sick at last

It's been a long time since Sophie's been sick. I guess she really did get it out of her system in her first year of daycare. This morning she actually fell asleep on the floor after waking up. She's never done that. However, from all the coughing, I don't thinks she slept much. She's basically caught whatever her dad had. They have graciously passed it on to me too.

ballet

Sophie had her first ballet lesson today. She enjoyed it way too much.

Teletubbies, really? What about Tuscany?

The weekend means Sophie gets to watch TV in the mornings. I just need her to watch about an hour so that I can wake up in a slower, more humane manner. This morning Sophie insisted on watching Teletubbies, a retrograde motion I'm guessing because we didn't let her watch TV when she was younger. (OMG, she just asked me if she could go to a Teletubbies concert. Ugg, no Sophie we cannot.) I've been trying to lose myself in a book called Alibis while this abomination is playing on TV. It's a book of essays of mostly travel and life in Europe. Each essay is sort of like a travelogue by a very well-traveled, fairly wealthy and educated individual. His essay on Tuscany produced enough wanderlust to get me to find this website: http://www.parkervillas.com I would happily watch Teletubbies from any of these places sipping some Chianti.

Busted

Sophie just called me back into her room.

She's supposed to be sleeping.

"Daddy," she said seriously, "It's not fair if you and Mommy watch a movie."  (She doesn't get to watch videos except for on weekends and road trips).

"Oh," I said, "Okay."  (Her mother and I were watching internet videos in the living room).

"It makes my ears hurt."

boys say boobies

Lately Sophie's been coming home with some interesting vocabulary, most of which seems to be coming from the boys at school. This morning Sophie said, "Boys say 'boobies!' Girls say 'Hi."

Busch Gardens

Yesterday we had the loveliest day at Busch Gardens. A good friend hooked us up with three free tickets that we could hardly say no to. Sophie had no idea where we were going and after lunch we headed down to the park. Within minutes, we were on our first rides in the Sesame Street area. At this point, it's getting clear that the kids' rides are too "easy" for her; she wants something more challenging. Before dinner we made it on the log jam ride and she squealed in joy as we flew down the water in our plexiglass log. After dinner with friends, we did a few more rides and we were about ready to leave when she asked ever so nicely to stay to watch the fireworks. After an entire day of pure joy--not one tear, not one complaint, how could you say no? I've never seen her so mesmerized by anything. She loved every second of the show. As we walked out of the park, after perhaps one of our happiest days as a family, she told us that she had a great time then leaned her head on her dad's shoulder and rested. By the time we pulled out of the parking lot, she was quickly falling asleep. She practically sealed the deal for us to go back again next summer free tickets or not.

traveling champ

In the last three weeks we've travelled to Virginia Beach, Indianapolis and we're off to Williamsburg this afternoon to go to Busch Garden tomorrow--Sophie doesn't know we're going there yet. That's 11 hrs of travel in two days without much complaining at all. Sophie's an amazing traveler, which probably works out in her favor because that means we likely do more things because of that. I'm actually looking forward to summer ending and a returning to a more regular routine.