brain is too ambitious for body

I have a theory that the first part of a new age is difficult then the child sort of eases into that age.  Frankly, we've had it very easy, we never really had any major behavioral problems to deal with.  For the most part, this girl is cake.  But as we are approaching 5, I think the new crop of problems are sprouting up.  In three days, we've had to deal with three problems.  Day 1: Sophie confessing to having drawn on her closet with what appears to have been a red Sharpie (she's hidden or put away the evidence and can't remember).  Dang, just a few days ago we were feeling smug about how OUR daughter doesn't write on the walls.  Day 2: loud crashing sound followed by crying child who sounds more scared than hurt.  Turns out she was trying to grab a bandaid in the medicine cabinet by putting all her weight on the towel rack which pulled it off the wall.  Day 3: signs of somebody having eaten candy canes on the sofa.  Whereas she fessed up to the other incidents  pretty quickly,  that took a bit of work to get her to admit to knowing anything about that.  She tried to suggest that maybe one of us had done it.  There's also a mysteriously broken lid that she says she knows nothing about.  Mike and I both believed her.  However, I have to reconsider in light of these other incidents.. Hopefully, she's just getting the crazies out in one week rather than over several months.  And yet, even her crazies aren't even that bad.

why can't we see germs?

Tonight was the first night Sophie has had a mom who was half-way involved in a meaningful way to help her get ready for bed since Saturday. For the last four days, I've been struck with strep throat.  I've never been so thrashed in my life-ever! Each day I'd be up enough to do the bare minimum and then back to sleep. After the diagnosis, of course, then the goal has been to not infect others in the house, which cuts back on any kind of cuddle time.  So tonight was the first night I've gotten to stay with Sophie for a few minutes before she fell asleep.  She asks crazy hard questions at this time.  Tonight, it was, "Why can't we see germs?"  Ugg, I don't know. Then I started wondering/suggesting that germs were like a bad kind of bacteria that we also can't see, then I realized I don't have a clue what I'm saying. So I start suggesting that when she's older she can work in laboratories to figure these things out.  She seemed more bummed out than excited, so I followed up with "You don't HAVE to work in the laboratories, only if you want to." That put her a bit more at ease. Then I went and washed my hands for about the 50th time today.

seaweed monster

Sophie got a new box of seaweed.  She's eating it like Cookie Monster eats cookies, taking several sheets at a time and stuffing them in her face aggressively and vocalizing nam, nam, nam.  She's not even doing it for anybody because she thinks she's alone at the table--she took the open box from me and ran off to eat it. Who knew there could be so much love for a box of seaweed.

new passport

Tomorrow we're turning in the paperwork for Sophie's passport.  She's already on her second one.  The first one has a picture of a three-month old that barely even looks like her.  Frankly, she did pretty well on her first one.  She made it to Mexico, Spain, France, Italy, Austria and Germany before turning five. Now she´s so blasé about the whole process. She told us she´d rather go to school than go get her passport renewed.  I don't know if that speaks to how fun school really is or how boring getting a new passport is for her.

To the top

We went rock climbing again today.  Sophie made it to the top this time, then ordered me to take a picture of her.  We all had fun climbing until our arms couldn´t take it anymore.  We went to lunch then home and crashed while Sophie played and watched tv. Big plus doing an active family activity in the middle of winter; bigger plus for being able to go home and take a nap while Sophie just chillaxed in front of the TV.  I´m loving almost five-year-old Sophie.

 

climbing

Last weekend we went rock climbing in a local climbing gym.  Sophie was a natural.

 

sledding rocks

Sophie had a snow day a few days ago so we went sledding.  We had an awesome time.  After a few tries whipping down the hill, she aimed her sled for the jump that had been made at the bottom of the hill.  She went off it and was flying through the air.  I had a moment I was afraid it wasn't going to turn out well, but she ran up the hill thrilled as could be.