Lots to say about Sophia. Her communication skills have blossomed over the last few weeks and she is retaining so much of what she hears and learns. She always seems to have something interesting (or silly) to say. Here is just a sample of what we have experienced:

Mama: Sophia, go get Phoebe’s blanket out of her crib for me please.
Sophia: No I can’t. I’m too heavy.

While coloring a picture…..”Behold!”

Sophia: Mama!
Mama: What?!
Sophia: I don’t know……

Watching Curious George, Sophia: It’s George!
Mama: What is George? (expecting her to say monkey)
Sophia: Curious!

She has been getting mixed up when she wants to tell us of she likes something or not. So when we offer her food, that she apparently doesn’t want, she shakes her head no and says in a rough voice “I like it!”

I am busy talking to someone at the door and Sophia wanted BJ to get her something. She walks up to him and tells him “Get off bum daddy!” BJ had been sitting in the living room playing a videogame…….

A nickname BJ and I have for Phoebe is ‘Chubbs’. Totally inappropriate, I know, considering she is not chubby, fat, or chunky in any way. But we like it and so it is here to stay. Sophia has never repeated it until recently. She will repeat most of my commands to Phoebe to “not touch this” or “don’t do that” but added Chubbs at the end.

Sophia is obsessed with tractors. Whenever we drive anywhere she is on the lookout for them and gets excited when she sees one. We have so much construction in our area right now and along the roads we travel it is pretty hard to never see one when we go out. She will yell, “Look mama look! A tractor, I see it, I see it!” OR “A tractor! Oh my goodness.”

After playing with her Optimus Prime transforming robot (a cheapo thing she got in a Happy meal), and calling it a “robot”, she calls him a “beat boxer”. He continues to be a “beat boxer” and not a robot for the rest of the night.

Sophia is playing in the bath, we hear a loud crash followed by a splash. I was in the process of getting up to check on her, but I wasn’t overly concerned because there was no yelling or crying, when she calls out in a very matter of fact voice “I’M OKAY!!!!” I hadn’t asked yet, but good to know!

Speaking of the bath, she has discovered having her head, but not her face, underwater makes everything sound different. She can often be found laying in the bath with just her little face poking out. She seems so relaxed.

She is back to sleeping with her night table light on, much to my dissatisfaction. That is what her big flower night light was for! It gets her to fall asleep and I just sneak in later and turn it off. We don’t know what started this up again but hope she regains her confidence and feeling of safety back.

Sophia is also quite the mini-mama right now. She wants to look at and/or do all the things I am doing. If I have a pony tail and she has one too she will say, “Just like mama!” She wants to put on make up like me, cook dinner like me, etc.

She also tries to ‘parent’ Phoebe all the time. “Don’t do that Phoebe.” “Let go Phoebe.” “No touch Phoebe!” and on and on. Pretty much any scolding we have said to Phoebe Sophia will repeat. It has been hard explaining to Sophia why it is okay for BJ and I to say those things but not her. Really we are trying to teach her roles in the family and that we are parents and she is a child. Not easy to do on a 2 1/2 year old!

We had heavy rain and some wind due to Hurricane Ike. Sophia was desperate to go outside (luckily we had no lightning and thunder) and look at the rain. She has become really fascinated with rain and wanting to be out in it ever since daddy took her out that first time to collect water in her bucket. It was POURING, but I was tired of her whining and figured it wouldn’t hurt. We let her play out there for what ended up being half an hour. Phoebe couldn’t resist being a part of it too and joined us. Sophia was cold and sopping wet (but happy) by the time we brought her in.

Phoebe’s turn! Oh, what can I say about that little piece of deliciousness! She is almost running and really has to just to keep up with her sister. In fact, if she is doing something she shouldn’t or we tell her to stop doing something and get up to go get her she starts to run away.

She has quite the temper and doesn’t like Sophia touching on her too much. I think she has just had too many bad experiences in her life up to now of Sophia touching her in mean ways—hitting, pushing, kicking, biting, etc.—that she doesn’t want her touching at all. Admittedly, when Sophia touches her it is usually negative even to this day. She always seems to be taking something from her or pushing her hand away from something Sophia THINKS she shouldn’t be touching or simply does not want her to. As a result of all this Phoebe lashes out by trying to bite. She started this a couple months ago but it sure has gotten worse! Biting at Sophia is her first reaction. She has 3 areas on Sophia she will ‘target’–her hands, arms, or torso. And if Sophia was too quick and pulled away Phoebe will bite her own hand or wrist. (Jenn, I am sure you are totally laughing right now!) The thing is, she still only has 2 teeth so no real damage is done. You can see where some other teeth are about to cut through, but it is taking forever!

Phoebe has discovered frothing her spit and drooling it out. She mashes her lips around to get the spit all bubbly and of course, it eventually drools all down herself.

Her hair is coming in more and more curly. If we don’t brush it after a bath it tweaks out all over the place. It sure is cute. Her hair really is a lot like mine was as a child. Blond and wavy/curly.

She has discovered the trash can. We have the kind that you have to tap the top for the lid to open, but it still has the main part of it that you open when you want to change the bag. She can lift that part very easily. I have scooped countless items out of the trash. I think she saw me open the trash like that one day and has been hooked ever since.

Her speech is coming along nicely too. She said “thank you mama” one day that completely shocked BJ and I. She makes all sorts of sounds and you can totally tell she is saying something, but she just isn’t precise enough yet for us to understand.

If you ask her to give you a hug she will lay her head on your chest and snuggle. She hasn’t figured out the wrapping the arms part yet.

She is proficient in climbing and, just like her big sister, can be found climbing the furniture, stools, chairs, etc all the time.

I did something a little out of the ordinary this week. On one of the days working for my mom I had to go to the post office to mail a 25lb box. It was 2pm and I had not eaten lunch and was starving and feeling sick. My plan had been to go get lunch after the mail, and I knew I needed to hurry back to Granny’s to a hungry little Sophia. So, I am hot, hungry, tired, in a rush and there is a long line at the post office and only one person working. Another lady was kind of coming in and out but not helping yet. This man walks in after me, clearly physically and mentally handicapped. His mouth is hanging open and he is drooling on himself. After what seems like forever I get called on by a 2nd worker that finally came out and the man gets called by the lady next to me. He is speaking through an open mouth and is almost impossible to understand. The employee is clearly not understanding him and doesn’t seem to want to try. I can sort of tell by what he had on the counter what he wants so I just butt right in and tell her what I think he wants, he acknowledges that I am correct. I had to write 2 addresses down, get his ID card to get his return address, and figure out the spelling he had someone else write on a piece of paper. I surprisingly understood his grunts and attempts at letters. (Hindsight: I realized it wasn’t luck that I understood him. I have a 2 and 1 year old at home! I can understand all sorts of random chatter and noise!) The postwoman was so thankful and I am sure a lot of frustration and stress was alleviated by my interference. I was also hoping that an example of kindness helped the others in line, that were clearly agitated at the wait, soften a little and calm down.

So you might be thinking, “What happened to Heather’s forehead?!” I actually chose to do this to myself. I had a burst capillary on my forehead since I was a teenager that caused red splotchy mark. I remember my sister, Tiffany, teasing me that it looked like a pimple. I always covered it with makeup but I got real tired of that and couldn’t see doing that for the rest of my life. I had it lasered away but it left this nasty purple bruise. BJ told me it looked like a big mole. Other friends have teased that they wondered if I was changing cultures/religion. I’ll just be glad when the bruising goes away and I don’t have a red mark to look at!

Sophia has started enjoying being naked, well, at least a diaper on. I will find her at our house or Granny’s suddenly without a shirt or pants or both. I am pretty much okay with it until we were at a store recently and she took her shirt off when my back was turned. I hope this unclothed phase will pass soon.

Phoebe is definitely down to only one nap a day. I am kind of sad the 2 nap a day life is over because only having one child conscious is a lot easier. However, it has allowed for me to go out more and do stuff knowing she won’t have to take a nap until later in the afternoon. Sophia, is becoming hit and miss in the nap department as well. She had 3 days in a row with no nap but it caught up with her! I am not ready for her to have no naps yet!!!! I will have to see how this progresses.

Sophia got invited to a birthday party this week and Phoebe got to tag along with us. We enjoyed making visors and playing with friends and toys. Phoebe was just happy to be there with so many other kids and new toys. This gives me more hope she will transition to nursery at Church fairly easily. Sophia got a goody bag to take home. In it were Disney Princess stampers with an ink pad. I discovered the first go around that the ink was not kid friendly and would not come off her fingers. No big deal, so I let her play with it the next day. I walk out of the room for 5 minutes and come back to this. It was on her face for almost 3 days.

Sophia has also taken to cutting paper. She has these kid safe scissors in an art set Granny gave her. She spends lots of time just sitting there cutting the edges of the pages of her coloring books.

BJ and I got a children’s plastic table from Ikea for the girls. I got rid of her highchair at the table so she can eat, paint, color, whatever at this table and I can care less if it gets stained or scratched. Both girls have fallen in love with it and Phoebe really enjoys sitting with her big sister sharing snacks and watching her color.

Whenever Sophia has hurt herself or fallen we immediately ask her if she is okay. She will respond with either “I’m fine, “I’m okay”, or “yeah.” That has all been bypassed now. Before we even have a chance to open our mouths she is saying “I’m okay” when she gets injured or falls. We find this very sweet and funny.

She has also taken to having little conversations with herself. If we don’t say your welcome after she tells us thank you she will say it for us. Or other times she will ask questions or make comments about something and then answer with a follow up. It amazes me how much her talking and conversation skills have come along in just about 2 weeks!

Wonderful progress with potty training! Nana and Poppy recommended giving her an M&M treat every time she sat on the potty regardless of any result. She has gone in the potty more times this week than she ever has before. She even told me a couple times beforehand that she had to go. We bought our last box of diapers for her and our next trip to Costco we will be coming back with training pants!

I have a ton of Braum’s paper bags in the house. I decided to cut out some holes for Sophia’s arms and head and make her a ‘robot’. She was so thrilled with it, and I have made more paper bag robots this week than I care to think about.

In the middle of sacrament meeting Sophia, somewhat loudly, asks me to “draw boobies” on the Dora I had just sketched on her magnadoodle.

Phoebe is really trying with her vocabulary. At times she sounds like she is almost repeating things we are saying like “that” and “yes”.

Phoebe has started a naughty little habit of pinching. She has made many small injuries to her parents’ faces and arms to pinching. She has a much stronger grip than one would think by looking at her. She also grabs her own cheeks too. Not sure what that is all about other than her cheeks are quite chunky and pinchable!

BJ had sharing time at church this week. For those of our friends not sure of what that is, it is basically a 15 minute interactive lesson to a group of about 30 kids ages 7 to 11. He has a great lesson planned on baptism. Halfway through it an older boy commented to BJ that his “older brother wanted to get baptized in a swimming pool so afterwards he could swim in his sins.” BJ almost died laughing, I think, and the sharing time was quite hard to finish because he and some other teachers couldn’t compose themselves.

The girls are really impressing me. Sophia is showing more patience with Phoebe and a willingness to interact. She actually will try and call Phoebe over to her to play with her or tell her what to play with and what to do with it. They hold hands in the car between the car seats and Sophia gets worried when Phoebe drops her blanket in the car too. I find a reason every day to smile at their blossoming relationship.

I have finished at least 2 of my projects that I started the couple weeks before. I finished cleaning and re-organizing the master bathroom and finished painting and decorating Phoebe’s letters for her name board. It will be a couple months before I put the letters together with the material and board and will post pics then. Now onto finishing the master bedroom!

I went to Enrichment Night where we made a pillow, which the pattern and color happened to go wonderfully with my couches, and a tote bag, which I was unable to finish due to time. Once I finish the tote I will post a picture of it too. I have done little sewing projects in the past before, but after this week I think I want to get more serious about sewing. I went ahead and joined the sewing group in my church and can’t wait to sew more items.

Sophia LOVES ketchup and will eat it over any food she is having with it. I turned around for a few minutes to do dishes and I turn around to see she has smeared ketchup all over her face!! It was as if she was giving herself a ketchup facial. I hate that I didn’t get a picture of it because it was quite the sight!

If she loves ketchup, no surprise she loves tomatoes! I had about 15 grape tomatoes stored in one of her bowls on the counter. She comes to me in the living room with a line of tomato seeds down her shirt. I ask BJ if he gave her tomatoes for dinner. He has no idea what I am talking about and we discover what happened. She grabbed the bowl on her own and sat at the kitchen table and ate all those tomatoes one after the other. Needless to say we did not feed her anything else for dinner that night, her tummy looked so big!

Sophia got a cowgirl hat! She put it on right away and was so proud of herself. She got right on her bounce horse and jumped saying “I’m a cowgirl! Yeehaw!”

Sophia has started a very girly habit…..twirling her hair.

Sophia hurt her finger pretty bad this week. She stuck her finger in a hole in BJ’s weight bench. I couldn’t get it out so I desperately called BJ in to help. With a lot of pulling he got it out. However, the INSIDE of the hole is rough and it pulled skin off in a pattern that makes it look as though she were bit on her finger. She freaks out if she doesn’t have a Dora band aid on her finger, but it also doesn’t allow her skin to breath and therefore not to scab over. We have had quite the band aid battle in our house this week.

Sophia has been obsessed with Blue’s Clues the last several weeks. Sophia has started to talk like Blue and will walk around the house going “bowbabow.” Silly, silly girl.

Wow, a lot about Sophia this week. What can I say about Phoebe? She is small, cute, and fun to kiss on! By observing the girls and their interactions we have come to the conclusion (the small fights and stealing toys aside) that Phoebe enjoys Sophia’s presence and friendship more than Sophia does right now. I know once Phoebe can talk more and have more structured play things will only get better for these sisters.

I managed to get Phoebe’s hair in pigtails! She was so adorable. She surprisingly didn’t seem irritated by them either. I can’t wait for her hair to get longer and do even more pigtails, but there sure is something sweet about tiny, 1 inch piggies!

Phoebe has really taken to copying her big sister. Noises, gestures, things she does with her toys, etc. At times it is very sweet and endearing, and other times just darn annoying. It has really nailed into my mind what an example an older sibling is and needs to be to younger siblings. Now I just have to be sure Sophia does what is right.

As BJ mentioned in another post he went to OK this past weekend. I was tempted to go but didn’t want to put the girls out too much. However, I felt like I was going to lose my mind this weekend dealing with the girls fighting and almost constant care and attention. Add a little exhaustion and I was VERY ready for him to come home.

What Phoebe has been up to:

She has become such a copycat. Any noise or sound (or screech) that she can mimic she will. Some of it is really cute and some of it definitely not so much. She has added “wow”, “whoah”, “no”, “ball” and “oh” to her vocabulary and uses them almost constantly throughout the day. She has also increased the amount of pointing she does and points at almost everything and exclaims her new words in the process.

Phoebe has developed a temper and attitude as well. It used to be if we heard Phoebe crying or fussing it was because Sophia did something to her. Now it is due to her not getting what she wants, not getting where she wants to go, Sophia taking a toy, or not playing with her, etc etc etc. Or if she wants something or wants somewhere she will scream and yell at us. We know exactly what she wants but apparently we don’t move fast enough! And obviously she has no other way to tell us what she wants, so yelling it is.

She is such a confident walker now and has tried to start running when she gets really excited.

Still only 2 teeth, but it doesn’t stop her from eating anything she wants.

Latest compliments from strangers besides her beautiful eyes is that she looks like the Gerber baby. We sure think so.

Phoebe has never hung out with us in our bed before. One morning was really rainy. The girls woke up around the same time (which rarely happens) so we piled into bed with blankies and sippy cups and watched morning cartoons for a bit from our comfy, warm bed. As you can see the girls enjoyed themselves very much, and Phoebe even looks like she still wants to sleep.

What Sophia has been up to:

She has started this thing when she wants to identify something. She waves her arm in a circle and repeats “It’s, it’s, it’s it’s…..” and then I have to help. She has also started asking me “What’s next?”

Sophia again identifies mommy as a girl, daddy as a boy, and then BJ asks Sophia if she is a girl. She assuredly says “No.” BJ, shocked, then asks her what she is. She exclaims “I’m a cowgirl!”

I went shopping at Target one evening and come home with several bags. Sophia starts tearing into them saying each time “What’s this?!” Getting tired of that I quickly pull out the new shirt and shorts I found on the clearance rack (the shorts were 98 cents!) and tell her she can have them. She grabs them up in her arms, hugs them, and says “Oh! I love it!” Then immediately has to wear the new outfit. Her ‘before’ hair picture is of her in the new clothes.

Nursery was missing the chorister for singing time one Sunday. Sophia started singing in the middle of doing her coloring activity and some of the other kids joined in. She then led the rest of ’singing time’ by picking the songs they would sing and singing the loudest.

Yep, we took her to get her hair cut. Don’t worry, her bangs weren’t touched, they clearly don’t need it. We wanted to even her hair out and get rid of the tangly, thin hair in the back. We were nervous about her first ‘major’ haircut and didn’t want to lose the curls, but it turned out very well and we can still do ponytails and pigtails. She looks a little more grown up too.

Sophia was jumping on her trampoline with Daddy watching when BJ comes in and tells me I have to come out and listen to what “my daughter” is singing. I go out and am greeted by the funniest thing. She is singing another random song that I sometimes sing around the house but that she has never repeated before. It is an Avril Lavigne song and she is jumping up and down singing “hey hey you you I don’t likeurgirlfiend no way no way.”

Another wonderful Friday. We went to the Wiggly Play Center and met daddy for lunch where a little boy hit her a couple times within 10 minutes of being there thus crushing any excitement she had gained from being there. With lot’s of hugs from mama and reassurance she warmed up to the place. Phoebe had a blast and loved every minute of it. We ended the day with swimming where Sophia was just as independent as before with swimming by herself.

Phoebe had her 12 month well check. She only weighed 17.11 pounds!!! I at least thought she would be 20 pounds. I know my sister, Jennifer, is reading this right now thinking “My baby weighed that at 3 months!” Cousin Casper will have his 12 month well check in a couple weeks and I just know he is going to weigh as much as Sophia does, which is about 26 pounds. Am I right, or am I right Jenn?!

When trying to praise the girls for something good I will typically clap my hands and say “Good job.” Mostly when we are playing, otherwise it is simply “good job.” Phoebe has caught on and whenever I say “good job” she will clap her hands. Even if she is holding something else like her cup or a toy she has to stop everything to clap. What a silly sweetheart. I think I am still trying to get used to the idea that she might even understand what I am saying!

Sophia did a naughty, dangerous thing at bath time one night this week. Phoebe thought it was hilarious and I was just thankful she didn’t kill herself. She would take her waterproof Pablo plush doll and throw him out the bath (therefore getting lots of water all over the floor and bathmats) then climb out, throw Pablo back in, stand completely up on the edge of the bath, and then jump back into the bath. She did this a few times before I was able to get back into the bathroom. We are lucky she didn’t bang her chin or head or something wide open!

Sophia has really started to love Church and Nursery on Sundays and so every Sunday morning I psych her up to go. We were all dressed and trying to get all our stuff together. BJ was still getting ready and Sophia was getting impatient…..”Go church. Nursery School?” ME “No not yet, we have to wait for Daddy.” HER “What?!” ME ” We have to wait for Daddy to finish getting dressed.” HER “Why?” ME “Because he is the one driving today. Mommy can’t drive Daddy’s car.” HER Frustrated silence.

Phoebe learned to say “Uh oh.” She sounds just like her big sister did when she learned to say it too.

Lots of birthdays are coming up so I spent Saturday afternoon at the mall. BJ enjoys an afternoon with the girls over at his parents house. While away I treated myself to seeing a movie. Mama Mia to be more specific. I enjoyed the movie, thought it was funny and cute, and was thankful that the teenage lesbians I ended up sitting next to left half way through the film.

While at the mall I scored a free t-shirt at this Wonka candy stand they had for some other competition thing they had going on. I was raving about how my husband loves the new giant chewy nerds so they asked what his size was. Once I got away a little and saw what was on the shirt I had really wished I asked for one in my size instead. BJ would never wear it in public whereas I would have. It is a pastel orange shirt with the words “Live, Love, Laugh Laffy Taffy” on the front in a mix of pink, purple ,and white letters. He put it on and I couldn’t help but immediately blurt out “You look gay.” We will eventually have to post a picture of him in it. (BJ: no… we won’t)

Phoebe has grown a strong desire for climbing, more particularly, on the couches. Sophia, however, loves her couch time with her blankies and juice and will even kick BJ and I off the smaller couch so she can have it to herself. I have quashed many a fight this week over being on the couch. I think Sophia is getting used to it, just as long as Phoebe steers clear of the blankies and cup. I enjoy hiding behind the couch and jumping up and scaring them. They love it and laugh and squeal and jump away and then come back for more.

BJ hasn’t been playing many videogames, if any really, as of late and so he decided to play Soul Caliber 4 for a bit one afternoon. Sophia was very intrigued. When BJ stopped she wanted to play and even brought the controller to him. He let her play. (Grumble, grumble) She thoroughly seemed to enjoy herself and actually pushed the correct combination of buttons to make her character get some hits in.

I saw the dumbest thing I have seen in awhile on the way to work for my mom one morning. It was a guy on a motorcycle wearing shorts, a tank top, had a shaved head (and I was obviously able to know that since he had no helmet), but it was his right leg that stood out more than anything. He had one of those big, black, leg and foot brace things that some people wear instead of casts. My first thought was wondering whether or not he hurt his leg in a previous motorcycle accident, and second, this guy is totally gonna kill himself, a complete fatality waiting to happen.

The big announcement for the week goes to Sophia. We went to the pool on Saturday, BJ included this time, and Sophia swam all by herself!!!! She had her floaty suite on of course, but she was willing to let go of us and swim several feet back to us or to Phoebe’s floaty. She was kicking her legs so hard and looked like she was riding a unicycle underwater. She didn’t do much with her arms though. I can’t wait to go back and see if that confidence is still there.

Continuing to work on the potty training this week with no luck. Not once has she gone while sitting on the potty. I feel as if she is teasing us now about it. One night she says, very sincerely “Sophia poopoo potty.” My reply, “Sophia are you REALLY going to go on the potty?” “No, don’t think so.” I should have known….

I have this little sing song saying when playing with Sophia to get her to dance a little for me. I simply say “Jam out tttttttt, jam out! Jam out! She never once has repeated it but this week I caught her saying something that I couldn’t figure out. I am usually the one interpreting for BJ, but he nailed this one. She was saying “Jam out tttttttt” while bopping her head. I hadn’t said it in weeks so I don’t know what made her think of it but she sure enjoyed it.

Just in time for her birthday, Phoebe cuts tooth number one–bottom right. The exact same one Sophia had cut first. Phoebe has been flicking her tongue quite a bit over this new thing in her mouth.

Phoebe has also abandoned crawling. She started the week with what I call “momentum walking”. She would throw up her arms and take a couple normal steps, then she would see the thing she wanted or the place she wanted to go and she would start walking really fast with such a momentum behind her. Then the speed would catch up with her and she would fall forward or on her butt. By the end of the week she had learned some patience and paces herself better and walks everywhere. Sophia is helping too. She caught Phoebe crawling one day and said to her, in a firm voice, “No Phoebe, walk! Walking!”

A little scary thing happened for me. I had my teenage sister-in-law babysitting for me this week while I worked for my mom. I had the girls happily playing and watching a cartoon while I could take a shower. Just as I had gotten my bathrobe on I heard voices coming through the front door. I know I had both locks done up and I promptly found out what happened. When Mike and Catey knocked on the door (they said she started to yell mama right away) she went to the door and they were able to talk her through unlocking the door. When they heard the clicks they were able to get right in. I often bathe while the girls are awake with this same set up (otherwise I would never get a shower!) and so it makes me worried to do so now. What if a solicitor comes to the door? Or UPS delivering a box? I have thought about a doorknob cover but there is an open hole over the lock that would still allow her to get her little fingers in it to unlock the bottom one as well. As Pooh Bear would say….”think, think, think.”

Sophia got a new night light this week. We were so impressed with the pink flower from Ikea that cousin Gwennie had in her room we got one for Sophia. As soon as she saw it she said “Gwennie light!” We like it because it puts out about the same amount of light as having the scarf over her bedside lamp. But now she can’t turn this off or on or possibly knock over her lamp by pulling off the scarf anymore! Plus, she just simply loves it!

BJ was in Fort Worth for 3 days staying at the Fort Worth Stockyards Hotel. I called it “his vacation” since he really didn’t DO work, had a bunch of meetings, and ate steak and other great food while having no toddlers to bother him or drain him. Although, he was so ready to come home the 3rd day and he missed all his girls.

We bought a sit and stand stroller, finally! I thought I would try and put it together while BJ was gone. I had done well until the very end. I won’t necessarily explain the logistics of it but I smashed 3 fingers on my right hand very badly. My whole arm was shaking from the pain and still today my middle finger has pain and even some strange numbness to it. The pointer finger isn’t 100% either. I hope it is all better by next week. The girls were very impressed with it and Sophia wouldn’t stop sitting in it until she went to bed.

Sophia discovered broccoli this week and loves it. However, she held it up and proudly announced “a tree!” I explained to her what it was and then later she exclaimed “grass!” Oh well, like it really matters, right?

Sophia has also really taken to singing songs. I have sung to her all sorts of songs and she loves singing along now. Even her nursery leaders have commented on how she is the loudest and best during singing time.

Sophia has to be the one to say prayers every night now. She repeats as much as she can and does pretty well. A close friend of mine recently got diagnosed with diabetes. The first night we prayed for her Sophia was repeating me and actually managed to say diabetes perfectly, but then said “I don’t know” right after. BJ was busting up, very obviously I am sure, since she has never said that word before and doesn’t know what it is or means. We quickly ended the prayer for daddy’s sake and tucked our smart kid into bed.

Phoebe turned one year!!! We had a family BBQ on Saturday and enjoyed yummy ribs and good company. Phoebe (and Sophia) got some great gifts. One of them being a porcelain tea party set. Sophia adores it and it will be even better once Phoebe is old enough to play with it the ‘right way’ an not knock everything over sending her older sister into a tailspin. She also got a little cooking set with pots and pans and spoons. She already had plastic fruit and veggies so she and I have been enjoying ourselves “cooking”. She is so willing to do so and is very interested. Phoebe is having fun with the 2 push toys she received and the stability it gives her while she is still learning to walk is great. There is also this automated pat-a-cake bear that the girls both adore. The first encounter was one of just shock and awe. This is what I imagined they were thinking “This stuffed animal is MOVING!! They aren’t supposed to move! What is going on?” Sophia was so excited about the whole party idea all day long and since she got gifts too, how could this have not been all about her? When we did the birthday cupcakes and sang to Phoebe she was so hurt. She hung her head down and the saddest face I have seen. I think her heart was broken. We sang to her and re-lit the candle so she could blow it out too. When we started singing her face was one of unsure intrigue, then when we got to the part where we say her name she broke out into a HUGE smile and very proudly blew out the flame. This whole day only made us excited for Christmas for the girls!

I can hardly believe Phoebe is one year already. Didn’t I just have her?! I love her so much and enjoy every week that she is a part of my life. She is so sweet and quirky and fun. She is a great playmate for Sophia and I know things will only get better for the two of them.

Phoebe is fighting back and holding her own against Sophia. He big sister has a habit of smacking her on the head when she is doing something she doesn’t like. She is getting better about not doing it but Phoebe is retaliating and one day I caught them both smacking at each other at the same time with both their hands. It was the typical sissy, girl “cat” fight. I couldn’t help but laugh before breaking them up.

Phoebe has also taken to trying to bite Sophia when she is mad at her. I have caught her with her mouth wide open on Sophia’s hand or arm or face. I know EXACTLY what she is trying to do and Sophia (because it is more slobbering and tongue than anything) thinks she is playing with her and giggles. Alas, Phoebe still has no teeth. She has made progress, though, because you can actually see where the teeth are about to come in. Just a little more and both bottom teeth will break through.

We spent the 4th of July with Jennifer and her family. Grandad let us borrow their new Honda Odyssey and it made our trip so wonderful. We spent our time going to the pool, playing with the slip and slide, wonderful fireworks show, going to see the movie “Hancock” and lots of playing around with the cousins. Sophia is so attached to Gwennie. Whenever she couldn’t find her she would wander around the house calling out “Gwennie! Gwennie! Where are you?!” We can’t wait to go back.

Sophia has developed saying “I don’t think so.” to all sorts of questions. It has made me reflect on what I have been saying to her and wondering if she got it from me, or if it’s another random thing she has learned.

Phoebe is back to saying “mamamama” and I am loving it!!!!

She has also gained more confidence in walking and is choosing to walk more and more around the house. Sophia tries to be so helpful and do as I do by holding her hand to walk her. Their relationship is blossoming so nicely and they truly are playing better together. They are entertaining each other so well and I find them laughing at one another several times a day.

Sophia was getting a little stir crazy by the end of this last week since she had not left the house since we got back in town. Friday night I had an errand to run to Hobby Lobby and then we went out for ice cream at Marble Slab. While at the craft store Sophia enjoyed herself by walking around with a pirate hat she found. We were impressed when she was able to put it back without any fuss before we checked out.

Saturday night we ate dinner at our friend’s house, the Brady’s. They prepared a lovely dinner for us and then the Brady’s and BJ proceeded to have quite the fun time playing Rock Band. Sophia was a big help in playing the drums for them. I finally joined the fun when they brought out Sing Star. I thoroughly enjoyed myself, sounded absolutely terrible, and can’t wait to do it again!

I thought this would be so much longer considering I am covering 2 weeks worth, but that is really all I can report at this time. BJ is very busy with work because his big project FINALLY rolled out this past week for company use. I have been working for my mom and just trying to get by day by day with the girls and having lots of church meetings. Until next week!

The big announcement for the week is that Phoebe is walking! BJ and I worked with her a little bit with her walking in between us to gain confidence and she is doing wonderfully. By the end of the week she was standing up on her own, no furniture or anything for support and then will take a few steps. She has taken to wanting to climb too. She gets up and down from the girls’ little wooden rocking chair and attempts to climb from the bath.

Phoebe has learned to give and take things from someone’s hand. She is so funny when we are doing it with a toy because she is so forceful and quick when she puts it in your hand. I think she thinks it is more a game than me simply handing her something.

The girls and I spent another afternoon in the pool. I was pregnant last summer and only swam once (hmmm, maybe twice) so I think I am making up for it this summer with swimming every week. Sophia sure doesn’t mind.

As BJ already put in a previous post—Sophia got locked in the van and the fire department was called. I have never locked my kids in the car before and go figure it was in a car I am not used to driving. I will say no more on it other than I was terribly embarrassed and felt so stupid, even though one of the EMT’s assured me it was their second call like this that day.

I attempted to cut Sophia’s bangs this week. I see no sense in driving to a hair place (with the way gas prices are) to pay 15 bucks or whatever for them to cut only bangs on this child! I was able to cut them once before and they turned out okay. Not so this time. She was moving too much and the first cut was too short. Well of course I had to base all my other cuts off that first one for it to look even remotely even. All of it being too short. I only told my closest friends the truth but if anyone has asked at church or random places I have blamed it on Sophia getting into the scissors and me fixing it. BJ and I agree we are growing her hair all out and will clip her front hair back.

We took Sophia to see the new Pixar movie Wall E. She did okay for about half the movie and then got squirmy. It was an amazing movie–Pixar can do no wrong! If you haven’t seen it yet–take kleenex! I can’t wait to have it on DVD.

BJ finds all sorts of random crap on the web and on YouTube. He chose to show me a clip in particular from YouTube one night. Sophia was still up and seeing me sitting next to daddy watching something on the laptop was too tempting for her. She joined us and watched the video clip as well. It was okay for her to watch–it is an animation with no cussing. It is called Charlie the Unicorn. OMG! This child will NOT stop asking to “watch Charlie.” This thing is like 3 minutes long but she has fallen in love with it. We discovered there was a second video with bananas and she loves that one just as much. She asks for it every day and asks to watch it again and again after just having seen it. It is hilarious and totally worth checking out on YouTube (BJ Note: I’ll embed it in another post).

Sophia, my little shadow, pointed out something to her daddy one day this week. She was jumping on our bed and looked over on his side of the floor and saw his big pile of dirty clothes. She said “oh no a mess! Clean clothes, pick up.” I laughed and told her they were daddy’s and HE would need to pick them up. I told her she should tell him that. She bounced off the bed and ran into where BJ was in the living room and yelled “Clean up clothes daddy!” I told BJ, when he came into the room being led by Sophia holding his hand, that she pointed it out first and that if a 2 year old can see they need picking up maybe he should learn from her example.

One morning I was out back with Sophia while she jumped on her trampoline. I heard this noise coming from our drain that comes off the roof and leads down to the ground. It sounded like something was falling inside and I was hearing a few bangs and scraping sounds and then a few more bangs. I was thoroughly freaking out not knowing what was coming out of the drain and not wanting to find out. Sophia did not notice a thing so I took advantage of her ignorance and went inside to watch her from the kitchen. She kept asking me to come outside and I told her it was too hot. I’m so lame. She eventually came inside and hours later I got up the courage to look around the drain out back to see if anything had come out. I was completely speechless when I saw what was sitting less than a foot away from the drain opening—-a baby bunny maybe the size of a lemon. I ran inside to get BJ and he of course took pictures. After much discussion (and putting my desire aside to adopt this cute baby bunny who I was sure had no mommy now) we decided to give it one day to see if the mama would come get it. Considering we don’t know how the ‘wild rabbit’ world works and maybe the mama left there until she could come back. BJ called it our “gutter bunny”. We truly enjoyed checking up on it all of the rest of that day and were sad to see it gone the next day.

Phoebe has found her voice—mostly in the evenings. It is usually after dinner and a bath but just before bed she just jabbers and jabbers with a few squeals mixed in.

Phoebe turned 11 months this week. Still no teeth but getting very close on the walking. She is much more cautious than Sophia was. She can walk alongside me holding one hand. The farthest we have gone is from the couch to the fridge, which for a little girl learning to walk it is pretty far! I am so proud of her and just know she will be walking independently by her 1st birthday.

BJ enjoyed a night out with himself and picked up some books at Barnes and Noble and then watched Incredible Hulk. He didn’t seem too terribly impressed with it but enjoyed seeing a movie in the theater more than anything I think. The books purchased were: American Gods by Neil Gaiman (which I am reading and thoroughly enjoying right now) The Road by Cormack McCarthy (BJ currently reading),The Light Fantastic by Terry Pratchett, and lastly Shadow of the Giant by Orson Scott Card. It seems like it has been MONTHS since I sat down to a good book that I read every night before bed. Actually, come to think of it the last book was winter last year—Empire by Orson Scott Card.

Sophia and I went to the same pool we have gone to the last few weeks with the same group of friends. We had such a good time but I added to my sunburn from the week before. Sunscreen WAS put on my back but my neck and shoulders still burned. Grrrr, I am tired of hurting and itching. We went Phoebe free this time (daddy worked from home and helped watch her). I think it was totally to Sophia’s benefit. She spent the first hour in the same floaty and unsure of herself. Without Phoebe I was able to commit all my attention to her and by the second hour I had her out of the floaty, not clinging to me, and running from the edge of the pool to about 5 feet from the edge. I was also able to finally take some pictures!

BJ and I have mentioned here and there before about Sophia being a little GIRL and others also being girls or BOYS and such. She has really taken to it this week and we took the opportunity to clearly define boys from girls. She can almost always accurately identify each gender now and seems to be very proud of herself.

I am a clean, organized person and have tried to instill some of this lifestyle into Sophia. Teaching her to pick up after herself, don’t touch things when your hands are dirty, clean up spills on the carpet and tile, etc. One morning just before she got into her seat for breakfast she seemed distracted and upset by something on the floor. I finally saw what she was looking at….it was a dime sized spot of marinera sauce from a couple days before. She was determined to clean it up so I had to wet down a rag and let her (by herself) wipe it until she was satisfied with the results. I thought it a little neurotic of her, but hey, look at her example! I also thought it good and sweet of her to do so and try and help.

Working for my mom one day this week I allowed Sophia to play in the packing peanuts. She has a HUGE container full of them so I plopped Sophia into them. She wiggled around and stomped for a bit until it tipped over and she hurt her head. Granny had the good idea of getting her a smaller box to sit in and fill it up. We did so but while transferring some peanuts we realized what all her stomping around in the big bucket did. It was slowly shredding the peanuts into a fine pulp. So instead of big ones that were easy to pick up and clean I had fine little bits everywhere that were sticking to everything! I took a picture of some of the mess with my camera phone. It was exhausting to pick up and only vacuuming in the end really did the trick.

Sanctuary! Phoebe is consistently sleeping through the night! We had a couple nights where Sophia wandered in and that was about it.

We have tried to crack down on potty training and decided to use M&M’s as enticement. The first day I sat her on the potty and explained the reward system to her. She went tinkle and was given 2 treats. The next day she sat on the potty and wasn’t doing anything but asked for a treat. I was surprised she even remembered, but unfortunately she did not earn any that time but was not upset when she didn’t get a treat since she understands the terms.

Saturday we went to the Dallas Zoo and had a blast. We went as soon as they opened at 9am so we were able to leave by 12:30 when it started to get really hot. We rented a double stroller from there and hoped that with them sitting side by side they wouldn’t fight too much. It worked perfectly with only minimal fighting. (BJ, this makes me feel even stronger about wanting to buy a doubler stroller or a sit and stand!) Sophia got to ride a pony and pet a guinea pig and rabbit. Sophia got to bring home a large blue and white snake we have named “Hissy Fit” and a giraffe shaped sports bottle. Phoebe got a zoo keepers shirt with lots of animals on it. We can’t wait to go back!