What Happens When You're Not Looking

Nope. This is not a pack-n-play for the new baby. This is not our new time out spot. (although...now that I think about it...) We've been daytime doggie-sitting for some friends who have their house on the market, and Sophie is FASCINATED by the new doggies and their crate. She also watches her own dog, Callie, carry around her bowl Snoopy-style. So, when it had been too quiet for too long yesterday afternoon, I walked into the study to find THIS. A caged baby. For those germaphobes out there, the dog bowl is actually the metal sink from Sophie's kitchen. Not that she's above sucking on Callie's bowl (and not that I would have rushed to remove the dog bowl before rushing to grab the camera) -- she probably couldn't wrestle the real water dish away from the dog.

More gruel, please, sir?

Slacker

I've been a craptastic blogger as of late. There's no good reason for it -- we have Christmas pics to post, we've got TONS of new pics taken with our new camera that I need to post (17 versions of Sophie featuring all the different flash angles and options) -- I've really got no excuse except to say that I have been extremely close to my couch these past few weeks. I'm in the second trimester now and a lot of pregnancy-related annoyances are lessening, but for some reason I am still exhausted. Maybe I'll hit that nesting/energy boost stage any day and I'll catch up on all the pic posting.

Until then, here are some cute things you should know about Sophie:
She says "lissors" instead of scissors.
She says "leddow" instead of yellow. Something that is little AND yellow is very hard to deciper.
She wanted a baby sister until she found out that Laney is getting a brother...now she says she wants a "Liddow Bruuuuddder" and that we should name him Jesus.
She goes back and forth between being a big girl (demanding a big girl cup with no lid, saying "I do it by myself!" when it's time to click her seatbelt) and then reminding me that she's my "liddow baby" and sucking on a pacifier that we found when we moved her crib out of her room.
She made up a song about roast beef and sings it all the time -- it has very low parts followed by very high trilling accompanied by twirling. Neither Frank nor I can remember ever mentioning the phrase "roast beef" to Sophie before. But she's got a song on her heart and she bellows it out.

The Streak Has Ended

This is a bit of a gross post, but I thought I'd document it since I'm not so good at keeping a written journal or, for that matter, a baby book. (My goal is to finish Sophie's baby book before the arrival of her sibling this summer.)

So far, in this pregnancy, I have gagged endlessly, but have NOT THROWN UP EVEN ONCE. I attribute it to eating something right when I wake up, eating constantly throughout the day -- about 5-6 small meals instead of 3 real meals -- trying to drink more water, etc. And the luck of the draw, because I have some friends who got sick throughout their entire pregnancies. Yuck. (And yack.)

Today, my streak ended. Barfed three times before I left for work. To be honest, I felt much better. Maybe it would be better to barf once a day rather than gag ALL day long. Okay...sorry to gross you out. Carry on.

Master Negotiator

The book she's reading belongs to her baby sister/brother -- it's the first non-hand-me-down gift for Wee Webster Version 2.0, a gift from future Cousin Bennett to future Cousin "Stevie Ray" -- but it will be slightly used by the time he/she gets it. See, it's just not worth the whining. And the tutu? At bedtime? On top of pajamas? Because she said so. She's really quite convincing.

Judson Lively

My Grandpa Jud passed away from cancer on Monday. I've known and loved him since I was nine years old (he's my stepfather's father). He was an amazing Renaissance man: a minister, a scholar, an engineer, a painter, a tractor-driver. He wore overalls and designed intricately-painted chess boards for family and friends. He took us out onto the pond on our railroad-tie raft called The Collapso. He loved to have long discussions and recite poetry and scripture, but he also loved to retreat to his study to read and paint -- I loved being called out to the study to look through his paintings of the farm where he grew up in Illinois. Sometimes when I was younger and would spend the night, we would eat Snickers and apples and cheddar cheese for dinner. He loved to identify birds as we walked behind the farm. He was at the bonfire reciting poetry the night that Frank proposed to me and he was one of the two ministers who married us. He lived by example and all of us pray for a marriage like the one he had with Grandma Kate. He loved sitting on the porch to soak up the sun, and that is what he's doing in the above picture with Sophie.

He loved to sing, too. Here's a link to a video of Sophie and her great-grandparents' rendition of "Deep and Wide":

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iLiYGa1TXCo