Bed Adventures

The day after Thanksgiving we took Sophia's crib, changing table, and lots of other equipment to Eugene for Uncle Barry & Aunt Jess. Most of the equipment had been out of Sophia's room for a while, but the changing table we removed that morning. She was quite distressed asking "changing table? diaper?" which I think means, "if you're taking my changing table where will I get diapers from now on?" But maybe I'm reading too much into it. It is quite wonderful to clear out some of our baby equipment and clothing and to be able to help our family at the same time. Uncle Barry & Paul put the crib together in the baby's new room, supervised quite closely by Sophia.

Sophia is doing fairly well with her new bed, but has really embraced the concept of being able to get in and out of it. She comes out of her room a couple of times, spends time turning her night light off and on and plays with her menagerie of stuffed animals. Last night we heard strange noises coming from her room, but since it didn't sound like she was trying to leave the room we didn't check on her. This morning we discovered she had removed every book from one shelf of her bookcase and arranged them around her bed. We made her clean them up, which she didn't really mind as she takes almost as much joy in putting things back in as she does taking them out. It's hard to be too annoyed with a child who wants to surround herself with books. I'm sure if I think hard enough, that will remind me of someone!

Happy Thanksgiving!

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving celebration with most of the people we love most at our house to celebrate; although not all several usual participants in our Thanksgiving didn't make it this year and they were missed. One of the lovely things about our families is that my parents and I have been completely adopted by Paul and his family, so family celebrations usually include all of us. We've very lucky to have married into such a accepting, loving group.

We had 13 (plus two in utero) at our house for Thanksgiving. It was a little smaller that past years, but we made up for it in fun. Our friends from Roseburg came and Sophia had a great time playing with their boys. In the morning Sophia and the boys, both dads, Alex and Gabe, took a long trip to the park. They had a great time until Alex had an unfortunate incident with the pavement and they had to come home.

We all gathered about 10:30 and at at 2ish. Paul did his usual fantastic job barbecuing the turkey and all the food was great. Sophia liked it enough that there wasn't much of a mess under her chair! Earl gave Alex a chess lesson which Sophia couldn't resist "helping". While Alex is old enough to really play, she mostly wants to move the pieces around. But at least she can name most of the correctly, which is doing pretty well for 20 months.

Sophia really enjoys playing with Alex and Gabe. This photo of them on the couch was taken during their after-dinner movie. Sophia looked at Alex and said "Alex sit couch" and he very kindly got up and move next to her. I'm not sure it's a good thing that she already has boys dancing to her tune! My mother always has Thanksgiving gifts for all the kids. This year they all got books, so they each had to listen to all of them. It's a good thing a book is such an easy thing to share.

Sophia didn't take a nap at all, so by the end of the day she was exhausted, so we finished our fun day with a viewing of the Wiggles.

Sophia sleeps better

Sorry, no new picture to post, but I am happy to report that Sophia went to bed quite easily last night. She cried "Daddy, are you?" (Daddy, where are you?) in her most pitiful voice, and then giggled with glee when he came in to check on her. Other than that, we heard her singing to her duck and all was quiet. I think two things we did last night helped. 1. We let her pick out her pajamas. 2. She got to choose her own blanket. I think those small pieces of control made her feel better about the process.

Big Girl Bed

Friday evening, we moved Sophia into her new toddler bed. We sold it as big as we could, touting it as a "big girl bed" and how exciting it was. Saturday she proudly showed it off to her grandparents. She did fairly well Friday night. A few times we even heard her say "big girl bed" over the baby monitor. But last night was not good. Last night she figured out she could get out of the bed and try to leave the room. This morning she came to wake us up at 5 a.m.

Unfortunately, the introduction of the toddler bed coincided with the end of the pacifier. This was not our intention. Friday evening one of the times I went in to check on her I discovered she'd chewed off the end of her pacifier and swallowed it. Since it's no longer safe for her to have them, they had to go. I think if she at least had them, she'd be a bit more comforted. Paul put her down a few minutes ago and she's crying like her heart has broken. It's so sad. But, the crib needs to move to Uncle Barry & Aunt Jess' house in time for their baby, so it's a sad time for Sophia. We've had to go back to putting her "on the clock" and visiting to calm her down after increasing lengths of time. I'm quite sure that people promised me that after we did this to her as an infant we'd never need it again. I feel a bit mislead. But probably not nearly as betrayed as poor Sophia does, having lost the only bed she's ever really known.

Other things in her life continue to bring her joy. Lately she's been dancing with a bear a lot. Which is pretty funny because the bear is about her size. She especially loves "Baby Beluga" by Raffi and frequently asks for "Baby Buga" by name.

She has also grown enough that we had to change the strap size on her car seat. She was very concerned about Daddy messing with her seat, and kept a close watch on him the entire time.

Jumping on our bed seems to be about her favorite thing in life, at least now that it's cold and rainy and she doesn't get much outdoor time. Also popular is the "chase you" game.

She continues to enjoy watching us cook. Recently she got to stir and shake in herbs for a crock pot dish. She seemed pretty proud.

We've seen a lot of the grandparents lately. I took some funny pictures of her playing peek-a-book with Grandma and Grandpa. Sophia really loves it when someone hides with her. My parents spent the night last night which was the first time ever they've spent the night at this house, and we enjoyed all that extra time with them. Papa provided nearly constant entertainment, and even consented to be a horse.
Saturday my mother, Darla and I attended a lovely baby shower for Aunt Jessica. Sophia got to stay in Salem and entertain my father and Paul. When the women returned, Sophia was still bouncing off the walls, and Paul and Papa looked like they were about to drop.

My mother, who puts amazing effort into gifts had early Thanksgiving gifts for us. Sophia got a Fisher Price Little People Thanksgiving set, which was enormously popular. (I think it may be impossible for Grannie to visit Sophia and not bring a present.) Paul and I got a lovely statue of a Pilgrim couple, and the small Pilgrim child riding a turkey in this picture on the right. I think I can fairly say that this is about the oddest gift I have ever received. When I pulled it out of the box me, Paul, my father and even my mother, laughed as hard as possible. I had to stop because my stomach hurt from laughing. After seeing this post, my mother asked that I update to say that Sophia seemed to like the turkey, immediately taking it away to play with. I'm not quite sure why my mother bought it, but I do believe it will become one of those legendary family pieces that we pull out every Thanksgiving and have a good laugh over.

Shush!

Today I experienced the wonder that is Cragislist. We bought Sophia a bouncy horse for Christmas. Now we just have to keep it hidden from her until then. Don't tell!

Seasonal confusion

I'm not sure what season we're having. Some days it seems like early fall or late summer, and other days like winter. This weekend we had beautiful weather and got into the mid-sixties. Sophia was able to spend a lot of time outdoors, and at the wedding I performed on Sunday we took a lot of outdoor pictures. This is not what one would typically expect in November in Oregon. Usually, we would have rain, rain, rain and lots of dark, cloudy skies.

This weekend we spent Saturday in Battle Ground with Grandma and Grandpa. Sophia enjoyed playing with their toys, which have the benefit of not being the ones she is used to. We all went to a playground, where Sophia convinced Grandpa to go down the slide with her. Unfortunately, I cut off his head in the photo (which should not be taken as a sign of how I feel about my father-in-law). Sunday, my parents had lunch with us, and my mother attended the Sunday school class I'm teaching, so it was a good grandparent-weekend all around.

Happy Halloween!

Sophia had great fun with Halloween yesterday. She got to wear her costume at day care in the afternoon, and then I took her to Paul's work to trick-or-treat. We couldn't get her to say "trick-or-treat" but she would say "candy?" and then "thank you" so she did ok. I got her lion costume at a used kids' clothing store and it was warm enough that she didn't need a jacket last night. She loved it, roaring frequently to get into character. We only took her to a few houses. She showed great interest in acquiring the candy, but none at all in eating it, thank goodness. She also enjoyed helping pass out candy to the kids who came to the door.