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Another day, another great local deal! For the month of September, the very cool Brevard Zoo featured $2 pricing on Tuesdays. I happened to need to burn some vacation off before the end of the fiscal year, so I took yesterday off to take the family to the zoo!
They've since added the "Treetop Trek" attraction at Brevard Zoo, which is basically an obstacle course high above the zoo in the trees, and includes some ziplines. We didn't get a chance to do it this time, but it looks really interesting:
We'd taken Fifi to the zoo last winter, while Cherry's mom was here, but Fifi was clearly too young to really appreciate it at the time. This time, however, she was much more engaged.
Walkin' on the boardwalk
Fifi was a little scared when these parakeets started flying around and screeching. She did try to touch one though!
Rhinos, daddy, Rhinos!!!
Video of Fifi checking out the Rhinos:
Fifi had such a great time, she didn't want to leave! I think she was still upset at night too, because she really had a hard time sleeping last night... which of course, means Mommy and Daddy had a hard time sleeping last night...
Fifi's really coming along fast! I'm having a hard time keeping up with all of her milestones!
First, a video of her aforementioned CD player behavior:
We've been watching her do some pretty cool stuff lately. Last Friday, I was doing some butterfly stretches, and she crawled over, sat next to me, and started copying my stretch! Super cute.
The Gator fans out there will appreciate this one - the second word Fifi seems to have been able to repeatedly say (first word was Daddy - w00t!) is "Gator"! Of course, she says it more like "Gaaaaaeee-tah!" Unfortunately, it's hard to catch video of her doing it. Seems like the Gator mobile paid off!
Gaaaaeee-tah!
This last weekend, we had a special event. Twenty or so years ago, my dad got this great book called "The Way Things Work", by David Macauley It was an illustrated book that made understanding machines and basic physics more accessible via the use of woolly mammoth cartoons.
Last week, during the First Art Walk at the Eau Gallie Arts District, we visited the newly re-named Foosaner Art Museum (formerly the much more intuitively named Brevard Art Museum). After about 20 minutes or so, I began to recognize Macauley's art style - specifically, the woolly mammoths. You see, it turns out Macauley drew all sorts of stuff, from buildings to boats to depictions of ocean dives, in addition to woolly mammoths demonstrating how racks and pinions work, so it took me a little while to recognize that I was indeed looking at familiar work. Shortly thereafter, one of the museum volunteers informed me that Mr. Macauley himself would be showing up the next Saturday for a lecture and a gallery walk through! Well, I certainly couldn't pass up a cool chance to meet him!
So, we showed up at the museum again this past Saturday to sit through some of his lecture - a bit of a challenge with an infant, but Fifi was very well behaved, despite missing her nap.
David Macauley lecturing about one of his sketches
After the lecture, we got his autograph on the new, updated version of the book my dad got 20 or so years ago - the New Way Things Work! He made it out to Baby Sofia and also drew a complimentary Mammoth!
Getting in line
The man himself
Drawing a Woolly Mammoth on our copy of his book!
The moral of the story? Keep an eye out on your local events - you never know when you might run into something unexpectedly familiar!
Wow! This week marked a few other milestones for the star of this show, Fifi!
Earlier in the week, Fifi learned to say "Daddy" on command! Unfortunately, I didn't capture it on video and she decided to stop saying it after Wednesday...
TEETH COUNT = SEVEN. Four on the bottom (two little fangs flanking the rabbit-incisors in the front) and three on top. The fangs and the third tooth on top came in shortly after we returned from China, but based on the quantity of drool Fifi produces, I'd say tooth number 8 is coming in shortly!
But the big milestone that we're documenting today is... DRUMROLL PLEASE:
Chinese drum
Sofia's taken her first unassisted steps this week! I'll throw a video up when I get those uploaded to my computer, but for now, these photos of her standing up and sitting down will have to do:
Well, it's hard to believe we've been back in the USA for a month as of yesterday! Since then, a lot's happened... like the 2011 College Football Season! The Gators opened their season far more pleasantly than they did in the 2010 season, racking up close to 500 yards of offense and actually moving forward more often than backward! Seems like the new coaching staff, headlined by head coach Will "Boom" Muschamp, Charlie Weis as OC, and Dan Quinn as DC is off to a good start in this new Gator Football era!
The new Gator Football coaching staff
More on topic per the title of this post, however, are the strides Fifi has been making. She recently passed her 10 month birthday. Since getting home, we've switched to exclusively baby formula (so mommy has a little less work to do), and we've expanded her diet quite a bit. In China, her diet was almost exclusively vegetarian, consisting of apple, banana, zucchini, sweet potato, corn, carrot, and green been purees, with an occasional yogurt snack and some bread to chew on. On getting back to the States, we added steamed chicken puree, string cheese, Cheerios, and beef. Unfortunately, she still seems to have a bit of allergic reaction to dairy - the cheese made her face break out a bit, so we're cutting back on that again for the time being.
Yum! Cheeeeeeese... too bad my skin won't let me eat it...
As she's gotten older, eating has become more and more of a pain in the butt. Now more intent on playing, she no longer sits nicely and finishes her meal, instead often twisting around and spitting her food out. The activity also causes her to throw up her food more often than we would like. Part of the growing pains of parenthood, I guess!
Although mealtime is more problematic than it used to be, Fifi is becoming more and more entertaining and alert. Each morning, she will wake up and point to the Hello Kitty rug that my sister gave her when we got back from China. She's able to associate names with objects, as well. Asking her "Where's Kitty" will result in her scanning the room and pointing her out to you. She's also able to recognize her Gator mobile, sparkly ball, and the bamboo in the hall. Commands are also coming along - she'll "sing" and dance, clap her hands, shake your hand, and wave hello or bye-bye on command.
Kitty!
Each night, before bed, she'll play "Peek-a-boo" with whatever object is available on hand, or, if no objects are available, she'll just use her hands. This is actually a trick she picked up while she was in China, as it was part of her "going to bed" ritual before she finally passed out for the night!
Sometimes, she'll cruise around the room, go and turn on the CD player, and dance a bit (she'll dance whenever she hears music, or, if no music is available, she'll hum to herself and dance!)!
There's also a pretty good chance Fifi will be able to walk soon. She's been "cruising" along walls and tables for some time and she's been getting a lot of practice with the walker. She's also experimenting with standing without support - she can do it for about 4-5 seconds, and the record is being routinely broken!
Whee!
We also finally started letting her sit in the child seat in shopping carts. Fifi was absolutely thrilled!
YAY - I get to sit in the big girl seat!
And that's it for this episode of Baby Sofia Milestones!
Keeping a lookout for the next Baby Sofia Milestones entry...
