pine cones

In mid April, I posted a picture of Sophie picking up pine cones. About two weeks later, her aunt took another picture of her with a pinecone. When I look at the two pictures, I’m struck by Sophie's development in such a short amount of time. In the first picture, just noticing pine cones that she practically tripped over was newsworthy. Now she notices the ants on the sidewalk, birds on the other side of the street, squirrels in the trees. Nonetheless she still loves the tactile sensation of pine cones. Or maybe I just like the idea that she does.

Pony Girl

On the last visit, JNanners starting singing a song to Sophie called Pony Girl. When she sang it for about the 10th time, like an epiphany, I remembered my parents singing me the same song as a child. I’d sit on my parents’ knees, and they’d recount the story of Pony Girl’s jaunt across the plains while I'd try not to fall of the bouncing knees. We've now started singing it to Sophie too.

Today, unexpectedly, Sophie got to ride a real pony. This morning we went for a drive out in the countryside and stopped at a little fruit stand, which we discovered doesn't actually sell any fruit, but that's another story. The stand sits on the edge of a working farm that has a basic selection of farm animals running around—goats, geese, ponies. The owner asked an older boy if he wanted to go for a pony ride and mentioned that Sophie could go too. I was psyched: Sophie’s first pony ride. She, on the other hand, was quite indifferent. I sat her on the saddle, but she wasn’t quite sure where to hold on, the horn, the saddle, the mane. I held on to her waist as we walked around in a circle in the coral. On the first loop, she was a bit excited but hesitant. By the second loop, boredom had set in and she was pretty sure she wanted off. The whole time, I don’t think she ever realized she was actually sitting on a live animal. In many ways, I think she would have just preferred a good bounce on the knee and a song.

New and improved, now with TWO syllables in every word

She's started babbling with two-syllables.

So there's "Mama", and then there's a various flavors of "Bahbah" with different intonations.  Have I said this already?  Anyway, it's happening all the time now.

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How does "dog" become "gog"?  Apparently the "D" is hard to pronounce.  Her "Bah" is ball; "Bahbah" is bottle or papa depending on intonation; "ma" and "mama" are there; no is "nyeh"; there may be a "duh" for all done, but maybe that's my imagination (she sure signs all-done, and more has made an appearance as well); there's an all-purpose "Ah! Ah!" for when she's trying to reach something (or when we're supposed to lift her up and over something); and a smug little chuckle for when she's gotten us to do what she wanted.

Look with your eyes, not with your hands

Sophie enjoys showing us things.  Sometimes we think she's trying to give us things, but no--she's just showing them to us.  If we go to take something she'll snatch it away as if to say: "look with your eyes . . ."

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The other day, when we were enjoying outside, she found a piece of bark on the ground.  She stopped, looked, bent over and picked it up.  She examined it closely.  Then she trotted over to the nearest tree and tried to put it back on.

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Sometimes her mother and I will eat some of her food to convince her it's edible.  I feel like the royal food taster.  This works.  If mommy and daddy are eating it, it must be good.  Sophie finds the whole thing fascinating and uproariously funny.  She's taken to feeding us.  One cherry tomato for daddy, and one for Sophie.  One for daddy, one for Sophie.  Then she'll screw up her face and laugh-hiss "kssssh-whzzzzzsh" and gobble up the rest herself.

Shopping

Today in Meijer, we took her down the toy aisle because we're stupid like that sometimes.

She wanted everything, and she didn't want to drop the stuff she already had just because she was picking up new stuff.

There's a look store employees get when they've done their cooing and "oh she's adorable"-ing and then realize that though you'd prefer she didn't sweep everything from the shelves, you're not really one hundred percent invested in ensuring that this doesn't happen.  This look says "Is the cute gonna destroy my display?"  We got that look a couple of times.

In a good faith effort to actually prevent this from happening, her mother went one way with the cart and I went another way with the girl.  Bobbing and weaving, giving her a new thing with one hand and replacing the old stuff with another, we rounded a corner and came face to face with the display of bouncy balls in one of those wire cages at the end of an aisle.

Sophie's body stiffened.  She shook a bit with excitement.  "Bah!" she said, "Bah! Bah!"

At this moment, her mother rounded the corner with the cart.  Sophie saw her (by this time she had a ball in her hands) and tottered towards her shouting joyfully "Mama!  Bah!  Bah!"

So:  momma--check; ball--check.  She'll also point out a banana, though she has trouble saying it as of yet.

Dance, Sophie, dance.

Until recently I’ve felt quite content that for over a year I’ve been able to satisfy Sophie’s needs, even when she can’t talk. However, because she can’t speak, I’ve also believed that she understands very little beyond food, bottle, change. Recently, we’ve taken to asking Sophie more questions, to which she’ll reply either verbally (with grunty noises) or physically. Sometimes she gets them wrong, but sometimes she really surprises me with just how much language she understands.
A couple of nights ago I said, “Dance, Sophie!” She bent down a bit and started jiving. I couldn’t believe it. There was no doubt that this girl was dancing, wiggling her cute little body to the rhythm of the music.
It’s clear that we are now in the middle of a strange gap. She understands concepts like body parts, clothes, commands, but can’t actually say any of them: her comprehension far outweighs her verbal skills. It really takes some rewiring of my brain to understand how hers is now making these connections.

Drummer girl; potato bug

Sophie is getting quite vocal.  She'll pass a picture, or a tree, or a pinecone she quite likes the look of.  Then she'll point, and berate it.  "Bah! Bah! Bah! Bah! Bah! Bah! Bah! Bah!" she'll say with fierce enthusiasm.

She will also now say "ba'ah" and wave goodbye at people.  Cute!

Her latest trick, one her J-Nanners taught her, is banging on drums (empty formula tins).  She pulled one out of her toy chest the other day, and banged on it with a measuring spoon--thus creating quite a satisfying racket.  

Sometimes she enjoys banging a couple of blocks together to hear the noise.  The other night, her mother, her J-Nanners and I banged blocks along with her.  She was delighted:  her eyes filled with a surprised wonder and she shouted "AAAH!-AH!-aah!-aah!-ha-haaaaah!" as she banged.

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This morning her mother got her out of bed and brought her in to where I was just waking up.  My darling girl smiled a big smile and tottered over to the bedside.  I lifted her up and she folded herself into a little ball of Sophie on my chest, with her feet and hands tucked in under her like a little potato bug.

Then she raised her head to look at me, said "Bah!?", grinned, and clambered down to get into the laundry room where her mother was taking clothes out of the dryer.

Yes, my heart melted.  Yes, she is more precious than the sun and the moon.

Sophie's day with her grandma and aunt

Last weekend, Sophie's aunt and grandma took her out for part of the day to take some pics. The results were stunning. I got some work done as well as some amazing pics. They need to come visit more often.

Sophie, meet Caryn (again)

The other day we had a visit from Caryn. She, along with Kate, took care of Sophie during her first six months. We went down to the park to play in the sand then out to lunch, where Sophie scribbled a bit while we ate. It makes me slightly sad that Sophie doesn’t remember Kate or Caryn when they come to visit. But I love their visits because I get to catch up with them and find out what cool things they are up to. I also realize how much Sophie has developed since the last time they took care of her. When Caryn took care of Sophie, she couldn’t even crawl; now she is a ball of kinetic energy running around with a shovel and pail looking for things to dig up.

Dinnertime

The other evening, Sophie let me know that she was hungry and it was time for dinner.

She toddled over to the baker's rack and wrestled out a box of cereal.  She fumbled at said box until she got it open.  And then she began pulling cereal pieces from out of the box and stuffing them in her mouth.

A fairly clear message (though really this was symptom rather than sign).

Visitors

For the past week or so, Sophie has been meeting new, or new-to-her ('cause who remembers what happened 6 months ago?) friends and family.  

People have come from far and near to observe her glory:  Oregon, Australia, South Carolina, and California.

This turned her first into a shy, clingy bundle--always climbing into my or her mother's lap and hugging our necks with unaccustomed fervor.  Then she woke up on the second or third day, found the house-guests still here, and turned into a flirty showoff.

She greatly enjoyed the gifts and attention.

Still a baby, actually

I've no cute anecdote or pithy observation to go along with this assertion.  I just wanted to assert it.