Thanksgiving

So, so much to be thankful for this holiday.  It is so great to have friends and family close, and we were lucky to have Kelly & Brian come to stay with us for the holiday.  Kaelin was here the whole weekend and Kourtney and Sam were added to the mix on Friday evening.  The turkey turned out great, if I do say so myself.  But back to that in a minute – a couple of things that I want to add before I forget.
1. Sophie said “blue” yesterday (in the correct context) when talking about a tote.  She’s been great using it ever since.  It’s like her talking comes in waves.  She’s stringing together two and three words sentences like crazy now.
2. When I put her down for her nap today, she knocked down the gate after about an hour so I went in to tuck her back in.  After laying there for a few seconds, she closed her eyes and did her fake snore.  The funny thing is that she wasn’t trying to be funny, I think she was just trying to go to sleep.  I tried to hold laughter back but I couldn’t.  Fortunately, she still fell asleep a couple of minutes later.
3. Right now she is “typing” on her computer next to me saying “Mommy, mommy”
4. Max is getting so big…every time I look at him I can’t believe that he’s going to be a big boy soon using a computer at the table with me.

Ok, so back to the holiday:  Kelly and Brian came to town on Wednesday night with Pam.  Pam stayed at Mom’s, Kelly, Brian, and Kaelin stayed here.  Scott and Gricelda (and Miguel) stayed at Sandy’s.  Pam and Mom watched the kiddos here while we went out with Kelly and Brian for a few hours.  It was great to see Megan and I will always look forward to Hardy stories (they are great storytellers!) – she provided a great quote for the weekend:  You think you know somebody, then you find your birth control in the garbage…  Other highlights of the night included seeing a guy walking down the sidewalk by Muggshots carrying a chainsaw…at 10pm.  Classic.  That and watching Brian squeeze into the back seat really completed a night of fun!

{{this has been sitting in drafts and i don’t seem to be getting close to finishing it, so i thought i’d publish what i have}}

Mini Max is Getting Big!

Max is such a character; it really is a shame that I don’t get to devote more time to just him.  I know that’s the trade-off with two kids, but sometimes it’s still tough!

He is such a smiley little guy – he’s quick to laugh with his big open-mouthed, happy face.  He’s really been chomping on his hands lately (I already dread going through the whole teething thing again; maybe he’ll be better at it than Sophie was!)  He’s starting to roll to his side more when he’s on his mat too.  The mat is one of his favorite places to be – he absolutely loves to kick at the toys and grab and hold the the pieces.  It’s funny to watch him concentrate to move his hands to hit or grab something.  It must be so frustrating to know where you want your hand to go but not be able to get it there!  He takes it all in stride though and likes the chance to practice (he even sticks his tongue into his bottom lip to concentrate!)  I gave him some tummy time yesterday without a diaper on – not sure if that was the motivating factor but he would straighten his legs out to lift his pelvis off the floor.  Sophie is still his favorite person – he just loves it when she talks to him!  He is pretty high up on Sophie’s list too; she gets so excited when he’s awake “Max wake” she’ll say and run to him.  Unfortunately, she thinks that he’s awake prematurely sometimes and will go in the room and turn on the light and yell (well, that’s talking for her!) at him in the crib.  Then he’s definitely awake…

She’s getting really good at going to tell him stuff too.  Before, she wouldn’t really say anything but now I’ll say “Go tell Max that Mommy is making a bottle and that I’ll be there soon” and she’ll run over to him and say “Mama bubba”.  The toddler years definitely make you hover between strangling and hugging them!  She had been doing good on the potty and then it was like a switch and she wouldn’t go on it.  Now, she’ll still do good without pants but as soon as you put anything on her, it turns into a battle.  Speaking of battles, changing her clothes every day is a battle.  Doesn’t seem to matter what she has on, that’s what she wants to wear.  “No clothes” she’ll say and then “this” while pointing to the shirt that she has on.  *sigh*

I took her in yesterday for her 2 year pictures.  It started out looking like a disaster.  She wouldn’t stay in the room so the camera lady left the room so we could try and get used to it without her.  I finally coaxed her to the couch in the back but then she wouldn’t get off that so the camera lady found a chair to use in the pictures so she could sit, but then she wanted to get up and go to the couch.  Our saving grace was when the lady got a ball for Sophie to throw back in forth before each picture.  After that, she was a regular ham!

Saturday is her and Liz’s birthday party.  While Sophie is just turning 2, Liz is going to be a teenager!  Pretty exciting!  I decided on a Baby Jaguar cake for Sophie and I’m going to make a few cupcakes too – figured I’d put these little Diego figures I got on some and paw prints on the other.  Ordered little animal face icing decorations for some too.  Maybe write her name on the rest.  To keep with the Diego theme (and to have something different) we’re having tacos for the party.  Should be a good time since we’re supposed get the bouncy house from Grant for the basement for the little kids to play in.

Well, that’s the last couple of days – the gaps in days means that I’m missing stuff again but posting something is better than nothing!  (I need to keep telling myself that!!)

 
showing off her new slippers

snow tubing in Traverse City

Not sure if I mentioned the snow tubing yet in a post; she absolutely loved it!  We were a little nervous when they told us that she had to ride down in her own tube (she could ride up in our lap, which is good because I think she might have had a fit or jumped out (or got hurt by the rope/wire)).  She was really good though and we looped up with her tube and went down together.  She didn’t even get upset by the snow flying up in her face.  It was a great time and special thanks to Hardy for taking pics since I didn’t want to take my camera (I really should get a little one for taking places like this).  We discovered the little house at the bottom and it became an instant favorite since it has doors AND shutters to open and close.  She was a trooper all day – things took longer than expected since the first hill was booked until 6 and we had to wait for maintenance on this hill to get out.  Fun day with our big girl (Max had a Nana & Papa day).

 
practice sledding run before our tubing day

Wow Wow Words!

It seems that every day I am more and more amazed at how much Sophie can say.  I think what’s really amazing isn’t so much the words that are coming out of her mouth, but the fact that they are a manifestation of what she knows…turns out she knows a lot.  Today, she wanted the “blue cup” for “wawa” out of the cupboard.  Gone are the days where I could pretend I didn’t know what she wanted because now she has words and she will repeat them – over and over and over – until you get it right.  It’s not that we always have to give in, but you do have to acknowledge what she’s saying (I know you want the blue cup for water, but you have to stay in the kitchen to drink it because it’s a big girl cup).

We made cookies for the last couple of days.  Sophie likes to help dump things in the bowl and stir with the big spoon (yes, that was quite messy).  But, her favorite thing of all is to use the “turny, turny” (she likes to add “y”s to the end of words…both corn and corner are corny, which sounds really funny in her little Sophie accent) which is the roller.  She was actually pretty good with the cutters too.  I was surprised because when I put the big block of dough on the counter she said “cookies” (again, super cute in her little Sophie accent with an added dose of excitement).  That’s just another example of how much she understands and picks up on things when you talk about her.  Not much gets by her, that’s for sure!  Anyway, she had lots of fun standing on the chair making cookies.  She even started to ball up the dough to reroll it to make more cookies and she would look for the best spots for the cutters so that it would fit completely on the dough. 

Yesterday, she again demonstrated how tall she is getting by grabbing a cookie off of the counter even though I thought I had put it far enough back.  She went into the kitchen saying “Mama, cookie please”, and despite her good manners, I said “no”.  Not to be deterred, she responded “I get it” and proceeded to get it.  Stinker!

Now, Max isn’t forgotten in all of this.  How could he be since he doesn’t sleep through much of anything.  Mostly I just move his bouncy chair into the kitchen when I’m cooking and he’s pretty happy.  He really likes it up on the counter by the window (yes, I know that can be dangerous, I’m extra cautious, I don’t see any reason to worry yet).  He’s such a little ham and loves to interact and smile.  Sophie definitely wasn’t that much into people at that age but then again, she didn’t have a busy toddler tearing through the house to keep her entertained.  Max’s favorite person is probably Sophie.  He loves to watch her and loves it when she talks to him or jumps or plays by him.  As for Sophie, I really do think she likes Max.  We haven’t really had the jealous spurt (she has told me to put him down sometimes to play).  She’s always the first to let us know when he wakes up, what he needs (poop, milk cup, mat), how he’s feeling (mad), and she’s constantly bringing him toys.  She kept putting them too close to his head so I told her to put them by his hands so he can reach them and now she does – usually saying “hand” and will keep readjusting it when it falls away. 

What a great blessing these two kids are.  And thanks to all of our family that helps make each day great, especially Tom for working hard so that I can have this time at home with the kids.  We all know it’s not what I had planned on, and some days they can drive me absolutely up the wall, but I know that I will always cherish the memories we are able to create.  Of course, a huge thanks goes to my Mom who gives me time to come down from the wall that the kids drove me up!  It’s so great to see how excited Sophie gets when she knows that my Mom is coming over, she’s always looking out the window and when she sees the car, she yells “Nana!” and starts running around the house.  Oh, and that reminds me, we started using “Oma” for Ingrid because Sophie wasn’t saying "Grandma” (and Oma is German for Grandma) and now she can tell me that's where she wants to go when we drive in town (while pointing down the street)…of course, if we go straight into town, she’ll tell me she wants “Donalds”.  Oh that Sophie.  :)

 
Max @ 2 months w/ Moose

 
Christmas w/ Felskes @ Mom’s

 
Sophie playing hide and seek with Alex & the other kids at Uncle Rich & Aunt Carolyn’s for a Saturday lunch.

Oh, btw, potty training is going good.  Needs a pull-up at night but doing good during the day.  We tried to go to the Christmas Band concert…had to leave because Sophie wanted to dance – wouldn’t be so bad but she wanted to dance in the middle of the floor…where the band was.  We tried to go the Elementary Christmas program…had to leave because Sophie wanted to run to the stage…where the kids were performing.  These events wouldn’t be so bad if she wasn’t so loud; she is definitely outspoken!

Ok, good enough for now.  Just keep telling myself that something is better than nothing when it comes to blogging.  Hopefully I’ll remember to add something about Turner Xmas at Becky & Josh’s next time!

oh Sophie!

Just had a typical conversation with Sophie while she was on her bed, chewing on the rail:
ME:  Sophie, don’t chew on that please
SOPHIE:  Bye. (while waving)
Her thinking is that if I’m not in the room to see it, she can’t get in trouble for it!

Tried to take pics of her & Max to make a Christmas card but she was quite crabby this morning.  Take that into account when you get the card – I probably won’t get around to doing it again.

Also finished Half Broke Horses (Jeannette Walls) from Kelly.  As always, another stellar suggestion.  I like that even though it’s a novel, I learn a little about the world (in this case, the western U.S.)

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remember me???

Well, it has obviously been a long time since I posted.  To be honest, once I got a little behind, the thought of trying to catch up again is quite daunting.  But, I decided that continuing to not post would only make matters worse so I am going to try and keep this up to date and make an attempt to remember the past by posting pictures.  In theory, that should help me remember some stuff but I know there is so much that is already gone out of my head and I’m bummed about that.  Thanks to Stephenie for unknowingly inspiring this second attempt at journaling…your 365-day journal of creativity is something that I admire and aspire to.  Also liked the categories, so I’m going to start adding those (hey, I tag photos so I should tag posts too!)  Not sure if I’ll stick with LiveWriter now that Brandon is gone from Microsoft but we’ll see; it works for now!

Catch Up

Which reminds me of another silly word:  catsup.  Why do we have ketchup and catsup?  I was about to do a quick search on that when I realized that the last time I tried to update QuickTime I apparently loaded some malware on my computer called control center.  Fortunately the malware people are idiots (you can make this program but you can’t spellcheck so that I don’t see “linesce” instead of license?!)  Uggh, so now I have to install a program from malwarebyte.org to try and get rid of it.  Good thing that I had the other computer because every site I tried to get to through Google was dealing with pop-ups. 

So anyway, it’s been awhile!  I know, I know – I’ve been absolutely lousy about updating and have missed a ton.  I think about things I want to say all the time, I just don’t get around to putting them down in bytes.  You know how it is too, once you fall behind it can seem so daunting to catch up.  But, I’m going to give it a try, so here goes.  I’ll probably break this up into other posts so they’ll load better.

Oh, and I’m still going to get a bear pic for the month and I’m going to take Sophie in for 1-year pictures (so Birthday Thanks may be delayed if I try to get pics in before sending those out). 

Happy Birthday!

 

 

Let’s start with today.  Sophie is getting so much closer to walking on her own.  It was weird because when we were in Ohio she was walking everywhere (may have had something to do with us not letting her crawl around strange places as much!) but as soon as she got home she was straight to her knees and crawling everywhere.  Today though she was standing in the hall outside of her room and just walked in to the middle of her room where I was.  She’s getting so big and learning so many different things all at once!  She gives kisses now (the big open-mouthed drooly kind) and loves to point at things and say “dat?”.  She knows a lot more than she can say.  She likes books now (so that’s nice).  She got two big books recently and she really likes pointing at things in them.  I hope that it’s not a reflection on her eye sight that she likes big books (I highly doubt it b/c she finds the tiniest bits of things on the floor!)  Today she learned how to take apart the blocks that she got for her birthday and put them back together (the one piece ones).  She also learned how to put the circle in the shape sorter that she got for Christmas (though if I turn it she tries to put it in the square but hey, it’s a start!)

We had Sophie’s 1st Birthday Party yesterday!  (Birthday is Wednesday so we had to pick a weekend.)  She did SO good, especially since her molars are bugging her like crazy.  I think maybe the bottom ones are getting ready to break through (she is drooling like old times).   She also has a runny nose (related to molars?  or a cold?  not sure, because now Tom and I have a runny nose…)  Needless to say, she hasn’t been sleeping well through the night.  Before they were really bugging her (so a couple of weeks ago) she was giving us good sleep about every other night (7:30pm-8am) with maybe a little wakefulness every now and then.  Not anymore.  Add to that the fact that we are in a nap-transition period (2 to 1) and she can be cranky.  The 1 nap would be fine if it was substantial (at least 1.5 hours) but some days it is only 30-40 minutes.  We’ve switched over to regular milk from formula and were trying to switch to cups – she did fine initially and then had a little rebellious phase so she’s getting milk from bottle and water from cups.  She did the same thing when I tried to introduce the cup at first so I’m just going to wait it out a bit and keep trying to give her a cup of milk and eventually she’ll come around.

So back to the party!  We had quite the crowd and Sophie had fun playing with the kids.   Friends and family included:  Mom, Mike, Sandy, Jeff, Ingrid, Tom Shmina, Liz, Brian, Michelle, Caitlyn, Grant, Amy, Alex, Mike, Erin, Liz – Brandon – Charlie Schnettler, Deborah – Mason Cowan, Elliott – Emmy Buchanan, and Doug – Char – David – Maria – Alex Juras.  I made her a rubber ducky cake.  I had such a hard time deciding on a cake.  I had been thinking about making some sort of animal head (Liz had a cake pan for Charlie’s birthday but it had been packed away for their move and do you think I could find one anywhere???  Nooooo……)  So then I had to decide on something else.  Since Sophie is crazy about her baths (it’s the one sign she does – she really only does that and wave her hands up and down for all done, not sure why she didn’t pick up on them more…I haven’t been as consistent lately but heck, she still doesn’t do milk or eat and we’ve been doing that forever!)  Also, duck is one of the words she can say (but she hasn’t been saying much of anything for the last couple of days) so I thought that would be nice.  I made cupcakes to go around the duck so that it would look like water.  Needless to say, I had WAY too much cake.  But I think it turned out nice.  Sophie got lots of nice things for her birthday and she really seemed to enjoy opening them.  Well, not so much the “opening” part but definitely the “let’s see what’s inside” part.  You should have seen her go for the keyboard on her new “laptop” – that was the hope with that toy:  she’ll let me type on mine if she has one of her own.  Just today I brought her out after her nap and she saw my laptop and just squealed in delight.

Oh, and I’m starting a tradition (one that Tom’s not crazy about):  every year I’ll get her a flower for how old she is.  I like it.  Tom just sees the dollars adding up year after year.  And I’ve borrowed a tradition:  I made a picture board (thanks Kelly) of some of Sophie’s pics from this year.  I’m going to hang it up somewhere (on her door?) if I can find a way to do it without tape (might try some of the 3M things).

She’s definitely been more vocal for the past month or so.  She has her cooing kind of voice when she’s playing, her squeal when the dog is chasing her, and the laugh when you tickle her and play games.  One of her favorite games is to roll around on the bed.  For some reason it is hilarious to her when you move your head around so if you go side to side for a few and then in close to her face, she’ll really laugh.  She’s getting better at finding face parts too – she can point to my nose and mouth (doesn’t point to hers though…I think that kids usually do the other face first).  We try to point out eyes and ears but she gets distracted by hair and then that’s the end of that game…until she tries to put her finger up my nose!

 

Let’s see, as far as other “tricks” go we want to start working on potty training.  Did you know that before the 70s (when disposable diapers became the norm) that most kids were potty-trained by age 2?  I thought that was interesting.  Who knows when Sophie will decide to make the switch to the toilet (because I’m under no illusions – it will be her decision) but we’re going to start working on it now.  I put her on the toilet seat (we have one that goes over the big seat) on Christmas Eve and she peed.  But then she cried.  She’s not crazy about sitting on the toilet.  I tried putting her on it with her clothes on but she still didn’t really like it.  She got a little potty for her birthday and I tried sitting her on that she wanted off right away.  So we’ll work on it.

Still scanning for malware – up to 24 objects infected.

Christmas!!

OK, so let’s backtrack a little further to the Christmas holidays.  Unfortunately, they weren’t without their sadness as Paul passed away a couple of days after Christmas.  It’s weird to say that his death came as a shock since he was by no means in good health but it did always seem like he would pull out of things.  A week or so before Christmas he fell and bruised his hip (after suffering a heart attack the night before) so he was in the hospital for a little while and then transferred to a nursing home to get the strength back to stand and walk.  Unfortunately, he never did get strong enough to leave and passed away after just a few days there.  We were able to go up and see him a few times – he always was happy to see Sophie (I can still hear his voice when we’d come to the house “heyyyyy Sophie!)  She used to sit next to him in his chair and watch TV (she liked his big TV for sure!), play with his watch, and try to steal the remote.  She’d stand next to him and try and take his glasses off and he’d be happy as could be.  It was sad at the funeral because when we took her up to the casket she pointed to him – it’s too bad that she remembered him then but won’t as she gets older.  He was so good to her – to all of us really – we’ll miss him for sure.  The funeral was nice – it was the full military honors that he talked about wanting, and he got to be buried in his hometown of Washington Court House, OH.  Sophie did good at the funeral and showing and for the drives too (we left at 6:30 each way so she could sleep in the car).

We took Christmas pictures at home since she’ll be going in for 1 year pics so close to the holiday.  Enjoy!  (We were able to print one out to take up to Paul while he was in the nursing home – I think he enjoyed having it there.)

 

 

 

And then there was Christmas.  All kinds of firsts going on.  I think Sophie did pretty good for her first Christmas too (she can be a stinker sometimes, especially while teething, that’s why I keep pointing out when she does “well” because it honestly comes as a little bit of a surprise!)  It was a little tough on her because we were at Mendy’s and we didn’t open presents until almost 8 (which is bed time really).  We took her over there early and put her down for a nap there so that we could hang out for a bit and she woke up once people started arriving.  That part worked out pretty well.  The presents looked really good – Mendy had them lined up going down the spiral stairs so I thought it looked cool.  We all got good stuff at Christmas, Sophie especially.  Tom bought a snowmobile from Chris, so if we could just get some snow, we’d be all set!  It was a crazy year for weather.  It was cold all summer and then warm all November.  Now it’s January and cold, but it still isn’t snowing (around here, the rest of the state is doing better in the winter precipitation department).

I was a little surprised at how well Sophie did with the Christmas decorations.  The one thing that she had a hard time resisting at the end were the bows on the present.  She definitely wanted to keep taking them off!  She didn’t really mess with the tree – it sat up for a few days before I decorated it so maybe that helped.  However, the last few times we were at Ingrid’s and Sandy’s she kept going for the low-hanging bulbs.  All in all, the tree was pretty stress-free, I was worried that it was going to be a real headache.  I think that maybe next year we will start a tradition of getting a live tree.  We will have to wait a week or two later to put it up, but I think it will be nice.  Plus, I can use tinsel (I know Sandy likes the sound of that!)  We moved our kitchen table over by the bedroom to put the tree in front of the window this year but I don’t think we’ll do that again.  Just didn’t like the house arranged that way and you can’t really see the tree from outside anyway.  The real tree wouldn’t be too bad anyway because I like to take things down a couple of days after Christmas.  Tom thinks I’m being a bit of a Scrooge when I do that but I really just like to get things put away since the holiday is over.  So much about Christmas is the anticipation so once it is over, then I don’t think we really need the stuff up anymore…it just doesn’t provide the same joy after the fact.  But that could just be me…

On Christmas morning Mom and Mike came over here for breakfast and presents (Chris and Kurt had also stayed over the night before) and then we headed over to Sandy’s for dinner later.  Though she hasn’t had a chance to use it outside yet, Sophie is digging her new sled and loves to take rides throughout the house on it.  It’s useful if I need to get ready, I just put her in the sled and take her from room to room to do what I need to do.  As long as I don’t stay in one place too long, she’s happy!  It was a nice day – I almost take for granted already the joy of waking up in my own bed for Christmas (it was such a new feeling last year that I really savored it).  That reminds me, the one thing that I enjoyed last year but not this one is our fireplace.  For some reason we haven’t had a fire yet.  Maybe this weekend I’ll try to talk Tom into making one!

So before the Christmas Eve/Christmas we had Christmas with the Felskes and then an  even earlier Christmas with the Turner Clan.  Both were nice.  At the Felske’s Sophie started to color with a crayon.  I had tried to get her to do it before but she would just try and eat them but the other kids were coloring so she at least touched crayon to paper. We’ve tried it a few times at home since, with varying degrees of success.  Usually works better with a coloring book than blank paper.  They try to do crafty stuff at play group but she’s usually not interested.  Not sure how much is her age and how much is her personality.  I have a feeling a lot of it is personality.  She’s definitely her father’s daughter!

Holiday Beginnings

Turner Xmas was EARLY this year.  Plenty of jokes about knocking off Easter while we were there too.  :-)  We added a Euchre tournament at the Turner Xmas this year (thanks to Josh for organizing) and I won!  Plus, I tied with Mary for the loner prize.  Well, I tied with her for winning too…we were on the winning team at the end so we could have had a playoff but we just decided to split the prizes, so that was nice.  It was a good day – Sophie wasn’t great (many thanks to Gricelda who wrangled the kiddo while I played cards!) but she was OK with things.  We got to meet Adam for the first time.  I’m looking forward to the next time Sophie gets to see him because they’ll get to play together.  Speaking of little babies, Jen had Carwen Hollie on Dec. 3.  They should be coming up at the end of this month.  I’m looking forward to holding a little baby that sits still since I have a beast that hates cuddling. 

The Fox Thanksgiving was held on Friday this year so we had a  Thanksgiving on Thursday.  Mom, Mike, Sandy, Jeff, Kenny all came over but we also had the addition of Grant and Bobbie, and Pam, Kelly, Brian, and Kaelin (for some reason I just had a brain fart – can’t remember if that’s how you spell her name now…)  It was great fun having those guys over, Sophie and Kaelin played and played and played.  Kaelyn would run around the couch and Sophie would crawl behind her and squeal – they would do this over and over and over.  Eventually Sophie would get tired and just lay on her belly so Kaelyn would come next to her and lay on her belly.  It was great to watch them play!  We had a chance to play too since we had people over for Wednesday and Thursday.  The Shmina family also came over Thursday night to hang out and play pool, darts, and games.  It would have been great but Sophie was an absolute bear Thursday night so I spent most of the night in the bedroom trying to console her (didn’t want to eat, play, or sleep, just wanted to cry!)  Sophie was so cranky at Ingrid’s on that Thanksgiving that I actually came home early with her!We’ve had a couple of full-houses lately and it makes me really thankful for the house we have – the open layout really makes entertaining more enjoyable.

Grant and Bobbie were up for about a week around the Thanksgiving holiday so we had a great chance to hang out with them and play cards and they got to play with Sophie.  We didn’t think we’d get another chance to see them before they left for Phoenix so that really was a nice surprise – I know Sophie enjoyed it too!

Last one (or first if you scrolled down to read in order…)

Still scanning my computer…ugghh.  I wanted to see when my last post was so I’d know when to stop writing.  It’s really too bad that I am doing this big catch up post because all the little things are being left out.  There are so many moments every day when I think “Pause – remember this”.  I know when Sophie falls asleep in my arms (I know, bad habit, get her to bed drowsy) I look at her in amazement.  Like I said, she’s not a cuddly baby but when she comes to me and lays her head in my lap and says “nigh-nigh” it really is something else.  Or even if it is cumbersome, there is something endearing when she crawls up to me in the kitchen and pulls herself up on leg and begs for attention (well, whines really).  Speaking of kitchen, Sophie has her own cupboard.  It’s the Tupperware one.  She tried pulling a pan out of a different cupboard – she was not a big fan of the sound!  She does like to get in other drawers, but I close them and tell her to go to her cupboard, and I swear she does.  OH!  and she knows how to pause the TV!!  She will sit on my lap and pause/play the TV over and over and over.  Sometimes she points at the TV, then hits the button again.  She really doesn’t like the fake remote because it doesn’t do anything (it’s a real remote, just not programmed for this TV…she’ll hit some buttons and when nothing happens she’ll just sigh and move on.)  It’s cute too because the first thing she does when she picks up the remote is point it at the TV.  She loves the phone too.  She calls her Uncle Grant a lot because his is the first in the Phone Book so she manages to bring that up.  She went through a phase a couple of weeks ago that if I was talking to my Mom and didn’t let her talk before hanging up she would cry and try to get the phone so I’d call back and let her “talk” to Nana for a few and then she was happy.  What else…..  I’ve taken to cutting back her baths by giving her showers with me every other time or so.  She doesn’t like it as much (unless I hold her up – then she likes it.)  She was so cute today, she was really looking at me (sometimes it seems like she studies me more than others) so I stuck out my tongue to catch the water and then she did the same thing.  Today was one of those moments I try to remember, just how engaged we were together.  Another thing she likes is to look out the big window, especially when we let Zeke out to go to the bathroom.  She runs (crawls) to the door right away once he goes out.  Then she talks and points to him (for as long as she can seem him before he goes to “explore” the neighborhood).  Oh, and she tries to whistle too!  She got a little horn with a musical giraffe and her Papa taught her how to make that work and now she tries to whistle if someone else is whistling.  The one day in the kitchen I was snapping my fingers and it was so cute as she tried to do that.  She loves to dance through the house, especially if I give her lots of dips and twirls.  Her hair is getting long (and lighter I think).  She’s taken to climbing in the dog’s bed lately.  When she’s done eating she starting feeding it all to Zeke.  She can feed herself pretty well (messy, but well) with a spoon (that’s curved) but still likes to be fed (I find it best to give her a spoon and then I can feed her with a second spoon).  She loves frozen waffles (I make them in the toaster, Tom makes them in the microwave) and grilled cheese sandwiches.  She’s really good at chewing food and taking good sized bites (not too big).  She looks so serious when you give her a bite of something as she leans forward to take it.  Yesterday at her party she couldn’t get enough of the garlic dills that we canned last summer. 

I’m going to go back and add pictures now which I’m sure will make everything even more disjointed as pictures jog my memories.  Oh, and I’m going to divide this up into different posts (as promised) so here’s my disclaimer to the rambling:  at least I got caught up!

Dishwasher:  Sophie loves the dishwasher.  She kneels next to it while I load or unload and occasionally will try to snag some silverware or she’ll play with stuff on top and then I’ll say, “OK, we’re done, let’s close it” and she’ll lift her hands up and then after I close it she likes to stand up and push on it too. 

Bows:  Playgroup had bows and ribbons in the sensory table for the last two weeks before Christmas.  She loved them so much that I put my extras in a bowl for her.  She had great fun with them!  Plus, she could combine them with the dishwasher, another favorite!

Ball:  Sophie got a bouncy ball for Christmas (one of the ones that you see at the grocery store) and was ecstatic.  She didn’t stick around to open the rest of her presents, she was just pushing the ball around the house (oddly enough, she doesn’t say “ball” yet.)  We got her a soccer ball for her birthday so she could have an outside ball once the weather gets nice.

 

Tickle Tickle:  Sophie likes to push on your neck so that you laugh.  If you are holding her and laugh, she’ll probably turn around and push on your neck.  It’s funny because she does it so matter of fact, she doesn’t usually laugh or smile, she just pushes on it and moves on.  Sometimes she does it over and over.  The other thing she does kind of by rote is give kisses.  I always give her a kiss when I get her out of her high chair so she does that automatically.  Now she associates it with getting down I think because if you are holding her and she wants down, she’ll give you a kiss.  It makes me laugh though to think back to her “attack kisses” at first.  Those were hilarious!

Balancing Act:  Maybe not so much lately, but Sophie thinks it’s hilarious when you balance something on your head and then it falls down.  Tom taught her this game and she tries to put things on her head too.  Tom also taught her “How big is Sophie?  So big!!” so she’ll hold her hands up.  She learned that after just a time or two.  She like to take the hat off the duck in the bathroom and then set it back on too.

Spoon:  She likes to chew on her spoon (especially the original ones) – I think it really feels  good on her molars.  I gave her a cold thing one day and she would chew on it, throw it down, chew on it, throw it down.  Eventually she just moved on so she’s not crazy about cold things even when she’s teething.  She does like to suck on washclothes though (doesn’t really chew, but she does chew on her elephant).  She’s been sticking her tongue out lately too.  (Less like the picture, and more open-mouthed, dog-pant style)

Uh Oh:  Whether she drops something (usually on purpose) or just hears something fall or go boom, Sophie will say “Uh Oh” and make the uh oh face. 

 

 

 

Airplane Sound:  When she pushes the airplane or rides in the sled she makes the “pblttttt” sound.  It’s spitty and funny.

Tent and Tunnel:  She likes to crawl through the tent and tunnel.  A lot of times she doesn’t actually leave the tunnel, just turns around and goes back through.  It took a little while for her to use them when they were connected but now she’s good to go.  She had fun playing in them with Caitlyn too.