Spring Fever

A sea of people and dogs!

climb,

climb,

slide!

Still happy all the way home! She was trying to pose with Walter, but he wasn't cooperating!

The weather here on Saturday was absolutely gorgeous! I think we peaked at about 65 degrees and we couldn't have asked for a more pleasant day, except for the fact that now we're back into single digits, it was a cruel joke on the part of Mother Nature! We took full advantage of the day and headed to the dog park, where we have never seen it as crowded as it was that day! Sophia loved to watch all the doggies run and play and Walter loved to be one of those doggies! There is a playground in the same area so Sophia got some time to run and play for herself! Then we headed to Blue Chip Cookie to round out our full afternoon...YUMMY! If you have those in your area and you haven't yet tried them, get on it! Best cookies, ever!

Sunday looked sunny and warm in the morning but it just didn't last! :( We did get outside and do some quality bubble making before it took a turn for the worse, though! Sophia is very excited about bubbles but makes quite a mess, at least bubbles are made out of soap right, so maybe she's getting cleaner in the process...is that how it works?!

No, daddy, you do it!

If you listen closely in this video she dips the bubble wand in the solution and then she does blow, just not into the wand...details!

Changes

Dressing up in mommy's scarf

Ooooh....TV!!!!

So even though the life of a toddler is ever changing, as we're finding out ;), that seems to be the case more than usual lately. Here are just a few things that are going on in our world!

• Sleep: Sophia is still napping, but it's always a gamble. She will only take one nap a day, no matter how long. Sometimes she sleeps an hour sometimes 2.5, ya just never know. For the most part she is between 1.5-2 hours, which is good, but it still provides for some cranky afternoon time. She is sleeping through the night with no problem and that is really all I care about...however, she is now waking up earlier. I'm kinda hoping it's just a phase, but it's been going on about a week now so I'm losing hope. She used to sleep until at least 8 and now she's waking up between 6:30-7:30....booooo!
• Eating: As I expected, she is becoming pickier. I'm not really too worried and don't try and make food an issue, but sometimes it's frustrating. She usually eats well for breakfast and lunch but rarely eats a good dinner. Her favorites still include Goldfish, berries of any sort, turkey lunch meat, and olives.
• Play: She absolutely loves to read. Seriously, it's crazy. That is what most of our "play" time is. I'm not complaining as much as pointing out that I think it's a little odd and sometimes a little boring...I mean I would like her to play with some other stuff sometimes! She does make some great connections through reading, though too, another plus! If we see a picture of a dog in a book, she'll point to the picture and then to Walter...I was impressed by that. She has started doing it with other things as well, very cool. Overall, I'm happy about it, of course, and I think it is a major factor is her progressing language development.
• Talking: Talk, talk, talk as the day is long! Just yesterday she started stringing multiple words together. So far we've heard 'let me see', 'I want...', and there was another one but I forgot it already! Her other favorite is 'here you go' but that started as more of a repeat than actually understanding how to string words. She is beginning to say please and thank-you, but not without prompting and sometimes not even then! She also now tells Walter to "Go!" when he comes too close to her high chair while dining, hilarious!
• Media: So I've been trying to play kids' music more often and she and I are both enjoying that. She now sings the ABCs, of course not exactly, but she often gets a few letters right and the tune, sort of! Charlie has started her on computer games and the two of them will sit there together playing things and singing and identifying animals, it's pretty sweet. Were still trying to keep the TV off most of the day and put her to bed before we watch our shows and that is going fine too. BUT...I put in, what I thought was a CD of animal songs and then I remembered that in fact it was a DVD with real babies and animals on it! Well, she was glued to that TV like I have never seen. She was so excited and would yell out the name of the animal and/or the sound it makes as things went across the screen. She watched for about 10 minutes and then we turned it off for dinner and boy howdy, did we hear about it! She cried and pointed at the TV saying 'more, more!'

As we're learning, life with a toddler is never dull! It's hard to think of a time when I wasn't sure how life would be as it is so exciting every day. It's a nice feeling to be blessed with a cute kid, a cute dog and wonderful husband.

Potty Talk

Okay, Sophia is really no where near being ready for potty training, but she sure does have an infatuation with it! She loves to talk about the potty. She will follow you and in and watch you and comment on potty. If you happen to mention that you have to go, she will head up the stairs and walk right in there...waiting for you, she's like a little Potty Attendant, willing to serve. She of course will expect you to read to her as well. She will bring you books and various other reading materials fully expecting you to meet her needs before your own.

Tonight she figured out how to flush the potty. She's played with the flusher before but never actually pushed it hard enough for any result. Anyway, she did it tonight and then ran out of the bathroom in fear. She seriously hid in her bedroom with her bottom lip protruding, looking quite terrified indeed. Now, of course since she is truly a fearless child, she mustered up enough courage to do it again. Although it resulted in much of the same reaction, she was not going to let this nasty old potty beat her down. Before she could make it for round three, however, I closed the bathroom door, much to her disappointment. At that point she just stood at the door, knocking on it, hoping that the potty gods would open it for her. Thankfully, they did not.

Speaking of Grandmas...

The booster seat is a must have for a busy toddler!

She wasn't too interested in her dinner, but was happy to let Grandma Sue feed her grapes, like the true Greek that she is!

And of course in the presence of a grandmother, cookies are always allowed!

I tried to get a multi-generational picture, but Sophia was awfully wiggly!

Bama helping me out too by reading and playing with Sophia

So with Charlie out of town for a week, we tried to keep ourselves busy, which is not a hard task around here! Although he's home now, I was getting a little tired towards the end of the week and there is nothing better than willing and able grandmothers to the rescue!

Thursday evening we had dinner at Grandma B's. She loves to order from "that Pizza Hut", as she says, and had pasta and bread sticks waiting for us! We ate and played for quite a while actually. Grandma Sue took Sophia (well actually it was the other way around) on a walking tour of the halls and Sophia visited with everything and everyone she could find! We came home to find mom on her way to help get Sophia ready for bed...it couldn't have been better! Thanks, Grandmas! We love you!

Catch-Up

My daddy!!!!

Oh, am I cute or what?

So, after my much needed rant I took a little hiatus from blogging, sorry about that! I do appreciate all the responses I got though, although I don't appreciate the news that things aren't going to get better! ;) Actually, part of things getting better are just acceptance of this new stage. And, as you know, it's the acceptance of the new that I'm not so good at! Since my outburst, I have felt a lot better and am happily moving into my new phase of parenthood. It just takes me back to my roots of education and I have to bust out my tried and true methods of classroom, er..household, management to get the job done. Thank God for Jim Fay and Love and Logic! My passion has always been the older child, 7-10, so it's hard for me to know exactly how to handle this age but I'm rolling with it.

Sophia's latest are really putting us to the test, however. Her first favorite is standing on furniture and then jumping up and down. We tell her to sit down and then assist her in that task. Well, now she has moved on to mocking us because she will climb up on the furniture, look at us and say "down!" and then continue standing and/or jumping. Her other favorite is trying to elicit the word "ouch". She thinks it's a game, so now she purposely pinches or steps on people to hear them complain. I'm not quite sure how to curb this but I've started by NOT saying ouch!

She continues to love being outdoors and the past two days the weather has nicely cooperated! It was about 50 this morning and amazingly we were the only people at the park, I didn't understand that! She loves to swing and slide, but mostly she enjoys walking through the park at her own speed, looking at her surroundings and just strolling. She still loves reading and I can't even count how many books we read a day! She's funny though too because if we buy a new book, she ignores it for a week or two and then slowly gets into it.

She loves her grandmothers and is lucky to get to spend time with both of them! And we're lucky they want to spend time with her! She has no problem spending the night at either of their homes and is always happy to have their love and attention, and who wouldn't be...grandmothers are one of the world's best inventions!

I'm getting to the point where I'm ready to start figuring out what this town has to offer in terms of toddler entertainment. I need to get out there and do different activities as it gets a little boring around here some days. I'd also like to look into some sort of gym class too. Overall, we're as happy as ever with our happy little family of four!

Congratulations, Mr. President

Okay, so this was my favorite picture that I found on the Internet and I couldn't' figure out how to make it bigger, but I had to use it anyway!

Festive party plates!

Well, I couldn't let Inauguration Day pass without fanfare! Although this party was not nearly as elaborate as election day, it was just as fun and possibly more exciting! Some girl friends came over and we watched or re-watched, for some of us, the activities of the day. It was a wonderful, historic, and exciting day for this country! It makes me proud and happy to know that my daughter is growing up in a country where we have taken a huge step along this road of breaking down stereo-types and encouraging acceptance. I cried as I watched the events of the day and felt relieved to have finally ended the long road of the previous year.

Above are some fancy plates that Jill supplied, which allow the hostess to place any picture of her choosing along the back and voila...a theme is born! These are a must have for any crazy theme party thrower as myself! I downloaded pictures from the day (well, except maybe the swimming one b/c he probably didn't have time for all that!) to make it even more special!

Tubular and Terrific Tupperware!

Sophia got a belated Christmas present this week from Jill and Matt...her very own Tupperware set! We had plans to get together at Christmas but with sickness and family events, time got away from us! Although, I must admit, this was perfect timing for this fabulous present! There is that lull after birthdays and holidays where the toys are just old enough that the don't hold the same luster, but still new enough for Mom and Dad to not want to spend money on any more!

Anyway, this set kept Sophia extremely entertained for over 30 minutes the night she opened them and that says a lot for a 16 month old! She is still very into stacking and nesting and these toys go right along with that. I absolutely adore the design and I think it's so novel of Tupperware to do a special kids line. We may be trying to get our hands on some more for the future! Thanks Auntie Jill and Uncle Matt!