Appoo

Sophia has starting saying a lot more words lately. I'm going to go ahead and be an obnoxious, gloating parent and say how darn cute she is when she talks. She uses this tiny high-pitched voice and slowly articulates each word. Apple is said, "Appoo". Yale is always trying to get her to say choo choo because she gets this cute look on her face and sticks out her pouty little lips when she almost whispers it. She also says happy, boots, baby, mommy (which is stretched out into about 3 seconds), daddy (also stretched out), bee, push, pull, up, out, etc. I've been so eager for her to start talking more. I'm excited to hear what Sophia has to say; to find out more about her personality.

Two Peas in a Pod

Lately, I've been intrigued by the differences in Sophia and Olivia's personalities. I realize their personalities are far from fully developed, and a lot can and probably will change, but for right now it's fun to see how delightfully different they are. Sophia is quite independent and exceptionally determined. Sometimes I find myself wrestling with her to get her dressed or into her car seat, and I'm amazed at how driven and strong she is. Ever since she was itty-bitty, she's been very physical. She loves to play rough, run around, and take on new physical challenges. She often half skips and half runs where ever she's going. At the same time, she can be very tender and thoughtful. She will often try to comfort her sister by rubbing her head and stroking her arm. Sophia will often find Olivia's bunny and give it to her when she's upset. She gives kisses often and can be very cuddly, but only if she's in the mood. If there's a ball in the area, she'll find it. In addition to her stuffed sheep, which she calls "Baba", she loves to sleep with her shoes. Her favorites right now are her snow boots and her tennis shoes. She has about 15 words that she can speak and 15 more that she can sign. People say that she seems quiet, yet she's not hesitant to interact with people she's never met. She often cracks us up by contorting her face and making funny noises. Olivia loves anything sparkly and pretty, especially clothes. She loves to dance,sing and change her clothes. She tells me daily that she likes stars and her favorites colors are purple, pink and blue. It seems to me that she has a good vocabulary for someone her age. She loves to talk and play with kids, but is quite selective about when she'll speak to adults. However, at home she never struggles to find something to talk about. She's quite introspective. She often identifies her own emotions often and is concerned about how others feel. She loves to play with her sister, and frequently asks me if I can get Sophia to play with her (Sophia loves to play with her, too, but she doesn't always want to do what Olivia has on the agenda). She is quite protective of her Sophia and will regularly tell me what she thinks Sophia needs. Olivia loves to paint and color. One of her favorite books right now is a children's book with Vincent Van Gogh paintings, and she says she likes Starry Night the best. Her imagination is quite vivid. She likes to pretend that she another person, Kylie, her cousin, is an all-time favorite. Pretending she's an animal, like a baby goose or a flying dolphin, is also a favorite pastime. As I'm writing this I'm realizing how many similarities the girls share. Maybe my next entry will be about how I've been noticing how alike Sophia and Olivia are.

Bag Balm Disaster

Yale's mom called us last weekend and left a message saying that some of the photos that were recently uploaded to the website required explanation. The first set of pictures are of our friend Kat making wax molds of Sophia's feet so that she could then pour plaster into the molds. We now have perfect plaster models of Sophia's feet sitting on our shelf, including every wrinkle and itty-bitty detail. They're quite adorable. We had Olivia's feet done, too,when she was quite a bit younger. The other set of pictures that stand out of are Sophia covered in a white powder. You really have to look at them to see just how covered she was. The day before the girls decided to play in the Bag Balm which was in Sophia's top dresser drawer. We sometimes use this for a bad case of diaper rash. Olivia had to drag the rocking chair across the room and stand on it in order to reach the drawer. Anyway, by the time Yale caught them it was all over a big stuffed chair, covering the items in the drawer, and worst of all, it was about an inch thick in Sophia's hair. I tried washing it about 4 times and that did nothing. I read on the internet that cornstarch would get it out. I tried that twice and didn't notice a bit of difference. I finally found the solution when I called a hair salon and they told me to buy clarifying shampoo. After washing Sophia's hair with this 3 times, she was grease-free. I think the girls, at least Olivia, learned a lesson from this experience. Olivia felt so badly for her sister when she had to be covered in cornstarch, that she said, "I am so sorry that we played in that cream!" I was glad to hear the remorse in her voice because that is not a mess that I want to have to clean up again in the near future.

Stubborn Girl and a Stinky Man

In the past couple of months Sophia has gotten a bunch of teeth. Now there are a couple of molars trying to work their way out. Sophia is definitely a trooper, but the pain from these teeth coming in has made her a bit of a handful lately. It's so interesting so see how differently the girls handle things. When Olivia is hurt or sad, she wants to be held and cuddled. The opposite is true with Sophia. She makes you work to comfort her. When she gets really angry she doesn't want to have anything to do with me. The other day she fell off of a stool and was laying on the floor crying because she was hurt. I picked her up to try to console her, but she screamed, bucked out of my arms, and ran into the other room. She was still screaming and clearly very angry, so I decided to take her sheep blanket to her to help comfort her. Boy, did that ever make her mad! Screaming, she shoved the sheep back into my arms and crawled under the table, as if insisting that I leave her alone. I decided I needed to remove myself from the situation, so I dropped her sheep, hoping she still might use it for comfort and left the room. The minute she spotted the sheep, she started yelling some more, grabbed the sheep, found me, shoved it back into my arms, and stomped off. She clearly didn't want any help from me, but as her mother I couldn't give up completely. I waited a few more minutes until her crying calmed down a bit, and called to her with my arms out. Finally, she came waddling over, let me pick her up and she buried her head between my neck and my shoulder. She quieted and let me cuddle her for several minutes. I sure do wish I could understand what was going on in her head. It was a huge relief to me that she gave in and let me hold her. I can't imagine what a scene like this is going to look like when she's a teenager! Maybe she's getting it out of her system now. Last Sunday Olivia and I were doing some shopping in the grocery store. We were in the cleaning aisle, when Olivia spotted a clean-cut, middle-aged man picking out laundry soap. He was about 10 feet away from us when she said very loudly, "That man is getting some of that. He's getting that because he's a man and he's stinky." Needless to say I immediately exited the premises. I'm not exactly sure where that comment came from, but it certainly was embarrassing, and I have a feeling this is only the beginning of those socially awkward moments.

Dizzy Girl and Backwards Crab Walk

Yale and I can't stop talking about how funny Sophia has been lately. Each time I put Sophia to bed I find myself cracking up. Either she's trying to stick her finger up my nose while I'm reading to her, or she toots while I'm changing her clothes and blowing on her belly (and I have to say the farting seems intentional, at least the second and third time she does it), or she's accompanying me while I sing "Ba Ba Black Sheep". She spends most of the day-time hours trying to jump. It's hard to explain, but she kind of throws her upper body up and then almost lifts one of her legs. I guess she sees Olivia jumping, and it makes her want to be able to do it too. Spinning in circles until she's so dizzy that she falls down laughing is another a favorite activity. Olivia has always loved having books in bed with her. Sophia insists on taking a shoe to bed. She prefers shoes with laces. At the moment this seems to be her favorite toy, second only to her stuffed sheep. Olivia had her first swimming lesson today. I had the challenge of chasing Sophia around the pool and not letting her get into the water, while also trying to watch Olivia in her lesson. I was really impressed by her teacher, Melissa. I can't imagine that teaching 3 and 4 year-olds how to swim is a very easy job, but Melissa kept them busy by changing the activity about every 30 seconds. They did the backwards crab walk, walked like alligators, floated on their backs while she held them, practiced kicking, chased toys, and put their faces in the water. About 15 times during the 30-minute lesson, Olivia would spot me and shout, "Look at me, Mama! Look at me!" I think that means she was having fun.

Transitions

The past 2 weeks, our little family has been working on transitioning into some new situations. Sophia moved up to the Toddler Room at Parents' Day Out, so she has a new teacher to get used to. We all loved Charlie, who took care of her in the infant room. It was hard to say goodbye. Even Charlie got teary-eyed when she talked about saying goodbye to Sophia. We're fortunate because we know, and also really like, Sophia's new teacher, Ms. Dana. Olivia had her when she first started at P.D.O. Olivia has completed her first two weeks of preschool. Luckily the preschool is in the same building as P.D.O., which makes for an easier transition for Olivia, and an easier for me when both girls go to "school" on Thursdays. Olivia seems to really like her new teacher, Mrs. Mesa. Already, she has gotten to do lots of fun things, lik painting, making a Fruit Loops necklace, and playing with a big parachute. I'm also adjusting to our new schedule. Over the summer, both O and So went to P.D.O. twice a week, which gave me time to clean, do yard work, and I also tutored during that time. Now Olivia goes to preschool on Thursdays and Fridays and Sophia goes to P.D.O. on Thursdays. Now I don't get quite as much time to get things done, but it gives Sophia and I some time to spend together. This past Friday I pushed her in the stroller while I rollerbladed. I think she had fun, but she seemed a bit cautious. I was really hoping that she was flashing back to the last time I took her and her sister rollerblading and rolled their stroller as I wrecked!

O's Birthday Party

As you can see from the recently posted photos we celebrated Olivia's 3rd birthday with a small party. She was so excited about having a party she could hardly stand it! One of her favorite books is "If You Give a Pig a Party". This book introduced her to party hats and streamers, and how to properly decorate your house for a party. Along with the cake and balloons, these were the things she was most excited about. At her request, I baked her a double-decker chocolate cake with pink frosting and decorated it with pink and red candy. I don't know how many times she had to open the refrigerator door to get another look at her cake. I hung a sparkly "Happy Birthday" banner and purple streamers, and we had several shiny star-shaped mylar balloons. We also had dog-print party hats, plastic dog plates for the kids, along with clear rubber balls with a puppy face in the middle. I think we had made her day before the party had even begun. She was thrilled that her grandparents came from Missoula to help her celebrate this special day. This was also the first birthday party our dear friend Susan (a.k.a. Zaza) was able to attend. Top it off with getting to play with her friends Nathan and Quinn, and you've got a party that's a dream come true! While we were singing Happy Birthday to her, you couldn't help but notice her beaming eyes and that she was savoring every moment. After she blew out that candles, Yale accurately summed up how she seemed to be feeling when he said, "Oli, you've been waiting for this moment all of your life."

Steps in the Right Direction

Sophia has been making great gains these past couple of weeks. She's now walking full time. It seemed like one day she just decided she was ready to walk and hasn't stopped since. I expect that soon she will be running in an attempt to keep up with her sister. She's also been signing a lot more lately. She does the signs for milk, eat, more, all done, sleep, and she's working on the sign for cheese. The only word she's saying is "mama". Yale is dying for her to say "daddy". Another neat trick that she does is when you hand her a tube or bottle that looks like it could be lotion (for example: a Balmex tube), she pretends to squeeze some into her hand, rub her hands together, and then rub her hands all over her legs. Of course, I find it quite precious. We're working on teaching Sophia to be more gentle, especially with her sister. Her typical greeting for Olivia is to bap her on the head or or to yank on her hair. Olivia tries to be patient, but gets pretty frustrated with her. Yale says that he's seen Sophia petting Olivia's head which is a step in the right direction.

Bark, Bark, and Pththth

The last couple of mornings Olivia has woken up and come out of her room saying, "I'm ready for my birthday!" It's pretty hard to explain to her that her birthday is a month away. She's so excited for the cake, candles, balloons, and I think, presents, too that she can hardly stand it. Hopefully the big day will meet her expectations. Olivia has been going through a stage where she likes to pretend she is a dog. She spends her free time crawling around the house barking, eating food from a bowl on the floor, and curling up on a blanket to take a nap. She tells us she has a blue sparkly tail that is very fluffy and wags. She loves to get right in her sister's face and make this loud screeching barking noise. Half the time this makes Sophia crack up, and the other half it makes her cry. When Yale mentioned that Olivia is going through a dog faze, Olivia said, "I have a dog face. I have a nose, and eyes, and fluffy ears." Sophia was sick most of last week with Roseola. She had a high fever and didn't sleep well. She's also cutting four top teeth. Fortunately she is feeling much better this week. While she was sick she took a break from learning to walk, but now she is back to taking lots of steps and getting a big kick out of it. It's looking like Sophia is going to be quite social. A former co-worker of mine, Mike Woolworth, came over last week. He's only seen Sophia once and that was when she was a new born. I was holding Sophia when I opened the door to let him in. She took one look at him, stuck out her tongue and said "Pththth" and then put out her arms and reached for him. He was amused by her warm, funny welcome.

Mac and Chee and Volleyball Tournaments

Funny things said lately by Olivia: After dropping one piece of macaroni and cheese on the floor, she said, "I dropped a mac and chee." The other day she told me she couldn't wear a certain pair of shorts because they were "too exhausted." After spending the day with her cousin Ry (and her Aunt Beckie), Olivia professed that Ry is her best friend. Sophia has recently learned to climb to the top of this play structure that we have in our back yard. I'm pretty impressed that she can do this because it involves finding the proper hand holds and some upper body strength. I think the incentive is that she gets to go down the slide when she gets to the top, which she absolutely loves to do. Sophia is also very interested in playing catch. She's been doing this for a few months, and my sister, who has a master's degree in early childhood development, thinks this is unusual for a kid her age. I'm not sure about that part, but I know it makes me have visions of playing in a volleyball tournament with one or both of my girls in about 10 years!

Coming Soon: Vertical Mobility

Like most kids her age, while trying to master the English language, Olivia makes mistakes that crack us up. One that has been making me laugh lately occurs when she is talking about one article of clothing and she calls it clothe. Like, this shirt is my clothe. She realizes that typically you put an "s" at the end of a word to make it plural, but she's still working on understanding the exceptions to that rule. Sophia has been standing a whole lot more lately. She hasn't really taken any steps, yet. She tries, but ends up just leaning and falling over. I think she is very eager to walk so that she can keep up with her sister. I don't think it will be long before she is vertically mobile. She's also discovered how to click her tongue and make fish lips that ends with a smacking noise. She's pretty impressed with herself and the new noises she makes. Olivia and Sophia have been playing very well together. This makes the work of having two young children so close in age feel more worth it. Don't get me wrong, I love my children, but sometimes having two little kids feels exhausting! Now, I can actually type an e-mail, do the dishes, or even take a shower while they play. For the most part, they're pretty careful and don't get into too much trouble together, at least not so far.

Fear Factor, Here She Comes!

Lately I've really noticed Sophia's personality blossoming. Several people have commented on the mischievous sparkle in her eyes. She seems to be pretty fearless and definitely very physical. We went to the park the other day and she was having a great time going down the slide face first. She climbed the stairs and slid down the slide about 20 times. Yesterday I took both girls swimming for the first time by myself. I was reminded of why, in the past, I didn't think this was a good idea. Sophia was everywhere! She didn't care if the water was up to her nostrils, she wanted to keep going. She went completely under twice. Several people commented on what a handful she is to watch. She even went up to a stranger lying in the water and patted his behind. It was pretty embarrassing. At the same time, it seems like kids of all ages gravitate towards her. I've seen this at Parents' Day Out, and the child care staff at the rec center tell me this, too. I think it might be because she makes everything look like so much fun. She always has a huge grin on her face, and often just burst out laughing. I'll be very curious to see her as a teenager. I think she will continue to keep Yale and I on our toes!

M&M Addiction and Throwing Signs

I think I've unintentionally passed on my chocolate addiction to my oldest daughter. A friend of mine suggested using M&Ms as a motivator for using the potty. It was a really good suggestion because potty training is going very well. In fact, tonight Olivia went to bed with underpants on. Now, I may think this was a mistake in the morning, but she wanted to do it and her diaper is often dry in the morning, so I thought it was worth a try. Anyway, my friend suggested that I give Olivia one M&M every time she pees in the potty. I tried that, and both Olivia and I thought that one just didn't seem to be enough. So now every time she pees she gets two M&Ms. At first this didn't seem like much at all, but I wasn't considering who I was dealing with. I swear that every time Olivia goes pee, she holds in just a little so that in five minutes she'll have to pee again and will get 2 more of her new favorite treat. The last couple of mornings she's earned 10 M&Ms before 9:00 a.m. This girl either really has to pee a lot or she's scamming me for candy. I guess it doesn't really matter much as long as it's getting her potty trained. I'm proud to announce that Sophia has been doing a new sign. She has been signing for "more", but it's her own version of the actual sign-language sign. She points her finger to the palm of her hand. I've read that it's not unusual for kids to modify the signs. I remember Olivia doing the same thing with a few of the signs. Sophia is also signing more for milk. She had kind of quit signing all together for awhile, so I'm glad she's back on track. Sophia had her one-year check-up a couple of weeks ago. The doctor said she looks healthy and developmentally on track. She's cruising around furniture, she knows at least 3 words (mama, dada, baba, and her 2 signs count, too), she can wave and clap, and she's feeding herself. She's between the 25th and 50th percentile for both weight and height. We've completely switched from formula to whole milk, and we're working on weaning her off of the bottle. We've cut out two bottle feedings, and now she only takes a bottle twice a day. Once she gets better at using a cup, I think it will be fairly easy to wean her off of the last two bottle feeding. She's seems to enjoy eating more finger foods. She really likes cheese, Goldfish crackers, bananas, any kind of cereal, green beans, and peas. I think she'll be a good eater just like her sister.

Potty Training Time!

WARNING: In the following paragraphs toddler words such as pee, poo, and potty will be used. Readers who are opposed to using childish terms for excrement, urine, and voiding should use discretion. Olivia and I started working on potty training about 6 weeks ago. She started off well, but then put the breaks on after she pooed for the first time in her little potty. She was pretty grossed out by the whole experience, and refused to use the potty again for several weeks. Just the other day she informed me that she wanted to pee in the potty so that she could get her fingernails painted pink. This was an incentive I had used during the first round. Just like an old toilet-trained pro she went directly to her potty and peed. Then I told her if she used the potty two more times, Yale and I would take her and her sister swimming. Knowing this, she became like an athlete training for the Olympics, only her sport was peeing. She quickly reached her goal and was determined to go swimming that moment. It took some explaining for her to understand that, due to circumstances beyond our control, we would have to wait until the next evening for our swimming excursion. Swimming was all that she could talk about. She was so excited she could hardly stand it. She was so excited that when I went to to check on her that night before I went to bed, I found her dresser drawers open, clothes all over the floor, and her sprawled out and sound asleep in her swimming suit. She had dug it out of her bottom drawer and put it on to sleep in it. It was awfully cute. Finally, after 24 hours of talking about swimming, her swimming suit, purple bagels (this is what she calls the purple inner tubes at the rec center), and "swimming by self", we made it to the pool. After floating on the Lazy River with her dad, splashing with her sister, and swimming laps with a green noodle (another flotation device), it was time to go home. Even though she was soaked, shivering, and blue, it only took as far as the locker room before she started asking to go swimming again. I'm sure we will be using swimming again as an incentive for potty training. Sophia seemed to really like the pool, too. She's pretty tricky to manage in the water. If you let her crawl in the shallow end, she zooms every direction, and doesn't seem to care if the water is deep enough to flow into her nostrils. Trying to hold her in deeper water is like trying wrestle a greased bull dog. However, I must say, she looked quite striking in her new lime-green polka-dotted swimming suit that she got from her Aunt Beckie for her birthday!

Today Mommy Gets to be a Pig

We spent a good part of our day today acting out a scene that I've never seen from an older cartoon version of Charlotte's Web. Olivia likes to pretend that she's Fern and I'm Wilbur (I know, lucky me. I get to be the pig). Anyway, it's a scene where Fern is putting Wilbur to bed with a "nice, cozy blanket." Olivia has obviously watched this scene very carefully because she has every step memorized, including the words of the song that Fern sings, in addition to the parts that she hums. It's pretty funny, but I have to say that after pretending to be a sleeping pig 15 or more times I was pretty relieved when Olivia decided that it was time for Sophia to be Wilbur. Sophia was surprisingly cooperative. She did lie down on the special blue blanket, but she didn't stay there long enough for Olivia to say all her lines. It didn't take long for Olivia to get frustrated with her sister's lack of dedication to acting out the full scene, and she was back to asking me to act like a pig and lie down and go to sleep.

Sophia Turns One

Sophia celebrated her first birthday over the weekend. Her birthday was actually on Friday, but we waited to celebrate on Saturday. She was excited to get to spend not only her birthday, but several days with her Kaul grandparents. My sister, Beckie, and her family also came over to help us celebrate the big day. Sophia doesn't really understand the whole present opening process, but her big sister was more than willing to help. In fact, I think Olivia was more excited about her sister's birthday than Sophia was. Sophia got a couple of adorable summer outfits, some very cute sunglasses, a little car that she can ride on, a Little People's bus and farm, and a set of musical instruments. I think she will be kept busy for quite some time. Since Yale's parents were here, Yale and I enjoyed our first night away together since Olivia was born. We kept it simple and just stayed in a hotel in downtown Denver. It was nice to be able to have 24 hours worth of conversations with complete sentences, and to just be able to enjoy each other's company. Sophia and Olivia loved having their grandparents here. Sophia clearly is quite attached to her grandpa. It's pretty cute to watch her try to get his attention. Speaking of attention... I think both of the girls will go through attention withdrawal now that their grandparents are gone.

A Doctor is in the House

Sophia is having no problem climbing stairs now. Even if everyone is downstairs, she'll climb up the stairs just because she can. Whenever she get to the top she crawls a few more steps, and then turns around to flash us a check-me-out-I-made-it-up-the-stairs grin. I have to admit, it makes me kind of nervous. I also know that once she can do it without a problem it will make my life a lot easier. I've been working some on teaching her how to go down the stairs. It will seem like she's getting it, and then she'll start crawling back up the stairs again. I remember Olivia doing the same thing. It's like they are so used to going forward, that if they don't think about what they are doing every second, they just end up going back up the stairs. Sophia has recently earned a new nickname. Yale and I have both started calling her Doctor. She has become very fond of the stethoscope from Olivia's doctor kit. Every time she gets her hands on it, she puts it around her neck and will wear it until someone forces her to take it off. It seems like it would get in the way of her crawling, but she doesn't seem to mind one bit. A couple of Olivia's current funny words: Volleyballey - volleyball dishwish - delicious ice cream bread - ice cream sandwich Olivia has enjoyed singing for quite some time. Recently she started adding a new twist to it. Now she likes to sing the first few words of a song and then she closes her eyes and hums the rest of the song. If her sister starts to cry, she will run over to her, get on her knees and start singing and humming to her. I find that absolutely heart warming.

Ravimama

Funny Olivia quote of the week: Me: Oli, would you like some ravioli for dinner? Olivia: Mama, are you going to have ravimama? The girls and I went to visit my sister Beckie and her kids yesterday (her husband, Sam, was working all day). Olivia had a grand time! She got to play their piano and stare at her cousin Kylie for hours on end. She even got to put her Aunt Beckie down for a nap. She went through the whole routine. She got Beckie some water and a snack bag, and told that when she woke up, if she went pee in the potty she could have a sticker for her foot. Beckie even got to sleep with Olivia's beloved bunny. Olivia was so committed to her task, that she took a nap without her bunny because she wanted Beckie to have it. As we were leaving and had been in the car about 30 seconds, Olivia said, "I miss Ry (her cousin)." About 2 minutes later, she said, "I miss Ry and Kylie again." Ever since then she's been pretending that she is Kylie, who she says is very pretty. I think that means she likes her cousins.

She's Growing Up

Sophia has been acting more and more like a kid and less and less like a baby. Lately she's taken an interest in attempting to climb the stairs. It drives her crazy when her sister speeds upstairs and leaves her behind. It's especially frustrating to her if I go upstairs for a moment to grab something and she's left downstairs by herself. I'm sure this has been the motivation to learn how to climb the stairs. As a result, she's taken a few spills, but nothing serious. I'm guessing it won't be long before she's ascending our short set of stairs with ease. Phones have also become a favorite of Sophia's. She rests the phone on her shoulder and, pretty convincingly, looks as if she's talking on the phone. You might remember that Olivia took a great interest in phones at a young age. When Olivia starting pretending to talk on the phone, I felt like it was a result of seeing me talk on the phone a lot. I used to feel kind of guilty because it made me think that I spent too much time on the phone, and the truth is that, when given the time, I do have quite a bit of stamina for gabbing on the phone. However, now I don't feel that way because these two girls don't allow much time for me to yap with my friends. Another one of Sophia's steps out of babyhood and into childhood is combing and brushing her own hair. If she ever gets a hold of a brush or a comb , she clearly know it's purpose. Not that she always gets the comb or brush facing the right way and strokes in the correct direction, but she's definitely giving it a good try. Maybe when she's older, she won't despise having her hair combed like her older sister. Maybe she'll even let me style it with cute little bows and hair clips. If I put anything in her hair now, she just tries to eat it. Hopefully that won't always be the case.

Miss Baby America

Sophia is in that baby stage where she acts a whole lot like a dog. Crawling is the most obvious aspect of this dog stage. Add to that how she carries things in her mouth, such as toys, lids, or anything she finds on the floor that she can fit in her mouth. Eating everything she finds on the floor is also rather dog-like. Especially considering that she will things off of the floor that she wont' eat if I put in on her highchair tray. She even does the breathing thing that kind of reminds me of panting. She lets out these little puffs of air, sometimes several at a time and rhythmically. It's awfully cute. At times she even blows her little bangs up with the puffs. Sophia is also really into crawling over things. It's like she searches to create her own obstacle courses. She will be crawling along and something will be on the floor, like a stuffed bear, and instead of avoiding it, she'll go out of her way to crawl over it. She especially enjoys crawling over my legs or over Yale's body when he's lying on the floor. I'm surprised at how many times she will do this. One day when I was sitting on the floor, I think she crawled over my legs about 50 times. As I'm sure you can imagine, Yale is quite smitten with Sophia. His new nickname for her is Miss Baby America since he thinks she has to be the cutest baby ever. I'm excited to report that Sophia did the sign for milk several times today. She has done this sign, which involves squeezing your hand like your milking a cow, a few times over the past few weeks, but this is the first time I was sure she really knew what she was doing. I think she may have done the sign for sleep, too. It's been a big day for signing! Olivia just woke up and is sitting on my lap as I type. She is pointing out letters on the keyboard and saying things like, "'O' for Olivia, 'S' for Sophia." The other day she surprised me by saying, "Juice starts with 'G'." Although, juice obviously doesn't start 'G', I was impressed with how she got the right sound.

"Oh, no! Mommy's Going to Fall Over, Again!"

A couple of days ago, inspired by the sunny, spring weather, I thought it would be fun to push the girls in the double stroller while I rollerbladed. We drove to a nearby open-space park with a well-kept path. We got off to a tough start because Olivia protested riding in the stroller with her sister. This is a stroller that doubles as a bike trailer, and isn't really designed for comfort. Therefore, when both the girls sit in it, Sophia leans on her sister while pulling her hair and poking her in the face. Understandably, Olivia doesn't care for this. After some coercing, I got both girls buckled into the stroller, and we were off. We had gone about half a mile, when Olivia asked to go down a rather steep hill. My first instinct was to say no. Unfortunately, I didn't stick with that. I thought, I have a brake on my skate... I'm a fairly seasoned skater... I've gone down that hill a gazillion times on my own... Let's give it try. Just as we started down the hill, some people near by were pointing at a coyote that was running in the direction that we were going. So, I'm distracted, wondering if we should be traveling in the direction of a wild coyote, when I feel my skate get caught on something and I can't turn to follow the curve of the path. I didn't realize it at the time, but my skate was caught on the break cable that I usually clip up and out of the way so that it doesn't drag on the ground. For some unknown reason, I forgot to clip it out of the way this time. Because of the hill, we were going just fast enough that I didn't really have time to try to get my skate loose, so instead I tried to veer off the path and onto the grass. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to maintain my balance through all of this and fell and hit the pavement pretty hard while pulling the stroller over with me. I didn't really take the time to think about it I was okay, although I was definitely feeling pain, because I wanted to make sure that the girls were okay. They stayed buckled in, but had fallen on top of each other. They were both crying, but I think it was because they were more scared than hurt. A man was kind enough to run over and make sure we were all okay. After taking off my skates that were covered in mud, I held Sophia to calm her down. Because of the mud, my skates were out of commission and I had to walk about a half mile back to the car in my socks. Olivia decided she wanted to walk most of the way. At one point, as I was walking I bent over to pick something up and Olivia said, "Oh no! Mommy's going to fall over again!" I thought that was pretty funny. After a couple of visits to the chiropractor I'm thinking that in a couple of weeks I'll be ready to try rollerblading with the girls again. I've rollerbladed with each of them separately without any problems, but this was the firstl time I tried it with both of them in the double stroller. I'm hoping that this experience didn't traumatize them so much that they won't want to try again. Next time I plan to make sure the break cable is out of the way and we will stay on level ground.

New Tooth and a Bad Toupee

Yale and I are very excited about how well Olivia and Sophia have been playing together. I'm surprised at how many different activities Olivia can think of to do with her little sister. THey look at books, chew on things, crawl around, and make faces and funny noises. Often they are both giggling and cracking up and I have no idea why. I'm surprised that Olivia finds these things so entertaining, but I'm definitely happy that they enjoy each other's company. A few days ago we noticed that Sophia's front bottom tooth is finally popping through. As a result she is even more determined to chew on everything in sight: my pant leg, her dad's nose, even her sister's toes. She got her first teething biscuit for Valentine's Day from her teacher at Parent's Day Out (P.D.O.). After I saw how much she loved it, I bought her a box. She can devour one of those things just while we are eating dinner. I guess this surprises me because Olivia was never very interested in them. Olivia's new thing is to put a brown, long-sleeved shirt on her head and call it her hair with pony tails. Last night she wore it to bed, and when I went to check on her, the shirt had slid over her eyes. Kind of like an old man with a bad toupee. Olivia's good friend, Jack, is on vacation, and hasn't been a P.D.O. I was curious about how this would work out and who Olivia would end up hanging out with. After the first day, her teacher informed me that another little boy, Edwardo, had filled in for Jack. I guess they were holding hands and walking and running together. Olivia even told me that when she fell down Edwardo said, "Olivia, are you okay?" I thought that was awfully cute. Olivia's teacher said it was almost like Edwardo was waiting for the opportunity to take Jack's place. I'm not sure what to think about all of this, but her teacher told me she thought I should prepare myself because this could be a sign of what's to come. I'm just glad that Olivia is making friends and enjoying her time at P.D.O.

She's a-crawlin'

Sophia has finally mastered crawling upon all fours. All that army crawling seems to have helped her develop the skills needed to maneuver on all fours. Now she can get to the electric cords and cat food dishes in about half the time she was doing it about a week ago. She even attempted to crawl up the stairs today. I'm not really ready for that stage, but I guess she's not asking me for my permission. Olivia and Sophia have been playing together quite a bit lately. Olivia recently decided that playing "babies" with Sophia is fun, and it just so happens that Sophia is very good at it. It's kind of nice because Olivia drops the typical bossy-older-sister approach and lets Sophia lead the game. It basically involves Olivia doing whatever Sophia does (since she's the expert on being a baby). Their activities are limited to crawling, making messes, and chewing on things. P.S. Olivia turned 2.5 today!

Paci Free!!

Olivia has officially given up her first addiction: her pacifier. About a week ago I bought her a stuffed sheep that she has wanted for a very long time. It's similar to one her sister has. I hung it up high in her room and told her that when she was ready to give up her pacifier she could have the sheep. Two days ago, for no apparent reason, she decided she was ready. She even threw the paci away herself. It was a proud moment. Surprisingly, she has slept well the past two nights, but nap time has been rough. Yesterday, I spent on hour and a half trying to get her to take a nap. It was definitely a challenging power struggle that was not fun, but I knew if I didn't do it then, I'd be doing it at 10:00 that night. Hopefully it will only get easier. I've been experimenting with feeding Sophia finger foods (peas, small pieces of a pear, scrambled eggs, etc.). The only one she really seems to like is Cheerios. She doesn't even like bananas; I thought all kids liked bananas. It's kind of funny to me because she will put ANYTHING from the floor in her mouth, but won't eat the food I give her. I'm tempted to "accidentally" drop some of these foods on the floor and see what happens. Olivia's recent passion is dancing. This activity requires a special dancing suit which can be one of her sun dresses or one of my camisoles, and some plastic toys which are her "flowers". I'm always surprised that she doesn't get cold because she refuses to wear anything else with her dress, including socks or shoes. Anyway... she will turn on the CD player in her room and spend a large part of the day twirling, jumping, bouncing, and shimmying about. She especially loves it if Yale or I will dance with her. I'm really glad there aren't any big windows in her room because this is quite a sight.

I'm a Woman!

Sophia had her 9-month check up. The doctor says she looks good. She's 18 pounds and 1 ounce and 27 inches long, which puts her in about the 50th percentile for both height and weight. She didn't have to get any shots at this appointment, which we were all happy about. I would say she was quite charming with the doctor. She was smiley and easy to examine. Then again, how could you not find her irresistible when she's sitting in just a diaper with that adorable Buddha belly and those roly-poly thighs? Yale recently discovered that if you ask Olivia if she's a girl, she says, "No, I'm a woman." Now, that's my kind of attitude! Olivia seems to have made a friend at the parents' day out program. His name is Jack, and because there are two Jacks in her class everyone calls him Jack R. I think he's absolutely adorable. He has big brown eyes and these cute little glasses. I've spent a little bit of time with him, and, so far, I'm thrilled Olivia has picked him as a friend. He is friendly and gentle. He's kind of quiet, but if you start up a conversation with him, he has a lot to say. Geez, I sound like a school girl with a bit of a crush. I'm just trying to make the point that he seems like a nice kid. Last week when Olivia had just gotten to class, Jack walked up to her and tried to give her a hug. I thought it was very sweet, but I think Olivia thought it was too soon in their relationship for hugging and gave him a stiff arm. Now, when she gets to class he just comes up to her and wants to play. Olivia's teachers report that they are inseparable and play together every chance they get. All of this has lead me to do something uncharacteristic. Even though I've never even said hello to Jack's mom, I'm going to ask her if she and Jack would like to come to our house for a play date. Bold, I know. I see it as a chance for me to get to know someone with whom I have some things in common. She lives in the area. She's about my age, and has a child the same age as Olivia, and apparently doesn't work full time. Geez, now I sound like I'm going to ask her out on a date. Also, it's a way for Olivia to spend more time with her new friend. I know, it's not that big of a deal, but I have to admit I'm a little nervous. I'll let you know how it goes.

Those Kids Will Crack You Up

Funny Recent Happenings at the Golter-Kaul Household: Olivia shouted, "Oh no, I dropped my moustache!" I found a pea in Sophia's bellybutton. Olivia stated, "I've got to get my dad out of jail!" While I was combing Olivia's hair, she said, "I've got lots of rectangles in my hair." (Rectangles instead of tangles; get it?)

O & So

Olivia's recent passion is watching "Country Mouse and City Mouse" videos (which she calls "Crunchy Mouse"). She spends much of her day pretending she is Jeanie, a guest character in one of the episodes. I'm happy to report that Jeanie is a brave little girl who rescues her dad from jail. For some reason there are only two scenes that Olivia likes to act out. The first is when Jeanie is on her knees, covering her face, and crying. The other involves Jeanie falling down and saying "Ouch!". Who knows, maybe there is an acting career on Miss O's horizon. Sophia continues to be on the verge of crawling. She is getting better at lifting herself onto all fours and rocking back and forth, and she uses her arms to drag the rest of her body across the floor. She's also mastered waving and clapping, but only when she's in the mood. She's graduated to sitting in a highchair for the 3 meals she eats each day. Our youngest has recently pushed us to be better house keepers. We've realized we need to vacuum quite often because Sophia's now able to pick up very small things and, of course, they go straight into her mouth. The other days she spit up part of one of those small plastic thingies that holds the price tag on new clothes. I think we were lucky she spit it up without any damage being done.