Family Reuions

Not too much as happened around here lately, until this past weekend, that is. My cousin Carrie who lives in Richmond, British Columbia came to visit. We hadn't seen her since our wedding, almost 8 years ago! (On a side note, isn't it amazing how you can still feel close to someone, even if you don't see them?). We had a wonderful weekend together. It was so nice to show off Sophia, and to talk about the strange things our ancestors did. (For example, my great-grandfather was once in a car accident turning left. So he never turned left again.)

Carrie proved to be a champion at Lego building and reading and was even willing to put up with the Wiggles both in the car and as a movie. Sophia took to her right away, and usually for Sophia, even did a good job at calling Carrie by name. We'll have to go see Carrie again soon.

Sophia loved to look at pictures, so she will often get out a photo album, saying "heavy" as she carries it. A few weeks ago she got our our wedding pictures and pointed to my veil and said "what's that?" I told her it was a veil, something some women wear on their heads for their weddings. While this is a perfectly rational explanation, it doesn't make sense to someone 22 months old. So I got my veil out and showed it to her. She wouldn't let me put it on her head, but was quite happy to play with it for a while.

Christmas continues

Christmas continues for Sophia. Yesterday she received in the mail a package from Aunt Amy. The gift was packed in the same box we sent Amy's gift in, so perhaps Amy needed to wait for proper packaging to get it in the mail. Amy sent little wooden turtles and Sophia loved them, playing with them by herself quite happily while I fixed dinner. I also baked a cake tonight, and Sophia has learned about licking the beaters. As soon as she realized what I was doing she pulled a chair over to the counter and said "bite?" She was quite anxious until I was done and it was her turn.

A few days ago I realized how terribly behind I was putting our pictures into albums. So I've been working on that, and Sophia loves the results. She really likes to look at photo albums and name all our friends and family. We like it because it helps her remember those folks we don't see every day. She's not the most gentle with the albums, but they were meant to be looked at, so that's ok.

We miss Daddy

During dinner tonight Sophia kept singing to herself, "miss Daddy, miss Daddy." It was cute, but also sad. Other than that, we're doing quite well on our own. My bath technique tonight was not her preferred (Daddy) method, she kept telling me I was doing it wrong, but she is clean and that's what matters.

Happy New Year

I know, we're 8 days into 2008 and I'm just now posting about the New Year. That seems about par for the course these days. The weekend before New Year's we went to Roseburg to see our friends there. Sophia had a great time playing with the boys, and they ran around - and us ragged - and had fun.

When we got back we put together 2 of Sophia's 'big' Christmas toys that required assembly. One of them is an enormous green ball and the other is a basketball hoop. I keep expecting her to try put the green ball through the hoop, but since she can't pick it up very well yet, she hasn't tried. Of course, you get a kid great presents, and she plays, or in this case pretenders to sleep, on the box. It sort of argues against spending a lot of money on toys! She is also enjoying her tricycle that she got for Christmas, although it's been a bit cold for much outdoor time.

Grandma and Grandpa came down for dinner last Sunday. Grandpa being the careful, technical person he is, is a good lego builder. But I think Sophia's favorite part is knocking down what he builds. Luckily, he takes it with a lot of amusement - I'm less happy when she knocks over my buildings - but that's what grandparents are for.

In a New Year's fit of organization, I was clearing out old electronics we no longer use and found my old camera. I hauled this camera all over Europe with me 12 years ago, and tried to take good care of it. Now, of course, we've gone digital and this former companion is a toy for Sophia. It's a little strange to see her playing with it, but she loves having her own camera. I doubt the entertainment factor will last long, though, when she discovers she can't immediately see the picture she just took on the screen at the back of the camera.

Paul is in Phoenix for training this week, so it's just me and Sophia. We'll do our best not to kill each other and even have some fun while he's gone. In other news, I decided not go back to my job at the library, I'm just not well enough to be good at my job anymore. I'm pretty sad about that, but I think it's the right thing.

Christmas fun

We are rested and recuperated from our 5-day Christmas extravaganza. We started Friday evening celebrating Christmas just the 3 of us. We opened presents and ate dinner on our special Christmas china. Sophia liked her horse, but she fell off the first time she got on it, so was a little hesitant after that. She was much more into the Lego's we got her. She also got to open the package sent from Aunt Meghan and Uncle Pat which contained a Wiggles movie. That was an enormous hit and she wanted to watch it immediately.

Saturday morning we went to Portland and stayed at my parent's house through Christmas. We spent the day preparing for the Wittmayer family (my father's siblings and their kids and grandkids) Christmas party. We also had a fun dinner with both sides of the family and Sophia loved having all of her grandparents together.

Sunday morning we went to my parents' church where they enjoyed showing off their granddaughter. It was nice for me to see so many of the people I grew up with. Then, mid-afternoon, the Wittmayers descended upon us. Sophia was hesitant in the beginning, reluctantly playing with Great-aunt Sue, but sticking pretty close to Mom and Dad. But when cousins Roya and Layla got there, she was off like a shot. This was really the first time she has been a full participating in their play, and they ran all over the house, jumped on beds, played dancing games around a foot-stool, and had a wonderful time. They were a little loud, but they were very well-behaved and were just having fun, so we didn't mind the din. There were presents for the little girls, and the adults participated in our usual exchange.

After everyone left, we introduced Sophia to Papa's hot tub. She called it "swimming" and seemed happy as a clam. Granny watched through one of the windows close to the hot tub, and Sophia said "hi Granny" over and over. Afterwards, she shared her bedtime snack with Grannie, although she mostly gave the broken crackers to Grannie.

Christmas Eve day we spent all of at Paul's parents house. Uncle Barry and Aunt Jessica were there too. We cooked, hung out, played games, read and Sophia played "boom boom" again with anyone she could talk into it. We had a wonderful traditional Christmas dinner with turkey and all the trimmings, and then it was present time! Last year Sophia found it stressful and overwhelming. But this year, she helped carry presents, opened hers with only minimal help and would say "more!" after each gift she opened. I think her favorite was a soft plush bowling set from Barry & Jess, although that may have been because it came in a plastic case with a handle and she could carry it around, and play the take-out-and-put-back-in game. We also spent some time tossing the ball around the room and she thought that was hysterical.

Christmas morning started bright and early with Sophia discovering her trike that Santa (Grannie and Papa) got her. It was a big hit as was unpacking her stocking to find treasures. She loved our traditional Christmas breakfast of scrambled eggs with ham, and then got into the general present-opening with great glee. She was happy to carry presents to people and wanted to help open. In the afternoon we visited my grandmother in the nursing home who was quite happy to see Sophia. It was also good that the rest of us came along. After that, we took Sophia to Darla & Earl's house and left here there for two days! Paul and I got to enjoy a couple of relaxing days on our own. We got her back today at my father's birthday dinner. It was great to have the time alone, but better to have her home with us.

We had a wonderful Christmas, which was much less stressful than last year's. Sophia scored big with presents, which made Paul and I feel good about only giving her 2 things. I don't think she got any sense of a deeper meaning of Christmas yet, but she certainly is now familiar with most of the Christmas icons, Santa, snowman, candy cane, and baby Jesus. Hopefully as time goes on, she come to understand what all of that means. I also hope that some day soon, she'll stop singing 'Jingle Bells' as I'm getting really sick of it!


Happy holidays all!

Christmas excitement

We are home and mostly unpacked from our 4-day Christmas extravaganza. I'm posting this one picture of Sophia surrounded by her 'loot' now, and will post more soon. I hope your Christmas was happy.

Family Photo Shoot

About 6 weeks ago we got new family pictures taken. We also had several taken of just Sophia. I keep forgetting to post them online, so here they are a little late.

Sophia's stranger anxiety came out full-force during her alone photos. Of 12 pictures of her alone, only 2 were any good. Not even the addition of bunny, her favorite toy, helped her smile. She just did not want to smile for that stranger who kept talking to her and making funny noises. In the photo where she's looking over her shoulder, I am just to the left, out of the shot. The photo with her hand in her chin was uncoached; she did it on her own and the photographer was quick enough to catch it. I think it's the best one of her.

Once we joined her, she was quite happy and we got some good family pictures.

Happy Birthday Grandma!

Saturday we went to Battleground to visit Grandma and Grandpa for Grandma's birthday. Barry and Jess joined us too. Sophia had fun all day even in the car on the way up. She played with her sunglasses, very proud of herself when she got them on her face, which she could only do with them upside down. In Battleground we played all day, and cooked Grandma dinner, since I didn't think it fair to make her cook her own birthday dinner. (As Darla gets such pleasure out of cooking for others, she may have actually preferred to cook.)

As always, Sophia basked in the devoted attention of 6 adults. Boy is she going to have a rude awakening when Barry & Jess' baby comes in January! We've told her about the baby, and now when we mention Aunt Jess, she says 'Jessica, baby" which I think is toddler shorthand for "Jessica is having a baby." Lately we've been trying to teach her that when she eats food, it goes to her tummy. So on Saturday as we told her that Jessica's baby is in her tummy, Sophia looked both confused and concerned.

She had a great time playing with everyone, especially Grandma and Grandpa. She loved the Christmas decorations and spent a long time playing with long strands of beads. Yes, we know this is not the best toy for her to have, but since she was supervised full-time by 6 people, we thought it fairly safe. She enjoyed "decorating" Grandma. Later, she had fun combing everyone's hair. She's not very gentle at this process. She and Grandpa invented a new game Sophia calls "boom boom." She sits on the landing in the middle of the stairs, and Grandpa throws a ball up to her and it bounces around and falls back down. Sophia laughed, laughed and laughed until her face was all red.

She had a great time all day and was in one of the best moods we've seen her in for a while. If only we could give her this much attention all the time, she'd never be grumpy!