M&D Reinhart's blog

Christmas Take Two

With the end of January just days away, it's time to wrap up our Christmas posts!  For those of you reading this post, I know to whom I owe phone calls- I have not forgotten.

Sophia became accustom to visits from Santa.  In fact, we are *still* watching Christmas themed videos on Youtube.  The Papaconstantinou clan filled up the Christmas tree as if Santa had never visited the first time.  Sophia had a pretty bad ear infection the night before Christmas, Part Two.  As I took a wailing Sophia downstairs to the living room in the wee hours of the morning, she recovered enough to spot the wrapped gifts and demand to open them.  Luckily my parents and brother are super night owls and were awake to comfort and distract Sophia from the obvious lure of presents while the medicine kicked in.  While some children sleep when they are sick, ours does not.  Sophia was awake early in the morning, despite missing several hours of sleep, ready to dig into the present pile.  As the rest of us slowly woke up, Sophia alternated between opening her own gifts, playing Santa by passing out other's gifts, and helping everyone tear into their wrapping.

Here you go Thio Alexi! 

Sophia scored a new Euro chic spring and summer wardrobe, some designer threads, and of course, toys- namely lots of toy cars!  Our pumpkin loves cars.

Red car, Paddington bear, and her new Paddington jacket: 

A tired Sophia rallied for the entire day, ear infection and all.  By 5 pm, our regimen of medicine and remedies had paid off and Sophia was ready to craft and run around.  

No antibiotics necessary:

Playing with Papou:

We are trying to limit Sophia's use of a pacifier.  It is clearly not a dedicated effort.  Sophia's Yiayia refuses to take photos of her if she has a paci.  This picture is too cute not to post- she is smiling behind her pacifier:

A very bossy Sophia.  If it's important enough, she takes out the pacifier:

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Happy baptism day to our nephew Oscar Charles!

Christmas Memories

It has been almost one month since our last blog post.  Since then a few things have happened: Most importantly, we are well into 2012!  2012 promises to be a big year for the Reinhart family.  I will finally, finally be graduating with my last degree.  We will begin adjusting to life without academic obligations.  Sophia will start at a new pre-school.  And likely Sophia will become potty-trained and hopefully stay ear infection free. 

One month later, Christmas is all but a memory- our tree has long been taken down and our decorations packed away for another year.  A few people on our block still have their wreaths up.  The park corner for Christmas tree pick-up and disposal fills up every weekend.  Sophia still asks for "my Christmas tree."  Taking down the decorations was a little sad this year, because our child noticed and missed them.  Even with our explanations and stories Sophia remains unsatisfied.   But, Christmas 2011 was a good one.  It was relaxing.  We opened presents, cooked, ate, and generally kicked our feet up.  This routine was a huge departure from our everyday schedule. 

Sophia looked her best for a Christmas Eve picture before church:

Despite having new lighting installed in our living room just days before Christmas, we scored a great Christmas tree.  Santa was kind enough to fill up underneath our tree twice this year.  This is round one, Christmas morning:

Future photographer?

Minnie Mouse was the theme of Christmas part one.  Sophia is fully equipped from dress up shoes, to a lunchbox, to art supplies, to stickers, to a playhouse (or as she likes to say "Minnie Mouse Clubhouse")!

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Thank you family and friends for being so generous!  Sophia was beside herself with excitement and joy, playing with and discovering all her new toys!

Christmas round two with the Papaconstantinou family is up next! 

Merry Christmas!

We were not the shutterbugs I expected today.  Sophia got really into opening presents, singing happy birthday to Jesus, and playing with her new toys that I all but forgot about the camera and just enjoyed the moments.  Our Christmas day photos will be appear in another post.  

To tide you all over, I bring you Sophia's Christmas pre-school program.  Despite being prepared with our camera in hand, these pictures are not the greatest for two important reasons: a) I am not a particularly good photographer and b) Sophia had an uncharacteristically bad day at school and was minus a nap.  Thankfully Julia was there for moral support.  

Waiting for the program to begin: 

Watching the babies jingle to Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer:

Clapping for the babies' finale and for the start of the two-year-old performance.  The dad sitting next to me proudly yelled "Yeah, twos!" right before our munchkins took center stage:

Waiting to get their instruments:

Performing to Jingle Bells:  Sophia sings Jingle Bells often these days and demands actual bells (or as Santa so kindly delivered today, musical instruments).

Post performance chat with Julia:

Merry Christmas to all!  

We hope your Christmas was as warm and relaxing as ours!

Hoosier Baby

We start 'em young in our household.  Truth be told, this cheerleading outfit was a gift from old family friends who recently visited IU and were kind enough to think of us.  As we squeezed Sophia into this outfit, I think Matt was prepared to buy the next 10 years worth of Indiana wear for our budding Hoosier.

We have started grooming our child to be a future Hoosier already.  It will either completely backfire on us or ensure that we have an excuse to make repeat trips to Bloomington in about 16 years!  Sophia says both "Indiana" and "IU," dances to the fight song, and cannot get enough of watching a promotional video that made a resurgence after IU's last second victory over Kentucky last week.  

Sophia points to her IU:

Yay for another Hoosier win today!

 

 

Best Friends

These girls are best friends.  I know I've posted pictures of Sophia and Julia numerous times before. Sophia absolutely cannot get enough of her best friend.  Often times though, Sophia gets frustrated while playing and someone gets a fresh scratch on her cheek or eye.  We are hoping Sophia's tolerance for frustration increases a little bit as her ears start to clear up.  

Squeezing into the same chair (because it's always better when your friend is sitting in it first):

 Giggling before seeing our neighborhood Christmas lights for the first time:

Sophia would spend every waking second with Julia and her baby brother, if it was possible: 

Thanksgiving with Nana and Papa

Guess what blog readers?  I am finished for the semester: no more blogging or paper-writing for class. Yup, you all read correctly, I had to blog for one of my classes.  And guess what that did for my motivation to write my own blog?  I'm pretty sure you guessed it from my utter lack of blog posts. But, I'm back and ready to give you all an update on Thanksgiving.  As usual, the Reinhart household is dragging in the Christmas arena: we have no Christmas tree or Christmas trinkets decorated, no holiday cheer or Christmas cards planned.  We'll be getting to all that in the next few weekends. Somehow, we pull it off every year.  So, a Christmas card will be appearing in your mailbox, even if it is just days before the actual day.  

We had fabulous time at Thanksgiving with Nana and Papa.  Sophia could not get enough of her grandparents: so much so that they were wakened every morning at 6:45 am (at the latest) by an excited Sophia running into their room!  Rise and shine!  No relaxing in this household!  

Nana did a little photo shoot with Sophia on Ravens game day.  She wore her purple dress for the occasion, of course:

Strolling the Inner Harbor for fresh air and studying the statue of a former governor:

Sophia insisted on kneeling just like Nana.  If her eyes look a little red-rimmed it's because she still hasn't kicked an ear infection festering since late September.  We are currently working on resolving what seems to be chronic right ear inflammation and infection.  So, all those tantrums I have been referencing in previous posts (or venting to you in person) seem to be somewhat related! 

Meeska Mouska...

MINNIE MOUSE! 

Sophia was Minnie for Halloween!  We actually celebrated Halloween twice- once on Sunday on the "Avenue" of our neighborhood where shop owners dressed up and handed out candy (except for the dental office which gave out toothbrushes) and of course, on Monday, Halloween day.  Despite lacking a nap, Sophia muscled through the Halloween celebrations.  In full disclosure, I did not think that Sophia was capable of opening candy wrappers and therefore did not keep a close eye on her chocolate consumption...needless to say, Sophia can open wrappers very adeptly!  And it is safe to say that Sophia set a personal record for chocolate consumption.  She woke up the next morning asking to be "Minnie" and demanding "trick or treat candy."  Even this morning, Sophia snuck in a "trick or treat" accompanied by a smile in hopes that she would be rewarded with a lollipop!

Pre-costume, Sophia actually posed for this photo on Sunday: 

Fully costumed, Sophia looks down the street for her friends...

And spots them!

Pre-trick or treating with her best friend, Kitty, and buddy, Winnie the Pooh (who was catching a quick cat nap):

Gorged on chocolate- Chocolate Minnie:

Hope your Halloween was as fun as ours!

Louisville Weekend

Because I've actually looked at all the pictures from our Louisville weekend and I'm feeling a little bit lazy, I'm going to direct all of you to the Louisville Reinhart's blog.  Sarah summed up our weekend perfectly and the pictures are of equal quality.    

We spent a lovely weekend in Louisville surprising Paul for his 60th birthday!  Although not caught on camera, he was truly surprised!  The weekend was full of family and cousin time.  Mitchell and Sarah kindly hosted us and Sophia struggled with sleep and her overwhelming excitement about physically being in the same house as all three of her cousins.  

Sophia did her best to keep up with her cousins- she quickly discovered she had to sprint, not trot, if she wanted a chance to play with something.  Leo taught her all about the various genus of the animal kingdom; Gus shied away a little bit after Sophia scratched him, but then decided to share his toys; and Tillie- well, Tillie held her own.  After all, they are just 5 weeks apart.

Fun in the driveway.  This became a favorite afternoon activity.  Wheels and a hill = recipe for adventure.  Gus provided the muscle and Tillie gave the royal wave:  

 Sophia has a heart-to-heart with Nana:

What's better than a beautiful day and time at the zoo?  Our Maryland zoo membership got us in free!  What a great zoo.  

Thank you, thank you for a spectacular weekend, celebrating family!

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And any day/hour now, we are expecting a new niece or nephew!

Sophia Celebrates Aiden

Sophia has become quite the "Happy Birthday" singer.  In preparation for Aiden's 2nd birthday party, we lit one of our dining room candles and sang Happy Birthday to Aiden as well as every single one of Sophia's schoolmates.  This was on Friday.  In fact, any time Sophia sees an open flame of any sort, she yells out "Happy Birthday" and sings the song either for herself or one of her parents.  

Sophia was so happy to see her buddy, Aiden and to celebrate the big 0-2!

Aiden and Sophia have a little chat on the stairs:

Apparently the two of them couldn't get enough of watching videos of Aiden on his grandfather's phone- seriously, they were mesmerized for a solid 15 minutes:

Mommy and Sophia, obviously, having a great time!  As you can see Sophia's hand was in her mouth a fair bit- teething still?  Maybe.  

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The majority of photos posted courtesy of Aiden's mommy.

 

 

 

Catch Up

Time has flown by since our last post in August.  It's been a whirlwind, without much time left for leisurely activities.  I am officially a full-time student and rapidly approaching graduation next summer.  Voicemails, emails, and phone calls can go unanswered for weeks (not that I was ever great about listening to my voicemails).  But, this lapse enables the wheel to turn ever so slightly in our household.  Soon enough the semester will end, and I will once again be in touch.  Promise.    

So, what's new?  Sophia is growing and has ever-expanding verbal ability.  She speaks a nice hybrid of Greek and English, ensuring that only the two of us ever really understand what she is saying. She's adjusted well to her pre-school and adores her teachers.  The tears and clinginess of the first few weeks are a distant memory.  Sophia now waves good-bye, with a nonchalant "bye-bye, mommy," during which I squeeze in a quick kiss and "see you later."  Sophia is apparently well behaved, cleans up, and provides her peers with compassion when they fall or have a meltdown. Sophia at home?  That's a different story.  But, hey, we'll take the good public behavior, because it came with an adjustment period: during which a good friend got several desperate phone calls asking for disciplinary advice and during which we purchased books on hitting.  Enough said.

Sophia's first day of preschool:

Sporting her new school outfit, courtesy of her honorary uncle in London (matching horse bow; a favorite gift and a tribute to her Louisville heritage):