To Grandma's House We Go

Yesterday we took a drive down to Grandma & Nonno's house. It was our first official trip with the car seat turned in the forward facing position. California law says she could have turned at age one as long as she was twenty pounds. I read that it is safest to keep our kids turned around as long as possible. Since Sophia is such a big girl, we decided that turning two was the age for her (I'd wait longer if she were more petite). At her well-child visit on Wednesday, she was found to be 28.5 pounds (with her clothes on) and 35 inches tall. That is about the 70Th and 80Th percentiles, respectively.

You may remember that she threw up in her car seat on our Disneyland trip and I attempted to wash the straps in the sink at the hotel. This did not fix the smell permanently, so I was going to wash them again when we got home. Unfortunately, the Britex instruction manual recommends not submerging the straps in water. When I called to ask them why, they said that they cannot guarantee how the straps would perform in a crash because water might make them stretch or weaken. Luckily, we could order new straps and all is good with the world again. We plan on Sophia using this car seat for a while, so we don't want to worry about it's ability to keep her safe in a crash.

We're pretty sure she likes the forward facing position...



While visiting the grandfolks, Sophia got to have a play date with her favorite cousin, Nadia. Nadia also brought along her little friend, Julia, who happens to be just a couple months younger than Sophia. Julia is visiting California with her mommy, Cynthia.




After a faux-Thanksgiving meal, we took all the little hoodlums out to feed the chickens.



We tried to get the girls to sit in a row by the vegetable garden, but Julia was the only one to cooperate.



We could only get two at a time to sit on the bench, but they rarely looked toward the camera.



Franco should have worn a Santa suit because they all wanted to sit with him for a picture (kind of...).



Cynthia and Julia brought Sophia a birthday present, which included a handmade tutu and some little red envelopes with lucky money. You'll see the tutu in pictures soon. The envelopes were so cute, I thought I'd take a picture. I put them under Sophia's mattress in the Chinese tradition. Hopefully they will bring her some good luck. :)