Bayybeeeeeee? (Poor Cowmoo is kicked to the floorboard)

Sophie's a nurturer. She love, love, looooooooves baby dolls. In a bucket of bathtub toys at Mamaw's house, Sophie fished out a little naked baby and carried it around the entire week we were there. We watched, amazed, as she wrapped it up in one of her diapers without any modeling or nudging from us. Then, when we got back to Texas, GramKat brought out a doll (pictured above...we call it CB, for "Creepy Baby") for Sophie to push around in her new doll buggy that Nana Jane gave her for Christmas. Even though the doll makes most adults cringe (I think it's the painted on teeth), Sophie kisses and hugs and pats her baby. She doesn't care that Coco the dog ate one its fingers. She doesn't care that it has a bit of red paint on one of its creepily large boobies. She doesn't care that its eyes...and its snarl...follows you around the room. She just loves with abandon and without judgment. The other night I watched from her doorway as she stood on her tippy toes to get a wipe, pretended to wipe CB's bottom, then "flushed" a perfectly good diaper down the Diaper Champ tube. And she tickles CB's piggies. And CB plays along, with perpetually curled toes.

Other funny things she's doing lately:

• The Egg Dance: She always dances when I whisk her egg, but recently she's developed a specific choreography. She does the run-in-place Flashdance move for a few seconds, followed by superfast "roll 'em up" arm movements, then general flailing until I put the eggie in the microwave and that's when I get the round of applause.


• She counts. Sort of. The other day I was helping her on a slide and doing the whole 1, 2, 3, Wheeee bit. I grabbed her, lifted her back to the top, said "one," pause for effect...and then I heard this tiny but clear "twoooo." That's all she knows. Two. But she grins on the Wheeee part. Who wouldn't?


• She sings. I'm about to post a YouTube video of Frank and Sophie singing some post-bathtime Led Zeppelin. Her falsetto is amazing.


• She winks by blinking both eyes at you.


• And finally (this one is kinda funny, but NOT cute), she throws herself on the floor and screams when she doesn't get her way.

We've reached that part of her life when things are changing on a DAILY basis. She has new words, new tricks, new likes/dislikes. I'll try to keep the blog more updated!