Sophia is walking!

Sophia giving a kiss to the bear (one of the toys inherited from Luly)


Lounging around (with the Ikea crocodile my Mom & I bought at a recent garage sale)


Sophia enjoying babushka's car ride


Sophia with an empty plate & still asking for more :-)

I came home from work yesterday & my nanny Irina & my Mom had a surprise for me. Sophia started to walk all my herself! They proceeded to demonstrate it to me by having her walk towards me without holding on to furniture or someone's hand. Sophia was so proud of herself & walked carefully while giggling the whole time. The giggles turned into laughter as she fell into my open arms.
She started walking at exactly 14.5 months (Gerritt started to walk on December 12th 2008, also at the age of about 14.5 months). I remember his walks were wabbly for a couple of weeks, & then, all of a sudden, he started running everywhere. I can't wait for Sophia to get to this important milestone. She is such a fiesty young woman, refusing to be left behind in anything fun. She insists on going to the back yard & to the playground with all of the other children, even if it means she has to crawl for most of the time.
Sophia has been ravenously hungry lately. She yells "Amah!" all day long (Russian for I'm hungry). If she sees someone holding or eating food, she crawls to them as fast as she can & then asks to be fed, even if she just ate recently. Not sure where all this food goes... She must be going through a growth spurt.
Gerritt & I have gone through another dozen of library books:

The Boy on the Bus by Penny Dale
Spot Bakes a Cake by Eric Hill (Gerritt's favorite)
Spot Visits his Grandparents by Eric Hill
Spot Goes to the Beach by Eric Hill
Charlie Cook's Favorite Book by Julia Donaldson (another favorite, although a bit advanced for a 2.5 year old)
One Ted Falls Out of Bed by Julia Donaldson
What Brothers Do Best/What Sisters Do Best by Laura Numeroff
Dog Wants to Play by Christine McDonnell
Baby Bear, Baby Bear, What Do You See by Bill Martin Jr. & Eric Carle
The Easter Egg by Jan Brett
Wake Up, It's Spring! by Lisa Campbell Ernst
Panda Bear, Panda Bear, What Do You See? by Bill Martin Jr. & Eric Carle

It seems we discover more interesting books every time we go to the library. I enjoy reading them as much as Gerritt enjoys listening to me read. I wonder how many books we will read by the time he starts the first grade? The American children are notorious for scoring poorly on vocabulary tests. Will Gerritt be better prepared for school as a result of all this reading? Hmmm... I hope so.