When you don't know, make it up

Maybe we shouldn't have spent the first three years of Sophie's life just making crap up when we didn't know an answer (or didn't want to deal with a meltdown). Like the many, many times when we pointed at store signs and said things like, "That says no kids allowed -- we have to wait here for Daddy," or "Look -- that sign says NO YELLOW PILLOWS" when we wanted her to leave the pillow in the car.

We were talking about school the other day and I asked her about a new girl.
Me: What's your new friend's name?
Sophie: The one with brown hair?
Me: Uh-huh.
Sophie: That's curly? And she has glasses? Red ones?
(Yes, yes, and yes. She definitely knows the kid.)
Sophie: Ummm. I think her name is Sausage.
(No. It's NOT Sausage. I found out when I dropped her off that the new girl is Emilia from Guatemala.)

The next day driving to school:
Sophie: Did you know that my friend Arden also flew on an airplane?
Me: Really? Where did she go?
Sophie: To Guacamala.
Me: Oh, I think it was Emilia. She's from Gua-te-ma-la.
Sophie: Say "Gua." (Gua.) Say "Ca." (Ca.) Say "Mala." (Mala.) Good job, Mom. Arden went to Guacamala.

Christmas Morning Mayhem

Santa delivered the requested bear.
And the child was happy.

Baby J was most thrilled with the wrapping paper.

And just a little concerned about the jack-in-a-box his sister gave him. Watch out, Soph! This crazy gnome keeps popping out of there!

Santa Did His Best

Sophie dictated a letter to Santa a few weeks back. Here it is:

Dear Santa,
My name is Sophie. And I want you to bring me a present today. Tomorrow. I want a teddy bear. My name is Sophie and I'm really good. I feed my brother. Jameson wants to get a present, too. He wants a hippopotamus. I love my momma. I love my daddy. I love my baby. I love my friends. And I love my Callie Dog. She wants a bone, like (bone-crunching sound). I would also like a flower toy and a remote control that you can push buttons and race cars. And I want a new book. Santa can choose. Love,

And then she wrote an S. And she drew her little alien versions of Sophie, Daddy, Mommy, Jameson (a dot on the page), Callie, GramKat, Granddad, Mamaw, Leroy (that's our lizard that lives outside on the porch, but on the picture he looks a lot like Mommy), Laney, Lucy, Papa, Papa Joe, and a few more S's.

I figured Santa would have no problem with the bear and the book. Easy peasy. We decided that the remote control car might be a good thing for Santa to bring next year. I had already bought a flower wreath for dress-up, so I figured that would count for a "flower toy." And to help out Santa even more, I went online and located a wooden hippopotamus for Jameson. Done.

Until the day before Christmas. I finally sat down and looked through her school folder of artwork, and found a Dear Santa letter that she had dictated to her teacher, Miss Rachel (and then she traced over about half of the letters).

Dear Santa,
I would like a teddy bear for Christmas. I also want a CD of witch songs and a toy hamster. Love, Sophie

Yee-ikes. Do you know how hard it is for Santa to find Halloweeny music at Christmas time? And the toy hamster? She is almost assuredly referring to these dancing hamsters at Laney's house that play the banjo song from Deliverance. Not exactly Toys R Us merchandise. But Santa came through on the bear request. Good ol' Santa. And I think he's checking for some ebay hamsters for Valentine's Day.

Angel Babies

So, on Christmas Eve at our church we have a "live nativity" of sorts. Not the kind where you pet camels, but the kind where kids dress up as anyone they want to be and act out the Christmas story. One year you might end up with seven Mary's, two Joseph's and twelve donkeys...the next year you might have an outbreak of shepherds. I asked Sophie who she wanted to be a couple of days before the "play." Mary? A shepherd? A fuzzy lamb? A wise guy? She wanted to be the star. Not like "the star of the play," which I'm thinking would be Jesus, in this case. No, she wanted to be the STAR. The one that appeared in the field. I thought that was AWESOME and started dreaming up ways to make a golden star costume, but ten minutes later she changed her mind and wanted to be an angel. I tried to convince her how unique and amazing the star idea was, but glittery wings had more appeal. Jameson joined his sister on stage as little brother angel. Guess he's still trying to earn his wings.

And to the world a child was born

Merry Christmas, everyone.

Annual Ditchdirt Lights Party

One of my FAVORITE Christmas traditions is heading to the Stephenses for cookies, tamales, and nog before we walk over to the 37th street lights. Here's the traditional group shot:

And the just-as-traditional silly shot:

My favorite pose is Matthew's. And all the open-mouthed screams. I wish this one came with audio.

The TRUTH about Christmas Cards

We tried. We put them in cute outfits and headed down to the pond one evening. We took tons of pictures (307, to be exact...Frank just put the camera is sports mode and fired it like a machine gun). Do you know how hard it is to get a good picture of a three year old and a six month old together? Maggie wrote a funny post about it (click HERE to read it), which inspired me to create a page of our outtakes. You can see the REAL Webster children by clicking here: Christmas Outtakes.

We did end up with a few cute ones, too. Once Shutterfly delivers them, you might get a card in the mail. Rough arrival estimate? Sometime before Valentine's Day. Since they're wearing green, maybe I'll hold off until Saint Patty's Day.

Merry Christmas, friends.

Things Inside her Head

Our conversation from the other day:

Sophie: What's that thing called? A rattastrater?
Momma: Hmmm? A cash register?
Sophie: No. What's that word? A strater makes pictures.
Me: Oh. ILLUSTRATOR. (The morning's episode of Super Why introduced authors and illustrators.) A person who draws things is an illustrator. You're really good at drawing! When you're big, do you want to be an illustrator?
Sophie: No, Momma! (Hands on hips.) When I'm big I'm going to be a grown up.
Me: Well, sure. But you could also draw pictures for stories and be an illustrator. Or draw whatever's inside your head and be an artist. What's inside your head right now?
Sophie: A skeleton.
Me: See? You could draw a skeleton.
Sophie: No. That's what's in my head. And a brain. But I can open up my head and squeeze my brain and then out pops a piece of paper. Is that a good idea?

Fanksgiving Songfest

I love how Sophie says "fank the Loward" for giving us the "fings" we need. Hope you all had a Fantastic Fanksgiving.

Song #2: Happy Burpsgiving

And finally...a song that Momma made up to help Sophie with some things she sometimes struggles with at school. (Sometimes she wets her pants. Sometimes she won't eat her lunch. Sometimes she refused to take a nap.) So here's how it goes:

You gotta put your pee pee in the potty, Eat your lunch to help your body, Take a nap so you can rest, and That's how to make your day the best!

Kilroy was here.

Expecting turkey shots? We still gots punkins...

Turkey day has come and gone, and we're just now posting pictures from Halloween. Oh, well. We'll get caught up one of these days. Click on the first pic (or the link below) to jump to our picture pages from Halloween Pumpkin Bash Number 10!

A link to the party pics: http://www.frankandstacy.net/photos/october/

I Blinked

When I wasn't looking, my baby turned into a girl. A tall girl. (Pictured with her Papa -- discussing world events.)

I think the long hair really makes her look older. She told me she wanted "flat hair...like yours, Momma." I told you guys my stringy hair look was "in." And I love the hand in the pocket...big girls shove their hands in their pockets sometimes...that's how they roll.


My Silly Sophie is still there, under all that hair...
I blinked again, and my Dad is looking more and more like his father, C.D. (I think it's because they shaved off his beard and mustache at the hospital...suddenly I can see his face and I realize that I've seen that face before. And a third blink. My tiny boy with the dandelion hair turned into a roly-poly old man with a comb-over.
I think I'm going to stop blinking in an effort to slow down the spinning of the world.

Couch Taters

Jameson likes football -- to be more accurate, he likes watching football on t.v. Sophie never really watched television when she was a baby. Even if we had it turned on while she was in the room, she lost interest after a few seconds. Jameson LOVES it. He'll even lean over to look past you to see the television. And if football is on? Forget about it...he's totally into the game.

Here he is with his buddy, Jason, watching Sunday night football:

Maybe it's because he's the second child -- the t.v. is on more often because Sophie is watching her (very educational) shows. Or maybe it's because we're just more lax about having the t.v. on this time around. Sigh. Or maybe it's in his DNA -- guys like football. But don't worry...we are limiting his t.v. time. He's only allowed to watch play-off's.

Let's get the frog outta here!

The best thing she said this week. She was pretending to be a witch who had to rid our vehicle of a pesky amphibious nuisance, but her inflection was perfect and I laughed long and hard. I plan to use it in multiple and varied scenarios in the future.

Happy Halloween!

Her royal highness, THE PRINCESS, and her faithful sidekick, THE PEA:

You may have heard that the pea is irritating to the princess -- makes her black and blue all over. OUR pea is snuggly and happy, but may be a black-eyed pea before too long if the princess keeps playing "five little monkeys" on the same bed where he is napping.