, funny, cute, etc.

Whenever Tali looks at her she says, "She's SO pretty!" She also constantly reminds me to tell her when I'm changing her diaper because she wants to watch. I don't know what's so enthralling about it, but she stands there the whole time, analyzes the color and size, and always takes the diaper to the trash for me.

Tali has had a few moments of looking for attention, but for having been the "baby" for four years, she's doing remarkable well having a new baby in the house. Toby, on the other hand, acted like a jealous freak dog for three days. I guess he thought he was the baby.

Josh and Liz are totally in love with Sophie also and are very helpful. Liz has been my around-the-house helper. She folded a giant pile of laundry for $10. Josh has been great with letting Tali tag along with him and taking her for walks when he can tall she's starting to get a little clingy or irritating.

Matt has been the biggest blessing of all. He's an amazing dad and a super hard worker. If you know Matt, you know he doesn't like to sit still. He's been hanging with me or the kids, cleaning, bringing me food constantly and taking care of Sophie whenever I can't seem to squeeze in a shower or a nap otherwise.

Sophie seems as healthy as can be. She lost less than half a pound before she started gaining weight again. She eats like a champ and sleeps great for a 6-day-old. I have high hopes that she will continue with that pattern. She has just started really opening her eyes wide and looking around contently.

I am feeling great ... for being 6 days post partum. I feel a little better everyday and will probably do a triathon next week...haha. I did go for a walk around the block yesterday!

We have some incredible friends who have brought us food, shuttled Josh and Liz around, taken Toby for long hikes, and probably convinced Tali to not leave the yard when I wasn't paying attention. All in all, everyone is well...just a little tired...and so happy that Sophie is finally here!

Baby Sophie

Welcome to the world Sophia Ann Novakovich. We'll call her Sophie. She was born June 17, 2010, 20 inches long. I guessed that she weighed 8 lbs even. On her way to the scale, she pooped on the nurse and ended up weighing 7 lbs, 15 ozs. Am I good or what?

The kids have visited her twice. The girls love her, of course. My favorite reaction was Josh's. He wasn't too excited about having another girl in the house, but he was immediately so enthralled with her. He is just in love and ready to take care of me until I'm feeling better. As they left after meeting her for the first time, Josh said, "Thanks for having Sophie, mom!" I have a great video of Tali and Liz inspecting her toes and fingers. Tali is so impressed with how small everything is. I will post it soon.

Sophie and I are both doing well. I'm feeling good and she's just sleepy so far. But when she wakes up, she opens her eyes wide!