Snow Day

Well, to be honest, we've had snow here for a while now, but it has been quite cold so we haven't had the chance to really go out and play in the snow. It was beautiful last week, so we waxed up the runners on Sophia's brand new sled and went for a slide.

First step, of course, was to bundle up beyond recognition. Sophia had on a fleecy, shirt and pants under this beautiful red snowsuit, and she had gloves and boots on under the gloves and boots that snap to the snowsuit. When it's cold out and we want to be out for a while, and Sophia isn't at the point where she can say "I'm Cold", we have to bundle to the extreme.

This was also the first chance I got to do to Sophia what Mom always did to me before going out in the snow - the face scarf wrap! Now luckily, the scarf we used wasn't long enough to do the full one-pass-over-the-eyes-one-pass-under-the-eyes thing, but her toque was doing a good job of covering her forehead, and we covered her nose with the scarf, so all that was exposed were her little eyes. As if we didn't already know how expressive her eyes are!

Sophia in her sled, bundled up tight

Haley likes the snow, too!

Making snow angels! (kinda)

Daddy and Daughter

Let's do this more often!

PS. we do have video of the sledding, which I will try to post soon...

genius

Yes, you read right. our darling is in fact a certified genius. She can count. Tricia and I still have to coach her a bit, but it's clearly there.

Daddy (holding up one finger): "One!"

Sophie (holding up one finger): "Wun!"

Daddy (holding up two fingers): "Two!"

Sophie (holding up one finger on each hand): "Doo!"

Daddy (holding up three fingers): "Three!"

Sophie (using the finger of one hand to point to the other): "Doo!"

Daddy (looks slightly confused, holding up three fingers again): "Three!"

Sophie (looks at fridge): "Doo!"

Daddy (hopeful): "Four!"

Sophie (looks at haley): "Doo!"

Daddy (confirming): "One!"

Sophie (looks at daddy): "Wun!"

Daddy: "Two!"

Sophie: "Doo!"

Daddy: "Three!"

Sophie: "Doo!"

(daddy gives up, reads sophie a book)

Sophia: "Book-a!"

So she still has a way to go, but still... genius, right?

More Cake

I just finished the second course of the Wilton Cake Decorating class. This time I spent three weeks making royal icing flowers and then during the final class I created my masterpiece!

Christmas Dresses

It's amazing what a year can do!

November 2006
November 2007

It's been a while...(now with pictures!!!)

Yup, even though I am a SAHM (stay at home mom) I somehow lose track of time, and neglect my blogging duties. Shame on me. But I am pretty sure that this not about to change anytime soon. So, in response to the regretful work I am doing on updates I offer to you a big one...So keep scrolling!

Sophia is showing an increased interest in clothing...as long as it is not her own, and only when it is freshly folded! Here she is sporting her daddy's Strongbad t-shirt

I is cute...

Why Sophia can't wear one of mommies' t-shirts instead of underwear, is truly beyond me. But boy if she doesn't look pleased.

We were treated to a visit from the Murton-Bell clan. Just over two months ago, little Annabel joined their family, and Sophia and I got the chance to visit. She enjoyed their company so much that Greg's lap became teh gathering place for all mobile under 4s.

Here's Sophia "ticka ticka"ing (translation: tickling) Joshua.

In the past little while Sophia's tastes for flavors has really developed. She truly likes strongly flavored things, passing up wonderful chicken soup while definately enjoying a spicy pasta. Here is Sophia's I want that face.


Ah...success...I can has carrot cake...

I want more carrot cake --this face is usually associated with things that Sophia really, really likes: cheese, rice pudding, cheese, and whatever mommy and daddy are eating.

Just over a week ago Nana and Papa Mantel were here for a visit. Having them here enabled me to get a good start on my Christmas baking! It was wonderful having them here and Sophia really enjoyed their company. In fact she very happily waved us off one night, didn't even bat an eye. No, I'm not feeling replaceable yet....


"where's Sophie?" Peek-a-boo with Papa

Those who play well are always rewarded with a kiss!!

Nana Gladys and I hit the big craft fair the weekend she was here. We got to go without Sophia, which made the shopping all the easier. Anyway, we got some cool stuff, mostly for other people...including this fabulous sweater for Sophia. She was getting either way, from me or nana, I didn't care. I wanted the sweater for her. And she loves it!

An evening snuggle with Nana.

After several months of eating solids, this is the first time Sophia has pulled the old "bowl on the head routine." She was fascinated to find out that it fit. Thankfully it was empty when she started experimenting.


This was a bit of a strange interaction between papa and Sophia. I think Papa had asked Sophia what sound a bear makes, she wasn't forth coming so he had to show her....the second picture is Sophia showing Papa how to do it correctly!


Maybe we are trying to raise a pick pocket? Sophia was bound and determined to get into Papa's vest pocket. I am not sure anything of any value was in it. Maybe it was the challenge of it all. Anyway, she won't make a good pick pocket unless she starts being a little more stealthy.

The great straw dance. (this took place waaaaay past her bedtime, she was wired!)

Winter has come to the prairies. We were heading out to the Cathedral Village Christmas celebration and that meant Sophia needed to be bundled up good and warm. Well, the combination of the snowsuit and the heavy boots were a little much for her. This is her "help me, I can't move my arms" look. Yup, she's on the floor. She would take about two steps and topple. Other than that, she didn't complain.

We arrived too late for most of the outdoor stuff at the celebration, but Sophia did get close up to a lovely big floppy eared bunny. She'd look at the fuzzy creature and say "hop, hop, hop." She was thrilled.

Halloween

Now, we did post plenty of pictures of Sophia in her monkey costume... you might have to do some post searching for those. We did take Sophia out to a couple of houses, neighbours nearby that we actually know. Daddy took her and she had her little goodie bag lovingly made by Nana Gladys. I think she enjoyed herself, as she was invited into each house, and in a couple she tried to extend the visit into a playdate! Thanks Aiden for sharing your toys....

I think she had fun, her daddy certainly did!

Thankfully Sophia didn't come home with too much candy....although what was brought home was enjoyed by certain adults in the house. Here she is closely inspecting a full size Aero bar.

Climber in Training...

Sophia took it upon herself to learn how to conquer the steep climes of the coffee table. She looks pretty proud of herself, eh? We've stopped her from climbing mainly because she needs to know that not everyone has a sacrificial coffee table in their house!








Here's the update from last night: not to be stopped, Sophia decided to learn how to climb up a kitchen chair. We can thank her daddy for helping her with that learning.

More things she can say...

A list is never complete: these she can also say with regularity:

Hi

when we say hi to her

Haley

When talking to the dog, or pulling the dogs hair

Pu-ppy

said when pointing to haley, or any other dog, or any other 4-legged creature

Hup-py

Yup sheliza, she's got that one too. also means "Please, I would like to be higher than I am now". also when climbing stairs

pow

as in all pow, as in all done (it's a Hawaiian thing)

Bee

as in the thing that makes that zzzz noise

Things sophia can say

Sophia has been rapidly acquiring vocabulary, although we must admit we are being generous at times - most of these only vaguely sound like words - but as with her first word, she has been using these with regularity and with consistent accuracy so although her delivery is off, we believe she is on the cusp of language.

Here are a few things she says consistently and in the right context

Mama/Ma-mee

Consistently used around Tricia, (and still occasionally when pointing to herself and to the fridge). Becomes particularly amusing/infuriating when said rapid-fire to gain attention: ma-ma ma-ma ma-mee ma-mee ma-ma ma-ma MA-MA MA-MEE!!!

Dada/Da-dee

Consistently used around David, (and still occasionally when pointing to herself and to the fridge).

Ba-ba/baby

When she sees herself in a mirror, or when she sees a photo of herself, or any other baby, or other people. Easily confused with...:

Belly

Said when pointing at her belly. The confusion with Baby is particularly amusing/disturbing

Butto/Boto

When asking for a bottle. Or when pointing to her belly button. They sound the same to me

Back-a

When pointing to or touching her back or someone else's back. She tends to add "a" on to the end of most words these days, I think closing consonants are giving her trouble.

Eye, Knee

When pointing to the appropriate body part, on herself or someone else. Doesn't say any of the other body parts she knows, though. Ask her to point to her hair and she's fine but she won't say it...

Water/Wa-Ta/Wa-too

When having to do with water. Drinking water and bath water both get this treatment.

cuckoo / hmmm / caw / bzzz

Various sounds that birds and bees make (uh-oh...) as learned from kindermusic (cuckoo, humming bird, crow, bee).

Mine

also uh-oh....

Rock/Wock-o/Wokka

The premier, having been discussed in an earlier post.

More about mommy and her silly cakes

So I finished Course 1 of the Cake decorating class and have signed up for Course 2. Should be fun, and a lot easier time wise as I only have to make one cake for the end of the session rather than one for each week. We've eaten alot of cake in the last little while.

Anyway, here are pictures of the grand finale cake...

Things Sophia can do

She's growing too fast. Just this morning David looked at me and proclaimed: "She really does look like a little girl." sigh. Where's my little 6 pound baby??? Ah, although I miss that infant stage, I am finding the toddler stage too much fun. Sophia is an intelligent (sometimes too much so) and affectionate little girl. She loves to give kisses and hugs. Although there are many challenges to this stage there are just as many rewards. Here are some of the new things in the life of Sophia:

1. Words: her vocabulary is expanding. In the last few weeks we have words such as -water, baby, belly, back, cuckoo (this comes from the Kindermusik focus on birds), caw (the sound a Blackbird makes), growls, and mama (with acknowledgement that I am mama!). For a while she's been pointing at my back saying "baby"...not quite but now we have her saying back. Now if I could only get her saying "belly" instead of "baby" when she points to my stomach. I can pretty much assure you there's no baby in there!

2. Sophia is getting FOUR teeth --two upper incisors, an upper first molar and a lower first molar. Yikes. Sleep has not been good.

3. Sophia LOVES books. We went to the library for the first time a couple of weeks ago and she was in heaven. She ran about the children's section (and later the fiction section) pulling books of the shelves and checking them out. There are little people sized chairs for her to sit on so she is quite content. I, on the other hand, am getting very good with the decimal system and might look into a library job when I go back to work.

4. Tents are good. We got this tent and tunnel play structure from the Gerhard grandparents for Sophia (it's her Christmas present really, but we wanted to have some fun. "We" being the adults of course). Sophia sits in the tent with books and toys...and it quite content to just be. It's her own little private space. Too cute.

5. Sophia loves the kitchen. The plastic, mini kind of Kitchen. Again a christmas present from the Mantel grandparents. When down stairs she spends oodles of time putting things in and out of the oven. There are little plastic utensils all over the floor in the basement.

On the whole, life is going very well for us. We are all happy and healthy, enjoying our time together. It's hard to believe how quickly 15 months can go until you have a baby!

More visits

We LOVE visits. Last week Grandma and Grandpa Gerhard came to see us. Well, first Grandma came and then Grandpa drove out after teaching all day Friday. Can we say dedicated Grandpa???

We had a lovely time with the parents Gerhard. There was lots of fawning and adoring and loving going on. There was a little initial shyness, on Sophia's part, not Diane and Arthur's! But that was soon shed as soon as Sophia found out that these new people would read her stories --usually the same one over and over again. Honestly, I think we all have Lentil memorized by now. Although, I think it is right to say that Grandpa was the preferred reader, as more often than not Sophia could be found sitting on his lap with book in hand. I think Arthur read that Dog book of hers about twenty times in one day.



One of thing we did with the whole family was pile into the car for a drive out to Lumsden. There we found Pumpkin Hollow...a place with multiple kinds of pumpkins to look at and buy. We all had a great time, but I think Sophia was happiest by far...she found cats to chase, little pumpkins to cart around, paths to walk/run down, and other children to play with. She was in her glory. Daddy and Sophia picked out the pumpkins which will be carved sometime this weekend, just in time for the 31st.








One of the fun things I got to do was to put my cake decorating skills to work. We had a little celebration dinner for both Arthur and David's birthdays. After a wonderful salmon supper (Arthur's favorite) we had cake. And boy did we have cake. I had purchased a teddy bear shaped pan and decided that it would be the cake the boys would get. It took me over two hours of work....but I think it was worth it.




It was a great visit, and we can't wait to see them again.

Next to stay in the guest room: The Grandparents Mantel!