Life With a Toddler -- Not for the Weak at Stomach

Dirtface: Mmmmm, plant dirt washed down with a little of Laney's milk. Anything deemed "off limits" is especially tasty to Sophie.

Nutellahead: Okay, I knew that Nutella on a cracker would be messy. I just had no idea she'd do a faceplant in it.

Chickenlips: Finally! Sophie's eating "real" food -- a little bahk bahk for dinner. And no one told her to fold her hands under her chin for the picture. What a ham. Chicken. Whatever.

And, yes, a toddler eating "real food" is just as gross as a toddler eating dirt.

Clean-up on Aisle 1

Housework is dull to many (myself included), but Sophie does it with style.

(Rockstar Sophie is wearing glasses that she put on all by herself and some Valentine bling from Nini. And yes, she may be sucking on some dogfood as she sweeps. It happens.)

May Cause Excitability in Children

Sophie has a cold. A sneezy, hacking thing. Believe me, we've tried to document the snot bubbles coming out of her nose because they are HI-larious. To us, anyway. Sophie brought me the snot-sucker thingie and a kleenex the other day, patting herself on the chest and saying, "Goo ger...goo ger" (which means "good girl"). She normally HATES the snot-sucker thingie, but she was willing to undergo the torture for some relief, and I always tell her "Good girl!" when we're done with the procedure.

Nini has been giving Sophie half a dose of Benadryl for Babies before naptime and it has worked like a charm. It dries up the nose faucet for a while and she crashes hard for her nap (she even took a 4 hour nap one day last week!), then wakes up happy as a clam, ready to play. Last night I gave Sophie a half dose before bedtime because we were up later than usual and she was a bit wired (and super snotty). She went down at 9 p.m. but talked to herself until 9:30. Then she woke up at 10:30 and 12:30, but we ignored her and she soothed herself back to sleep. At 2:30 she was awake and screaming, so I couldn't ignore it. I went in and stayed with her until 3-ish because I fell asleep in the rocking chair. We met up again around 4:10. And then she was awake...I mean WIDE AWAKE talking and giggling at 5 a.m. I took her into the guest bedroom with me, but she kicked and squirmed so we got up at 6 a.m. Frank said he went in and patted her back twice in the night, so I'm thinking that she may have actually slept for what...about 45 minutes?! Now I'm afraid of the Benadryl...but I may chug some myself so I can nap this afternoon.

Here's Sophie, helping herself to some Kleenex that was in her top drawer. Little monkey.

Happy Valentine's Day!

The pose is not so cute (even though the subject matter is); Sophie would only sit still with the promise of some "banabana." Happy Valentine's Day, folks. Sophie loves you!

Mmmm...seefood:

Book Club

Sophie's a reader. Her current favorites include the ABC Book, Polkadot Pigs, Barnyard Dance and the farm book. She even reads books to herself (my favorite sound right now is her falsetto babbling when she's making up stories, that...and a soft snoring noise she makes when she's just drifted off). If you ask her to read a book with you, she toddles backward into your lap. In fact, if you ask Sophie to give you a hug, half the time she turns away from you and backs up into your lap. More evidence that story time is lovin' time! Here, Daddy reads to Sophie who reads to CB (Creepy Baby):

But if you try to turn the page too soon, CB, we'll turn you into a footrest!

Girls Night In

A couple of weeks ago we started a Babysitting Co-op with the Stephenses (Laney's peeps) and the Suganahos (Lucy's). We each take one Thursday of the month to "host" the girls -- and the other couples can go out and see a movie or eat dinner or just sit in their cars in our driveway and savor the silence. Whatev. Last Thursday was our first night to host, but we had it easy -- just two girls instead of three because the Stephenses "hot date" was at the gparents house and Lord knows you can't show up there without a baby.

So here's what our night looked like:

• stroller/grocery cart derby around the living room (and minor kavetching about which beebeeee got to ride in Lucy's cart because Sophie wanted ALL her babies close to her)
• pizza, peas, and nanners for dinner
• dance party in the living room (Lucy got tired of dancing before Sophie, but when Frank turned on the Hokey she couldn't help but Shake It All About)
• "Signing Time" on the tube and then a whole lot of silly faces because it was the emotions episode
• splashing and cup-dunking at bathtime
• Sesame Street playhouse time -- Lucy really played and Sophie sucked on Gordon's head
• book-reading (but no skipping pages with Lucy; she'll bust you!)
• then sweet, sweet Night Night
• celebratory beer drinking (just Frank and me involved in this one)

There Goes the Mother of the Year Award

Sophie loves to help out in the kitchen. She sweeps, she rearranges the Tupperware cabinet (several times a day), and if you hand her a paper towel, she drops to the floor and starts scrubbing. Sweet little Cinderella girl. Her favorite chore is unloading the dishwasher. Usually she pulls out forks and spoons one at a time and hands them over to me, but she recently discovered that she can stand on her tippy toes and plunk them into the drawer all by herself. She even grabbed a pot lid from the dishwasher and ran to the correct cabinet. Frank doesn't even know where the pot lids are stored!

Yesterday she was busy, busy, busy with silverware so I stepped away to the table to check my email on the laptop. First she brought me all the forks, one by one. Then she returned them, one by one, to the dishwasher. Then she rearranged them for a while. At least, that's what I thought she was doing. Turns out, she had really been on her tippy toes digging things out of the silverware drawer. When I stepped back into the kitchen I saw that she had loaded all of the steak knives -- blade UP -- into the dishwasher. Luckily she did not slice or dice herself in the process.

Since I have no pictures of her knife-juggling talents, I will post some pics of her tin foil sculptures. She had fun building with tin foil, then dancing with it.

Kiss Kiss

Sophie, Frank and I took a day off and drove up to Fort Worth (and Weatherford, too) to spend some time with Nana Jane before her doctor appointment and to relax out at the farm. It was supposed to be snowing, but it was a gorgeous day! We played outside with all the new doggies (there are three now, but Coco is still Sophie's fave). Here's Sophie with her Nana and then kissing GramKat bye-bye. By the way, thank you to ALL our family and friends who have sent emails and well wishes. We know you are praying for my mom, and it means so much to us.

Goldilocks at Gram's House

At GramKat's house, Sophie tried out all of the chairs looking for just the right one.

Ooof. I feel the same way when I try on my pre-pregnancy jeans, kid. No matter. I like big butts and I cannot lie.

Ahhhh...this one is juuuuuuust right!

Ice Storm, Day 2

How'd Sophie get a glass eye? Well, there was this ice storm back in aught 7, see...

So we had another Ice Day on Wednesday. (After a rainy Saturday, a freezing cold Sunday, a lazy MLK Day and an icy Tuesday.) I'm not sure I could be a good stay-at-home mom. I was running out of distractions by late Monday afternoon. Going outside was a great relief for everyone. We de-iced the cars, crunched around on the lawn, ate huge icicles, and finally bundled up for a walk around the block. I wasn't exactly looking forward to going to work today (two hour delay on Thursday, but we're back in school), but I wasn't looking forward to another ice day, either. I was so happy to see Nini and Laney and Maggie today that I almost peed my pants. I'm sure Sophie peed, too.

Our Little Kitten Lost Her Mitten

Enjoy these short films of "Sophie's Snow Day." The first is a snow dance, the second is Sophie's weather commentary:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CBvbeGXK1Ig

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oOn6_QdnbN0

Ice Storm 2007

These are pics from Day 1 of "Ice Storm 2007." Our deck collected a bit of ice and a tiny bit of snow -- real snow! Sophie had a great time sliding around, eating icicles, and playing with a very wound up Callie Dog.

No babies were hurt while taking this photo

A Cold, Rainy Afternoon

Time to learn how to bake! (We didn't bake soap cookies. The final shot is of the chef cleaning up her kitchen tools.) Oh yeah, no comments about the fact that she is in her pajamas at 3 p.m. Like I said...it was a rainy day. We were ALL in our jammies all afternoon.

Why I Love Frank Who Loves Sophie

I captured a bit of post-bathtime singing with the video part of our camera (explanation of why it's so fuzzy) Click on the link below or on the play button.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4b9ih_JeEE