The Night Before Santa…

This is some vid from the night before Sophie goes to see Santa. We went today and she was either…erm…underwhelmed or overwhelmed, not sure which. She didn’t cry and wasn’t afraid at all (though we’d done a fair amount of explaining what would happen beforehand). Anyway. I’ll post the Santa video as soon as I find the cord to recharge my dead video camera.

In this one she’s wearing her very well-loved princess dress. This thing is just falling apart. She’s getting a new one for Christmas. My ultimate goal was to get her to say ‘applesauce’ because I love when she says that word.

HRM…I can’t embed the video directly, so please GO HERE TO SEE THE VIDEO.

 

Not only English and French, but a little Mandarin too?

Sophie just walked up to me and said, “Ni Hao!” LOL. That’s Chinese for hello. Apparently Ni Hao, Kai Lan is having good effects.

 

365 Photos

12-08-08 — We put the Christmas tree up.

12-09-08 Sophie loves her first Christmas tree. She (and the cats) have been very gentle with it, erm, so far. Of course she loves the faery ornament.

12-10-08 Sophie ready to go to play group this morning. She’s got her purse and phone and everything. LOL. Man, she’s tall. I mean, she’s really tall…and growing every day. She was 35 inches at her last exam, but I swear she’s grown since then.  , as you can see, she loves her purse.

 

To Santa or Not to Santa, That is the Question

I can’t decide whether or not to take Sophie to sit on Santa’s lap or not. We didn’t do last year because we were in Belgium. If I do, one of two things will happen.

1.) Sophie will freak out, struggle, pop Santa in the jaw and clamber down off his lap before a pic can be taken.

2.) Sophie will sit with a deer-in-headlights look on her face long enough to snap a pic, then she’ll freak out, struggle, and pop Santa in the jaw.

Either way, knowing my girl, Santa’s probably getting popped in the jaw.

 

Catch Up 365 Pics from the last week

I like this project because it keeps me posting.

Snapped this morning. 12-06-08

Sophie still sucks her thumb. The day we got her, her thumb was red, raw and swollen from her sucking it. Poor punkin was so nervous. She continues to have calluses on both thumbs, though these days she sucks her thumb much less. Normally she does it when she’s tired, feeling snuggly or is upset. The rest of the time she’s a typical two and a half year old and she’s too busy using her hands to touch things/play with toys to bother with sucking her thumbs.

This is the other thing she’ll do….

She puts her arm over her hand this way and walks around. She’s done since the first day we met her (well, minus the walking around). She also used to use her fingers as toys in the beginning. I think she learned in the SWI that was the only real entertainment she could get — making strange configurations with her fingers. She doesn’t do that anymore (now she’s got plenty of toys).

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12-05-08 Unfortunately I took this at twilight. All those black spots in the tree are black vultures. My town is famous as a black vulture roost. They all fly around on days when the thermals are good. The sight is beautiful — hundreds of black vultures circling in the air. They’re gorgeous in the sky, very long wingspan. Vultures get a bad rap and they’re ornery as hell, but I love them. The roost, ironically, is over a cemetery. I always wonder how funeral attendees feel about the vultures circling their loved one’s grave. I think it’s a beautiful symbol since vultures are considered ambassadors to the afterlife.

12-04-08 Sophie enjoys water coloring, but that glass of water makes me nervous.

12-03-08 Sophie was very pigtailicious this day. As you can see, the scrunchy face phase hasn’t yet ended. When I snapped this picture she’d dragged a whole stack of books out from the office and was pretending to read them.

12-02-08 This is one reason why the dog loves Sophie. She shares her food with Sedna whenever I’m not paying attention. *sigh* It was Cheerios this time.

12-01-08 On Mondays my mom (Nana) watches Sophie. So it was just me, my laptop, and my manuscript. (and the telephone, my hand lotion, face lotion, Kleenex and water. All my “necessities”.) Oh…and a chocolate cookie! (not a necessity, but yummy!) Lastly, the cat. They’re always around trying to laying on the keyboard or something.

 

11-29-08 I cut her hair! I think I did a damn good job too, if I may say so myself, (and I totally will). I bribed her with a lollipop and she stood still for me. Yay!

11-30-08 Sophie loves to play with Playdough.

Picture #2 from today — Sophie and Papa eating lunch and watching CareBears. It’s a cold, rainy, LAZY Sunday.

 

11-26-08 Sophie and her Playgroup coordinator. She goes once a week for two hours, so she gets exposure to other children. She’s very gentle with the other kids and will take younger kids under her wing, hold them by the hand and show them around, sit and pretend to read books to them. She’s also learning to be assertive, according to her her Playgroup coordinator and will not allow kids to take her toys these days (as she did in the early days).

When I drop her off she’s pretty withdraw and saying she doesn’t want to be there, but by the time I get back she’s having an awesome time and doesn’t want to leave. If it’s warm and they’re outside on the playground, I literally have to drag her away.

I have Sophie on a waiting list for a Parent’s Day Program that would be three hours two days a week. I think Sophie would benefit from more contact with other kids. Until then, she’ll stay in this playgroup. At three we intend to send her to pre-school.

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11-27-08 Sophie looking pretty for Thanksgiving. She let me cut her bangs, so her hair is a bit better. Below, Sophie and Gung-Gung before dinner.

Tonight at dinner, Sophie said her ABCs all by herself up to G. I was flabbergasted. We’ve worked with the ABCs, but not enough that I thought she could say them herself. So, we’re kicking that up a notch. Apparently she’s ready. She can count to three on her own too, both in English and French. The French came first, oddly enough. I maintain my theory about the musical similarities between French and Mandarin. I think that’s why Sophie is taking so easily to French (it’s English she hears mostly).

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11-28-08 We had to run to the grocery store this morning for a couple things. Whenever I have a stray penny, Sophie rides the horse out front.

 

11-24-08 — Sophie’s babies sleep with her during her naps, but need to be tucked into their crib at night (with their wooby). The doll on the right is one of the ugliest dolls I’ve ever seen, but Sophie loves her.

11-25-08 — Sophie at the pediatrician’s this morning. I thought to ease her doctor’s office anxiety by stopping at Target beforehand and getting her this spiffy toy doctor’s kit. She spent the whole time in the waiting room taking Polar Bear’s temperature, listening to his heart, and giving him shots. The pediatrician let Sophie do all that to her too, plus gave Polar Bear a Garfield Band Aid on his paw.

The good news is that the toy doctor’s kit seemed to both distract her and give her a sense of empowerment. That lessened her anxiety quite a bit and she was mostly calm and happy for the entire visit. The bad news is that her glucose level is still elevated. Less than before, but still higher than normal. Because her glucose level is in the borderline range, the doctor says not to get too concerned. We’re going to redo the test in three weeks and perform it while she’s being fasted.

*sigh* My poor girl.

Also, there is no denying the fact that she needs a haircut. *whimper* I can turn my head from the truth no longer.

 

365 photos from the last few days….

11-21-08 My girl has beautiful eyes and needs a haircut. I dread the haircut so much, you can’t imagine.

11-22-08 My father (gung-gung to Sophie, the Mandarian word for maternal grandfather) and Sophie. She’s wearing her princess dress, which has definitely seen better days.

11-23-08 We took Sophie to her first movie in the theater, BOLT. That’s Papa and Sophie leaving the theater and in the theater lobby.

It was a really cute movie and Sophie did GREAT. She watched most of it on Papa’s lap. A little over halfway in she lost her concentration, but only for a little while. She moved around a bit, but never far from us. She finished out the movie on my lap. Afterward we all went to Mexican for dinner. A very nice day, all in all.

 

Pictures taken this morning (before breakfast, even) Sophie changes her baby’s diaper.

Discovers baby’s diaper is uncomfortably wet and gets a fresh diaper out.

She gets the diaper off, holds it up to me and says, “Euuw, poopy!”

Indeed.

(yes, our living room is toy zone 2008)

Getting the new diaper on.

All better!

When Sophie is an adult, I don’t think she’ll thank me for taking all these scrunchy face smile pictures.

Sophie only has two dolls at this point because her doll playing has run hot and cold. Now it’s really kicking into gear. She has a baby doll crib, a high chair and a couple strollers. Her babies have to sleep with her at nap time and they have to be tucked into their crib beside her bed at night. She starting to feed them, clothe them, change their diapers on her own, ect.

I was thinking about getting her a Baby Alive for Christmas, but didn’t. Now I’m thinking maybe I should. Of course, there are no Asian Baby Alives that I’ve seen. *sigh* There are African American ones, though, so I’ll go with that one.