new hair

sophie got her hair ¨done¨at school. It was lovely, except when we had to take out the six rubber bands. She wanted them out, but didn´t want us to take them out, an impossible proposition that seemed perfectly logical to a two year old.

Mo Sophie, mo problems

She's got narrative. Kind of.

"Mo Sophie."

Hmmm?

"Mo Sophie, my body, push me!" she said.

What?

"Mo Sophie push me. My body! Walk away!"

More ... Sophie?

"Mo Sophie, my Zebra room, push me. No! Walk away! My body!"

Oh! The other Sophie at day care pushed you and you told her 'My body! Walk away!'

Did the other Sophie push you Sophie?

"Um, no! Ima Sophie, Daddy. Daddy! Ima Sophie!"

---------------

So, okay: I'm pretty sure there was an encounter involving multiple Sophie's at day care today.

Probably the result of some sort of name-related existential Angst.

Numbers game

We were wrestling on the floor.

I let her win.

"You won!" I said.

"No, Ima two!" she said.

Toppie--Sophie pronounced by a 2 1/2 year old.

Suddenly Sophie Tegel has become Sophie again. Yesterday at the library, she started telling people her name was Toppie. Of course, none of them understood what she was saying. Maybe she was going by Tegel because Sophie was just way too hard to pronounce.

Also at the library, she got into an argument over a plastic gorilla. A three-year-old told her it was a gorilla. Sophie said it was a monkey. The three-year-old pointed out that no, it wasn't a monkey because it had no tail (good point), it was a GORILLA. MONKEY, Sophie retorted. Back and forth they went. I tried to resolve the problem by diverting their attention to another animal. Sophie immediately identified it as a sheep, the three-year-old said lamb. New animal, new twist on same problem. We finally found some common ground with the giraffe.

Sophie and the thunder

For the last few days we've been have huge storms. On the one hand, it's made for great puddles to splash in; on the other, the thunder is a bit intimidating.

Revenge of the Buggies

The other day I was met with a jabbering Sophie when I picked her up from day care.

"Dose quash bam! Dey no see mommy daddy mo'. Dey sad."

It turns out the kids had been stepping on bugs and the teacher told them they shouldn't do that because then the bugs would die and not be able to see their mommies and daddies any more. Aw!

Anyway, that has in no way diminished Sophie's enthusiasm for stepping on bugs either inside or outside the house.

On Wednesday, some buggy got its revenge.

We found a welt about the size of a quarter on her left forearm that night. The next day, it seemed fine, but by the end of the day her entire forearm was swollen and red. This morning we took her to the doctor.

Localized allergic reaction to an unknown bug bite––skin cream and bug spray, and all is well.

goodbye friend

Today Sophie's best friend from school is leaving town. They started out in the same daycare room before they could even walk. Going through pictures of the two of them, I'm realizing how many different places they went together. Here they are at the botanical gardens a few months ago.

fun after the water

Who knew that water could be so much fun. She will hardly let us get her hair wet when she's taking a bath, but the pool or sprinkler is a whole different story.

stubborn

Lest ye think she's an unrelenting delight: she relents.

Though she now knows what the potty is and what one is meant to do there, she isn't overly concerned with making it happen one hundred percent of the time. She treats the occasional accident with the breezy insouciance with which Leona Helmsly is said have regarded tax fraud.

Her mother and I are considerably more urgent about the matter than she.

Thus it was that after picking her up from day care today––where she had already had one accident and a successful trip to the potty at or around 4:00 p.m.––we tried repeatedly and without success to get her to use the toilet. This culminated in a scene at bath time tonight, when I tried to entice her onto the potty using a variety of pleadings, logical arguments, attempted fait accompli (she fled from the pot as soon as her butt was placed upon it), and practical demonstrations as to the ease and utility of using the toilet. These latter she regarded with mild amusement ("Daddy funny") and then resumed her attempts to lever herself into the full tub of water.

I gave up.

Into the tub she went, and almost immediately assumed an expression of quizzical concentration.

"Sophie," I asked tiredly, "What are you doing?"

"Peeing."

Fine, whatever, have at it. But then came the bed time ritual, through which she flailed and thrashed, with demands for "Mo' book!" and "Mo' milk" and the stone-cold-ignoring-Daddy as she wandered off to play with some toys. While I was reading the book! That she demanded!

She was chattering and wriggling and importuning up to and including the moment I cried out "Good night, Goose! Good night! Good night!" and closed the door.

Whereupon she fell silent.

It's like magic.

I hope it doesn't stop working any time soon.

more literalness

At the swimming pool, Sophie has taken to sort of jumping in without telling me that she's going to jump. Since she doesn't swim yet, this doesn't work out very well. So after she jumped in without warning me the second time, I told her, "say: I'm jumping first." She said, as we're bobbing in the water, "I'm jumping first."

Why?

Sophie's moved on to the "why" phase.

It's quite a cute and lilting "why."

I think perhaps it's just the sound of it that intrigues her, since she doesn't seem to care for my answers. Or maybe it's just that she's only two.

Why shouldn't she yell "Mine!" at the little girl on the playground who glanced at her ball? Because it's impolite.

Why is it impolite? Because it is unsolicitous of others and indicates through word and deed that one cares less for the other than for oneself–which even if true, even if almost always true, shouldn't be advertised because

Why?

because a certain social lubrication is necessary to get through life in as easy a manner as

Why?

Why what? Why the need for social lubrication per se or why the personal obligation incumbent on you, specifically, that

Why?

Well, well, as to the former, we can consider that from a purely practical standpoint it will be necessary to maintain at least the fiction of comity in social life.

Why?

And, well, I'm getting to that–and as for the latter, you've got to ask yourself about the arbitrariness of the boundaries you've set defining "me" and "mine" and the ways in which you are, in fact, constituted by your fellow human beings. Your mother and me, for instance.

Dis MY ball!

Well,...

Look: Consider Hegel's Master/Slave dialectic...

––––––––––

Later, I put her in her swimsuit, got out her turtle pool, got a folding lawn chair from the car so that I could sit down, and was met–when I turned around–with a cackling Sophie and the hose. Which has a spray nozzle she's just strong enough to press.

"Why?! Why?!" I screamed.

She had no good answers either.

pig tails

Sweet, smiling girl having a good day at school

Christmas in July

Tonight we spent some time looking at some raw video from last Christmas.

This was inspired by Sophie's reaction when I mentioned Christmas (for what reason, I do not remember).

She got hella excited.

"Do you know what Christmas is?" I asked. "What happens at Christmas?"

"Dis!" Sophie said, "Box up! Now!!" (Miming opening a box).

"Would you like to look at pictures of Christmas?"

"NYES!"

And, okay, so yes: not only did she seem to remember and have a good grasp of this whole "Christmas" concept, she also correctly identified three out of four presents before her former self could get them open on the video!

Including Elmo.

no more laughing at the poopie jokes.

Today apparently at school, she called one of her teachers poopie. Not cool, Sophie Tegel. Poopie jokes are all done.

Die goldäugige Gebieterin der Wünsche

Sophie: Milkie!

Mommie: Okay, I'm getting you Milkie, just a minute!

Sophie: No! Milkie wight NOW, mommy!

scatological humor

Talk about poop is really funny nowadays. Some things she's found hilarious:

Me: which towel do you want me to wrap you up in, the yellow one or the white one?

Sophie: Poopies! followed by laughing.

Me: you want me to wrap you up in poop?

Sophie: Yes! more laugher.

Me: What do you want for dinner, mac & cheese or a sandwich?

Sophie: Poopies!

Me: You want poopies for dinner?

Sophie: Yes, laughing so hard she almost falls off the chair.

This morning, she showed me where poopies come out of Coco, her stuffed sea horse, followed by more laughing. She very specifically didn't call Coco's bum her bum, but rather, "where poopies come out"

I'm sure the fact that she makes us laugh only encourages this behavior.

first night victory

Sophie stayed in bed all night! Amazing. This morning she called out for me to come get her out of bed, not realizing apparently that she could just get up and walk around. Lovely. Now I just need her to sleep in a bit, especially on non-school days. Or how about this compromise: Sophie can wake me in the mornings, I come in and we sit together on her sofa listening to NPR and sipping coffee and hot chocolate until breakfast is ready.

celebrating the 4th

Today Sophie and I went to a swimming pool with some friends. In a somewhat awkward moment, there were a group of Israelis and a group speaking Arabic and Sophie and I bobbing in the water between the two of them. I guess the lovely thing is that we could all hang out in the pool in peace.

no more crib

Last night it became clear that a crib was no longer going to work for her, so we converted her crib to a bed. I fear for my sleep for the next few nights/weeks/months. I wonder how long she's going to stay in her bed. How long before she can figure out that she get just hop out of bed and wander around? I'm going to give her about 3 or 4 hours.

Well then

Yesterday we went to Burns Park, which has not one, but three and a half playgrounds spread across its breadth.

When we pulled up and Sophie could see where we were going, she got so excited that she couldn't even squeal. She just shook with excitement, which looks kind of like a seizure, but with a crazy grin and a gleam in her eye.

"Sophie, are you okay?" I asked.

"NYES!!!"

Once at the playground, a slightly older girl tried to make her acquaintance.

"What's your name?" she asked.

Sophie ignored her.

"What's your name?" she asked again.

Sophie Tegel turned around. "Ima Tegel!" she said.

hold on just a couple more hrs., Sophie

Sophie Tegel, just two more hours and you get your mom back. This morning she was very clingy. She hasn't been seeing much of her mom these days while I've been finishing up my dissertation. It all gets turned in at 5.00pm tonight so after that, we have some time together until my defense date. We're going to live it up this weekend.