Sophia wasn't interested in wearing a costume and really didn't get what was going on today. Still a bit too young.
After lunch with Hannah and Woohoo, their bad influence convinced me to let her try candy. Good grief. I've never seen her sign a more clear "more please".
When the kids started coming to our door, we encouraged her to come to the door with us and look at everyone. Each time they'd leave, she'd sign for more, wanting more kids to come.
Eventually, I got her to give the candy away. This is big for a kid who can't share. One by one, each child asked her for a candy and my sweet babe placed one piece carefully into their bags. They were charmed by her and it brought out a sweet side to all those menacing goblins at our door.
The top of the bowl was filled with gummy treats, as it got near the bottom, the chocolate emerged. Funniest moment of the night, I hand Sophia a candy to give away, she does. I pass her the next piece (a Twix bar). She looks at it, looks again, and palms it in her other hand and asks for a different piece of candy. My girl was not giving away the chocolate! She is so my daughter.
All night I watched proudly as she would run to the door, grab candy and give it eagerly to the kids waiting. We had about 200 kids come by, and I think she would have liked another 200 after that. She never got tired of them.
She did develop a rating system of her own. Most children got one piece of candy. If a certain child got her attention, she'd slip them an extra piece, or two of candy. Then, there were the scary ones. Fully masked, tall, big kids, no matter what they said or did, would not impress her. When she really didn't like them, she would put the candy into her daddy's hand and make him give them the candy.
I can't wait till she gets to go trick or treating next year!
Wednesday, October 31, 2007
Tuesday, October 30, 2007
Sophia-ese
Thank god most people aren't fluent in Sophia-ese. Today's Costco adventure would have been much more embarassing.
Sophia has been fighting a cold lately, making for long nights and sicky days. She's been a trouper for the most part and has been in a great mood. Today we had some errands to do and after a failed nap attempt I decided it was time to go to Costco.
Sophia brought her baby and her bottle and was quite content for about 1/2 hour arranging everything and checking things out.
Then she got tired. One by one she handed nme everything in her cart: baby, bottle, 2 jackets, coupons, diaper bag. When that was done she leaned forward, reached with her hands and started saying "bo!bo!bo!" This is a brand new word and it took me a few minutes to catch up. She was getting more and more insistent and loud.
What did she want? Only her most prized possession in the world, my boobs. Most kids adopt a soother, blankie or stuffie as a lovey. Not Sophia. She'd rather put her hand down my shirt. She does it like I rub earlobes, almost subconsciously. We've talked about how she can only do it at home, only sometimes. Until today she didn't have a word for it. sigh.
Luckily I was able to distract her with some well-positioned Dora junk. crisis averted.
I think I'm going to have to get a lot tougher about this no boob thing. She had no problem weaning from breastfeeding, I wonder how tough it will be to wean her from boob-fondling.
Sophia has been fighting a cold lately, making for long nights and sicky days. She's been a trouper for the most part and has been in a great mood. Today we had some errands to do and after a failed nap attempt I decided it was time to go to Costco.
Sophia brought her baby and her bottle and was quite content for about 1/2 hour arranging everything and checking things out.
Then she got tired. One by one she handed nme everything in her cart: baby, bottle, 2 jackets, coupons, diaper bag. When that was done she leaned forward, reached with her hands and started saying "bo!bo!bo!" This is a brand new word and it took me a few minutes to catch up. She was getting more and more insistent and loud.
What did she want? Only her most prized possession in the world, my boobs. Most kids adopt a soother, blankie or stuffie as a lovey. Not Sophia. She'd rather put her hand down my shirt. She does it like I rub earlobes, almost subconsciously. We've talked about how she can only do it at home, only sometimes. Until today she didn't have a word for it. sigh.
Luckily I was able to distract her with some well-positioned Dora junk. crisis averted.
I think I'm going to have to get a lot tougher about this no boob thing. She had no problem weaning from breastfeeding, I wonder how tough it will be to wean her from boob-fondling.
Friday, October 19, 2007
My Husband's Genes
Sophia looks a lot like Scott. So much so, she's referred to as Scottie Jr. There's no denying the Gilbert hair, cheeks, the Hunter jawline.
But it isn't just looks that she's inherited from her dad. She has an amazing talent for hand-eye coordination and a knack for spatial recognition. We've got another Jean-Machine on our hands.
Sophia will find two completely unrelated objects, several rooms apart and decide they are a perfect fit. One will fit into the other like they were made to be a pair.
I don't think she sets out to find a fit, I think she holds an object, takes its shape in and then notices when something similar crosses her path.
All day she will bring me things that she has fit together. Sometimes the fit is so exact, I can't get them apart.
Last night I showed her a cool dominoes set that Scott's cousin brought back from Africa. They are made out of carved wood and are gorgeous and quite small. Sophia was thrilled with them. She took them all out in the living room and lined them all up. Then, for the next 45 minutes, she carried them across the house to the family room, and back, putting them all where they belonged.
This afternoon she was playing quite quietly on her own for a long time, which always makes me a little nervous. I peaked into the family room to see what she had found.
She had the dominoes all collected and sitting beside her. In front of her was a child's plastic muskoka chair. The chair looks like a wooden one with small openings between each slat. Sophia had found that if she held a domino at a precise angle, it would fit through the slat and fall below. She was entranced.
Then, I moved the domino box under the hole, so the dominoes would fall into the box. She was thrilled!
But it isn't just looks that she's inherited from her dad. She has an amazing talent for hand-eye coordination and a knack for spatial recognition. We've got another Jean-Machine on our hands.
Sophia will find two completely unrelated objects, several rooms apart and decide they are a perfect fit. One will fit into the other like they were made to be a pair.
I don't think she sets out to find a fit, I think she holds an object, takes its shape in and then notices when something similar crosses her path.
All day she will bring me things that she has fit together. Sometimes the fit is so exact, I can't get them apart.
Last night I showed her a cool dominoes set that Scott's cousin brought back from Africa. They are made out of carved wood and are gorgeous and quite small. Sophia was thrilled with them. She took them all out in the living room and lined them all up. Then, for the next 45 minutes, she carried them across the house to the family room, and back, putting them all where they belonged.
This afternoon she was playing quite quietly on her own for a long time, which always makes me a little nervous. I peaked into the family room to see what she had found.
She had the dominoes all collected and sitting beside her. In front of her was a child's plastic muskoka chair. The chair looks like a wooden one with small openings between each slat. Sophia had found that if she held a domino at a precise angle, it would fit through the slat and fall below. She was entranced.
Then, I moved the domino box under the hole, so the dominoes would fall into the box. She was thrilled!
More Water Please
Sophia strung three signs together as a sentence: "more water please". She seems to be picking up the signs as fast as words right now. It's really cool to see her using both together.
It has helped me understand her new words. Many times she'll be saying something quite insistently and I won't be looking at her, and won't know what she's saying. If I look at her, she'll often do the sign while she's saying it and I get it. I think she's also making up signs for us. There's one for "where", one for "ball", I'm fascinated by her little brain.
I've just decided to try and get her to start signing "come". Having her charge me, grab my hand and start pulling in a direction is getting tiresome. If she would sign "come please" I'd be more apt to comply.
Right now, she will stop and sign/say 'please' (which sounds more like meeeeeeeeee), and it helps.
She's quickly learned that please is a magic word for getting what she wants and is pretty quick to add it on to any request that I'm ignoring.
It has helped me understand her new words. Many times she'll be saying something quite insistently and I won't be looking at her, and won't know what she's saying. If I look at her, she'll often do the sign while she's saying it and I get it. I think she's also making up signs for us. There's one for "where", one for "ball", I'm fascinated by her little brain.
I've just decided to try and get her to start signing "come". Having her charge me, grab my hand and start pulling in a direction is getting tiresome. If she would sign "come please" I'd be more apt to comply.
Right now, she will stop and sign/say 'please' (which sounds more like meeeeeeeeee), and it helps.
She's quickly learned that please is a magic word for getting what she wants and is pretty quick to add it on to any request that I'm ignoring.
Wednesday, October 10, 2007
Serious Colourists Only Please
Nothing is better than colouring and drawing with Daddy. He's good and creative and the things he draws looks like they are supposed to.
Poor kid gets stuck with me most of the day. I try to draw my standard flower, tree, sun, Sophia looks, shakes her head and decides to fill her potty with crayons. Message received.
She does love to colour, she takes it very seriously, gathering all the necessary supplies, then settling in to create art. Don't disturb the artist.
Poor kid gets stuck with me most of the day. I try to draw my standard flower, tree, sun, Sophia looks, shakes her head and decides to fill her potty with crayons. Message received.
She does love to colour, she takes it very seriously, gathering all the necessary supplies, then settling in to create art. Don't disturb the artist.
Purses - an early infatuation
Everything with a handle is a purse. Nothing compares to the thrill of finding a new purse. Picture frame with a ribbon attached, perfect for light shopping!
Book with a handle, good for the serious scholar look.
Add to that a cute hat and a shoe or two and you're ready to go!
Sophia likes to wander around the house, composing her look from various sources and when it's done, calling me "muuuummmmi-uuummmmmi" and having me meet her at the door for a stroll.
Book with a handle, good for the serious scholar look.
Add to that a cute hat and a shoe or two and you're ready to go!
Sophia likes to wander around the house, composing her look from various sources and when it's done, calling me "muuuummmmi-uuummmmmi" and having me meet her at the door for a stroll.
bup!bup!bup!
Bup is the new up. While lifting her hands to the sky and snapping slightly, sophia will say bupbupbup when she wants up.
Help is hands together, lifting up, like namaste, saying "oulp"
Please is rubbing the hands across the chest, the level of frantic rubbing is a sign of how badly she wants something.
If she wants something to eat you'll see her take off towards the kitchen, yelling eeeeeee, eeeee, eeeee.
She says the first sound of many words, we're left to fill in the rest.
Lily and Elmo are one and the same apparently, they are lalalalala with a big smile on her face.
Squirrel is 'guuurl', ball is ball.
Help is hands together, lifting up, like namaste, saying "oulp"
Please is rubbing the hands across the chest, the level of frantic rubbing is a sign of how badly she wants something.
If she wants something to eat you'll see her take off towards the kitchen, yelling eeeeeee, eeeee, eeeee.
She says the first sound of many words, we're left to fill in the rest.
Lily and Elmo are one and the same apparently, they are lalalalala with a big smile on her face.
Squirrel is 'guuurl', ball is ball.
The Accidental UhOh
When Sophia started saying uhoh it was closer to "uh -o-o-o-o-o", but she's improved. Now, it's a quick uhoh at just the right pitch to make it impossible to ignore.
She knows that when things drop, it's an uh-oh, but she seems to think that includes purposeful drops.
She will sit at the dinner table, and slowly work her fork to the edge of the table, drop it, in full control and then look up at us with concern saying uhoh, again and again until we pick offending object up.
uhoh, I did it on purpose, AGAIN.
She knows that when things drop, it's an uh-oh, but she seems to think that includes purposeful drops.
She will sit at the dinner table, and slowly work her fork to the edge of the table, drop it, in full control and then look up at us with concern saying uhoh, again and again until we pick offending object up.
uhoh, I did it on purpose, AGAIN.
Sophia Around the House
Sophia loves to be my helper. She follows me around all day, bringing me things to look at and trying to help me in my tasks. We've established a few things that are her jobs.
When doing laundry, she likes to be the one to put the clothes into the washing machine. She can get the whole tub stuffed with our stuff. She keeps working and working until it's all in. Of course, when I put the machine on and the water pours over her work, she stands at the window and cries, every.single.time.
When folding laundry, it is her job to be crazy baby and sneak up on me pulling all the folded laundry off the bed and scattering them everywhere.
She is the dishwasher-closer. It doesn't matter what you are doing with the dishwasher, the minute she hears it open, she comes running. The racks must get pushed in immediately and the door closed.
Similar idea, if the fridge is opened, it's her job to make sure it stays open for as long as possible. Like a protester protecting the last tree, Sophia will fling her body across that fridge and fight for its right to be open with every bit of her soul. Funny the first time, exasperating 4 months later.
Sophia also likes to help when I'm washing dishes. She'll pick things up and toss them into the sink for me. Not dishes, that's silly. Her baby went into the dirty soapy water head first today, fully dressed, followed by a purse, and tambourine. All treasures she picked up on her way from the family room to me as soon as she heard the water running.
Sophia doesn't like things spilling on the floor. If anything drops, all action must stop immediately. A repetitive uh-oh, uhoh, uhohuhohuhohuhoh will commence until I've acknowledged the problem. If I don't start wiping the floor clean, a high pitched shriek will start to happen. Luckily, she likes to help, so I'll give her a paper towel and let her pick up the offending cat hair. This happens 10000 times a day.
When doing laundry, she likes to be the one to put the clothes into the washing machine. She can get the whole tub stuffed with our stuff. She keeps working and working until it's all in. Of course, when I put the machine on and the water pours over her work, she stands at the window and cries, every.single.time.
When folding laundry, it is her job to be crazy baby and sneak up on me pulling all the folded laundry off the bed and scattering them everywhere.
She is the dishwasher-closer. It doesn't matter what you are doing with the dishwasher, the minute she hears it open, she comes running. The racks must get pushed in immediately and the door closed.
Similar idea, if the fridge is opened, it's her job to make sure it stays open for as long as possible. Like a protester protecting the last tree, Sophia will fling her body across that fridge and fight for its right to be open with every bit of her soul. Funny the first time, exasperating 4 months later.
Sophia also likes to help when I'm washing dishes. She'll pick things up and toss them into the sink for me. Not dishes, that's silly. Her baby went into the dirty soapy water head first today, fully dressed, followed by a purse, and tambourine. All treasures she picked up on her way from the family room to me as soon as she heard the water running.
Sophia doesn't like things spilling on the floor. If anything drops, all action must stop immediately. A repetitive uh-oh, uhoh, uhohuhohuhohuhoh will commence until I've acknowledged the problem. If I don't start wiping the floor clean, a high pitched shriek will start to happen. Luckily, she likes to help, so I'll give her a paper towel and let her pick up the offending cat hair. This happens 10000 times a day.
Fall 2007 Funnies
Sophia has become obsessed with phones. Everything is a phone, she'll hold up anything to her ear and say "hello", "whozis?" and "bye". If I ask her who she's talking to it's usually Stanley, dada or lalala (lily).
One night at dinner I was telling Scott how Sophia used her stroller belt buckle as a phone on the way home, as an example that anything will work for a phone. So Scott picked up her juice sippy cup, held it to his ear and said "hello?". Sophia scowled, took the cup away, put it down. Then she looked straight at Scott, pointed at the cup and said "bottle!", then she looked at me and repeated, "bottle".
Apparently, there are limits to the telephone game, and drinks are never, ever to be phones!
She also had a really cool way of saying bottle, that she's phasing out of already. You know when you hold your hand to your mouth and do the indian cheer, wahwahwah, and the sound sort of vibrates? Well, she figured out that if she said the "ba" sound, then did the indian wahwah sound, it got pretty close. For about a month sophia has been wandering around asking for bottles by doing the indian sound. Just this week she's figured out how to make a good bottle word without using her hands.
We're also still signing, and we get a lot of comments and compliments in public. We sign for help, please, want, more, light, fan, all done, and we're working on thank you, but that one is not coming very well. Sometimes if she's frantic for something 'help', 'please' and 'more' all get pushed together in a scrambled commotion of "please god let one of these work!"
She also understands so much. Everyday I'm surprised by how much she takes in. I give her quite complicated instructions and she nods slowly and gets to work. She brought me some diaper rash cream yesterday that she wanted to play with. I said to her "sophia, this isn't a toy, but I put lotion in one of the drawers, you can play with that. The lotion is in the drawer next to the one this came from". I didn't think she'd get it and I was preparing for a temper tantrum, which we've had a LOT of. Instead, she nodded, got up and went to her toy drawers and pulled out the one beside the diaper change stuff. I was amazed. That seemed so complicated and convoluted, yet she seemed to get the gist. (Of course, I was wrong about which drawer the lotion was in and when she opened the one without the lotion she got sidetracked by a tambourine and never got the lotion!)
One night at dinner I was telling Scott how Sophia used her stroller belt buckle as a phone on the way home, as an example that anything will work for a phone. So Scott picked up her juice sippy cup, held it to his ear and said "hello?". Sophia scowled, took the cup away, put it down. Then she looked straight at Scott, pointed at the cup and said "bottle!", then she looked at me and repeated, "bottle".
Apparently, there are limits to the telephone game, and drinks are never, ever to be phones!
She also had a really cool way of saying bottle, that she's phasing out of already. You know when you hold your hand to your mouth and do the indian cheer, wahwahwah, and the sound sort of vibrates? Well, she figured out that if she said the "ba" sound, then did the indian wahwah sound, it got pretty close. For about a month sophia has been wandering around asking for bottles by doing the indian sound. Just this week she's figured out how to make a good bottle word without using her hands.
We're also still signing, and we get a lot of comments and compliments in public. We sign for help, please, want, more, light, fan, all done, and we're working on thank you, but that one is not coming very well. Sometimes if she's frantic for something 'help', 'please' and 'more' all get pushed together in a scrambled commotion of "please god let one of these work!"
She also understands so much. Everyday I'm surprised by how much she takes in. I give her quite complicated instructions and she nods slowly and gets to work. She brought me some diaper rash cream yesterday that she wanted to play with. I said to her "sophia, this isn't a toy, but I put lotion in one of the drawers, you can play with that. The lotion is in the drawer next to the one this came from". I didn't think she'd get it and I was preparing for a temper tantrum, which we've had a LOT of. Instead, she nodded, got up and went to her toy drawers and pulled out the one beside the diaper change stuff. I was amazed. That seemed so complicated and convoluted, yet she seemed to get the gist. (Of course, I was wrong about which drawer the lotion was in and when she opened the one without the lotion she got sidetracked by a tambourine and never got the lotion!)
October 5, 2007 Potty Time!
I brought a potty home on Tuesday, over the last few weeks Sophia has started clearly communicating when she's about to poo, so I thought I'd see if she'd sit on the potty.
She points at her diaper and goes pffff if she is about to, or has just pooed.
We haven't done much since Tuesday, showed it to her, asked her if she wanted to sit on it, let her play with it. She hasn't shown too much interest.
15 minutes ago she started signing for help at gesturing at the potty and her pants. I took her pants off and got her seated on the potty with the requested wipe. Then I sat away from her and let her watch tv. I really thought she was playing and I'd have to whip a diaper on her before anything happened. Then, I got a whiff. MY DAUGHTER POOED ON HER POTTY! It's got to be one of my proudest moments. She didn't see the big deal, but I am thrilled. Such a smart girl.
Later that night she peed as well. There's been nothing since, but wow are we impressed.
She points at her diaper and goes pffff if she is about to, or has just pooed.
We haven't done much since Tuesday, showed it to her, asked her if she wanted to sit on it, let her play with it. She hasn't shown too much interest.
15 minutes ago she started signing for help at gesturing at the potty and her pants. I took her pants off and got her seated on the potty with the requested wipe. Then I sat away from her and let her watch tv. I really thought she was playing and I'd have to whip a diaper on her before anything happened. Then, I got a whiff. MY DAUGHTER POOED ON HER POTTY! It's got to be one of my proudest moments. She didn't see the big deal, but I am thrilled. Such a smart girl.
Later that night she peed as well. There's been nothing since, but wow are we impressed.
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