A very orange birthday

Two days ago, Sophie turned four. I know. How did that happen? One minute she was a screaming, yelling peanut of a 5-pound-12-ouncer, and now she's a talking, walking, sassypants of a 4-year-old. Who isn't afraid to tell you exactly what kind of birthday party she wants, no less. "A Lorax party," she unceremoniously announced 3 weeks ago, and so it was to be (even though we were in the midst of Jude not being around, me having a busy season at work, and the on-going renovations of our flat).

In retrospect though, I did have fun thinking of all the different ways to incorporate the Lorax story into her party-- designing the invites were easy since there are tons of templates for Lorax party invitations online. As for treats, it's as if the story was designed with a kid's party in mind-- Humming Fish (goldfish crackers), Brown Barbaloots (teddy grahams and marshmallows-- a concession to the movie adaptation), Truffula fruits (grapes), and Truffula seeds (jellybeans). We also served some chicken nuggets and homemade popcorn as per the birthday girl's request.

Two things I was particularly excited about was the party favours and Sophie's birthday cake. Since we were already laying out treats for everyone (plus a piñata stuffed with candy), I didn't want to pack more goody bags; instead, we prepared little glass cups with four pinto beans on damp cotton balls for the kids to grow their own bean sprouts. It was Jude's idea actually and I thought it was brilliant. It's a novel favour that'll help the kids learn something about plant life and it's totally in sync with the theme of the Lorax story as well!

"The last of the Truffula seeds..." 

As for her birthday cake, it was the perfect place to bring in Sophie's favourite part of the story-- the Truffula trees. Sophie's still dairy-allergic so I was going to have to bake her vegan cupcakes anyway. So I ordered a regular chocolate cake for everyone else (from an old favourite, of course...) and made a batch of vegan chocolate cupcakes for Truffula trees. I frosted them with green sugar crystals (for "grickle grass"), stuck in striped straws, and topped each straw with a tuft of cotton candy. Voilà! Truffula trees!

Truffula forest

All in all, I think everyone had a good time, especially Miss Sophie-- she got balloons, glitter tattoos (four, to be exact...), hugs galore, a candy-filled piñata, all the treats she wanted to eat, and free-flow of undiluted Ribena :) We didn't get to throw her a proper birthday celebration last year because my grand-dad had just passed away-- and she really didn't know any better then-- so it was nice to finally do something with her surrounded by family, friends, and neighbours. Her parents were thoroughly exhausted by the end of the night but seeing that happy and satisfied glow on her face after was worth all the cupcake-baking, paper-cutting, and stencil-making that went into making her Lorax party a reality :)

[click for more photos]

1. Girl with balloons, 2. Teddy graham and marshmallow "Brown Barbaloots", 3. Gong Gong gets in on it too!, 4. Yiyi love!, 5. Jubee the Lorax/ Gnome ;), 6. Hovering around the snack table with Ely, 7. Happy birthday, sweet sweet love!, 8. The closest we got to a family shot, 9. With Debbie, the amazing glitter tattoo lady

We see whales. Like seriously...

I could go on about how much fun Sydney was and what a fantastic time we all had but honestly, the highlight for us-- particularly for Sophie-- was the fact that we indeed got to see migrating whales off the coast of Nelson Bay, just north of Sydney. When I had booked the whale-watching tour, part of me was worried that we wouldn't get to see anything. This is after all out in the wide open waters and animals may not always behave as we'd like them to.

But we were lucky and the weather and ocean gods were in our favour. We had gone with Imagine Cruises which seems to have a pretty good track record of whale sightings. We traveled in a catamaran, which is a little less stable than a bigger boat I suppose, but I actually think the smaller vessel was better because it allows you to feel closer to the waters. It was a gorgeous day for a boat ride-- clear skies, brisk breeze, and gentle enough waves-- which did get quite vigorous at times-- that allowed us to go quite far our from land. The vastness of the ocean was profound-- I was in awe. Even Sophie was bowled over by the waves that surrounded us-- "It's like we're on blue jello, Mama!" was the four-year-old assessment of ocean travel in New South Wales...

About 45 minutes into the tour, we finally spotted whale spray in the distance. There were two other tour boats out at sea and by sharing sighting information, the captains could triangulate the locations of different pods of whales. It was all quite exciting with everyone standing, pointing, gesticulating, and moving to the edges of the boat to get a better look. I reckon there were at least half to a dozen whales swimming around us and we got pretty good views of them breaching the surface to breathe and even a couple instances of them doing large flips. It was AWESOME.

Whale splash!

Keen followers of the blog know that Sophie adores whales-- she loves reading about them, listening to stories about them, and knows their anatomy better than any other animal's. And I think the whale tour was the best treat we could have given her-- better than any amusement park or toy store. We were just *there*-- under clear blue sky, atop deep aqua waters, surrounded by animals untouched by human contact. Sophie was transfixed... We all were.

讲华语

One of the things we were most worried about when we moved back to Singapore was Sophie's (in)ability to pick up Chinese. Jude and I speak the language well enough I suppose but it doesn't come naturally to us, which means between just talking to Sophie in English and having to first translate whatever we want to say in Chinese in our heads before then saying it to her, we've always taken the easy way out. Also, people say your mother tongue is the language in which you dream and my dreams have never been in any other language but English (can you subtitle a dream? Freud? Christopher Nolan?).

But thankfully, Sophie's preschool has an excellent Chinese language programme (into which they're constantly researching and re-evaluating, which makes the education geek in me so happy). She also has great Chinese teachers who have been the paragon of patience when it comes to exposing Sophie to the language. They understand that she had almost zero exposure to the language before her third birthday and are taking things slow with her; but they also practice the principle that the only way to learn a language *is* to be saturated in it and so they speak to her almost exclusively in Chinese, necessitating that she learns to understand what they're saying to her.

Sophie's been a quick learner of the sounds of the language-- she can repeat phrases and even complete songs almost pitch perfectly. But for a long time, she had no idea what they mean. A month ago though, she started asking me what certain words in Chinese mean, words she hears often in school or that appear in stories that are read to her- 蝴蝶 (butterfly), 一起 (together), 朋友 (friend), for example and I was more than happy to translate them for her and then ask her again the next day to see if she remembers. Sometimes she does, often she doesn't, but the fact is that she's interested and that's more than we can ask for.

Then last week, her Chinese teacher tells me that they're starting to teach the kids how to recognize Chinese characters and sent home a little game for us to play with Sophie (her first homework assignment!!). She didn't yet have to be able to identify each word but the objective was just to familiarize her with them. Basically, we were supposed to place four Chinese characters on a grid and systematically take one away in turn, and see if Sophie can identify the one that's missing. The four words were:
口 (mouth)
人 (people)
小 (small)
大 (big)

Since Chinese characters are fundamentally pictograms, I told Sophie to look at the words and pretend that they're pictures-- the character for "mouth" looks like a mouth open wide, "people" is a person walking, "small" is like a small, skinny person standing straight, and "big" is a bigger person standing with his/her arms and legs stretched open. And it went BRILLIANTLY. I almost couldn't believe it. In 10 minutes, our child who until 6 months ago heard no word of Chinese (except on Ni-Hao Kai Lan on Nick Jr.) could not only pick out the right word when prompted, she could also produce the sound when I asked. I thought my heart would burst from sheer pride.



Jude and I take hope from this NYT article which we talk about all the time to our friends in similar situations, with children learning what is essentially for Sophie, a foreign language. It talks about how a foreign correspondent for the NYT basically transplanted his entire family from Brooklyn, NY to Moscow and enrolled his children in a Russian-only elementary school. The kids had to learn everything in Russian, a language they had never heard before. It was pure torture. But after five years in Moscow, the children not only spoke fluent, flawless Russian, but also developed a deep love and appreciation for the Russian life and culture. We can only hope the same for Sophie...

Our 2012

If there was one thing I had to learn to do this past year is to be a little braver. We had to make several huge decisions this year-- some much harder than others, as you can imagine-- and we wouldn't have been able to make them if we hadn't compelled ourselves to embrace a certain amount of uncertainty. We had to learn that we can't always plan and control everything that is happening in our lives and that a healthy dose of unknowingness might not necessarily be a bad thing.

We're in a mostly happy place right now-- and I mean that existentially more so than geographically but they're sort of related, I suppose-- and your guess as to what exciting adventures 2013 will bring (us) is as good as mine. But with the whirlwind roller-coaster that 2012 put us through, I think we're pretty ready for whatever the coming year has in store :)

Alright, 2013- bring it on!

The Snail and the Whale

So excited!

Sometime last year-- or maybe it was Christmas the year before-- Sophie received the activity book to The Snail and the Whale from my friend Khanh Duc who lives in the U.K. She fell in love with it almost immediately-- you know, because of the whale-- and I had to get her the storybook just so we could find out what the story was actually about. Since then, it's become a solid favorite and regularly comes up in our nightly bedtime reading. It's a beautiful story about a tiny snail's immense wanderlust and how it ends up saving the life of the "great big grey-blue humpback whale" (Sophie's favorite line from the book...)

And so two months ago-- literally a week after we had just arrived back in Singapore-- when I found out that the Singapore Repertory Theatre was going to be putting up a production of the story in October, I jumped at the chance to get tickets. They are a little pricey, I have to say, and probably not something we can do on a regular basis, but Sophie (and us too) had a wonderful time, which made it so worth the while.

We only told her we were going to the play on Friday night-- she's at that age when telling her things too early in advance only frustrates her because her grasp of time is still sort of tenuous-- and it was the first thing she asked about yesterday morning when she woke up. She got washed up and had breakfast in record time and we didn't even have to ask her twice to wear her shoes (which usually takes her forever...) Nearly bursting with anticipation by that time, she still managed to make sure she brought her copy of The Snail and the Whale along and even wanted to bring her whale plush toy with her, but changed her mind in the end because she didn't want to lose it at the theatre.

And she had an awesome, awesome time :) The production company did a fantastic job keeping the play intimate, interactive (complete with squirting water at the audience!), and funny enough for a three-year-old to appreciate. They used the book as a metaphor for a more melancholic story of a daughter missing her seafaring father, which I don't think Sophie got, but that Jude and I kind of liked actually. Props were cleverly used (customized modular furniture were re-arranged to form the shape of the whale) but modestly and sparingly so it didn't get too overwhelming for the kids or distract from the story.

Super grainy picture from during the play

Sophie was entranced from beginning to end. She would periodically ask worriedly, "Is it ending yet?" and settled back in comfortably when we said no. And when the 55 minutes was over, she asked plaintively, "Can we watch it again?" like it was one of her beloved Kipper videos. We had to explain to her that a play involves real people acting 'live' and that you can't just watch it immediately again from the beginning, and promised to take her to more plays in the future. That seemed to satisfy and we spent the rest of the day talking about her favorite parts of the production (when the father-- the whale-- was tickling his daughter-- the snail) and the parts she didn't like so much (any parts involving crashing waves, thunder, or lightning).

We of course had to read the book before bed last night (and tonight too) and she actually started singing some of the lines in the book just as the actors did in the play. The story has gained greater resonance for her now that she connects it to a different context and we're glad she got that experience to enrich her already deep love for the book.

More photos here.

Our last day

View of the Pacific Ocean from Highway 1

In the end, it was a fitting way to end our last whole day in the U.S. Of all the things we will miss about this country-- and Northern California in particular-- this is one of the most significant- the breathtaking vision of the Pacific Ocean from Highway 1. There's something in that wild, untameable, almost violent oceanscape that gets me every time, a profound reminder almost, that Life is larger than our immediate cares. Which is sort of how we're viewing the next stage of our lives in Singapore-- the end of one adventure merely signifies the beginning of another; and another will follow after. As our friend, Rachael reminded us today, "Life is long."

The next time I blog, we will be several time zones away. We will miss our life here in the U.S. but a new exciting adventure beckons us in Singapore. We are looking forward to being with family, to reconnect with old friends, and to build a home in a country that hasn't really felt like home for nine years now...

Here's to finding our New Normal.

How we spent our last 36 hours in Ann Arbor

Saturday
1. Jude and Sophie spent the morning at the Hands-On Museum: We've spent so much time here with Sophie over the years, the attendants at the front desk don't even bother checking our membership card anymore when we visit.
2. Final drop-off at the Salvation Army: I've lost count of how many boxes we've taken to them. Every time we think we've brought our last box, we find enough things to fill another...
3. Gave Tempest a final car wash: It deserved it and we wanted to hand it over to Dan and Wendy in as clean a condition as we could get it.
4. Spent the rest of the day with the people we love and hold dear in Ann Arbor: thank you everyone for braving the scorching heat and coming to our farewell party. Thank you for your kind words, hugs, kisses, tears, and years of friendship. You mean more to us than you can ever imagine. Thank you also for being so enthusiastic about our white elephant game and taking a little piece of us with you, whether it was a bag of binder clips, dishwashing detergent, or batteries :)
5. Did our last load of laundry in Ann Arbor: And as a result, slept at 1.30am getting packing done.

Sunday
1. Woke up early to do last minute packing.
2. Threw last bulk of trash (including everything that was left in the fridge, bathroom, and basement)
3. Stripped our bed and sent it off with a friend who thankfully allowed us a final night on a proper bed instead of on our quilts or an inflatable bed like we thought we'd have to.
4. Said our last goodbyes to our neighbors: we had an impromptu breakfast in our shared backyard and it was really really nice.
5. Made sure the cleaning lady came and left our keys with her. It was hard handing over the keys to a place you've called home for the past 8 years.
6. Had lunch at Zingerman's. But of course. We had our favorite #13- grilled Sherman's Sure Choice (corned beef, coleslaw, and white cheddar, and a side of mac & cheese. That really made leaving Ann Arbor even harder. Jude likened it to breaking up- "Really, it's not you; it's me."
7. Spent the next couple of hours with the Cooney-Flanigans at their house: we made/ate popcorn, Sophie got in some quality Julianne time (even got to see Ginny, their cat, who she adores), and we just talked. Like it was any other visit we've paid to them. Except it wasn't. Saying goodbye to them was tough- together with the Cooks, they've been the closest thing to family we had in Ann Arbor. And having had them all in our lives these past 9 years has been nothing but a complete privilege. We've been so blessed...

There's an Ann Arbor-shaped place in our hearts that no other city will fill. Bye bye A2- you have NO idea how much you'll be missed.

Up!!

Sophie woke up at 6.30 this morning-- almost a full hour before she usually does; she barely touched the breakfast she specifically asked for (apple-cinnamon oatmeal); and she hardly said a word on our drive to school when she's usually hyper-chatty. Had we made any sudden movements around her, she probably would have spontaneously combust from all the excitement she was containing.

Today, Sophie starts preschool :)

Preschooool!!

Going to preschool has basically been all she's talked about for the past 6 months and we're glad she'll get to experience it, even if it's just for a month before we leave. It's basically been the motivating force behind getting her to potty-train and move out of her crib. And over the weekend, the only way we could get her to do anything-- eat her vegetables, pick up after herself, come home from the sandbox, etc.-- was to remind her about preschool on Monday.

It's not like things are going to be very different for Sophie in preschool- the preschool classroom keeps pretty much the same schedule and it's in the room just next to hers right now. Their use of time is probably a little more structured and there's likely to be a tad more learning that goes on, but in general, I don't think it'll be a huge transition for her. She'll have new teachers but again, they're all in the same wing so she knows who they are already (also, being the nosey girl that she is and having been at her daycare since she was 6 months old, she knows EVERYONE and they all know her...) But in spite of this all, as far as Sophie's concerned, preschool might as well be in a different country. Oh, and then of course, there's the fact that the preschoolers have their own playground that they don't have to share with the smaller kids. I remember seeing a boat structure in there but was sternly corrected by Sophie this morning- "It's a ship, Mama. It's not a boat. It's HUUUUUUGE!"

Because this is the first week of transitions, Sophie has the option of returning to her toddler classroom after lunch in case she gets anxious about the new surroundings. I told her toddler teachers not to hold their breath... :)

The Artic (no, that's not a typo...)

Talking with Sophie about Chagall's America Windows

It was one of those very special moments that I wanted to bottle up and preserve forever. Sophie will likely not have any memory of it when she grows up but I always will. And I will remind her of it as she gets older, that we once stood together in front of Chagall's America Windows at the Art Institute of Chicago.

Ever since I saw it in person in 2004, America Windows has been one of my favorite pieces of (public) art ever. I've always been a Chagall fan and have seen a few of his original artwork, but nothing quite prepares you for the stunning magnificence that is America Windows. Calling it stained glass is like calling the Taj Mahal a house- it's so much more than that. I only managed to see it twice before it was removed for restoration in 2005. It took 5 years of intensive conservation treatment and archival research before the windows returned in 2010 as the stunning centerpiece of a new presentation at the east end of the museum’s new wing. And the moment we walked into the Art Institute yesterday, I made a beeline straight to it with Sophie in tow.

And it took my breath away. Again. Sparkling, shimmering, glowing. I asked Sophie what she saw in the windows, which sections she liked, and I told her why it's one of my favorite pieces of art. It wasn't like I gave her a crash course in art history or anything- we just talked about the windows like we would talk about a picture in one of her storybooks- the colors, the "characters", what we thought was going on, how the images made us feel, etc.

In fact, that's how we spent the next hour or so at the Art Institute. Visiting the Art Institute was one of the first things we've done with Sophie that was more for Jude and I than it was for her. Usually, on our vacations, we'd stick to things Sophie enjoys-- the children's museum, the aquarium, parks, etc. But this time, we wanted to go to the Art Institute and we took it as an opportunity to share with her something we love.

And it turned out to be really fun. And funny. Trust almost-three year olds to be the harshest art critics. The Art Institute was having a Roy Lichtenstein retrospective which was great- we thought Sophie might enjoy Pop Art a little more than say, the Impressionists. Sophie had very honest-- and VOCAL-- opinions about several of the pieces that caught her eye. "Why is the lady not wearing a diaper?", she asked, as we stood in front of Frolic (which prompted the woman next to us to say, "You must write this down in her baby book- how precious!"); "Oooh... I like hotdog. But I like it with ketchup, not mustard." (Hot Dog with Mustard); "I like some spaghetti too!" (Ball of Twine); and my favorite, "Why is the lady crying? Maybe she's in the shower. I think she has shampoo in her eyes." (Drowning Girl). Like I said, it was loud and hilarious :)

We had a wonderful time even though we obviously didn't visit all the exhibits. We're actually looking forward to some local and regional art when we move back to Singapore. Jude and I really enjoyed the National Museum of Singapore after it reopened a while back and I have a feeling Sophie might too. Here's to more museums to discover and explore together!

Say cheese!

It started out better than I could have imagined- Sophie was SO excited for her first visit to the dentist and told anyone who would listen-- her teachers, her friends, the office manager at her daycare, etc-- her great "adventure" ahead. We had been reading The Berenstain Bears Visit the Dentist as recommended by the pediatric dentist and it definitely helped to get her prepared for what to expect when we got there. I also made sure to tell Sophie how I enjoy going to the dentist to get my teeth cleaned (I wasn't just saying it, I really do like seeing my dental hygienist for my regular checks) so she could see that going to the dentist isn't anything to be anxious about.

And so from the moment I picked her up from school to us sitting in the waiting area at the dentist's office, you really would not have seen a happier child going to the dentist- you would have thought she was going to the circus! She said 'hi' to the nurses when we walked in, showed them her Berestain Bears book, and even bragged about how she brushes her teeth all by herself (she doesn't, she just likes to think she does). I couldn't have been more proud...

Even when we entered the examination room, Sophie was still really excited and curious- she asked the nurses about the "tools", just like she had read in her book and happily picked out a free toothbrush that the dentist would later use to show us how to properly brush her teeth. And then, it happened. They asked her to sit in the dentist chair and it was straight downhill from there- screaming, crying, flailing, big fat rolling tears- everything you DON'T WANT a first dental vist to be like :( I ended up having to hold her in my lap facing me, legs around my waist, lying back across the dentist's lap. To make things worse, the dentist then tried flossing Sophie's teeth (with what I guess was flavored with menthol/mint), at which point the poor girl started shouting plaintively, "No! No! It's spicy! I don't want spicy!!! Noooooo!!!"

The dentist was amazing though and actually managed to complete the check-up despite the catastrophic meltdown- all 20 baby teeth are in and accounted for (yay!), teeth are in perfect condition (yay!), and no cavities (yay!). Which meant Sophie got her name put in the No Cavity Club where at the end of each month, one name will be drawn and the child picked will receive either a Beanie Baby or a gift card to our local bookstore. How awesome is that?

Just as quickly as she descended into her epic freak-out, Sophie snapped right back to her happy irrepressible self the moment the check-up was over. I asked her later if she had been afraid of the dentist and she said 'no' (thank you, Berestain Bears!)- apparently, what made her cry was lying in that chair alone. I told her she could bring one of her stuffed toys along the next time and that made her break out into a huge smile- "Can I bring DoDo (her teddy bear)? Oh no, that's not a good idea. DoDo has no teeth! He has fur!! Silly Sophie!!"

With Dr. Amy, the calm AFTER the storm...

"Can you graduation me?"

"I will be Dr. Sophie En En Yew."

I think Sophie was more excited about it than either one of us. We've been telling her that we'll be attending Jude's graduation for a week or so now and it clearly has been on her mind ever since. In fact, by Thursday, everyone at her school was congratulating Jude because Sophie had been telling anyone who would listen that Jude was graduating:

Sophie has been talking a lot about Jude's graduation. I asked her what was going to happen at the graduation and she said, "They are going to call Dada, Dr. Jude Yew!" I asked her if she would also have to start calling him Dr. Jude Yew but she assured me that she would still call him "Dada" :)

In the end, I think she was sufficiently excited by the whole experience- even before we made it to the auditorium, she was virtually bursting with anticipation- "It's Dada graduation! I'm so excited!" She probably doesn't have a clue what it means to graduate but we've been talking about it to her enough that she knows it's something worth celebrating. She did really well for most of the ceremony- sat quietly while the faculty proceeded in to the strains of Pomp and Circumstance, waited patiently for everyone to sit and settle in, listened in awe as our friend, Devin, sang a stirring rendition of the national anthem, and was even really good through an opening address AND the Commencement speech (with the exception of that one loud outburst which I'm sure EVERYONE heard because the auditorium was so hushed- "Why did the graduation music stop? Where's Dada? Oh Dada, where are you??" Jude said he definitely heard her all the way up front...)

We think Sophie definitely had a memorable day- she was still talking about it this morning, mostly about Jude's academic dress and what she saw/heard/did in the auditorium yesterday. And this is one of the main reasons why Jude decided to attend the ceremony in the first place. He had actually defended his dissertation in August last year and started his new job the month after, so it's not as if yesterday's proceedings meant a whole lot to him personally. But we wanted Sophie to experience the pomp and ceremony of it all- how many times in your life are you going to witness one of your parents properly receive his Ph.D.? She was only 16 months old when I got mine and probably doesn't remember anything, so we thought it would nice for her to be part of Jude's special day, even if it is just symbolic.

Just so you have a sense of what a difference almost a year and a half makes, here's us three at our two graduation ceremonies:

My graduation, Dec 2010

Jude's graduation, April 2012

Weekend

So I found myself-- last night-- torn between: 1) watching the Oscars (which ended up being a bit of a snooze fest- not the most exciting ceremony I've seen since I started watching almost 20 years ago now) and 2) baking a cake for Sophie for breakfast. Yes, that's the kind of mother I am, the kind who feeds her toddler dessert at 8.00 in the morning. Well, if your toddler had pooped in the potty the night before (to much fanfare, no less), you would be baking up a buffet of treats too :)

Chocolate cake for breakfast, as promised

Yup- so it would seem that it wasn't a fluke after all- Sophie had her first (almost) diaper-free weekend, and I'm happy to say that it went really well. We did everything we'd normally do-- went to the library, ran errands, sledded, did a Target run-- all without diapers and happily, there were no accidents. The whole constantly asking if she needed to potty thing took some getting used to but after a while, we learned to trust her to tell us when she needs to go. She still wears her diapers during nap and bedtime and we're still working on her going diaper-free at daycare, but it's nice to know she's on her way.

To add to an already exciting weekend, we also decided to introduce Sophie to the wonderful world of chopsticks. She's always curious when she watches us eat with them and since she was feeling so proud of herself for accomplishing so much this weekend, we thought to just throw something else into the mix. We had bought a pair of training chopsticks from Singapore and I have to say, these are rather well designed. There's a training bridge to help the child hold the chopsticks properly by using the thumb and eventually, when he/she is ready, you can then remove the support. I actually don't think either Jude or I hold chopsticks "properly"- my grandma used to tell me off when I was a kid. Hopefully, Sophie will have better chopstick manners, although looking at her first attempt, I'm not holding my breath (not in the near future anyway...)

[Watch how by the end, she settles on a more efficient means of delivering food into her mouth. Nothing-- eating implements included-- must get in between Sophie Yew and her food :)]

Little victories

Jude is convinced that Sophie has actually been holding out on us with this potty training business and that this whole time, she's just been waiting until a reasonable reward presented itself. Which in this case appears to be... Haribo peach-flavored gummies.

SO (drumroll please...)- this evening, as we were all just lounging around the house, Sophie declares that she needs to go sit on her potty. We haven't had much success since the last time we made a concerted effort to "train" her, but since then, every time she says she wants/needs to, we put her on the potty even though she almost never actually pees in it.

But then this evening, we heard it.

The undeniable trickle of pee in the potty.

A glorious sound, the first time your child voluntarily and consciously pees in the potty. A sound that should be accompanied by a heavenly choir, by angels trumpeting.

Hallelujah.

I look at her and she peers back at me in amazement. Her face blooms with a wide adorable smile and she beams with pride.

"I peed in the potty! I peed in the potty, Mama! Listen, my pee is so noisy!" she shouts.

So I think our reaction was a little over the top for a successful pee attempt but basically, we celebrated-  two-gold stars! the Potty Dance! hugs all round! kisses! applause! and most importantly, CANDY!!! If we could, we would have declared tomorrow a public holiday! (although I suspect the snow storm we're having right now might take care of that)

And then, she goes on to do it two more times! Each time, she just told us that she needed to go and she did :) I almost had to slap myself to make sure I wasn't dreaming this all up...

Granted, I wouldn't say that she's entirely potty trained-- it was just tonight and we still have some ways to go-- but after the semi-fiasco that was our last attempt, I'll take any small victory. At least we now know she recognizes what the sensation feels like and can tell us before it needs to happen.

Still, this just reminds me once again that maybe I really should just trust our daughter more when it comes to these milestones, and that when she's good and ready, she'll reach them just fine. I was convinced she would NEVER roll over, walk, drink out of a sippy cup, or sleep through the night, and she's now gone and done all those things and more. When we dedicated an entire weekend to potty-training her, that sort of fell apart; but when we pulled back a little and gave her some space, she came to it when her little wonderful, precious, amazing mind decided it was time.

Meeting Santa for the first time

So- guess who we bumped into at the farmer's market yesterday?



I'm quite sure Sophie doesn't comprehend exactly who Santa Claus is or what he represents but she was excited enough to see him nonetheless. We didn't know he was going to be there and I guess no one did either because we barely had to wait 5 minutes before it was Sophie's turn to sit on his lap. Maybe because there was none of the hype or anticipation that sometimes accompanies the first Santa meeting, Sophie was actually really comfortable being held by him. She duly answered his questions (What's your name? How old are you? What would you like for Christmas?, which she breezily answered with "carrot"- I wish we had known that earlier coz it would have been much easier than what we've gotten her- for another post...) and was more than happy to give him a hug and snuggle.

She was still talking about her little tête-à-tête with Santa later in the afternoon and so I think it did mean something special to her. We haven't decided if we're going to do the whole "Santa brings children gifts on Christmas thing" but if we do, we know she at least likes the idea of the guy... :)

The Flip!

It snowed today. Yup, first snowfall of the season. Brilliant.

And just in time for that, guess what skill Sophie learned at daycare today?



Our daughter is officially the coolest person in this house.

Happy 2nd Birthday, sweet girl!

Until I gather my wits about me after throwing a birthday party for a now two-year-old, whittling 218 photos to a manageable 55, and playing temporary single-mom as Jude attends a workshop in Colorado, a proper party recap post is going to have to wait. Till then, here's a series of my favorite photos from Sophie's party. It took her a while to realize that the cake was hers for real and that she was actually going to be blowing out proper (instead of imaginary) candles. Once she did though, you could not find a happier child anywhere in Ann Arbor... :)

Narrative or complaint?

As part of data collection for research, I go into schools and ask young children to tell me stories. And I always tell them, "Remember, a story has a beginning, a middle, and an end." Basically, we want them to be able to create a narrative that has an introduction, an exposition, and a conclusion. Today, in the middle of bath, out of nowhere, Sophie said to us,

"What happening? Wesley hit Sophie toe. Sophie started to cry. Boo boo. Ice-pack."

Our daughter just told us a story.

What happens in 23 months

Sophie turns 2 in a month.

For some perspective, here's the first video we ever took of her, barely a week after she was born:



And here, countless photos and videos later, is Sophie last week, dancing at Top of the Park:



How did that happen??

Thankfully, not too hair-rowing

After almost 23 months, Sophie has gotten her first haircut. Even though she was born with a full head of hair (see here), by the time she was 3 months old or so, she had barely much to speak of (see here). Even after she turned one, we put hair clips in her hair more as an accessory than for any real functional purpose. So for a long time, we've never had to think about cutting her hair. Until lately that is. In the last month or so, Sophie's hair has really been in a perpetual state of "look-I-just-rolled-out-of-bed" (and you should see her when she really just rolled out of bed...)- sticking out every which way, long at all the wrong places, and wisps getting in her eye even with a hair clip holding her side bangs aside. And with the weather getting increasingly warmer, the long-ish ends at her nape were starting to annoy her.

And so, armed with a glowing recommendation from our dear friend, Amy, we headed off to Larry at A2 O'Hair for Sophie's first hair cut. He was WONDERFUL. He's been cutting kids' hair for years and knows exactly how to deal with squirmy little ones. Even though I was holding Sophie in my lap, she didn't quite always keep her head still. But Larry was like a ninja (or a really light-footed boxer), skipping around and snipping skillfully and effortlessly. At the end of it, even though it wasn't like he took a lot off, he did enough in all the right places. The huge plus: he refused to charge us for the hair cut! Because it was Sophie's first :) Such a sweet, sweet man!

C is for cookie

Sophie has finally had her first cookie :) Giving her any kind of baked goods has always been tricky because of the whole milk/eggs/butter business and she didn't even like the vegan cupcake we got her for her birthday last year. It's not something essential to her diet and she never asks for it, and so we don't feel like we need to push this one. I gave her a slice of zucchini bread a couple of weeks ago and she liked it well enough that I felt inspired to find a good recipe (this one comes highly recommended), but apart from that, she's been perfectly happy with her huge snack trove of crackers, pretzel sticks, rice crackers, fruit, and cereal.

But after swim class today, as we wandered around Mark's Carts like we always do, we thought it might be nice to get Sophie a cookie from The Lunch Room, a vegan food cart that we've heard really good things about. That everything is completely vegan meant we didn't have to worry about possible traces of egg or butter in things or cross-contamination even when some non-vegan vendors claim things are dairy-free. We chose a classic chocolate chip cookie-- I mean, if it's going to be her first cookie, why settle for anything less?

Her first bites were a little tentative, like she wasn't quite sure what to make of the texture.

But a couple of bites later, it was like she's been eating cookies all her life:

In the words of our friend, Jenn, it was like she's was drunk on cookie!

You can't really tell, but the cookie was literally the size of Sophie's face, if not larger, and our daughter obliterated it entirely by herself in under 10 minutes. If not for the fact that a crumb fell on my lap, I don't think either Jude or I would have managed to snatch a taste. It was really quite yummy- a little chewy like a oatmeal cookie with a nice molasses flavor. It didn't taste vegan at all and I wasn't surprised that Sophie demolished the whole thing in one sitting (and still had room for her usual post-swim soy hot chocolate after. And all this BEFORE lunch...). Since Sophie took to the cookie so well, I asked Phillis, the owner if they made cakes or cupcakes in anticipation of Sophie's birthday in August. They haven't officially sold any other baked goods apart from cookies and gingersnaps but they have been planning on putting cupcakes on the menu for a while so that's something she can definitely help us with! Yay!