Things we are learning

Good morning! Sophie and I take a break from housecleaning... She to ponder and sort her colouring crayons (she names them and then tells them what to do - "g(r)een, get in there. This boo (blue), you stay dere..."), and me to ponder...well life. And photos. And Sophie.

Things Sophie is learning:
How to sing "Happy Birthday to you."

How to build sandcastles. No, not really, more like -how to direct the building of sandcastles and then smash them!

How to swim underwater (in the pool - she's back in swimming lessons on Wednesdays.)
How to share and parallell play happily with other children (she does this pretty well!), and not to boss them around (she's still got a ways to go on this)


What else? Sophie's learning to recite and sing nursery rhymes. Snippets of them are occasionally understandable, as she tells them to her dolls. It is beautiful, but I have yet to successfully get it on video. Some of my favourites are when she improvises the bits that she forgot. For example:

"Rain, rain, go away,
come back next week."

and also..

"Jack and Jill go up a hill...uh..water,
Jack fall down and bump his head! Owww! poor Jack!"

She's learning to make up her own songs too. In the car on the way to church tonight she was singing a song that sounded like the tune to the abc song, but went something like..."...asher....chloe...austin...all my friends and ALL my friends...next time you sing wa (with) me!"

She is learning about plants and how to water them. (No, we don't pull the flowers off of bushes, yes Mama can pull the leaves off our herbs, but not Sophie. Yes, please help mama water the plants in the pot. No, please don't play in the potting mix with your fingers.) Ah the confusing world of the toddler! At least she's happy enough taking several trips back and forth to the plants, watering them with each different coloured tupperware cup in her cupboard.

Sophie is learning how to clean up messes she has made, comfort friends who are sad, and tell stories about things that have happened to her. "I touch pan - hot. I got docka (doctor). Man help me." She's also learning (I hope) to assess the consequences of choices she's made, so she can make better choices in the future. "Sophie, are you going to touch hot things again?" - "No!" (I am such an optomist!)

She is learning to describe her likes and dislikes, and ask for what she wants in more precise language. For example, today, while I was in the kitchen working on dinner: "Mama, I want cheese? P(l)ease?" So I offered her some of the cheese I had just shredded. "No, I want cheese, cutting." "Oh, you want a slice of cheese?" "Yes please." This is a nice example, with plenty of good manners. There are other ones too of course - "I don't like it. I don't want it. Too little/stinky/yucky."


Things I am learning:
I am learning that Sophie is fearless about the ocean at the moment. She loves to run into it, and she loves to fall down. She needs to be watched like a hawk, every second that she is on the beach. And I have also learned that the beach is probably her favourite place in the world - besides Papa and Gramma's house in the snow!

I am learning how to do digital photo manipulation, with a program that's much simpler than photo-shop, called paint.net. It's fun. It's a fun, very slow learning. This one has the oil painting effect. Can you tell? Yeah, I'm not so sure either.

I'm learning that Sophie is developing a strong will of her own..."No, I don't want to nap. No sleepy." Oh dear!
This is the sweet little girl of mine who loves bedtime. Routines really do the trick for her...usually. She loves her cuddles in the rocking chair, reading a few stories together (sometimes more than a few), our regular poem before the lights go out (adorable sappy stuff -"It's time to sleep little bee, little bee, yes I love you, and you love me..." See Mem Fox's book - Time for bed.) All this usually gets her all relaxed and reaching for the pillow. Her eyes are shut or she's mumbling "loz you mama" (that's love) through her dummy as I quietly close the door. Then she sleeps. It's bliss. This is the same little girl who's been going to sleep in this same routine with such surprisingly little drama for so long, that even when we would have guests over and we put her to bed, they would always comment, "That's it? That's all it takes? Is she asleep?" And we were so proud and pleased.
Ah, but now, it's a different story. It's as unpredictable as a Minnesotan April. On the days she decides she doesn't want to go to sleep-for nap or bedtime...well it's a mess. I try many different tricks...sometimes some of them work and sometimes not. So I am learning how to be patient again at her bedtime. How to help her re-learn how to settle into sleep. How to not let it get to me the 10th time she opens the door and comes to find me. How to stay calm. And I wonder, can I get faster at this...can I speed her through the process? Or will it sometimes just take her 40 minutes to decide she wants to go to sleep? Maybe I have to just let it take the time it takes. This is one of those things that's not an easy answer for me. I want to be a patient mother...teaching and modelling the best behaviour... not losing my cool or shouting. Sometimes I succeed. Sometimes not. I pray for more patience with my little one as she stretches her wings, pushes on those boundaries, tests out her independence. And I pray for patience with myself too.

Maybe soon, we'll move on to toilet training. Stay tuned for that exciting chapter!


New experiences and friends:
Sophie had a new experience yesterday - we took a train with a friend into the city. That was good fun! Here are Sophie and Asher on the train. this is a very brief moment they were both sitting down. As Debbie mentions in her blog, their favourite thing was standing up weaving around as the train wobbled. I think they liked trying to keep their own balance, which of course, was tricky. but when they agreed to hold on to something, it was pretty cute!

In the city of Brisbane, unfortunately there is no Children's Museum like the one we miss so much in St. Paul. There is, however, a fun & educational pocket of the city with a surprising mix of fun things to do. The State Library has a room dedicated to kids activities- fun and learning and free! Wasn't hard to convince me! Sophie's was mesmorized by the guitar player- she watched and danced and tried to sing along...I cannot resist video recording it. I'm sure it won't be half as exciting to anyone else as it is to her mother, but humour me if you like!

Sophia turns Two!

Hello friends and family! Last Sunday, as you may know, we celebrated Sophie’s 2^nd birthday -which is actually today, but we didn't make a big deal about today. This week Dan is flying in the Outback, and today he visited Uluru, or Ayers rock (the big red monolith in the middle of the country - famous postcard stuff.) So we had the party early. It was a small-ish party at home. Sophie had a blast! For weeks leading up to the party, she could name for you every person who was coming, and now everyday afterwards she tells me something that happened on the day. When I asked her that night what her favourite thing about her birthday party was, she answered without hesitation – “Cake! Elmo cake!” She loved the part where everybody…. “Sing Happy Day Soshie!” She also remembers playing outside, running, making cookies (just with play dough), colouring, balls, balloons, pizza, strawberries, and of course, everyone who came. She also likes to talk about Papa and Grama their gift and card and phone call – oh, and the other day she got Noah’s card and she loves to read that. (She tells stories about the photo of Noah, Aaron and the other “Soshie” too.)

Here are some photos to help tell the stories (Most are taken by Dominika). Enjoy!

First gift- from Dom & Dom & family. A realistic baby doll, complete with a dummy, a potty, a nappy and a change of clothes. You can turn her on and she tells you what she needs. Sophie calls her Missy, and really loves to play with her!

Nana and Grandy arrived with many gifts – Here you can see Nana giving Sophie the bandaids featuring Pooh Bear and Barbie. One of those went on straightaway - suddenly she had an “owie” on her hand. (Play Spot-the-bandaids in upcoming photos.) This baking set got played with right away. The kids set to work using all the tools to make cookies and cakes out of play dough.

This kept them happy for ages: the highly-technical toddler art of breaking a piece of play-dough into several tiny pieces, throwing them onto a tray and calling them “cookies.”

Who will be...the next MasterChef Australia?!

Oskar

Sophia

Sebastian (Bo-Bo)

Zuzia and Olivia (Livi)

At the moment, Sophie calls her "Baby Lizzie." They adore each other! Sophie kisses her on the head, tells her stories and makes up songs about her. Livi gets so excited when she sees Sophie that sometimes she just screams and squeels at the top of her very strong lungs!
She also does an excellent serious face.

Brothers.

The gift from baby Livi and co. ABC puzzles (Or "ADC's" as Sophie calls them!) At this stage, they're great fun to empty out all over the floor, name the pictures like flash cards and put them back in the box. Good times!

Just a few of the birthday cards. She loves the princesses from Papa and Grandma! She likes to talk about all of the dresses and who likes which dress best! But the cards didn't actually last up there very long. As you can see, they are fascnating reading material! They then get marched around the hous and discarded somewhere on a floor :)

Gift from Great Nanna and Great Granddad ("Big Nanna and Big Grandy") - a gorgeous waterbabies doll. She calls her Gracie, and she loves to walk her around in her new doll stroller (from Nanna and Granddad), and feed the baby milk. She also loves to give directions, and at the party she happily insisted that Sebastian sit beside her on the couch while she opened a few gifts. "Bobo sit here!"

Bubbles! All together now...

Bec and Jeremy and Ryan are here! Let's open this box, since the present is trying to escape. We'll go over there and open it. Sophie takes charge - "Comeon Mama! This way!" This is one of her favourite phrases these days.

PUPPETS! These are awesome - a whole collection of hand and finger puppet animals - including a moose! I don’t know who enjoys them more – me, Dan, or Sophie.
All the kids had a play.

After playing outside, we went back in for food.
(Dan was an incredible help in the kitchen all this time!)

Ok, I got a bit silly and took some photos of the food. I just love Strawberries in the winter here! I had fun prepping the fruit before guests arrived and snapped these shots. I'm such a wannabe foodie!

The cake! Just a simple box mix – tasty, and none leftover. The best part for Sophie was the topper toys. She likes to name all the instruments and pretend to play them. Oh – did you notice the bandaids? Yeah, they were a big hit!

We didn’t get the actual blowing out of the candles on camera, she was too quick! But she did wait until we finished singing to her. She loved that! It’s one of her favourite parts that she likes to tell me about: “People sing happy day me!”

That’s pizza above her eyebrow. I think she was trying to talk with her hands while eating. Imagine that!

We ate on the floor - picnic style.

There was a LOT of excited toddler squealing.

Artwork …a nice calming end to things.

A cheeky smile for the camera, from a sweet and happy two-year-old.

On the 3rd of May, Sophia got baptised

You may have already seen these photos, as they are also posted to my facebook photo albums, but I know that some of our dear family and friends are not big facebook-ers, so I'm putting them here as well.

It was a really fun night, and Sophie did really well. Father Michael is lovely, and he led the whole ceremony in a really personal, unfussy way. Everybody gathered around the alter, the kids ran around a bit and talked and played, Sophie was happy and Dan and I felt very blessed to have so much love and support surrounding us. She didn't even fuss when she had water splashed on her head and oil rubbed into her hair. She looked a little bit confused, but didn't cry. Ah...good times :)

(One of three busy tables at dinner after the ceremony). Thanks Dominika for the gorgeous photos, and Pam for the beautiful dress. I decorated the candle....I really liked it, but as you may notice, the little letter "i" in Sophia Michelle's name came off. oops. Guess I didn't get sticky enough stickers. :)

Conversations with Sophia

I've told these stories many times in the last few months, but I never can remember who has had to listen to them 3 times already and who hasn't got to hear them yet! So it's time to write some of these down, before I forget them. These are some of the stories that make me proud and make me giggle. Stories that cheer me up on days like today when my little girl is not-quite-herself with a low-grade fever and she's mostly just miserable. This is who she usually is when she's feeling well - happy, curious, and very chatty!

Oh, I should probably explain- she does this thing a lot lately, where she's trying to put together these complex sentences. She knows that certain little words go places, like prepositons and question words, but she doesn't quite grasp which word she's supposed to use there yet. So instead she just puts this little space into her sentence where she knows a word should go. It sounds a bit like "uh" so that's what I use in my transcriptions of her speech. That's what it means when you see "uh..." She's not really pausing to think (I don't think), I think she's substituting a word with that sound.


Sophie (looking at a picture in a magazine and pointing): Man!
Mama: Yes, that's a man.
S: I uh....man.
M: No Sophie, you're not a man. You're a girl.
S: (Rolls her eyes, sighs at me, and says in a slighty exasperated voice as she explains to me) I KNOW! I LIKE man!
M: Ohhh. right. of course. I like men too :)
S: Yes.


S: Uh...is Daddy? (shrugging shoulders, palms up, indicating "where?")
M: Daddy's gone to work.
S: I go work? I uh.. I go Daddy's work.
M: When you get bigger, do you want to go to work like Daddy?
S: Yes. I go work... I uh p(l)anes! I work P(l)anes, uh..Daddy, uh Mama!
M: Ok, you're going to fly planes when you get big too?
S: Yes!
M: And you want to fly the planes with Daddy and mama?
S: YES! :)
(She gets very excited when we finally seem to 'get' what she's talking about!)


Sophie's been very pre-occupied with the idea of going to work lately. She likes to list off people and where they are at the moment -"Daddy work. Pete work. Bec work. Grandy work. etc." and then she has to name who is at home at the moment. "Mama no work. Mama home. Zush home uh baby. etc.." If she's not sure about a particular person at any point in the day, she will ask me if they are at home or at work. "Papa work? Bittney home?" etc.
So anyway, the day following that last conversation, she had a new set of career goals!

I was buckling her into her carseat to go out for the day.
S: I go work?
W: Well, not today. Today we're going to the park (or the shops, I can't remember exactly.) But when you get big and you grow up you can go to work.
S: Yes. I big...I go work.
W: When you grow up, where do you want to go to work, Sophie? You could fly planes at work like Daddy, or you could be a teacher for children at a school like Mama, or you could be a doctor and help people who are sick to feel better...
S: I work..I people's doctor! uh...better!
M: That's a great idea Sophie. You would be a very clever doctor.
S: Yes!

Oh, and the first long sentence I remember hearing her say - on the day of her baptism we were all getting ready. I did her hair and we talked about her pretty new hairclips and new dress and pretty new shoes - all for this very special day. We talked about going to church and then having a special party for Sophie and dinner. She walked up to our full-length mirror, admiring herself and having a chat to herself.
S: Hello Soshie! I uh.. two hairpicks uh...my party!

I'll leave you with a few of her latest, surprising new words! octopus (aw-pus), jellyfish (jay-pish), chimp, tricky

May your week be joyful and free from illness :)