New Videos: Elmo, pickles and laughter

Here are a few recent videos - we have been slacking in the video department.

First up are two videos of her dancing to Elmo's performance at Sea world as promised. In video 2 towards the end she got distracted and tried to chase a little girl and hug her. The little girl was a little freaked out :)

Sofia likes pickles just like mama! Although you can't necessarily tell by the faces she makes while eating them!

Lastly, Sofia and Daddy had a laugh contest. Classic!

Sea World Family Portrait

Forgot to scan and post this yesterday! $18 (eek) but worth it for a photo of us all together and Sofia's cute little smile and squinty eyes!

San Diego Weekend!

We had a great, but exhausting, 3-day weekend in San Diego. The drive to and from was a little long for Sofia being in the car. (didn't help that we hit some traffic) We've really only ever been on one overnight trip with her before, and it was only one night, we forgot how much stuff we need for this girl! And the hotel had a crib so even though we didn't have to bring the pack n play, we still had about 5 bags of stuff for her. We arrived mid-day Saturday and had a nice lunch at the hotel. Then Sofi and Daddy napped while Mommy went down to Comic-con for work. (Lots of walking!) When I got back we visited with some co-workers (who loved Sofia!) and met a friend for dinner. It was a pretty fancy place, no kids' menu, and it took them about 10 minutes to find a high chair. But she enjoyed grown-up mac & cheese and broccoli.

Sunday was Sea World - more walking! She was pretty good, despite a very short nap. We called it an early night, left around 6:30pm, we were all exhausted!

Looking at the dolphins

Sofia's new friend Penny the Penguin

Playing with Daddy

Mr. Polar Bear

There was a huge beluga whale in here!

Watching the Blue Horizons dolphin show

Hugs for Elmo!

Play area for the little ones in "Sesame Street Bay of Play" (we spent most of the day here)

Gotta taste everything!

Cautiously checking out the sting rays

In line for Sesame Street "4-D" video show
The fourth dimension was that they squirted water and air on us during certain parts.

Look who's got her 3D glasses!

Back to Bay of Play - to meet Elmo and play in the water areas!

Bathing suit beauty

Elmo freaked her out a little. He wasn't the little guy on TV she imagined, I guess!

We met Big Bird too. She wasn't scared of him - guess he's supposed to be big!

Playing in the fountain

Elmo & Friends perform Live!

And she loves it! It's like Beatlemania, New Kids fever. Elmo is baby crack!

I have a great video of her dancing to Elmo during this performance. I'll upload soon!

Last stop of the night - Shamu show!

Monday we headed down to Seaport Village to walk around and have lunch before driving home. Yes more walking. My legs are so sore. Somehow I only packed flip flops. Ouchie arches.

Checking out the Ocean

Carousel at Seaport Village. At first she was into it, then it started going really fast and she was over it!

My only real gripe about the weekend (besides the noise at night outside the hotel - downtown is loud even on Sundays!) was that everywhere we went the kids' meal selections were awful. Well mostly at Sea World but even Seaport Village too. They are mostly all unhealthy options that include a soda, a lot of places didn't have milk as a substitute. Luckily I brought some fruits & veggies to supplement her meals because the only fruit or veggie she would have had otherwise are French fries. I thought I would enjoy the freedom of not having to pack food everywhere we went, but due to necessity I wasn't able to pack and keep cold 3 days of food, and we were forced to spend way to much money on really unhealthy food. I don't think she minded though :)

Sofia's First Masterpiece

This is Sofia's first self-made Crayola drawing. We gave her some of the big, fat crayons and some paper and she went to town. The kid is an artiste!

Kidspace Museum

Today we went to Kidspace Musuem in Pasadena with two of the families from my mom's group - the Parks and the Richards'. They actually have quite a lot for little kids to do. First we went to the Early Childhood Learning Center. Sofia liked playing in there, and especially liked all of the fake plastic food. Yum!

Sharing fake cupcakes with Griffin

The girl who worked there played with Sofia with a fish puppet

Then it was time to change into bathing suit for water fun outside. And since it was over 100 degrees I'm sure it felt good! First playing in a small fountain with Cole & Griffin:

Then a cool water table!

Then Daddy took her into this cool river on the mountain side

And they played in some water coming down off a spout

Then she thought it would be fun to try to climb the rock wall like the big kids!

Fun day but man were we all exhausted after!