Life

It's been a few weeks since our last post. Mostly time has been occupied with living but there have been a few highlights, and frankly some low-lights too. I've had a bad migraine, and Paul and I both had the worst case of the flu we've ever had. We were sick enough that I had to get my parents to come take care of Sophia the first day, and the second day we took her to day care and then stayed home sick ourselves!

In between the health crises, we've been having some fun. We went to the zoo with my parents. Sophia especially loved rolling along in her stroller right next to Grannie Nancy in her wheelchair. Sophia kept looking at my mom and grinning, like she was enjoying having a buddy. She also insisted on petting every goat in the petting zoo area. (Which begs the question, why are there farm animals and a petting zoo in a zoo? Are they for the suburban kids who don't know any farm animals?) Aunt Meghan and Uncle Pat came to visit for Pat's birthday and Sophia got to spend the night in Battle Ground with her aunts and uncles, Grandma and Grandpa without Mommy and Daddy. We're sad to say that she didn't seem to notice our absence with all those folks to entertain.

We've also been having some fun around here. A brand new park recently opened near us, and it's the most amazing park I've seen. It has lots of slides, climbing equipment, and even water features. We love it. We've had a lot of fun playing with the kids in our neighborhood, especially our neighbor Emily who Sophia really loves.

You never know what Sophia will come up with to entertain us. She's figured out that if she holds the rail of her crib and jumps she can get a lot of air. Unfortunately, she's doing this for several minutes after we put her to bed at night. Recently, she put a blanket over her head and ran up and down the halls several times. Amazingly, she didn't run into anything. She never ceases to entertain us!

Water fun

What do you do with a toddler when the temperature is over 90? You let her play with the hose, of course.

Then, since she's stripped down to her diaper anyway, and it's bath-night, you let her play with her pasta.

Ok, maybe you wouldn't do these things with your toddler, but we did, and we all had a wonderful evening!

Pottry Training

Last night Sophia and I were playing when she marched to the door of the bathroom where her potty lives and started saying "potty, potty." I thought it was a game, so I tried to pull her away. She was most insistent, so I took her in, took off her diaper, and let her sit on the potty. She stayed there for several minutes, all the time I'm getting bored with what I think is a game, and she's saying, "potty, potty." Imagine my shock when I finally take her off the potty to find she's used it! She repeated the behavior again during dinner when she repeated her potty-chant, and Paul took her. To celebrate her milestone we took her out for ice cream, so I'm posting a picture of the celebratory ice cream, rather than the potty chair post-use. She continued to use the potty today at day care. We're quite proud of her. Certainly, we haven't had much to do with the potty training! I think she's been inspired by the other kids at day care, or maybe she's just potty training herself.

Potty

Sophia had a good week. I didn't have a good week since I was down with a migraine all week, but at least Sophia's routines continued as normal. Last Monday, before the migraine got too bad, she and I went to the Zoo with our friends Therese (who gave me the lemon I posted a few weeks ago) and her daughter Ellie. Unfortunatley, I didn't get a good picture of Sophia with Ellie, so we'll have to wait on that one. Sophia had a fantastic time at the zoo, but she was primarilly interested in the other kids all of whom she calls "baby." It was especially exciting to her to have a baby traveling around with us all day and she was quite intriguted by Ellie.

We were at the zoo by 10 Monday morning, and I've never seen it so empty. When we went to ride the train, we walked directly up and didn't have to wait for it. I don't think I've ever done that in my entire life. Apparently that's the best time to go to the zoo. Sophia loved the train, eagerly looking around and making frequent train noises. The day was a lot of fun.

Today we had a couple of important shopping ventures. First we got Sophia's feet sized, she's now a size 7, and bought her new shoes. I confess, I subcumed to trendiness, and bought her a pair of Crocs. They seemed to me to be ideal kid shoes, since they're tough, waterproof and clean off easily. She wanted to wear them out of the store, and all day long she'd look down at them and say "shoes" or "new shoes." She also frequently held out a foot so we could admire the new shoes.

Also today we bought her a potty of her very own. She's not quite ready to use it, but at day care she's insisting on sitting on it after the other kids do, so she's showing quite a bit of interest. She also wants to get up close and personal when we use the potty, something that is a lot more funny to tell about than to have happen to you. After we brought it home she wanted to carry her new potty all around the house, and that's not a habit we want her getting into! So after posing for some pictures (that face she's making isn't a grumpy face, it's a pose for pictures face) we insisted that it return to the bathroom. She sat on it for a while before bath, but no use yet. We can't wait for the end of diapers, so we're encouraging her all we can.