Quinzee completion, and two random pics

It was warmer today ("only" -17) so Sophia and Daddy went outside to play in the snow and complete the excavation of the quinzee. We also performed some face-plants, drew santas and did swimming. In the snow. Don't ask.


interior, showing the great room, as seen from the south entrance. The north entrance and the west landing are clearly visible.


View from the entrance to the east annex


Exterior. Annex is on the right of the image, and the south entrance is seen to the left.

And a couple more random images. Here is Jacob attempting to master the osborne finger suck, which his sister picked up so rapidly.



And here is Sophia in her brand-new two-piece bathing suit. Swimming lessons (level "sea turtles") start up again tomorrow (hence the snow swimming mentioned above) and when we bought the new swimsuit a few days ago and she tried it on at home, she insisted that she wear it all day. With socks.

invisible bike

invisible bike

Hard lessons

Sophia is learning a couple of hard lessons these days, primary among them being that when things break, they often can't be fixed.

She received a nice hairband for christmas, and she wore it a few times and quite liked it. One afternoon, she and Mom were in her room playing, and she picked up the hairband, looked at mom, said "I break it" and proceeded to bend it in half the wrong way. The band cracked and was ruined. She then started to cry, and proceed to have a fit saying "Put it together!" We spent some time comforting her but telling her that it couldn't be put together, that it was broken and had to be thrown away (which was true - there was no fixing this break). She calmed down after a while, but for a while was confused and enraged that the thing that was once whole and is now broken could not be made whole again.

A few days later, we were in the store and she had a coke cup full of water, complete with lid and straw. And yes, we had costco hotdogs for lunch. It's not such a horrible thing once in a while. So we're rolling around the store and suddenly there's a sloshing noise and the new bathing suit in the cart is soaked with water and there is a large and spreading puddle on the floor. She had up-ended the cup, just to see what would happen, and the lid popped off and out flowed all of the water. She held the cup to me and said she wanted more. I tried to explain to her that refills weren't free (although water would probably have been OK but we were not anywhere near the cafeteria) but she wouldn't have it. She threw a fit, again confused and angry that things once emptied cannot on demand be filled.

A tough life lesson but one better learned early than late, I suppose.

Quinzee

A few days ago (when it was "only" -9 outside) Sophia and I played in the snow. One of the results of that playing was a large pile of snow and the intention of constructing a Quinzee the next day, if it was nice out. It wasn't. Many days came and went, with -30 degree temperatures. Today was "only" -16, so we decided that today was the day to tunnel. We began by digging a cave in the pile, and Sophia was a bit anxious about going in, but once the room was excavated a bit and the hole was completed to the other side producing a complete in-and-out tunnel, she was more eager and crawled through a number of times. She got stuck on the huge drifts on the other side, but once we tramped a pathway, she was good to go.

Stage two of the construction involves a larger central (or "Great") room, an annex, and an east entrance.

New Year, New Skills

OK, so these skills are not exactly new as of 2009 (although Sophia's is only a day or two old) but there are a few cool things that both kids can do now that they couldn't do recently.

Sophia has uttered a 13 word sentence. She regularly amazes us with her linguistic aptitude, but for some reason this particular sentence stuck in my head. She was on her bed having just received a diaper change, and she said (something like) "I need down, I need to put this in garbage in Jacob's room" which is where the diaper genie is. So down she went and put her old diaper where it was supposed to go. The crazy thing is she is always taking in big sentences like this. Sure, she misses an article or two here and there, but really, who doesn't. She rarely makes those "me-you" mistakes she used to, but there are a couple of new common errors: "I doed it" (instead of "I did it") and "I break it together" (instead of "I break it apart") when she is done a puzzle and wants to disassemble it and start again.


This goes here

Sophia's drawing ability is also proceeding. Just yesterday, she began to draw faces. Out of the blue. like with a circle-type thing, then eyes and mouth. And then arms coming out of the ears and legs coming out of the neck, but still, all the parts are there and she's actually pretty good at it. Before, the best she could do was a string on a balloon daddy had drawn. Her colouring is also all of a sudden better. Rather than random scribbling, she intentionally colours in someone's hand, or a face, or a ball, or something else in the picture. Of course, it is still scribbles, but it is very intentional and she even holds her marker or crayon sort of "normally" instead of in her fist like she used to.

Sophia drawing Sophia:


Jacob's skills are in a different category altogether. He is just starting to roll from his back to his side, to have some control over his hands and some control over his feet. Also, he is blathering more, holding his head up more, and smiling more. also drooling. a lot.

Jacob playing the jukebox:


And here is more evidence of his advancing manual dexterity, in the form of grabbing and holding on for dear life.

New improved Jacob with the kung-fu grip!

We are starting to try him in the bumbo and the jolly jumper from time to time, too. He is old enough, theoretically, but his head is still a little wobbly yet. Also, the harness thing he sits in is too big for him, even at the smallest setting. That's how small he is.

Jumping not so jolly yet. but soon.

He is starting to suck on more things as well. He is just starting to take a soother for a few tens of seconds at a time, then he will spit it out. He is finding his hand but isn't quite able to locate a thumb or a finger to suck, but when he has "the need," any lump will do, so we often find him slobbering all over the second knuckle of his index finger... and if you've never experienced a 3-month old slobbering over the second knuckle of his index finger, it is NOISY!!

latched to something other than mommy

ALSO: Christmas posts are coming, so be patient.