Sophie turned 3!

December 2nd was our sweet girl's birthday.  I can't believe she is 3 already!  She is looking and acting so much older these days.  Here is a little about her at this age.

-She loves loves loves books.  She loves to "read" them on her own or to be read to.  On days when she won't nap, she yells out, "Mommy, I need books!"  I bring her a giant stack, which usually keeps her going for about 45 minutes.  After that, she yells out, "Mommy!  It's all done!  I need some different books please!"  I then exchange her stack for another one which lasts her about the same amount of time.  So, even though she only naps about 3-4 days a week, I still get some time to be child free while Sally naps since Sophie sits contentedly in her room for so long.  Some days, when I tell her she can get out of bed, she doesn't want to.  "No, mommy.  I want to sit right here and read my books."

-She was evaluated for speech one last time to see if she would be eligible for further services.  She has progressed so well though, that they found her to be at an average level for her age!  No more speech therapy for her.

-She is a long and lean girl.  61st percentile for height and 30th percentile for weight.  We recently weighed both girls, and Sally has a 5 pound advantage on Sophie!  Ha!

- She has an independent personality, but can still be clingy in unfamiliar situations.  She likes to snuggle sometimes too, but is not the snuggle bug her sister is.   She will entertain herself (and Sally) for hours with legos, coloring, playing in her kitchen, and reading books.

-She has a good relationship with Sally, although they do sometimes fight over toys, etc.  They enjoy screaming and chasing each other around the house and playing "no more monkeys" on our bed.

- I don't know if it is more her age or personality, but sadly, we have entered a  major whining/crying phase.  If the least little thing goes wrong, it is not unlikely that she will burst into full "freak-out" mode.  For example, if she is trying to make 2 lego pieces go together, but can't make it work, she will scream, kick, cry, and push the two legos together so hard that her hands and whole body shake slightly.  She also just generally whines/cries about things throughout the day instead of asking for them or for some help.  It is not a fun phase.

-She seems to have perfectionistic tendencies.  She doesn't like messes or to get messy.  She doesn't like when any type of food or drink gets on her or her clothes.  She likes things to be "just so" when it comes to her toys.  We were putting some stickers in a book in the car one time.  Each sticker had a corresponding spot where you were supposed to put it.  She tried it a few times, but couldn't get it perfectly in the spot, and so, went into "freak-out" mode.  After that, she wanted to continue with the book, but insisted that I put the stickers in place for her.

-She has an amazing memory.  She remembers people's names after meeting them only a few times.  She memorizes tons of books and songs.  I read a Sandra Boynton book to her several times, and was amazed at how quickly she picked it up and read it to herself just by repeating what she heard me say.  She knows all her letters, numbers, colors.  She has this toy that has the alphabet on it and an animal on each letter.  She has memorized all the sounds these animals make, even though most of them don't really sound like the animal and most of the animals are kind of obscure.  I mean, do you know what sound a sea urchin, newt, yak, dolphin, turtle, porcupine, jellyfish, or turtle make?  I think she has an auditory memory like me, so she can easily remember things she hears, even if they are obscure animal sounds.

-There are too many things to list, but she is always coming up with cute little things to say that we have never heard from her before.  This age is so fun because verbal communication is becoming so much more than what it used to be.  She hears us say something one day, and several days later will use it in some context.  It is just fun to watch!

-She is somewhat potty-trained.  I plan to do a separate post on this.

Here are a few pics from her little birthday party.  We just had family over, and I was glad it was small and simple.  Birthday parties are work!  And at this age, we can get away with doing not very much and her not really caring.

Catching up. . a Christmas recap!

Well, I have clearly fallen behind on my blogging.  That's okay, though.  I am doing it for my own memory preserving more than anything.  I do understand now, though, how one falls behind.  Before, when I was just a blog reader, I would find a blog that interested me, and then get disappointed when they wouldn't post very often.  "How do they NOT have something to blog about?"  But, now I get it.  Other things take precedence :)

There are lots of things I want to post on, but rather than going in chronological order, I want to start out by posting about our Christmas in Tennessee.  It was so fun to be with my whole family again for the first time in a year and a half.  We were there for about a week, and got to do lots of fun things.  As the girls get older, it feels like things get easier and, hence, more fun.  In fact, even though the drive is 16ish hours, I would say the girls did better than expected, especially since we drove straight through.  They read to themselves a lot, ate pretty well, and didn't complain much.  We were so thankful! 

Here are some pictures of the fun we had:

Painting the presents.  Here Sally declares, "I painting the head, Mommy!"

baking cookies with Abuelo

snuggling

Sally and Aunt Betsy

Eating snowman doughnuts from Krispy Kreme

Amelia and Josh- *Explanation* According to tradition, we all get dressed up in our pj's late at night and make a trip to Krispy Kreme.  The last time we did this, I was too little to notice all the funny looks we got from other customers.  But not this time! Funny and priceless:)

my mom- Abuela

Had to include this pic of Sophie for Amelia.  We always say Sophie looks like Amelia, but here she is holding her tongue just the way Amelia used to.  Isn't that funny, Pea?

more snuggling

The girls watched Winnie the Pooh over and over in Abuelo and Abuela's room.  They have fallen in love with it.

Other than that, we also had a mini birthday party for Sally at a frozen custard place, which included a group performance of the hokey pokey, lots of game nights, cooking lots of yummy food, a shopping day for me, my mom, and my sisters, a golf day for the guys, seeing Les Miserables (so good!), and lots of gift giving.  One funny story about the girls:  While waiting to open presents, we sent them to their play area while we read a Christmas story together as a family.  The girls were visible to us, but kind of far away.  I noticed that they seemed to be having a lot of fun, and so went to check it out.  They were indeed!  They had found a full carton of eggs, and had broken every last one to create their own slip n slide in the middle of the floor.  We pulled out the video camera and got some good clips of them having fun in the mess and telling us about it.  Not something you'd want to happen, but we got some good laughs out of it.  Overall, it was a great Christmas!  I just wish we all lived closer so we could do those kinds of things more often.

Sophie's boo boo

Recently, Sophie slipped on our hardwood floor and hit her shin on her bed frame, resulting in a fractured tibia.  Poor girl!  She is really recovering well though.  She is able to put some weight on it now.  The first time she was able to stand up on her own, she got a huge smile on her face and proclaimed, "Mommy, I'm standing!"  followed soon by, "Mommy, I'm walking!"  She was SO proud of herself and so happy.  She gets the cast off in 4-6 weeks.  She is always asking to take it off, but then reminds herself,  "We can't take it off, it's supposed to stay on."  Yes, Sophie, you are right.  She is too cute.  She was the best little patient too.  She just laid there quietly when she was examined at the ER (with a sad little frown on her face and an occasional wimper).  I felt so sad for her.  The first few nights were rough for her because of pain, but she is back to her old self now.  Here are some pictures of her cast.

Some random thoughts about the election

Ok, so throughout the campaigning over the past few months, I have refrained from posting any opinions about one party or the other, but I decided I wanted to write about how I feel.  I don't know that facebook is the best place to post about such things, but since this is my blog, I figure, you only have to read it if you want to, right?  This post is completely random, and somewhat disorganized, but that is kind of what my brain is right now.  I totally understand if you disagree with what I say.    These are tough issues, and I do not claim to be an expert.  This is just what I think right now.

Historically, I have been pretty ignorant about politics in general.  My parents didn't strongly push the views of one particular party or another, and I don't remember a whole lot of conversations in our house about politics.  We discussed our own Christian values, but politics just seemed to be a topic that was neither here nor there.  Now I see why.  No party is completely correct or even close to it in regard to the myriad of issues there are to be addressed.  Everything is so complicated and not straightforward.  The effects of one seemingly good idea end up being good for some reasons and bad for others.  It is hard to know what is best for an entire nation.  It is hard to get a straight answer about what a candidate really believes and plans to do.  It takes a lot of work to learn about and understand all the intricacies of new policies and their implications.  And even after you do understand a lot, how do you decide what is best, particularly when there are several good (but just different) solutions? 


Now that I am older, and my life seems more impacted by politics, I have taken a greater interest in it.  I almost feel, though, that ignorance was bliss.  Not really, but it is just sad to see such division in our country.  I just feel disillusioned by it all.   I will go ahead and say that I voted for Mitt Romney, but I voted for Obama in the last election.  This year, the issue that was most important to me was our country's financial state.  I think we need to focus on reducing our national debt and excess spending.  What is most important to me next election may change.  I do think that Mitt Romney would have done a better job regarding this issue than Obama will.  However, I think that there are lots of things that Obama will do a better job of than Romney could have.

I know that God is sovereign over everything.  He allowed the results of this election to happen.  Obviously he has a purpose, and I trust it!  Even if I don't agree with everything Obama may choose to do, I believe that God has placed him as a leader over our country.  When people make ridiculous comments about our country falling apart because of Obama, it makes me want to laugh!  Yes, we will be impacted by his decision.  We may even be impacted in ways we don't like, but it is not the end of the world!  There will be another election in four years.  Life will go on.

I think what I am bothered by most of all are people who are so wrapped up in their own ideas that they won't listen to the ideas of others with an open mind and a desire to truly understand without making judgments.  I think that Christians would make such an incredible impact if they related to others with this attitude.  Even if they still disagreed, respect for others would remain.  And when people feel respected and heard, they are more likely to reciprocate in a similar way.  I think it is okay to be disappointed about the election results, but what do you really accomplish when you make comments about moving to Canada or how this country is royally screwed or make disrespectful comments about President Obama?  Whether you are excited or saddened by the results, if you claim to be a Christian, think about whether what you say conveys a spirit of love.

Halloween!

I stole this cute idea from a mom of twin girls.  This costume was really easy to put together.  I found a tutu tutorial and made the tutus.  The bread on the girls' shirts is just cardboard from a box and white paper.  If I did it again, I would use felt because the girls kept pulling the bread off of their shirts, and felt wouldn't tear through like cardboard.  We went trick or treating in a neighborhood with some friends, and I think the girls really liked it!  They looked so cute too.  Here are some pics of my peanut butter and jelly girls.  I only got a couple, and Sophie has been making this goofy smile when you tell her to smile for a picture.  Oh well! She is a funny girl!

Lately at our house

I had taken a bunch of pictures recently that don't necessarily go together, but they are all too cute not to post. 

First up, the girls posing on the couch in new outfits from Grandma:

Next, random ones of girls around the house:

playing in shaving cream for our "Parents as Teachers" visit

She is SOOO happy!

Sophie is a little more hesitant to get messy, but she eventually loved it too.

The play kitchen also converts to a car with the faucet as a steering wheel.  Who knew?

And finally, Sophie's "big girl bed." She has done really well staying in it at night.  She even waits for
me to come get her in the morning like she did in her crib.  Just yesterday, she got up on her own from nap time (and didn't take a nap), but her naps have been hit or miss lately anyway, so it isn't a big deal as long as she still sometimes takes naps.

I was really proud of myself for finding great deals on her bedding stuff.  The mattresses were given to us used from someone we know.  They hadn't been used much and were only four years old.  We even have another set for Sally now.  The bed frame came from Craig's list for $70.  I found the bedding at TJ Maxx.  Quilt $25, Sheet set $15, and sham to match quilt $10.   I love it all! 

close up of fabrics

 I want to add something above the headboard but am going to wait till she's a bit older and won't pull it down or destroy it.