Saturday, July 22, 2006

have a surprise for you!

A couple days ago, I told Sophie I would have a surprise for her when she finished her swim lesson. This was a bribe to get her to stop fussing and go to the teacher.

Today, she came up to me holding out a toy, covered with a bandana, and said, "Mama, I have a surprise for you. . ."

Wednesday, July 19, 2006

Summer Camp

Today, Sophie attended her first day of summer camp. The preschool where she will go in the fall has a summer camp from 9-12 during the week. She's going so that she can get acclimated to the school for fall. She was fine, no crying, etc. I went home to get her a swimsuit b/c they were going to run thru the sprinklers, and the teacher said she asked where I was, but that was it.

When we got home, she wanted her tea in a bottle, and she wandered off. I found her curled up, on the floor, behind her bedroom door, drinking her bottle. Maybe this is the first time she will put herself down for nap!

Saturday, July 15, 2006

Soccer practice

This video was taken on 6/24/06 at Sophie's first soccer practice.

Love you mommy

Sophie has started to spontaneously tell me she loves me. I guess this is what all the hard work was for. She says "I love you Mommy - I love you too much." She started saying it back to me a couple months ago, but this week was the first time she said it first.

Also, her favorite pj's are her "cherry" pajamas, as seen in her shutterfly album.

Friday, July 14, 2006

Kindermusik

Wednesday was the last day of Kindermusik for the session. We were singing the hello song:

Clap hello to everyone, clap, clap, clap
Clap hello to Sophie, clap, clap, clap

We repeat this song until we greet every child in the circle. Sophie never sits on my lap in the circle, she prefers to stand in the middle and be the center of attention. At the end of the song, she sang, "Tap hello to Mommy, tap, tap, tap!" in tune! We never greet "mommy" in the songs and everyone just busted out laughing!

Then, after we sang the Itsy Bitsy Spider, she proceeded to clap and say "Yay!" which got everyone else clapping and shouting "Yay"!

B-yoo-tul

This is how Sophie says "beautiful". One day, not long ago, I was walking around in my bra, and Sophie came up to me. Her face is about at my hip level. She started stroking my belly, complete with flab and stretch marks, and said, Ooohh Mommy, what a b-yoo-tul tummy!

This morning, we were on the way to Nate's house, and from the backseat, she proclaimed, "I'm coming, Nate! Here I come, Nay-Nay! I coming!!!"

Singing a book

Sophie spent the morning at Nate's house and then went to swim lesson with him as well. Apparently, she was jumping in and swimming like a fish with Marlene before her lesson and got pretty tired out. I tried to put her down a little earlier for her nap since she was acting tired.

After 20 min, I checked on her but she wasn't asleep. I heard singing coming from her room, and when I looked in, she was standing at the side of her bed with her Baby Animal Songs book, "singing" the book to herself! It was priceless. She knows which songs are on which pages. She was singing "The Farmer in the Dell" and knew all the verses, even "the cheese stands alone".

Monday, July 10, 2006

Regression

Sophie is really regressing with regard to the potty training. She likes to wear diapers all the time now, and if she is naked, will even pee right on the floor - gross. Very frustrating to say the least. Especially when there is a small baby screaming her head off while you are trying to clean up pee off the new floors.

When I told her "You are not a big girl yet - you are going to have to wear a diaper, " instead of being disappointed, she replied, "Like Baby Vivian?" You can see she wants mommy to change her diapers still.

She's going to bed very well though - she's down by 8:30pm and doesn't cry anymore. She falls asleep quietly on her own after we read stories.

We went to Bonfante Gardens for the 2nd time today - it really tires her out.

She is also not listening worth a crap. I routinely have to ask her 5-50 times to do something, like put a toy back in her room, or put a shirt in the hamper. She gets sidetracked and distracted by ANYTHING - like another toy, the baby, the TV, etc. We were invited to a friend's house to play today, but could not go b/c she would not clean up her mess first, although I asked her in different ways for 30 minutes.

Sunday, July 02, 2006

Time Out

Since Vivian has arrived, we have started time out. Sophie seems more obstinate when she isn't getting all the attention she wants, and obviously, she can't be the star of the show anymore when Mommy or Daddy is attending to Vivian.

Things she gets in time out for:
High pitched screaming
Throwing her toys
Disobeying a request

She gets a choice - she can either stop the bad behavior, obey the request or go into time out. So far, she HATES it. She has to sit on a bench by the front door and she just cries and cries.

We also had to get tough on bedtime - she kept Daddy up til 10pm one night last week. Now, at 8:30pm, we read stories in her big girl room, and at 9pm, it is lights out. We've done it for the past 3 nights, and each night gets a little better. She still cries, but not as desperately. She is also locked in there via a safety gate. At 1pm, we do the same thing with naptime, and many times, she ends up falling asleep on the floor in child's pose by the gate. But she gets her nap at least.