Diplodocus

"Dih-poh-doh-cuh" she says.

She can identify particular dinosaurs by name now.

Momenpoom!

I keep forgetting she can understand people-talk.

Her mother and I were discussing an unfortunate bitey incident that happened today in the Monkey Room at day care. (And just as a side note, how great is it that there's something called a "Monkey Room" to play in at her day care?)

Sophie is very much a fan of the Monkey Room and the assorted monkeying paraphernalia located therein. As soon as she heard "Monkey Room," she voiced her desire that we turn around and drive her back right now.

"Momenpoom! Momenpoom!" she shouted.

"Momenpoom!" as if we were simple and couldn't understand plain English.

"Momenpoom!!!!!!"

working hard or hardly working?

A hard day's work playing at the museum

Pepper Pepper

"What's that?" I asked her, pointing to the apple.

"Ah-pah."

"And where's the train?"

After a brief search she successfully pointed to the train in the book.

Then, unbidden, she pointed at a green pepper and said "Peh-puh!"

"Good goose!" I said, impressed.

Then she pointed at the pepper mill, on the other side of the pot, and proceeded to blow my mind.

"Peh-puh!"

"Wow! GOOD goose! Wow! What's this?"

"Peh-puh!" (It was the green pepper!)

"Wow! Heh. And what's this?"

"Peh-puh!" (It was the pepper mill!)

"Oh my goodness, what a clever goose!"

I began to think smug thoughts about my demonstrably superior parenting skills and/or genetic stock.

She then proceeded to identify the lemon press, the wooden spoon, the colander, and a potato as "Peh-puh."

Parents are *so* lame

We made her come inside shortly after this. So that she wouldn't freeze to death and stuff. We are *so* lame, I know.

Please, sit

Sophie is very social. It breaks my heart when she says hi or bye to somebody and they don't notice. At Ikea, she saw some boys who were probably five sitting in some chairs near her. She walked up to them, but they were not into her. One got up and clearly stated he was leaving. She went over and sat in his chair and was looking curiously at the other little boy who then got up and left. Then she told him as he was leaving, "Sit here, sit here!" pointing to the chair next to her. He was pretty sure it wasn't cool to hang out with babies. Then Sophie said, "Please, sit here!" He ignored her. My heart shattered in a thousand little pieces.

path to civility

This morning Sophie and I went to IKEA to check out a duvet for her (she's outgrowing her sleepsack) and just to hang out. Sophie seems to have morphed into a well-behaved child over the weekend. Granted, we spent most of the time in the kid´s section, but still, her behavior was commendable. She played with toys without being too crazy. She walked around most of the time on her own, no holding her in my arms, no strapping her into a cart, all without ripping too many things off the hooks. She told me about how she has some of the toys already at home or how the two chairs matched. After shopping, we went to have lunch. Sophie ate without a booster chair and I didn't have to hover over her as she ate. Then to top it all off, she drank out of a normal cup without spilling it down her front. We're on the right path to civility.

Damn mouse!

We were playing in the hallway of a small commercial center. When Sophie ran by the post office she suddenly stopped, went to the window and said something that sounded a lot like Mickey Mouse, but I couldn't completely understand her. I couldn't see what she was looking at, so I figured I had just misunderstood her. When I got to the box she was pointing at and saw that it was indeed a picture Mickey Mouse, I was bummed. I want to say horrified, but that really would be embellishing it a bit. Nonetheless, I was frustrated and surprised. She's never seen Mickey Mouse in our house, she doesn't watch TV, she's never seen a movie. The only way she could have picked this up is at school. Grrrrrr. How long until she figures out there is this place called Disney Land?

She did the same thing with Elmo about six months ago, when the nurse asked her who was in the picture she was pointing to. I told her she doesn't know any of the characters, then Sophie blurted out "Elmo!" And at that time, Sophie could barely talk.

Do you want to forgo the bath?

Tonight Sophie had a bit of a meltdown when we got home. She didn't want any dinner, she didn't want to take a bath, she didn't seem to want anything. She was inconsolable and I was half afraid that she was going to hurt herself flailing around on the ground. We decided to just slow things down and take her to the rocking chair where she immediately asked for milk and Pato, her lovey. Then she asked for her blanket, binky, baby and a book. She basically had every comfort item she could possibly hold. After she calmed down, her dad asked, "Do you want to forgo the bath?" She answered with the most decisive "Yes!" I've ever heard her say. Forgo isn't a word we usually use with her, but there seemed to be no doubt in her actions and words that she wanted none of that bath we had prepared for her. So we rocked and read a book before we changed into PJs then read some more. Once we took the possibility of taking a bath out of the equation, it was as if nothing had happened. We read a few more books, turned off the light, turned on the music and before the first song was over, she was asking to go to bed. We haven't heard a peep out of her since. Maybe she was just in a grouchy mood because she was so tired.

why we take our child to daycare: the sensory table

Just the other day we were talking about how much we like Sophie's daycare because they will do things that we'd never let her do at home. Some of these things include: bringing snow inside, playing in mud outside, playing with cans of shaving cream and making a mess with the flour. What I most like about daycare is they usually clean her up before we come to pick her up. I guess we arrived too early today.

Blind Rage

The sheer intensity of Sophie's emotions is awesome. She's capable of utter, abandoned, hopeless grief; manic giggling and shrieking joy; and blind rage.

I always thought that last one was just a figure of speech.

Sophie became so utterly incoherent with rage this afternoon that she apparently lost the faculty of sight and marched full tilt into the edge of our bookcase. She didn't like that either. And now she's going to have a bruise.

It was I who set her off. It was I who committed the crime.

I took the apple she had plucked from the grocery bag so that I could core it, peel it, and cut it into more manageable chunks for her.

No, not this! All done.

After our nap we went to the mall to go play in their indoor play area. To get there, we need to drive past her pediatrician's office. As we drove by Sophie said, "No, not this, not this. All done!" I promised her we weren't going to the dr's. She never quite believed me until we had long passed it.

She's developing a real sense of the layout of the town. The other day, from more than three blocks away, she got excited when she realized we were heading in the direction of the children's museum. Luckily, we were headed there. Yesterday, she recognized the museum even when we came from a different direction. We weren't going to the museum, but instead to have lunch. She was pointing behind her as we were driving away from museum saying, "This, this!!"

Unfortunately, the museum is on a major road so it sometimes makes for difficult driving when we have to drive past but can't stop. I feel horrible. But I love when we are going there and she starts clapping excitedly.

strange day

Sophie had a bit of a strange day, for better and worse. We decided to go to a new indoor play area about 15 miles out of town. When we arrived, it was already so packed (it had only been open for 30 min) that they wouldn't even let us go in until another family left. There was no way I was waiting, so we decided to go back to town and go to our other favorite indoor place, with hardly any complaining from Sophie. We pulled into to our regular indoor place Sophie said, "No, not this, baby." She didn't want to go in and instead wanted to go to yet another indoor play area in another town which has a baby she likes to play with. Normally, she's super excited so to see her not have any interest was weird, but we took her at her word and went to the other place. By the time we arrived there, we'd spent a good hour driving around. But in the end, it paid off. Indeed that was where she wanted to be and was content as could be.

jump?

Today at the indoor playground: Sophie watched carefully as a little boy leapt repeatedly off a small ledge. Then he left, and she had a turn.

She stood there and pumped her arms and legs up and down--one two three--

and then sort of stepped/slid down off the ledge before looking up at me in triumph.

So still no luck in actually getting both feet off the ground at the same time. But she's working on it!!

Ba, Where are you?

I told Sophie this morning she can't take Pato (duck) to school (Pato is irreplaceable because she sleeps with him at night so he isn't allowed to leave the house). I told her to go find Ba (Oveja, which is sheep in Spanish. Oveja has been shorted to Ba) and bring him instead. She walked into her room and using perfect sing-song intonation, she said, "Ba, where are you?" Wow, she used a question word, subject-verb agreement and rising intonation all at once. Bravo, Sophie

total bliss

In a perfect world, there would always be at least three binkys for everybody all the time.

sophie's song

There's a song she sings at school that goes: "Sophie, Sophie jump up and down, jump up and down, jump up and down." Then after Sophie hops up and down, they change the name and sing again and so on and so on until everybody had jumped up and down. Sophie will sometimes sing this song in her carseat on the way home from school. It's a bit complicated when she gives us a shout out to jump up and down as we are driving, but we do our best. She'll also give a shout out to JNanners to jump up and down as well, even when JNanners isn't in the car. She'll also ask Tickle to jump up and down: "Tickle, Tickle jump up and down, jump up and down, jump up and down."

the ultimate sleep-in

Sophie woke up at 6.00am, a bit too early for everybody's well-being. I picked her up and put her in bed and got her some milk. After the milk she said "chair!" So we went to sit in the chair. She tried unsuccessfully to sleep sitting on my lap. I put her back into her crib and told her it was time to sleep. Not a peep out of her. At 8.59, we woke up again. What a wonderful sleep, but that gave me one minute to get to work. Needless to say, I was about an hour late to my desk, but feeling so rested. Now if I can figure out a way to replicate this on the weekends.

sleeping back to normal, potty training down the drain

Now that Sophie seems fully recovered, I'm happy to say so is her sleeping. She's back to a normal sleeping pattern and sleeping through the night. Yippy. However, I can't say the same for her potty training. She was just about fully trained before we went into the hospital. One diaper would last her just about the entire day. Now if she gets on the pot more than once a day, that would be a lot. Back to square one.

D-D-Dinosaur

Dinosaur is one of Sophie's favorite words. We went to see dinosaurs at the museum, but she wasn't too interested and mostly frustrated when I wouldn't let her crawl into the exhibit of the mammoth bones.

lingering illness

Sophie's still not back 100%. The worst part, I think, is her lingering cough. At night she starts coughing and can't seem to stop, unless she's sleeping with a parent in her futon in her room. I don't think this is a case of being played, but it sort of feels like it. She'll cough nonstop in her crib, but if I pick her up and take her to bed, she calms down. We're on night two of this and I'm torn. On the one hand, she's very calm when she's in bed with me, no coughing; on the other, I fear this might be setting a bad precedent. It would be better if only she shared the bed a bit better. The first night, she kicked my stomach fat all night long, drawing attention to my left over baby tummy. The second, she slept only with her head in my stomach, leaving much of my body without covers and cold. Neither night did I sleep well. I wake up only wanting to go to bed.