CALLING and CHEERING

CALLING all cats: As I mentioned in a previous post, Sophie imitates (and mocks) the sounds she hears out of our mouths. The most adorable imitation is the clicking of her tongue when she sees our cat. She will spit out her pacifier or push away her bottle if necessary to call the cat. As she chases him down the hallway, she clicks her tongue as if to remind him that she's right on his heels. Doug and I no longer need to initiate this sound; she has linked that sound with cats. She clicks her tongue on the roof of her mouth when we see the kittens in Goodnight Moon. She clicks her tongue when I point to the gray cat in her book of colors. She even clicked when I asked her if she wanted to be a "meow meow cat" for Halloween. Yes, she occasionally clicks her tongue at Doug, at the dog walking down the street, at the stuffed bear in the doctor's office...I'm not saying she's a 9 month genius...

CHEERING all planes: Sophie's latest entertainment comes from waving and laughing at planes as they fly above our house. The minute she hears a plane, she drops her toys and looks up at the sky. Once she has located the plane, she laughs and waves until the plane disappears into the sky. Although we repeat this process for EVERY plane in the sky, this game is one of my favorite summer activities.

When we're not calling the cat or cheering for planes, we're playing peek-a-boo. This series of photos documents a peek-a-boo game we played outside with the lawn chair. (NOTE: our peek-a-boo was interrupted multiple times to wave to planes.)

Sophie is a funny, funny baby and her facial expressions crack us up. Her latest facial expression hasn't yet been caught on camera; she scrunches up her eyes and nose and loudly breathes in and out to create a snorting sound. As we laugh, she snorts faster and faster and faster. Her eyes eventually scrunch shut and then she flashes them open to reveal her toothy grin. We have also been modeling "knock knock" on doors. She'll now crawl to a door, stand up against it, and slap it with her hand while I say "knock knock." I open the door, and then, we begin another game of peek-a-boo.

Sophie 9.0: 20.5 pounds and 28 1/4 inches long.