She's playing us, playing us hard

So cute, so transparent: Sophie has figured out we're quite keen to have her eat and drink.

And thus the bargaining began: "Sweetie, just drink a little, and then we'll look at Elmo Duck." So she takes a sip and then "Ah done" with a sly look as she sits down with the iPhone.

We've gotta scale back that screen time. There's been entirely too much "Elmo Duck" lately. (What? You don't know "Elmo Duck"??)

Now she's taken to telling us "Eat!" whenever she wants the door to her room (or the fridge) opened. It's cute how she thinks we're stupid.

I tried explaining to her that her mom and I aren't *that* clueless, but I can tell she doesn't believe me.

messed up sleeping

Before going to the hospital, Sophie was a wonderful sleeper. At 8.00pm, she'd point to her bed wanting us to go take her there. Then we would rarely hear a peep out of her until 6:30 the next morning. That's all gone now. These days, getting to sleep before 9:30pm is tough. At 9.00 we're fighting to get her in her crib and lots of crying takes place. At nap time today, she didn't even think about going to sleep until 3.00pm, about 2 hrs later than normal. We fought for 30 minutes before I gave up and took her to bed with me, where she slept peacefully. The problem with a nap that goes until 5.30 is that it makes going to bed at 8.00pm nearly impossible. Maybe tomorrow we'll just forgo the nap and go to bed early at 7.00. We need to break this cycle and get back to our old schedule. We all liked it better.

back home

We had a bit of a scare. Sophie ended up in the hospital for some pneumonia-like symptoms. It was a long week to say the least, but we're all together and back home. A couple of days of taking it easy, and we should be back to normal by Monday. I think Sophie felt ten times better just being back in her own room with her peeps.

dinosauce

Sophie's new word, dinosauce, a mix of dinosaur and applesauce, two of her favorite words.

hugging bob the builder guy

Hugs are very important these days. She'll ask for a hug, give a hug. Only part of the time does she actually hug a person, just as often it is an inanimate object. This is a developmental stage more than Sophie, I suspect. This morning when we were getting ready leave Sophie at school, her dad asked for a hug. Sophie gave him one. Then another girl came up to him and gave him one too. It's all good.

Sophie smiling

If you ask Sophie to smile for the camera, this is what you get. ;-)

Sophie's newest favorite toy

Sophie has found a new favorite toy: Gnome. She treats him more like a doll than a toy. She hugs him, carries him around.

Tummy Bug

Sophie has something gastrointestinal happening.

This announced itself Wednesday night when, after a lovely day, a good bath, and a relaxing evening at home, she threw up all over herself and the changing table.

The look on her face made me realize again that she's experiencing everything for the first time. (She has thrown up before, but not in a long time--so it's like the first time). This was a look of befuddled dismay--a look that said "What the hell just happened and is it likely to happen again?"

There followed a restless night and another look of dismay and befuddlement in the morning when she deposited a small puddle of rancid curds in front of the refrigerator at 8:55 in the morning.

"Uh-oh!" she said, bending over and pointing to make sure I couldn't miss it. "Uh-oh! Uh-oh!"

At 9:02, when the clinic opened, I called for an appointment.

Things were going well, things were going fine. Then we turned the last corner into the clinic parking lot, which involved going over a rough patch of road, a bump and a dip.

Sophie puked, and wailed in exasperated dismay.

Then we went inside and got the news about the gastrointestinal virus, and keeping her hydrated and comfortable.

(But since then, there has been no further vomit. Twenty-four hours and counting now. So we think it's over with already).

planting and sharing flowers

After Sophie got done planting a flower or two, she took one over to a girl who was feeling a bit shy. So sweet.

Toda--Thank you

Today at the museum, Sophie told a woman "toda" after she helped her down from a step. The woman, who spoke Hebrew, was pleasantly surprised and told me, do you know what she just said? Nope. Then she told me Sophie told her thank you. She's not only polite in English, but in Hebrew as well. How sweet is that? After the eye gouging incident the other day, this seems more like the Sophie we know.

rough day back at school

Today was rough. Sophie went from a world where everything was hers to returning to the world where she has to share things. After about a 10 day break, she seems to have forgotten what sharing means. When we went to pick her up, we were informed that she had clawed at a boy's eyes--ugg--and bit another girl. In perfect Sophie style, she then patted the girl who she bit as if to say she was sorry and continued playing with her.

They also didn't manage to get her down for a nap. This is never good. She was a tired, frustrated mess on the way home. The only consolation was that she practically fell asleep on my lap when I was reading to her before putting her to sleep. She was so cute and lovey. However, I'd give up the extra cuddles in exchange for the happier, well-rested little girl.

Sophie's big words

Sophie’s getting all polysyllabic on us. She especially enjoys saying the words dinosaur, applesauce and butterfly. She really impressed a women at the library today when she went over and picked up the plastic brontosaurus and said “dinosaur.”

She’s singing like crazy. Currently, her favorites are the Jump Up and Down song and the Wheels on the Bus. It seems like somebody connected the singing wires in her brain a couple of weeks ago.

No matter what you ask her nowadays, her first answer is usually no. But that is never her final answer. Sophie, “Do you want milk?” “No!” Then she grabs the cup out of my hand.

diaper offsetting program

Initially, like most delusional people who aren’t actually parents, I had contemplated using cloth diapers. After about three weeks of parenthood, that all changed with little to no remorse. However, lately the environmental side of me is starting to whisper in my ear again. I’ve decided I’m going to do something akin to carbon offsetting. I’m going to buy a box of cloth diapers and donate them to a family who agrees to use them and then give them to another family when they're done. In fact, I should probably design a program that does this, a disposable diaper offsetting program (DDOP). People can donate $100 which goes to buy cloth diapers for a family who agrees to use them instead of disposables. While it doesn’t eliminate my own waste, it does keep more of it from entering the landfills.

holiday poop

Toilet training is starting. There is way more talk about poo-poo and pee-pee than I ever imagined. I wonder if Sophie’s thinking to herself, why are they talking incessantly about my private business? Regardless, she seems very amenable to the whole idea, which is great. However, potty training makes going out complicated because a half-way potty-trained child wants nothing to do with sitting on a full-sized toilet. Frankly, it’s a scary place to be. Unbeknownst to me, it turns out there is a whole sub-genre of potty training toilets for parents (and kids) on the go. What did we do before the internet? So now, I am researching portable toilets. I fear, in my future, I’m going to own at least two of these.

I had imagined potty-training being about the child. Is the child ready? is repeated over and over in the child-rearing books. But I think it has more to do with the parents than the children. As a parent, potty training means you’re willing to spend lots of time pulling off diapers, trying out the toilet and just chilaxing with the child while she decides/tries to do her business, then putting on new diapers and pants. Serious commitment is involved. In comparison, it makes regular old diaper changing a cinch. And my next concern is at what point do you trust that diapers don’t need to be worn? When do you really go for it and say, today, we’re just going to go without diapers today?