I have kind of a lot of photos, so we may be relying on the whole picture-is-worth-a-thousand-words idea for this post.
We went to Mayfest, which is a celebration of spring that takes place at the local Waldorf school each year. This was our first time attending, and we had a really good time even though the weather was not very May-like. Here are a few shots of Mayfest:
Digging in the sandpit
First pony ride!
You can see Eleanor and Sophie in the far part of the May pole circle, walking with their ribbons. They did not quite get up to dancing speed, but it was still kind of neat.
This month we got a surprise package in the mail from our friend Barb, back in upstate New York. She made several very cool knitted crowns for Sophie and her friends to play with! They come in all different sizes so the adults can play too. Sophie likes to wear them around her neck in layers, so they are very multi-purpose! We brought them to Tavi’s house one day when we went to play. Good times were had, photographic evidence below (and more at our Flickr account). Thank you so much, Barb. :)
Sophie, Erin, and Tavi wearing crowns (upside down?)
Sophie's friend Tavi, rocking out with a crown on
The day the crowns arrived, Sophie began layering experiments.
Sophie likes to have pretend meals with her toy friends. As I write this, she is on the deck with Ryan, having a “fried birthday cake tea party”.
I have been finding set-ups like this everywhere in the past couple of weeks. Last night, Paul (the baby doll) was set up with a sand castle mold filled with popcorn in front of him.
She also enjoys “gardening” by which I mean digging in dirt and watering plants. Here she is doing some gardening with Kai:
Sophie and Kai playing in the dirt at Kai's house
Miscellaneous cuteness:
This probably only ranks as Super Sweet to me, as her mother, but: these are the contents of Sophie's sweatshirt pocket. She collects dandelions, and the paper is a "list" she made. She put it in her sweatshirt pocket just like I do when I grocery shop. :)
Ryan had a birthday in April, and we had a party to celebrate. Sophie was very excited about it and she really wanted to wear a party hat…so Erin made her one! She started a trend – everyone at the party had a hat on for some or all of the evening.
Ryan and Sophie, celebrating Ryan's birthday in some party hats!
It has been cold and rainy a lot, but we have had some nice days. On one of the hot ones, Sophie and I went to Oakledge Park on a whim and played on the beach. She had a completely fabulous time. I did too. She threw stones and sticks into the water, hunted for tiny shells, dug, and even attempted a sand castle. The water was freezing cold, but she waded in quite a bit anyway. That was one of those afternoons when I felt an extra dose of happiness that this is my job.
Sophie and I went to the beach, and it was awesome.
Since I am posting this on Mother’s Day, I will pause to say that I feel very, very lucky and proud, every day, to be this little person’s mama. And to all the parents in my life: solidarity, love, and happy Mother’s Day to all of you. <3
Sophie’s new bed is finally here, assembled, and being slept in (as we speak, in fact!)
Sophie is very pleased with her new bed...as you can see.
It’s so comfortable! I have napped in it with her once or twice myself. Sophie loves her new bed and sleeps very well in it. In fact, after we came home from Gramma and Grandad’s for Easter, she slept there the entire night! That has never happened before. (Which is fine – we are all happy with co-sleeping most of the night and she normally sleeps quite well. But it’s still a New Thing That Happened!) We missed her, and it felt very strange…when we woke up at 4am and she still hadn’t woken, we totally had to go check on her. But I am glad she feels so secure and comfortable there! And look how cute. ;)
Yes, it's a cell phone photo, but I think it does a good job of capturing her mightiness as well!
Doing tricks
At 2 years and 9 months, Sophie’s passions include running, climbing, and doing “tricks” which generally involve hanging from things or jumping off of things. She prides herself on climbing the ladders and the “spider web” thing at the playgrounds, balancing on the logs at Smalley Park, doing “spider pose” (a yoga inversion, feet up the wall and hands on the floor, facing the floor), and so on. She loves to dance to her to favorite music. She does her “elbow dance”, “the dance I’ve never done before”, and “whipping my hair like cream”.
Here’s a few seconds of her dancing to the Vermont Joy Parade’s musical performance on Church Street:
And here she is singing one of her current favorite songs, Robyn’s “Dancing On My Own”. I think this video is probably best appreciated if you know the song, but even if you don’t, the use of almost entirely phonetic lyrics is pretty cute.
Okay and one more video, because I am so proud – in which Sophie demonstrates and “explains” displacement (like, with water):
Displacement is a kind of thing.
More experiments with water fun:
Sophie, Arlo and Tavi - each within a month of each other in terms of age, and within a pound, too. They are the same size! It is so cute!
Sophie and Lucca during the 80-degree week, playing with the water table, in matching brown shorts. They also helped wash the dog, but I have no worthwhile shots of that. Sadly.
Sophie’s other burning interests of the moment include Play Dough, rubber stamps, popsicles (let me tell you, popsicles are huge with her peer group at the moment, it’s like the hot new trend), audio books, and babies. My friend Kate just had a new baby, and Sophie likes to pretend to be Kate and carry around and nurse her baby, Griffin. She also got a baby doll of her heart’s desire a while back, and she plays with him a lot. Small children are terrible mothers, however – Paul is currently asleep without any pants or diaper next to the laundry basket in her room, and has been since yesterday. ;)
Practice for being a deeply intellectual teenage music fan?
Lastly, we had a very nice Easter at Gramma and Grandad’s house in New York. There was egg hunting! And brunch! And lots of play time with cousins and grandparents. It was great. I did not actually get photos of the holiday-centric activities because I was busy watching the fun, but trust me, much fun was had! Gramma Martha and Grampa also came to visit just before Easter, which was also quite exciting!
As I had better go ahead and post this before Sophie turns 3, I will close with some Sophieisms of the month:
“My arms stretch BIG and WIDE, like a uterus!” (She also told us her diaper was full and round like a baby uterus.)
On seeing a squirrel at the park: “Oh look Mama, a hedge hunk!”
When Ryan told her she could not have any more chocolate that evening: “Dad, how could you do this to me?” (Thanks to “Max’s Chocolate Chicken”, wherein Ruby asks the same of Max. :P)
In my morning wakeup call from Sophie: “Hi. Would you like to go to the haberdashery?”
A very happy Sophie, who had been playing in the sand with Gramma.
We wish you all the popsicles and playgrounds you can handle. Thanks for reading!
Posted: March 18th, 2012 | Author:Sarah Freebern | Comments Off
New hat, favorite shirt, cuteness.
Spring is springing! You know, like, way earlier than it is supposed to! Except from perhaps a global climate change perspective, we are not complaining. :)
It means we get to do things like this:
Sophie driving the playground equipment to Somewhere
And this!
And even this (note the lack of a coat!):
Super fun times.
This month, Ryan went to SXSW, and was gone for 6 days. That is the longest we’ve ever been apart, and we missed him a lot. That said, it went very well! Ryan had a great time and did a lot of interesting things in Austin, and Sophie and I had a lot of fun and saw many, many people.
My sisters came over for a sleepover. Sophie enjoyed waking up in the morning and lounging with them, and she learned about Angry Birds by playing with Raina’s phone. ;)
Slumber party: morning edition
We went to Kai’s first birthday party, which was very fun. It was a beautiful day so we got to play outdoors with Eleanor and some other kids, then Sophie had a great time playing with Kai’s toys all afternoon. Kai’s mama even made the birthday cupcakes safe for Sophie! (We love you, Erin!)
Here is the sweet birthday boy with his sweet birthday dad:
Shiny happy birthday boys.
And here is Sophie in a party hat! Forgive my cell phone photography, here.
Sophie was very impressed by the party hats, though she didn't want to leave one on for more than 10 seconds at a time.
We managed to actually see Tavi (every other week one of us is sick, it’s a thing), and the kids got their art on:
Artists at work, making faces
Aunt Linda and Uncle Ed came to visit too, which I have no photos of, foolishly. But we had a very nice time! They had never been to our house, so first they visited and toured (heh) and then we met downtown to hang out some more. Gramma Martha and Grampa also visited and brought Sophie a lifetime supply of rubber stamps. She has been stamping like it’s her job!
We also did some playgrounding and some librarying and some going to American Flatbread. We packed a ton of fun into those 6 days!
Some Sophieisms from this month:
Sophie likes to call me on the phone’s intercom to wake me up in the morning. One day she called and said “Hi. Would you like to go to the haberdashery?”
She has been enjoying the book “13 Words” by Lemony Snicket, which is where “haberdashery” came from. In that book, someone uses the word panache and another character says “what is that, feathers? “The other day Sophie asked how various people were related to us. When I said Kelly was my sister-in-law, she said “What is that, feathers?”
“We could do some muffin-ing” – she wants to bake muffins today, of course!
“I want to do it my own” is still the way she tells us she wants to do it herself. I don’t know if I have mentioned it here or not, but she says it all the time. I am sure she has said other things worth noting this month, but I am not so great about writing them down so I don’t remember. :(
Sophie is obsessed with playing about Ponyo. She has personified her water bottle as Ponyo to the point where she is uncomfortable drinking from it. She also got a new and long-coveted baby doll this month, named Paul. Paul meets her qualifications for ideal baby doll status: he has “winky eyes, and wooden (read: plastic) arms and legs”.
We have all the pieces of Sophie’s new bed except the mattress, which, after several snags in delivery, is scheduled to arrive on Wednesday. So hopefully our next blog post will involve photos of her in a big kid bed! Also, this month marks the last class in her tots yoga series – the end of an era for us! Susan has been teaching Sophie’s yoga classes since she was 10 months old. Next month, she will have started a new series for 2-4 year olds, at the same studio, but with a new teacher. She is ready for this change, as she has been trying to run Susan’s class lately.
Lastly, check out the adorableness of pigtailed Sophie:
Posted: February 19th, 2012 | Author:Sarah Freebern | Comments Off
Sophie Strong to the rescue! Cape flying in the breeze!
This is Sophie Strong! Before bed, Sophie and I read a couple of meditations of her choice from a sweet little book of children’s meditations that our friend Erin gave us. One of the meditations is called Kid Strong, insert-kid’s-name-here. Sophie loves that one and chooses it often. Lately, her favorite meditation choices involve helping and doing good. She likes to think about being very strong, helping sick or hurt people and animals, and taking care of plants.
So, how old was Sophie when I started saying “she was sick a lot!” in every blog post? Does it feel like forever to you? IT DOES TO ME. However, it’s letting up this month – she only had a mystery fever and then later a little cold! And possibly one other thing I have forgotten! That’s progress! Sort of.
Doctor Sophie is in the house! Or the box. You know. She's listening to her doll's breathing and then administering nebulizer treatments.
We are getting a bit tired of the winter-that-wasn’t, here. It has snowed approximately twice, and usually just a teensy bit. Sophie was sick for most of the time that there was snow on the ground. So, very little winter fun has taken place. Meanwhile, Sophie has been asking about swimming, picnics, playing in the grass, visiting the ECHO deck to look at the water, blueberries, ice cream cones, the beach… it’s a little bit depressing to be constantly explaining that all those nice things are warm weather things and we’ll have to wait! The weather feels like it is constantly verging on spring, but we expect to be stuck in that limbo for quite a while. However, there is still fun to be had, between illnesses! We have visited ECHO, gone swimming in an indoor pool with Meg, Eleanor, and Adele, visited the play gym, and visited friends. Still, it will be really nice to play on the playground without freezing hands again…
Sophie very gingerly lowers herself in the foam pit, and then greatly enjoys pulling herself out with the rope (and considerable help from me)
Sophie and Daddy on a night walk up Church Street. It's fun at night with all its lights!
Also fun: Ish came to visit! We love Ish. He came from Florida, and while he was there he picked interesting tropical fruit and brought it to us. One evening, we tasted them all. I call it Tropical Fruit Fest:
Ish cuts various tropical fruits, Sophie eagerly watches
In other news, Sophie is growing (she says “My body is growing eeevery day!”), looking forward to getting a bed to replace her crib (coming soon!) and becoming a pretty great muffin baker (she and Ryan have been perfecting their recipe). She’s into “Madeline” and “Lon Po Po” and “Bats at the Library” right now, and she just watched the movie Ponyo for the first time and loved it (I did too). Her favorite music is still “Pumped Up Kicks” and “the quiet music” (“Night of Hunters” by Tori Amos). She loves reading with the “magic wand” her Gramma gave her (it has recordings of Gramma reading books!) and making cookies with the felt cookie set given to her by her Gramma Martha. She has a typical small child’s interest in playing the same things over and over and over (as I type, she is asking her dad to make her doll cry so she can comfort her – a common…no, a RELENTLESS theme in her play right now).
I also think her emotional intelligence is really interesting. The other day, we were cranky with each other for a moment before nap – she yelled at me and I used an impatient tone with her. She cried and told me “You are not treating me nicely! And I yelled at you and that made you sad and now I feel sad!” So I told her I was sorry for my tone, and that I knew she only yelled because she was tired and frustrated and everyone makes mistakes sometimes, and we just take care of each other when that happens. She said “You made a mistake and I did too!” Indeed. It was a sad conversation, but I thought it was pretty cool, too.
Since Sophie and I have been looking at some old videos of her recently, I will leave you with this video of Sophie about a year ago, reciting one of her favorite little board books at the time. What a change happens in a year!
Translation: “Up, down, up in the sky (swing low), swing high, bumpity bumpity hold on tight! Hush little baby say goodnight!”
Sophie is 2 and a half! When she was about 2, I looked at the 2 and a half year olds in her yoga class and thought they seemed so much more grown up. The other moms told me a lot happens between 2 and 2 and a half, and they were right.
She’s so mature these days:
And with such mature tastes!
But seriously, I can’t believe we’re halfway through 2 already. I know this sounds trite, but honestly: for her first year, everything felt so slow, and since then it has just been speeding up all the time. It goes so fast, now! You still won’t ever catch me telling a new mother to “cherish every moment” because I know how hollow that can feel when you’re stressed and so tired you can’t think, but…I tell myself, now, and I mostly really do cherish her all the time. Her childhood feels so fleeting and we just enjoy her so much.
Ryan had an extra day off around New Years, so we all went to Echo together.
The part we are all not enjoying so much is that she is sick a lot. Or at least, she has been since basically Thanksgiving. This may be related to the fact that she takes a daily inhaled steroid now to control her asthma – which works well, but also supresses immune response somewhat. It might also be a random string of bad luck. But it is sad to have her sick so often, and she’s become kind of hyper-aware of medical stuff. On the maybe-bright side, she is now extremely comfortable at the doctor’s office! Sophie and I are both sick right now, and you can blame the lateness of this post on that. This cold? Not fun.
At 2 and a half, Sophie is big into pretending. A lot of her pretend games are based on books and movies. (Her knowledge of movies has expanded somewhat during this time of constant illness.) She flies on her broom, calls herself Mae or Kiki or Little Bear (and her dad Satsuki or Tombo or Papa Bear and me Catbus or Mama Bear). She also likes to pretend that she lives in our closet, and has literally told someone that her home is a closet in my bedroom. (Oh dear.)
She also likes to pretend to be a mama and take care of babies. (Sometimes those babies are her fingers, or a block, or other random objects.) Since her friend Arlo’s mom is quite pregnant, she is thinking about pregnancy lately and says she has a baby in her uterus. She likes to invite me to feel it moving in there. As a big fan of nursing, she also likes to nurse her babies:
Nursing a baby doll, with a Serious Business facial expression
We had a fantastic, cozy Christmas with Sophie’s grandparents in New York. We stayed with Ryan’s parents and saw mine on Christmas Eve and Christmas day. She had such a good time and misses them all so much. In fact, she has seemingly just come into a solid understanding of missing people, and it is heart-breaking! Sometimes she is quite ardent! So she was very pleased when Gramma and Grandad came to visit recently:
Gramma and Sophie, playing with the new dollhouse Sophie got for Christmas.
I am sure there is more to say about 2 and a half year old Sophie, but I have taken far too long to make this post in the first place, and this cold is attacking my brain! So I’ll save it for next time. Happy 2.5 to Sophie!
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