Moments of adoration

Sophia knows how to press my buttons - whether they are all intentional or just a fact of being 3 years old - is besides the point. 

The good news is, the frustrations are far outweighed by the tender, sentimental moments of watching her grow, learn and blossom into a little girl. 

Top 5 things currently that make me smile: 

5) Watching her comb her dad's hair tonight and telling him that "he looks beautiful now" in a very serious voice. 

4) How she won't let Dave or I leave the house without taking our "ice cream" with us to work.

3) How she lines up her animals in different formation surrounding her barn. (note: these are not all traditional farm animals, so seeing who gets to hang with who is rather Noah's Ark-ish)

2) Having her help me make salad with me and actually learning how to properly (with my hand guiding) use a knife. (and testing out the different veggies we put in!)

1) Reading with her. A favorite book is "The Snowy Day" by Ezra Jack Keats. Tonight, she was able to identify almost all the letters in the title & author's name. Absolutely amazing and fascinating to watch the cognitive development. And it just makes me so proud. 

What are you up to these days?

It's been quite awhile since I've blogged - with "Nugget's" impending arrival (due date is tomorrow...we'll see when he shows) we've been trying to get as much one-on-one time with Sophia as possible.
A quick report of what she is up to -

• She's growing like a weed. We definitely just had another little growth spurt where she ate and slept a ton this week.

• Vocabulary is expanding by leaps and bounds. She seems to have most of her books memorized (I guess we read them all enough) that she fill in the words as you read along. Sometimes, I will over hear her reciting part of them to herself when no one is around. It's pretty adorable.

Her favorite books are constantly evolving. Recently some of her tops include:

• The Little House
• A Bedtime for Bear
• Muddy Paws
• Richard Scarry's Best First Book Ever (she is kind of obsessed with Mr. Frumble - or "Frumple" as she calls him!)

It's kind of fun to moving on to new, longer books. While the Sandra Boyton collection will always be near and dear, the longer form stories are fun.

One of my favorite things that has happened was actually her repetition of a phrase she picked up from "A Bedtime for Bear." We were having a conversation and Sophia interjects with "How Interesting..." in almost the right context. I about burst out laughing, because really, there is nothing funnier than having your two year old comment "how interesting" on something you were saying! (It's also a line from the book from the mouse to the bear...)

That's about all of it on the growth and development charts. She's definitely getting to be a big girl now before our very eyes!

Words are flying around...

And so many of them are coming out of Sophia's mouth! Her vocabulary has really hit the "explosion" point that everyone talks about. She will mimic whatever we are saying, especially the last 2 or 3 words in a sentence. It's amazing (and really, really scary) to listen to. And she's started having "conversations" with us. Communication is an amazing thing, albeit still a little frustrating when she can't quite get the right word out.
Here she is seasoning her father - Sophia likes to "cook" while I'm cooking or baking.

Dave have been practicing her numbers with her a lot - while climbing stairs for the mail and on the swings and she's really picked up on them. Not a big fan of Seven, but otherwise, she's all over it. Especially when "1, 2, 3" is followed by "Wheee" and 2 people swinging her in the air!

What could be more fun than Nana & Poppa?

She also really enjoys sitting on her potty seat. Not actually using the potty, but it's a first step. She's been running around announcing poopy and pee pee for awhile now (whether there was any in there or not) so this was the logical next step. It'll be great, but I have to say, it's going to take a new found patience to go through the process of the entertainment value of climbing up the stool, on to the potty and back off again for about 20 minutes as we're trying to head out the door, clearly late for something! :) In due time, I know!

Sophia can also clearly say her name now. We started really sounding it out with her about a month ago - So - FEE - A - which is how she said it for awhile. Or we'd say the So and she'd chime in with Fee and we'd finish with the A. So now, during "Roll Call" (what we currently call her winding down for bed) we hear "Mama. Dada. So FEE A." it's adorable, and usually followed by the "A-Ca-Choo" sound from the Bear in the book "The Mitten".

She's also become hyper-aware of friends and playmates. It's great now - but look out- her and her best friend Frances are sure to cause trouble!


I can't believe we're less than a month away from her 2nd birthday! She's such a big girl now.