8 months old already?

Today my sweet baby girl turned 8 months old. Unfortunately, I waited until right before bedtime to take her picture and she definitely was not in the mood so I'll have to try again tomorrow afternoon. I can't believe how much she has grown and how quickly the time has gone by. She has been very healthy except for one issue with her left ear. Shortly after Sofia started daycare she had her six month well child exam. Her pediatrician, Dr. Mathis, who we absolutely love, noticed that she had a nasty ear infection in her left ear. She has had a hard time shaking the ear infection and we've been told that tubes may be in our future. Sofia's last visit was a week ago and after a few different antibiotics her left ear is finally starting to improve! We are so thankful because we would really like to put off tubes/surgery as long as possible. Other than Sofia's left ear, she is a very happy and healthy little girl.

Stats:
8 months old
21 lbs 2 oz and 28.5 inches long (95th percentile for height, weight, and head size)
Wearing 12-18 month old clothing

Developmental highlights:

• Sofia can crawl, but only backwards. She gets pretty excited when she starts moving but frustrated that she can't go forward. Overall though, she is not much of a crawler. She is very content to sit and reach and play with whatever is near her. Supposedly Tim was the exact same way as a baby :)
• She loves to stand and take small steps along the furniture.
• Sofia has almost completely weaned from nursing which is bittersweet for me.
• She eats a lot of different fruits and vegetables, most of which we steam and puree for her. She can feed herself a graham cracker and puffs. She has also learned she can feed Frodo.
• Sofia likes fruit juice in small amounts, she is getting better at drinking out of a cup as well. We definitely have to help her hold the cup but she does pretty well with drinking.
• She is definitely enjoying using her voice, we hear a lot of dada, baba, the occasional mama, oh, uh oh, and she's been experimenting with the p and f sounds recently. It's so fun to watch her learn and grow.
•  Still loves peek-a-boo but is now able to try to "hide" herself. She thinks if she can't see me that I can't see her, it's absolutely hysterical. Sometimes she falls over from laughing so hard.
• Still loves dancing with her Mom and Dad. She has loved this since she was itty bitty. When she was only a few weeks old and a little fussy she would always calm down with a little bit of James Taylor and dancing.
• Sofia is obsessed with our dog, Frodo. She is always looking for him and I think he is her biggest motivation to crawl/move. Frodo is becoming more interested in Sofia now that she eats more table food. They are quickly becoming the best of friends. Sofia also finds Frodo hilarious, almost anything he does makes her smile or laugh.
• She still loves her bath time and playing in water.
• She is a very social girl who doesn't like to miss anything. Sometimes we have a hard time getting her to nap during the day because she just wants to play, play, play.
• Sofia has always been a great sleeper at night, she sleeps from 7:30/8:00pm until about 6:00am every morning.

I'll leave you with a picture from our weekend. We had Tim's brother, Christopher, and his girlfriend Emily visit us. They arrived on Thursday evening so Sofia was able to stay home and play with them all day Friday while Tim and I were at work. Friday night we took the group to a great Ethiopian restaurant in Memphis and then we all indulged in YoLo, a new frozen yogurt bar in town. Saturday we enjoyed the Memphis Farmer's Market, a visit to Jones Orchard for pumpkins and the corn maze and Tim and I were able to go out on a date!! With most of our family far away this doesn't happen very often, Tim and I were definitely grateful for a night out. We experienced our first rainy day in about two months and decided to try finger painting with Sofia, she wasn't quite sure what to think at first but started to enjoy it more as time went on. This weekend my parents will be visiting from Wisconsin! Time flies when you're having fun.

Meet the Family!

Here is a proper introduction to the members of the Ruder family.

Tim is a fourth year optometry student at the Southern College of Optometry. He is an easy going guy who will do anything for his family and the people he loves. In addition to being a great student doctor, he is a very talented athlete in almost any sport he competes in. Tim's favorite sports include ultimate frisbee, rock climbing, and mountain/road biking. Tim also loves music, he plays a little guitar, djembe drum, and piano. Sadly, we had to sell our piano when we sold the house. I think Tim would tell you his new favorite activity is spending time with his daughter. Sofia is lucky to have such a great father and I know I am the luckiest for having him as my husband and best friend.

 I am a Spanish teacher in Memphis City Schools. I love rock climbing, reading, road/mountain biking, camping, water sports, beaches, music and traveling. Above all, I love my family.

Frodo was our first little fur baby. He is a three year old pug/beagle mix. He loves hiking, swimming, playing with Sofia, snuggling, and napping in the sun. This picture shows him on "his" couch in our old house. The couch came with the house and it was Frodo's favorite place. When we sold the house and moved we didn't have a place to put it so we had to sell the couch. Poor guy, lost his backyard and his couch and gained a baby sister who is obsessed with him.

And finally, the star of the show....Sofia!! Sofia is our darling daughter who stole our hearts the moment we knew she was in my tummy. I feel so blessed to have her in my life. She is a wonderful, fun-loving little baby. She is currently seventh months old. She loves hiking, it's so fun to watch her just take everything in. She just stares at all of the trees and smiles and laughs. She loves playing peek-a-boo, patty cake, reading books, and absolutely adores her big fur brother, Frodo. Everything he does is hysterical in her eyes. She loves to pet him and roll to him and is working on crawling to chase him, she just hasn't figured out how to crawl forward yet, she's getting pretty good at moving backwards though.

Welcome to my blog!

I am so happy to finally be writing in our family blog! For almost the past two years I blogged weekly for my Master's program I didn't want to commit to another blog until I had enough time. To start off, let's recap the last few major events:

January 2009- I started an accelerated Master's program with Cardinal Stritch University. I knew I wanted to complete my Master's degree before we had a bunch of little ones running around but I wasn't happy with the programs offered in Memphis. So after a lot of research I enrolled in Cardinal Stritch University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and started coursework to complete my Master's of Education in Instructional Technology. I was the only teacher from out of state but I had a phenomenal experience.


July 2009- I found out I was pregnant!! I found out days before I was supposed to leave for Cuernavaca, Mexico for three weeks (This was also during the H1N1 scare) but Tim and I decided I should go and enjoy one of my last travel experiences without a baby.


October 2009- We found out we were expecting a little girl! Tim and I were surprised but overjoyed. 

November 2009- Tim and I traveled to San Diego, California for the ACTFL Conference. I accomplished one of my career goals of presenting at ACTFL with two other teachers I worked with the past two summers in Atlanta. It was great to have Tim there to support me and we really enjoyed spending time in San Diego and taking a little pre-baby trip together. I also had the chance to reconnect with one of my roommates from my semester abroad in Spain! So all in all, a great trip!


January 2010- Most women start to "nest" when they are 7 months pregnant, we put our first house up for sale. I know, it was a crazy thing to do when I was 32 weeks pregnant but my loving husband knew it would bring me a lot of peace so he went along with the plan. I was afraid that the housing market would continue to tumble and leave us tied to Memphis because of the house. I wanted to make sure we were able to go wherever we wanted once Tim finished school.


Five days after listing our house we got an offer and we began the process to officially sell the home. We ended up closing and moving in February, two weeks before our sweet Sofia arrived. It was bittersweet to say goodbye to the home. It was our first house and Tim and I put a lot of love, sweat, and tears into it. We refinished the kitchen (granite counter tops, cork floors, cabinets), tiled the laundry room, refinished all of the hardwoood floors in the house, and a number of other small but time consuming projects. Although we definitely miss our house, it will be nice to have the freedom to pick up and move when the time comes.


February 2010- Probably the craziest but most exciting month of my life so far. We closed on the house and moved to an apartment and tried to unpack and get settled before our baby arrived. I continued teaching full time, up until the day Tim and I met our beautiful daughter. (I plan to post her birth story later) Tim and I were lucky enough to have a week alone with Sofia so we could get to know her and adjust to our new family. To top it all off, Tim took round one of National Boards two weeks after Sofia was born and he not only passed, but had a great score! I'm so proud of him :)


March-April 2010- I enjoyed 8 weeks of maternity leave with Sofia. It was such a great experience having so much time to get to know her. While she slept, I finished my coursework for my Master's degree, I officially finished in July 2010. We also had the chance to bring Sofia up to Wisconsin to meet most of her extended family. I can't tell you how much joy it brought me to see my family meet her and hold her. Unfortunately, I did have to go back to work for the month of May but our amazing family stepped in to help care for Sofia so we didn't have to put her in childcare so soon. I am also grateful to my wonderful staff team at school who did their best to make my transition back as smooth as possible. I am truly blessed to have so many amazing people in my life!


June-July 2010- Summer break!! I was lucky enough to spend two more months with my sweet girl. Tim started his first externship rotation in a private practice. We were able to do a little bit of traveling as well. We took Sofia swimming almost daily, visited Chicago for a Ruder family wedding, went camping and hiking in the Great Smokey Mountains National Park, visited family in Arkansas, hiked at Petit Jean State Park, enjoyed visits from lots of family and friends and finished off our summer with a Sullivan (Tim's mother's side) family beach vacation in the Outer Banks of North Carolina.


Whew! I won't blame you if you didn't make it this far :)


August 2010- I started my fourth year of teaching in Memphis, fifth year of teaching overall. It's been a great school year so far. However, I definitely feel the pull to stay at home with Sofia but I wanted to honor my commitment for the school year, and financially we really need me to work this year.