Lordy, lordy, look who's...two.

What with moving classrooms and the first day of school and Sophie-school starting and the recent outbreak of kennel cough at the Webster household, I finally got some of the birthday pics posted to the main picture pages website. Click here to check them out: BIRTHDAY GIRL.

Next on my list: thank you cards mailed! (tune in to a mailbox near you.)

Some new TWO things:

She "checks for understanding" (teacherspeak) by adding "kay?" to the end of many of her sentences. "Sophie have popcorn, kay?" "Brush teeth now, kay?"

She loves watercolor, but she has a very, let's call it muted, style. She dips into color first, then into water, then onto the paper. I've showed her my way many, many times. She prefers the highway.

She requests songs each night (ABC? Bah, bah black sheep? Pig?) That last one refers to Old MacDonald, and she usually requests the animals in this order: pig, chicken, dog, cow, pig again (for sure) and then sometimes back to chicken.

For the first time ever, she looked up at me during the whole bedtime routine and said, "I go to bed now, kay?" OKAY, Sophie Grace!

She tells Callie-dog, "Go 'way, Callie" and "Knock off, Callie!" (Poor, poor dog. But don't feel too bad for her -- she's gained a lot of weight from all of Sophie's scraps.)

Food has suddenly become yucky. She used to eat sweet potatoes and peas and broccoli. Her new thing is: "Yucky. Sophie no yike it." I would blame school, but it started right before then. I can, however, blame her school for our nasty cough. Stay tuned for more gory details.

Happy Birthday, Snowpea.

You're sleeping now. You had an amazing weekend galavanting around town with Uncle Jordan and Ashley, then you romped and played at your party this afternoon under the trees at Freddie's Place. Birthday Girl, you looked soooo sweet in your green party dress with the cute white pockets and your hot pink cowboy boots that are two sizes too big (but you refused to wear any other shoes). These past two years have been the most wonderful of my life. Even when I stop to consider my mother's diagnosis and sickness and passing -- you brought her such joy in the time that she knew you. And as for me, I didn't know I could love so much. Nana Jane wanted to give you a dollar for every year of your age, so I'm about to sneak into your room and put $2 in your piggy bank. Apparently you'll have quite a nice gifty when you turn 18 and break open the bank. We all love you so very, very much. Thanks for coming into the world!

Hey, is that a knife in your heart?

Momma, driving Sophie home from her third day at pre-school: "What did you do at school today, Sophie?"

Sophie, drawing a tear down her face with her finger: "I sad. I cry."

First Day of Preschool

We experienced another "first" today: the first day of preschool. And it seems that we have all survived quite nicely. Don't get me wrong -- Sophie cried when we left and I cried on the way home -- I mean, we barely know these people and we just drove away! But when I returned, they hadn't sold her to the gypsies or made her sew tennis shoes together. Instead, they learned about monkeys, and that is a subject that Sophie loves to discuss. Apparently she took a nap today (I have no actual proof that she slept on a little blue mat on the floor, but that's what the people are trying to tell me), and while she had some sad moments, she also had some moments when she was interacting with all her new friends. And that's the whole point.

Here's Sophie on her first day of school, with her backpack, lunchbox, and new converse tennis shoes: (Oh...and clean face and cute piggies so they will love her, of course.)


When I picked her up from school, she told all of her new friends, "Bye! See morrow!" Then we went to order her birthday cake for this weekend and she got to have a special cupcake treat to celebrate school. Yes, yes, I know. I shouldn't comfort her with food. But she's too young for a margarita!

The Truth About the Egg

Who needs school? Sophie has considered the chicken AND the egg, and drawn her own conclusions. Tonight at dinner she was snacking on a hard boiled egg and, completely unprompted, held it out to us and asked, "Baby Chicken?" And then answered herself: "yeah." So then I ran and got the camera to see if she would tell us more. She launched into this high-pitched, hilarious Sophie voice that is most often used to mock her mother (or when she is pretending to be a parent and tells her doll, "Come onnnnnnn!" or "Oh, man!") See (and hear) for yourself:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kn8Y5DH-v-k

Then Frank "interviewed" her to find out more about her egg theory:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eFp0rkAdttc

Sorry for so many videos in one post, but THEN she picked up the phone and started having a conversation with Mommy and Daddy (not the ones sitting in front of her, but the "others") so Frank decided to call her using his cell phone. She was pretty shocked to hear a voice coming from the phone when she thought she was just pretending. Hilarious:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mo3cirhRUeA

Sorry they're not embedded. I used to know how to do that but I keep getting error messages about tags. Blogger pals, any ideas how to fix that?

Blue Girl Group

Sophie's a very serious (er...contemplative) artist:

She's getting quite good at declaring (accurately) her brush strokes: "Painting circles." or "I painting rainbows" (when making arcs). She's not so keen with colors yet. The entire time she was painting this masterpiece she was muttering, "pink, pink, pink."

And I call this one: Why We Don't Paint More Often.
Subtitle: Don't Touch ANYTHING, Sophie!

Happy Birthday, Laney!

Sophie has been practicing the Happy Birthday song for months, now. She finally got to perform it in public, at a real birthday party (instead of a Target aisle or a restaurant). Happy Birthday, Laney friend!

This was her cake CHOMP when she thought no one was looking:

What?! Of course I'm using my fork!

BOUNCY CASTLE FUN!!

Sophie loved playing with Laney's art easel, and that made us very, very happy because that's exactly what the birthday fairy stashed under our guest bed, waiting for Sophie's birthday next week! Dr. T, maybe you should get one for Jack, too!

Bouncy Movies

Laney had a bouncy, bouncy birthday party! Click on the links below to see some videos:

http://www.youtube.com/v/Q6JWhDoyG00

http://www.youtube.com/v/QI4heGrMSIk

Ditchdirt becoms Surfsand

A decade (or more?) ago, the Ditchdirt group of friends hit the beach. We were single then -- we stacked pyramids of beer cans and got sunburned and laughed at Matthew picking up girls with his "sin o con ropa!" invite back to the hot tub.

Last weekend, Ditchdirt returned to the beach. The group has morphed somewhat (with new faces and slightly older looking faces). Many of us are married with kids, now. Instead of beer cans we stacked dominos so the kids could watch them fall. No one really got too badly burned because we're all packin' 50 spf sunblock these days. We still laughed at Matthew, but he's not into picking up girls these days. And you know what? I had a TON of fun.

And this marks the end of our summer posts, I guess. Next Wednesday, Sophie starts school (GASP). The following Monday, Frank and I head back to school, too. Summer, we hardly knowed ya. Come again soon...

Click HERE to see more pics from our beach trip: DITCHDIRTBEACHTRIP

Chinese Torture

They don't use water anymore, they use lead. On Elmo. Sacrilege. And the Fisher Price website doesn't tell you how to explain recalls to a toddler. Elmo's going inside an envelope! Elmo's going on vacation! Elmo won't be coming back because Elmo was trying to kill you... (this is where my speech needs tweaking).

So...if you haven't heard yet, there are 80 or so Fisher Price product lines, which translates to millions of toys, that have been recalled. You may want to check the site if you've got little ones (or a Dora collection -- weirdo). Personally, I think Dora got what was coming to her. She's always yelling, that one.