Sunrise, sunset

When she was just a little Sophie Tegel, before she could even walk, she would lie back against my legs with her head facing my toes and hold her hands up.  I would pull her to a standing position, and she would grin like a maniac.

Later, she started getting too big to fit on my lap like that, and besides, she could walk then.  She would hold her hands up so I could swing her around and lift her up into the air. 

When her mother and I were walking on either side of her, she would—still will—grab us each by the hand and shout:  "One!  Two!  Three!"  Whereupon we are meant to swing her high in the air.

Still later—and even now—she would grab both my hands and walk her legs up mine until she had done a back flip.

She ran up to me today, began the backflip procedure and then stopped, puzzled.  She didn't have to reach quite so high to grab my hands; she didn't have quite as much room as she used to for her backflip.

She looked up at me.

"Daddy, you shrinked-ed!" she said.

Ice Cream

This picture took about five or six tries until she stopped sticking her tongue out at me and generally mugging for the camera and just smiled.

Banned!

That's my daughter:  "recent events."

Hat Trick

Sophie made three goals in her last game of the season.  And it was just a few months ago that she couldn't figure out how to kick the ball!

The video is of her second goal of the day (out of three).  This now makes four career goals.

(The team has also suddenly, and collectively, figured out defense.  All of a sudden they're running back to defend their goal when the other players approach.)

She was very proud.  Even more so today, at her end of season party, when we overheard a couple of her teammates telling their parents about how she had scored three times that game.

Honesty is a Virtue

The other day I bought a new box for her arts and crafts.  I generally cleaned stuff up and arranged everything so that she could easily get at her things.

She was delighted, and immediately grabbed the box to put it to use.

Later, when I came back home, she ran up to me:

"Thank you for my box daddy, it's really nice."

"Aw, thank you goose!"

"Mommy told me to say that."

Eagle Eyes

In the grocery store the other day Sophie said "Wait, wait!"

I stopped the cart.

"Why?" I asked her.

"Please go down this aisle.  Please, Daddy?"

And thus it was that the following artifact entered my life:

I don't know how she saw it amidst all the other soup.  But there you go.

Meta

Last week, she said something funny.  We all laughed.

Then she said, "Write that on my blog!"