It's Potty Party Time!!!

I'm VERY happy to report that Miss Sophia appears to be potty trained! I was all prepared to spend a full day having a "Potty Party" with her. In the morning we were going to train a doll (one that really pees) to use the potty rewarding the doll with stickers and treats, and the afternoon we would focus on getting Sophia to use the potty with the same treats and stickers. I bought the peeing doll, drinks, treats, several fun cups, balloons, a princess outfit, stickers, and checked out potty training videos and books from the library. But Super Sophia beat me to it and decided she was ready to give up diapers before we had a chance to have the potty-training day. I had been talking up the party day, which Olivia caught onto more than Sophia. So, last night we had our friends, the Buddingtons, over for dinner and a mini party to make up for the missed official potty party. I've been very proud of Sophia. She's sleeping through the night in underwear and initiates going to the bathroom on her own. She's only had 2 accidents all week! I can't get over how cute she looks in her little Dora undies pulled all the way up to her bellybutton. My little girl is growing up! No more crib, diapers, or high chair!

Little Sophia

Sophia is at the age where just about everything that comes out of her mouth is adorable. Except of course, when she's screaming her demands at me or make sure just how much she means NO! I know I've mentioned this before, but I want to make sure I have a record of how cute it is when she leaves off the beginning letter in blends at the beginnings of worda. For example, snowman is "noman" and snack is "nack". This just melts my heart, so I have to list all of them that I can think of: poon (spoon) mell (smell) nake (snake) neak (sneak) neeze (sneeze) Another adorable thing Sophia does is pretend that her hands are spiders. She been doing this for a few months now. Sometimes one hand is the baby spider and the other is the mama. Sometimes the spider is feeding her, or it swims in the bath tub with her. It's pretty clever because this way she always has a friend with her and always something to do. She used to pretend her fingers were members of a family. One finger was the dad, another the mom, and the other were children and babies. Creativity at it's best. I love it when I can hear Sophia in another room singing to her self. Her favorite songs include "The Eensy, Weensy Pider " (which fits both themes mentioned above), the ABC's (which she knows quite well), and "Twinkle Twinkle". A few times Sophia has "read" "Brown Bear, Brown Bear What Do You See?" to me. As you can imagine, I find this irresistibly cute. I've tried to get her to read it to me more times, but she seems to be saving it up for special occasions. She doesn't have the entire book memorized, meaning she often has to turn the page to see what animal is next, but she definitely remembers the pattern. I've also mentioned before that Sophia is very loving. She LOVES to gives hugs! She'll often run up to me and wrap her arms around my legs. When I get her out of bed in the morning, she'll rest her little head on my shoulder and hug me while I carry her down to the kitchen. Occasionally, I'll get a sweet little kiss from her.. She takes her time, and puts the tiniest peck on my cheek. Really, even if I weren't her mother, I would think this was darling. Can you tell that I am one proud mama?

What Kind of Bum?

This one gets an entry on its own. Today Sophia told me that her toothpaste is "buggle bum" flavored.

What a Christmas!!

Soph and Olivia both enjoyed a bustling holiday season. In the couple of weeks prior to Christmas, Olivia attended the birthday parties of 2 classmates, one of which Sophia was thrilled to join her. They both celebrated with parties at their schools and the 3 of us went to see Okey and Dokey (former parents at Olivia's preschool) perform their 25th and final Christmas program at Livi's school. They had playdates with friends, decorated cookies with me, and made a gingerbread house with Grandma Golter. We spent Christmas Eve with our friends the Buddington's, and predictably we all had a great time. Yale was sick Christmas day, so he stayed at home while Olivia, Sophia and I went to my sister, Beckie's house for a duck dinner and pumpkin pie! Sophia and Olivia got to have their first overnight at their Aunt Beckie's house and they were ecstatic! Olivia packed her suitcase 3 weeks in advance to this big event. Yale and I had planned to stay in a hotel that night, but we were both so sick, we decided to take it easy at home. Even though we both used up more Kleenex in those two days than we normally do in a month, it was nice to have time to sleep and only care for ourselves. Olivia and Soph had a great time at their aunt's house, and can't wait to go back. In fact, Sophia insisted more than once the day she got home, that she's going to Beckie's house later.

Oh Mighty Gatekeeper

The other day I asked Olivia what she wants for Christmas. She replied, "A big pillow like yours (I have a body pillow) and maybe a clo." Clo is the singular form that she uses for clothes. I think it's so cute when she says it that I don't correct her. I guess I better be sure to do that at some point, for sure before she goes to college. Sophia has become the Gatekeeper in the Wizard of Oz, and every door in our house leads to the Emerald City. She insists on being in charge of opening and closing every door in the house, and she gets quite upset if someone else tries to do her job. I think this started because she can finally reach all of the doorknobs. She used to get very frustrated with Olivia when she would shut her in or out of somewhere she didn't or did want to be. She's making it very clear, that now SHE has control.

Trick or Treat

Olivia and Sophia had their first experience with trick or treating this year. They both had so much fun, it was hard explaining to them that Halloween is the only day that you can ring a stranger's doorbell and ask for candy. Yale had the idea of the girls dressing up as skunks this year. I was all for it because I was hoping we could stay away from the princess theme. I've had my fair share of princess talk/play lately. Plus, I've grown to really dislike Sleeping Beauty. She is NOT the kind of role model that I want for our girls. As far as I can tell she's known for being pretty and sleeping. Even when I asked Olivia if she does anything exciting in the movie, she said, "Well, she talks" and that was all that she could come up with! What kind of heroine is that??? When you think about it, princesses in fairy tales, books and movies are always pretty lame. They rarely getting to doing anything daring and adventuresome. I need to find movies for the girls to watch where the girls get to fly, rescue people, and wear a cool cape. Anyway...back to Halloween. I decided I would attempt to make the girls' costumes this year. Not only do I want to expand their imaginations with being something unique, I wanted to show them that you can also use your imagination by creating your own costume. Luckily I was able to come up with something very simple. I got a couple of black hoodies, some black boas and some white boas, white fur, and black and pink felt; Voila: skunks. Yale said that seeing them in their costumes melted his heart. I had to agree, they looked awfully cute. We went over to our friends', Betsy and Vince, house for Halloween night. They have a daughter, Ellen, that is Olivia's age and good friend. And their son, Hugh, is Sophia's favorite friend from P.D.O. After eating pizza, we went trick or treating to a ton of houses in their neighborhood. At first Sophia didn't seem to understand the point of the whole thing, but after she got a couple of pieces of candy, she was all for it! Olivia and Ellen held hands and ran from house to house, telling everyone "Happy Halloween!"

Oh Sweet Little Sophia

More funny things that Sophia says: stam up - stand up noey - no banquet - blanket hode da hand - hold the hand or hold my hand kank you - thank you oder dare -over there Here are two conversations that I had with Sophia this week: What would you like for breakfast, Sophia? Chocolate milk shake What would you like on your English muffin, Sophia? Chocolate