Happy Thanksgiving!

We just returned from Portland, and had a wonderful time! Sophie absolutely loves being with her Nana, and I greatly appreciated all the extra help (since Sophie is in a Sassy stage). It was a lot of fun to be able to shop, run errands, go see movies, take naps and relax while Sophie was being well taken care of. In fact, usually when I returned, Sophie would cry because her special time with Nana was over. The only downside to being in Portland? Sophie demands to do the same thing, in the same order that we did the last time we visited. Mom and I had to rack our brains to remember exactly which games we played, where we played them, and even where we were sitting. I can’t believe that Sophie remembers all the details about everything we did on our last visit, but she does. It was hard to take pictures of her doing different actives.

Wearing Jewelry is still very exciting. What’s better than wearing 1 necklace? Wearing 20.

Reading books with Nana- a favorite activity still.

Having a tea party with the kitty. Sophie was quite pleased, the kitty- not so much.


Nana gave Sophie an early Christmas gift of a table and chairs, which she loved! Here she is with cousin Claire having a tea party.

Sophie introduced Claire to Dora. Apparently, it was a very interesting episode.

We are looking forward to going back at Christmas!

Me and My Car

The moment Carl walks into the door, Sophie runs to him and never looks back. She is thrilled everyday to see her daddy, and of course he feels the same way. Carl has lots of games that he plays with Sophie, which last from after dinner till bath time. One of Sophie's favorite games is playing on her car. For this game, Carl gets our little toy dog, and essentially chases Sophie around the house while she rides on her car. This game usually lasts at least a half hour. Sophie never bores of this game, and will happily play all night.

Sophie has gotten quite good at riding her car. She zips around the house, never slowing for corners or turns. Every once and a while, she will go so fast that she crashes into a wall, which only makes her laugh. She is quite content to sit on her car all night, preferring to ride around everywhere instead of walking. I believe that she is a future city girl.

Stopping mid-chase to play in her kitchen.

Pausing to watch tv- never getting off her car.

The video has an annoying high pitch sound, which is the lovely music the car plays. But, what is great about the video is that it shows how fast Sophie flys down the hall. When she is going really fast, she flings her head back and tucks in her toes, for maximum speed. I'm not sure what she says at the end, but I think I can hear a "booyah" in there. Oh dear.

Halloween 2011

We had a great Halloween! This was the first year that Sophie really got what was going on, and new exactly what to do. Well, almost- she had saying "trick-or-treat" down, and after receiving candy she would say it again instead of thank-you. This resulted in laughs from adults, and more candy for Sophie. We started our trick-or-treating adventure in the afternoon in Whitefish. All of the Main Street shops open their doors to kids, and pass out free candy. This means that there are hundreds of kids walking around in costumes, which is really fun to see. After that, we came home, had dinner and then hit our neighborhood. Once we were done trick-or-treating, we came home and passed out candy. Well, we thought that Sophie was done, but every time our door bell rang, Sophie would run past Carl, through the front door, and stand in line to trick-or-treat at our house. She is a trick-or-treating genius, and her daddy is a sucker as she got a new piece of candy each time.
By the way, if you are wondering where our pictures of pumpkins are, we did not carve any. I had brought them inside 6 hours before we intended to carve them, but they were still frozen solid. When I tried to cut into the pumpkin, it literally bent the carving knife in half. Living in Montana is super fun.

Trick-or-treating on Main Street with Daddy.

Stopping to see all the goodies mid-teating.

I realized that it was too quiet on the way home, and turned around to find Sophie eating a candy bar. She was a chocolatey mess!

Enjoying some candy after Halloween- notice that she is already a pro, double fisting with a sucker in one hand, and Snickers in the other. Carl and I are very proud.
*Sophie woke up the next day, put her costume on over her jammies and asked to go trick-or-treating again. Unfortunately, she has a long wait.