Miss Sophie Goes to Washington

We had some pretty amazing adventures on our trip to see the cousins! The first few days were spent at Aunt Laura and Uncle Hazen's new river house on the Potomac. Sophie rode on an airplane (pulled her own luggage through the airport, too!), rode on a boat, went fishing with Granddad, saw dolphins swimming in the Potomac, caught and ate some crabs, picked buckets full of blackberries and raspberries, swam in a hot tub, and followed Max around for days. (Thanks, Max.) When we drove back into Washington D.C. so I could go to a conference, Sophie, Jameson and Frank stayed at Aunt Laura's everyday house. She played with a new friend, Sawyer, played "Pretty, pretty Princess" with Cousin Madeline, explored Old Town, met panda bears and orangutans at the zoo, rode on the metro, visited the Smithsonian and went bonkers over the ruby slippers, caught fireflies in a jar with Carson and Lucy (kids of my dear friend from high school, Lisa!), explored the gardens at Max's school, threw the frisbee for Daisy dog, and basically had the time of her life.

Jameson had fun, too -- he traded chew toys with Daisy and got lots of hugs and kisses from Granddad and Mamaw and the rest of the fam.

To see all the great pictures Frank took of the trip, please click here: WASHINGTON D.C. PICTURES

Why We're Not Vegetarians

We tried a new place for lunch today -- Bonzai on Lamar. Ate bento boxes and drank bubble tea and shared a couple of sushi rolls. Sophie found something interesting in her miso soup.

Sophie: Oh! There's some cheese in here!
Me: That's called tofu. Try it, it's good.
She slurps for a while.
Sophie: Hey! I found some more toe-cheese in here!

And, sidenote, I had a little epiphany about globalization and the experiences our kids have that we did not. Frank and I talked about how we NEVER ate anything all that international growing up. The Websters do love the Japanese Steakhouse, but that's not exactly Japanese, is it? Sophie eats sushi and tabouli and edamame and hummus on a fairly regular basis. I remember taking my mom to this Greek food place a few years ago, and she proclaimed it interesting. Until she said that, it hadn't even occurred to me that I was taking her out of her comfort zone. This generation's comfort zone casts a wider net, I think. Interesting.

He might have punk tendencies

Raindance

If you need some dance moves to chase away the heat wave, Sophie has worked up a routine. This was shot on that ONE DAY a couple of weeks ago that we had rain in Austin. It lasted for ten minutes. Remember? And if you're not an Austinite relishing in the sounds of rain, just focus in on Frank's undies with the red heart pattern. Cracks me up every time.

Farm Life

We took a quick trip to the farm a couple of weeks ago. Sorry it took so long to post the pictures, Papa Joel -- I know you've been anxiously awaiting them. Check out our pictures -- I think Sophie looks so old in some of them. Not like a three year old (or even a four year old). Kind of a glimpse of eight-year-old Sophie, I think.

Click here: WEATHERFORD FARM and then click on the individual pics to see captions.

One Year Old Stats

Mister J went to the Doc today.

31" tall = 90th percentile
25.2 lbs = 80th percentile

Three shots, fewer than three seconds of crying.

He was pronounced happy and healthy. And brilliant. And compassionate. And handsome. And loving. And interesting. And interested. And willing. And able.

On the standard checklist, we could check off MOST boxes. He can stand assisted (he can stand unassisted, in fact). He can pull himself up to standing. He can say three meaningful words and/or phrases. (I don't know how meaningful "uh-oh" is when it's not used in context, but I'm counting it.) He can pincher grab with his thumb and finger. The only box we could NOT check off was pointing at people and/or objects, but I don't think we've ever asked him to do that. It's not polite, you know. It's not Southern. What if we teach him to say y'all and ma'am and to wave when people let him cut in traffic -- can we substitute those skills?

Dr. Geoff asked how the breastfeeding was going. Sigh. I gave him the "HOA don't allow no chickin in ma yard" line and explained that we had already transitioned to milk. It's (self-imposed) high pressure to be an Austin Mama sometimes. We shop at the farmer's market and expose our children to live music and cook with a heck of a lotta cilantro. We're a long way from gathering or own eggs (damn HOA), drinking goat's milk, and breastfeeding until kindergarten, but I think the kids are going to turn out just fine. Look at his percentiles, people -- already an A/B student. :)

And Then He Was One

June 14, 2009
Happy Birthday, Sweet Baby Jameson.


Happy Baptism Day.

And, yes, Happy Flag Day, too.

When we realized that Jameson's first birthday was going to fall on a Sunday, we thought it would be a perfect day for another kind of birthday -- his baptism. I had warned the Suganahoes and the Stephenses that I was going to pull them up on stage with us as his Austin family -- the Methodist version of godparents -- and that they would all be touching him during the baptism. Then Pastor Lynn Barton called up the ENTIRE congregation to surround Jameson, and it ended up being this gigantic mob of hands and laughter and Jameson grinning and splashing. Wonderful. Frank and Brent sang "Listen to Our Hearts" -- one of the songs we had during our wedding. Another wonderful moment.

Then we headed home and filled up the balloons, filled up the table with goodies (candy apple licorice, chocolate-covered cherry sour balls, and okra chips were the favorites), filled up the new kiddie pool, and filled up a pitcher with boxed wine and orangina (tinto de verano -- beach sangria) for our party guests. The house was all abuzz for a few hours, then it was just us Websters, all tuckered out.

Check out the PHOTO PAGE of JAMESON'S DOUBLE DIP BIRTHDAY.

The Many Faces of Jameson

My beautiful, blue-eyed boy:

Adventurous: Jameson has been motoring around by holding on to walls and coffee tables. Here he is playing with some "big kids" on a playscape bridge.

Anxious: yee-ikes...I'm up pretty high, you guys.

Elated: Woo-hoo! I'm the king of the world!

Coy: No, thank you, miss. I think I'll skip the nap and keep on playing right here.

Mayfest

Slide, slide, slippity slide...

Summer, Here We Come!

The end of the school year was super hectic, as always, so I'm behind on my posting. Sophie had a grand end-of-year celebration at her Montessori school. Her class song was Bob Marley's "Don't Worry About a Thing" and she ended up singing it to my sixty tenth graders when she came as a guest lecturer to Austin High. (Did I mention? Her school ended the week before our school ended? Arrrggghh!)
Here she is with some Primavera pals:

Sophie, Rhea, Arden, and Berkeley

She ran calling Wiiiiilllldddfire!


Gypsy Girl (Rhea's birthday party makeover)


Last Day of School -- with Emilia (from Guacamala)

Taking pictures with her own disposable camera (lots of shoes and grass):

Sophie's Guides: Marianne and Rachel

Annie Get Your Wig

Annie update: Sophie loved the play. There was a real dog on stage. And Molly was the cutest (as always). I thought Sophie would be disappointed that Annie had flat, red hair instead of the traditional curls, but then it occurred to me that Sophie had zero expectations. In the final act, though, Annie came out on stage wearing a curly wig (she was "gussied up" for the adoption party). Sophie asked me if she was wearing a hat. I told her it was curly hair -- Annie was fancy! Sophie whispered in my ear that she was gonna go tell Annie to take that curly hair off, and got down off my lap. I grabbed her in time. She's been singing "Tomorrow" in the bathtub, and every single time it reminds me of the time my Gram took us all to see the Annie movie.

All the World's a Stage

We're about to go see Annie -- Sophie might be a little young for this, but I'm going to give it a try. I was just explaining what a musical is like.

Sophie: Will I be singing and dancing?
Me: Well, no. We'll be in the audience watching. It's like going to a movie but the people up front are real.
Sophie: Is I a real person?
Me: Yes. You're real.
Sophie: Then I'm going to sing, too.

And she probably will. She has actually been to a play before (a high school musical version of High School Musical), and every time a character on stage screamed, Sophie screamed back. She also went to a high school version of the jungle book, and some of my students took her on stage to dance at the end of the play. She has high expectations of being involved.

I'll let you know if she takes the stage by storm.

Ditchdirt Beachtrip 2009

More fun photos: http://www.frankandstacy.net/photos/ditchbeach2009/

Fumbelina

Sophie was talking to me about her fumb today. She has a boo-boo.
"Oh, no...does your thumb hurt?"
"No, my fumb."
"Go like this...thhhh" (and I make my tongue do the th thing).
"Thfumb. Thfumb. Thfumb."
"Good, but don't put your teeth on your lip, just put your tongue between your teeth. Th. th. th."
"Thfumb. Thfumb. You say it your way and I'll say it my way."
"That's cool...I was just trying to show you the th sound so you can say things like Thumper and Thunder and Thumbelina and Thistle!"
"And whistle?"
"Sure."
"And pine tree. And piss."

I have no comeback for that one.

My Little Garden Gnome

Look what I found in our front yard...