Blankie Lovin'

We have known for a while that Sophie has formed an attachment to a particular blanket. It's soft pink with a satin trim, and overall very girly. Her blanket attachment has gone to a blanket obsession. She takes it everywhere with her-drags it around the house, and never lets go of it. I so far have successfully been able to keep blankie in the house, but I am sure that one day, this too will come to a battle. And really, who am I kidding, she will probably win. For now, I have been trying to keep the floors really clean and sneak the blanket into the wash often. That is until this morning, when she caught me sneaking it into the dryer and then proceeded to pound on the dryer while sobbing. I had to remove her from the laundry room kicking and screaming. I'm not kidding. Now I am on the hunt to find an identical blanket for backup purposes. Again, not kidding. I took some pictures of Sophie last night with her blankie-

Wrestling with Pooh Bear, and of course blankie. Yes, Pooh Bear wrestling is still a nightly activity. She now goes into her room and drags poor Pooh to the living room by his t-shirt. He is looking slightly worse-for-wear.

Here is Soph's being a rascal and trying to touch the cable box buttons. She knows that this is a no-no, perhaps it was blankie that made her do it?

Stopping mid wrestling match to give blankie some lovin.

It's always nice to have a blanket at hand- er, foot- while reading some of your favorite books.

Dancing Queen

Sophie has always loved music, and loved to dance. Her dancing normally consists of bobbing up and down to the music. While we were at Nana's house, Nana decided to play some Spanish Flamenco music and danced around the kitchen. Sophie thought that Nana's dancing was great, and decided to join. She was quite pleased with her new dancing ability, and ended up dancing around the kitchen for a good five minutes. We will have to find one of those CD's to play for her here. Enjoy Sophie's dancing!

Nana's House

We just got back from Nana's house, and had a wonderful time! Aside from the flights, Sophie enjoyed each minute. In Sophie's defense, she probably would enjoy flying more if I would let her run down the aisles, kick the chair in front of us, and eat continuously for 3 hours. But again, once we got there, Sophie had a blast. Nana's house has a lot of great things- Nana, of course, and pets! Sophie loves animals, and since we do not have any, they are a BIG treat. Unfortunately, this trip I did not get any pictures of Sophie with Rosie- the dog. I am not exactly sure why, because they literally followed each other around the house all day. Rosie especially loved having Sophie during meal times, because she has the unfortunate habit of dropping food onto the floor when she no longer wants it. Rosie never missed a meal.

Feeding the animals was very exciting. Here, Sophie is feeding Twinkie, the neighbor cat, who adopted my mom for a new owner.

Sophie is trying to scale my mom's gigantic bed in order to give Suta a pet. If you look closely you will notice that their feelings towards one another are not mutual, as Suta's ears are going flat and to the side. This is cat speak for "get away little human."

Those of us who know Sophie well know that she loves an open fridge. She loves my mom's fridge the best as it has a little spot for her to sit inside. Whenever we opened the fridge, she came a runnin'. We had a great trip!

Orange You Glad I Didn't Say Orange?

Picky eating has gone to an entirely new level. Sophie now refuses to eat anything orange. This includes her previous favorite foods- carrots, sweet potatoes, cheese, and goldfish. All of these items are now cast aside. Carl thought that I was kidding about her new anti-orange rule, so we did an experiment. We took rainbow colored goldfish- which come in purple, green, red and orange- and placed them on the table. She ate each one, except the orange. Repeatedly.

To banish all orange objects from her tray, Sophie has a special system. All forbidden orange food is segregated into the cup holder portion of the tray. If we take an object out, and place it back in the middle of the tray- this item is picked up and tossed to the floor. Since we do not have a dog, this is not acceptable behavior, and so we put up with her segregation system.

What does she eat now, you might ask? It is tricky. She still eats oatmeal for breakfast, with a banana. She will still eat yogurt and cheerios for a snack. But lunch and dinner times are proving difficult. She is down to white cheese, mixed veggies- corn, peas, beans- and fruit. That's it. I may possibly have gray hair by the time she is 2.

Picky, picky, picky!

The unthinkable has finally happened. Sophie is a very picky eater. It's very sad. It seems as only last month Carl and I were patting ourselves on the back, thinking that we were such great parents, our Sophs would eat anything! Then, seemingly overnight, Wham! Pickiness arrived. She is now strictly on a veggie, fruit, dairy diet. That's it. No bread, pasta, meat of any kind, nothing with a sauce- or wet texture. No eggs, beans, or anything combined. Everything must be in isolation. It is very stressful finding foods with protein that she will eat. Now she is very much like Sam-I-am, she will not eat meat on a plane, in the rain, on a train- it's driving me insane! Every book that I read tells me that this is only a phase, she is just showing her independence. I am hoping that this phase is over very quickly. Very, very quickly.

Sprinklers are fun

Sophie just recently discovered the fun of sprinklers. One was set up at the cabin, and Sophie's cousins were running through it. Of course, as soon as our backs were turned, Sophie ran through it in all her clothes. Not wanting to spoil her new fun, we stripped her down to her diaper and let her loose! She had a great time and continues to have no fear of anything water related.

It's important to get a good running start before you go through.

Sharing a quick laugh with Daddy.

Looking at her cousins, as if to say, "Hey guys, come on in- the water's fine!"

Oh, the Joy of a Spoon!

Sophie has just started to become interested in eating with a spoon. As you will see from the pictures, she pays no attention to which side she is using. This is (of course) due to the fact that she is a genius, and is inventing new ways to eat. It's messy, but really fun to watch!

Here she is placing Spaghetti O's individually on the spoon in the bowl.

Using the opposite side of the spoon- this provided a fun fling action when she took it out of the bowl- which resulted in the wall behind her being scrubbed clean during nap time.

And finally, forgetting the spoon and just using her hands.