Sophie is ready for summer

And so is her Mama :)

Kite runner

Literally, I didn't know what to do with myself (and Sophie). After all the cold, snow, rain, and hail we've been getting since November, faced with a gorgeous, sunny 78F day, I was dumbfounded.

For the past few months, we've spent Sunday afternoons either at the Hands-on-Museum, the Museum of Natural History, some bookstore or another, or one of the indoor gardens. It was like I had forgotten how to enjoy a sunny day. But thankfully, my husband didn't. He had the foresight to get us a kite a couple of weeks ago and yesterday, with a good strong wind blowing, into the blue, cloudless sky, we launched our $7.99 Toys R'Us kite. And it was magnificent.





We tried to involve Sophie in setting the kite up and flying it, showing her what it means to hold it up against he wind, and the mechanics of tugging at the string lightly to keep the kite in flight...







...but no, the little imp was more interested in running after the other kite that was being flown. In fact, she was just happy to be running, period.



I don't think it mattered to Sophie very much what her parents were doing-- or how much fun they were having with the kite-- she was just happy to be able to be run around outside as fast and as far as she can without 1) stumbling into snow; 2) being encumbered by a down jacket and three layers of clothes underneath, or 3) one (or both) of her parents chasing after her hollering at her to keep her glove/hat/socks/boots on. It was a truly beautiful, beautiful day. Oh, and made even more special by the fact that Sophie saw the moon (sort of) for the first time! It was such a perfectly cloudless sky plus it was probably close to 6pm so you could just barely make out a hint of the moon in the sky. It occurred to us that after reading about the moon, seeing pictures of it, and singing about it, Sophie has never actually seen the moon in reality.



She was transfixed.

Who are you? I'm Sophie.

I'm 20 months old today.

I run everywhere. Walking is for wimps.

I don't understand why you would make crayons so bright and colorful if you're not supposed to eat them.

I never walk away from a puddle.



If I was queen of the house, I would eat plain boiled pasta and blackberries for every meal. Everyday.

I believe that throwing myself on the floor crying is a perfectly legitimate form of self-expression.

I do a mean impression of an elephant.

I see furniture, play yards, and safety gates as merely challenges to be overcome.

My parents think I'm fabulous.

Got milk? (Part deux)

Sophie is finally weaned.

It's been about a week since we first started trying and while she went all Tasmanian Devil on us those first couple of mornings-- our daughter is not one to let things go without a fight-- I think she's finally come to realize that the only milk she's going to get from now is coming from a sippy cup.

Mind you, she wasn't nursing very much past 15 months or so, just nights and mornings by that time so it was just a matter of getting her to drop those feeds when she felt like it. I've been agonizing over this whole weaning thing since Sophie turned one and I just didn't feel ready, and I knew neither was she. It was something we, and only we, shared and I wasn't willing to let go emotionally even though rationally, I knew she was old enough to move on to soy formula exclusively. I told myself that between her allergies and all the cold-related illnesses she might be getting exposed to at school, keeping up the breastfeeding was the best thing for her. There just didn't seem to be much sense in weaning before either one of us was ready.

But then this semester, I started teaching in the evenings and pumping got too time-consuming, so we decided to try dropping the night feed and have Jude put her to bed with soy milk. She wasn't happy initially of course but she was old enough by then to realize that I wasn't around and often too tired to put up too much of a fight anyways, so that was that. But she clung tenaciously on to the morning feed like her life depended on it. We think it has less to do with milk at that point but more the warm comfort of me holding her close after an entire night alone in her crib.

So I let her take her time and it was another couple of months of just morning feeds before we decided last week that it was time for her to drop it completely. My milk production was tapering off and Sophie was getting frustrated at that, asking for more even though we were done nursing and us having to make her extra soy milk anyway. So it was just a matter of by-passing the breastfeeding altogether and just giving her the formula when she woke up.

I'd be lying if I said I'm not a tad sad that this aspect of mothering is now over but I'm glad we got to nurse this long at all so that comforts me a little. I guess a part of me believed that I would lose some kind of special bond with Sophie once I weaned but thinking back, it was probably the hormones talking. I'll always be her Mama and a sippy cup isn't going to get in the way of that.

This post is not about Sophie

It's about bacon.

Specifically, thick-cut Applewood-smoked bacon. The kind of bacon that rouses you from your sleep. The kind of bacon whose scent still haunts your house at two in the afternoon long after breakfast is over and the dishes are done. And whose flavor lingers longer still, in your mouth and in your mind, making you stare lustily at remaining two pieces in the refrigerator contemplating if there is such a thing as too much bacon in a day. The kind of bacon that's so thick, four slices weighs just over a pound. Yeah, that kind...


After a quick jaunt to the farmers market yesterday-- even though it's technically Spring, there weren't that many vendors out and it really was a little too cold to be strolling leisurely outdoors for produce-- we came home with huge bags of organic pea shoots, spinach, and a spicy bitter greens mix (arugula, tatsoi, baby spinach, & mizuna). And thanks to Sparrow, we also got some fresh duck legs (for duck confit- another day, another post...) and the above-mentioned bacon that Jude developed a sudden craving for.

Between us getting ready for work and prepping Sophie's breakfast before bundling her off to daycare, weekday mornings are always a blur and we're lucky if we have time for a bowl of cereal or a slice of toast before we fly out the door. And so even though Jude had a morning meeting today, there was still some time to put together a nice semi-leisurely breakfast. And honestly, by roasting the bacon, the only thing I had to dirty a pan for were the eggs, which aren't that big a deal. Add to that a quick balsamic vinaigrette and some shaved Parmesan, breakfast was done in under 20 minutes.

[Roasted thick-cut bacon, farmers market spicy greens (dressed with balsamic vinaigrette), fried eggs with shaved Parmesan, and a slice of Roadhouse bread]

It also cost us less than $5 each which pleased me immensely knowing that something similar would have cost us at least $20 or more outside... If you ask me, one should never have to pay that much for eggs and bacon, thick-cut Applewood-smoked or not...

How a 19-month old blew my mind on the sidewalk

Dear World,
Let it be known, Sophie knows her alphabet.

Ok, that's all.

-Us



[By the time I got over myself and whipped my phone out, she'd reached G...]

Criss-cross applesauce

We all have odd physical traits that we exhibit without ever thinking about it- quirks that have been a part of who we are for as long as we can remember. Like the fact that I cross my feet when I'm in my most relaxed, natural state- whether it's sitting at the desk working (ok, so not the most relaxed or natural, more like unthinking...) or lying in bed falling asleep.

We don't often think about how these little habits come about- are they the product of learned behavior or genes passed down over which we have no control?

I think I might have an inkling now... :)

Say what you mean; mean what you say

With five words, Sophie made an observation, drew an inference, and issued an imperative:

"Slide broken. Closed. Fix it."

The center cannot hold

Things were great while it lasted- Sophie had no qualms climbing up the structure all by herself, coming down the slide on her own, laughing when she fell, and picking herself up after. But things started to fall apart after about 15 minutes and we had no choice but to leave...

So on the recommendation of one of the mommies in our mommy group, I brought Sophie to Jungle Java, an indoor playground, yesterday afternoon. It's one of those places with a large labyrinthine play structure into which you can let your kids loose. They also have a designated toddler area with climbers and a slide that are more size-appropriate for the little people. It sounded so promising conceptually- the kids get to play in a safe, enclosed area while parents sit back and relax while enjoying good snacks and coffee. But the combination of the time of the day (Sunday afternoon), time of the year (cold and wet so the kids are all wound-up from not enough outside time), and Sophie not having been exposed to such large play situations just got a little overwhelming for the poor girl. The big kids were running recklessly in and out of the toddler area so there were children every which way you turned, many not even watching where they're going and almost trampling on the little ones; the bigger play structure was really distracting for Sophie and she kept wanting to make a break for it to join them; because it's indoors, every sound is amplified so the whole place was just ringing with noise; and many parents basically treated the area like a baby-sitter and left their toddlers alone while they went and enjoyed their coffee- unsupervised, rambunctious toddlers are sometimes not very nice to other toddlers, even those with their mommies with them.

And so there Sophie was- excited, (over) stimulated, enthralled, but also a little frightened and anxious. Fifteen minutes after we arrived, 4 or 5 trips down the slide, and several failed attempts to dash to the big kid area later, Sophie threw herself onto the floor in a puddle of kicks and tears. I think there was simply too much going on. And so I scooped her up, put on her shoes and jacket, and walked right out. The cold, bracing air was such a relief and we just sat in the car for the next 10 minutes, letting Sophie cool down with some milk, crackers, and The Innocence Mission on the car stereo. We spent the rest of the afternoon at Nicola's Books where Sophie and I were the only people in the store. She was perfectly content.

Here are some videos of when the going was still good:

Spring is for...

Running outside in the sun,


swinging on swings,


sliding down slides,


feeling the wind blow across your face,


hanging out with friends,


and chasing after leaves while searching for water fountains :)

Delicately

[Lunchtime. Damien Rice's "Delicate" playing in the background]

Me: Sophie, this is one of Mama's favorite songs. One day, you'll love Damien Rice just like Mama, okay?
Sophie: Oh-tay.
Me: Say delicate?
Sophie: Oh-tay.
Me: delicate?
Sophie: Puff puff?

We need to work on this... :)

Random Daycare Daily Report #11

Sophie is definitely an independent thinker :) Today, several of her friends were making a "messy painting" (finger painting with paint and shaving cream). Sophie took one look at it and decided she wasn't interested in getting messy today. Actually, I think she was more excited at having all the toys in the room to herself while her friends were pre-occupied with something else. Smart girl!

The birth of a word

If you have or know a child under the age of three, you must watch this video.

Coming out of the Media Lab at MIT this is an astounding study of how children learn words- what the role of the caregiver and context is, and how we can visualize that information. As a parent and early childhood researcher, this blew my mind. Since Sophie spoke her first word, I've been keeping a record of each word that has come after and the approximate date of its acquisition. Call me obsessive, but like I tell Jude, "It's data!" How else would I know that what was "ta-too" in September last year finally evolved into "crackers" two weeks ago. But this study takes that obsessiveness to a whole other level, with 140 000 hours of audio and video data. The visualization of the data is stunning but more importantly, what Deb Roy presents in this video barely scrapes the surface of what the study can potentially tell us about children's vocabulary acquisition and what we can do to support their learning. There's still so much we don't know about how children pick words up- learning how to speak is a natural and instinctual process but it is also one that is profoundly complex and mysterious.

I'll let the video speak for itself. Really, watch it, and feel yourself tingle when you hear how "gaa gaa" evolves into "water".

Lunch epiphany

At lunch today, we taught Sophie that instead of eating her minestrone soup and bread separately, it is entirely acceptable to dunk her bread into the soup first as another soup-delivery mechanism. Let's just say that was the last we saw of the spoon this afternoon.



You may count her mind as officially blown...



Lip-smackingly good :)



After Dunk #2:



And the final verdict?


"Awe-suum!"

Random Daycare Daily Report #10

Sophie cracks me up with the things she says. She'll do something silly and then say, "funny!" She knows she's a comedian :) Sophie had fun making a special painting today for Month of the Young Child. It will be on display at Cafe Marie in early April!

Sophie, meet bubble wrap

If we knew then what we know now about what best captures young toddlers' attention, we wouldn't have bought Sophie all those toys that now populate her play yard, no matter how developmentally appropriate they're supposed to be. Instead, I would have invested our money in stacks of stickers and rolls of bubble wrap. Next to her books, these are the only things that will occupy her (well, YouTube and TV too, but we won't go there...), which when it comes to Sophie, means getting her to sit by herself quietly for at least 10 minutes.

She discovered bubble wrap yesterday when an extremely heavy textbook arrived for Jude covered in the thing. After that, it was hours of endless fun spent popping the bubbles and hearing Sophie go, "bubble pop!" over and over :) It took a while for her to get the whole mechanics of squeezing the bubble and initially, she'd just try to gnaw at it to get it to burst when squeezing failed; but after a while, she got the hang of it and wouldn't let me near it to help her. And because the bubble wrap we had are the ones with the larger bubbles, Sophie could actually feel the air release in her face with each bubble she burst- watching her reaction the first few times was priceless...

[I really do love Sophie's pudgy little hands]

[Developing intense effort and concentration]

I've had the iPhone/iPad bubble wrap app for a while now but Sophie's never been interested in it. I'm not sure if having discovered the real thing is going to make her like the virtual one better or not...

Day at the museum

1. Excited flapping hands :), 2. How big a mastodons leg is, 3. "Row, row, row...", 4. Kneeling for a better look at the wild-life dioramas. , 5. Dada showing here where on the globe we are, 6. Sophie wanted to touch the owl badly

I don't know what took us so long to finally make our way to the Exhibit Museum of Natural History which is right on central campus and a ten minute drive from us. I guess we thought Sophie wasn't big enough to appreciate the exhibits. But oh is she ready now...

Ever since downloading all the various Night and Day Studio apps for the iPhone/iPad, Sophie has come to know her animals very well. She can pick them out in a group, name them, and most of the time, imitate the sound they make. Add to that her odd penchant for dinosaurs (it started with an episode of Harold and the Purple Crayon...) and you have an 18-month old who was raring to go when we told her we were going to the museum to see dinosaurs and animals. All the way to the museum, she kept saying "dinosauce, dinosauce" (that's how her dinosaurs comes out) over and over... until we actually walked into the dinosaur exhibit area where she promptly clammed up, grabbed our hands, and refused to let go for the longest time. See, the thing is, methinks our daughter likes the idea of animals; it's an exciting notion, conceptually. But bring her anywhere near them (or in this case, their skeletons or a stuffed version of them) and she gets a little nervous... For all her hellion bravado, she's a little scaredy cat inside :)

She did eventually warm up though and had just a fantastic time scuttering from one exhibit to the next. She was enthralled by the large dinosaur displays but was probably still a little intimidated by them to appreciate their spectacular majesty (truly, they were awesome...). But she absolutely loved the wildlife dioramas-- from squirrels to ducks, rabbits to owls-- she wanted to look at each and every one (and touch them too of course, failing which, kissing the glass panels was the next best thing).

Sophie's not going to remember much of what we did today-- not in the long run any way-- but we'd like to think that we gave her something to see, think and talk about today and maybe tomorrow. And for an 18-month old, that's probably more than we can ask for.

[Rest of photos here.]

Happy 107th birthday, Theodor Seuss Geisel!

Sophie's still a little young for the Dr. Seuss books (although when the mood strikes, she will listen to the entirety of Fox in Socks...) but one day, she will discover and hopefully fall in love with the Wockets, Whos, Grinches, bunches of Hunches, Bar-ba-loots, red fish, and blue fish who populate the Seussian world. It's Geisel's birthday today, and to celebrate the odd, fanciful, and wonderful books he has shared with the world, here are some of my favorite Dr. Seuss quotes:

“I like nonsense, it wakes up the brain cells.”

“You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose. You’re on your own. And you know what you know. And YOU are the one who’ll decide where to go…”

“Today you are You, that is truer than true. There is no one alive who is Youer than You.”

“A person’s a person, no matter how small.”

“We are all a little weird and life’s a little weird, and when we find someone whose weirdness is compatible with ours, we join up with them and fall in mutual weirdness and call it love.”

What's your favorite Dr. Seuss quote?

Puddles of fun

**Update: It would seem that Sophie's obsession with puddles is not lost on her teachers. Her report from school today read:

Sophie had SO much fun outside today. Immediately she was drawn like a magnet to the puddles of melted snow. She couldn't wait to jump in and splash in each and every one. Sophie wasn't satisfied until she'd completely soaked both her mittens and her socks :) Speaking of, Sophie will need some extra socks in her cubby :)

Sophie loves puddles.

She loves looking for them, she loves us walking through them when we're carrying her, and most of all, she loves stomping in them on her own. And so yesterday, with the temperature creeping up into the 30s and the snow starting to melt, I bundled her up in her snow suit and boots (less to keep her warm than to keep her dry) and brought her on a puddle expedition.

We started out with a nice puddle outside our house (see video below) and then I put her in her wagon and we systematically visited as many puddles as we could around the neighborhood. Every time we saw a puddle, I'd take her out and she'd stomp in it to her heart's content, saying to herself over and over, "stomp, stomp, stomp" :) Sometimes I'd miss one and she'd yell for me to stop. A demanding one, our offspring... Along the way, I'd talk to her about icicles (she wants to touch and break them all the time), how slippery and dangerous black ice is, and why she can look at geese from afar but not try to chase after them (which she did of course and promptly got goose poop all over on her gloves and boots...)

Spring's going to be fun- puddles are really going to be everywhere by then and we'll have to have to get Sophie a pair of proper galoshes for all the puddles she will undoubtedly be jumping into :)

My Way

Conversation at lunch today:

Me: Sophie, porridge?
Sophie: Yesh.
[eats porridge happily for about 3 minutes]
Me: Water?
Sophie: No. No way!
Me: When did you learn how to say No Way?
Sophie: No way!
Me: No way?
Sophie: Way!
Me: Would you like some water?
Sophie: No way!
Me: Way.
Sophie: No way!
Me: OK, water, no way.
Sophie: Way!

And then at snack time:

Me: Sophie, guess what you're having for snack today? Raisins! [shows her the box of raisins]
Sophie: Raisins! No way!
Me: Seriously? No way?
Sophie: No way!
Me: Way.
Sophie: Way. Raisins...

What dreams may come

I think Sophie might have had first nightmare last night. Or maybe her first conscious dream, if there's such a thing. For about a month now, she's finally sleeping through the night (it's been a long time coming and you have no idea how much we appreciate it...) and even if she wakes up whining a little, she'll always go back down in a few seconds. But at about 11.00 last night, she woke up with a screech, calling out plaintively. I knew it wasn't her regular middle of the night whine after which she would go back to sleep- it actually sounded panicked.

When I went into her room, the poor baby was sitting in the corner of her crib, her face streaked with tears within the few seconds it took me to get upstairs. As I picked her up, she nuzzled her face into my shoulder, clinging on for dear life, saying over and over, "scared, scared..." I didn't even know she knew the word! After cradling her and singing to her for a bit, I gave her her teddy bear and she promptly calmed down and let me put her back in the crib. All was well again and she slept soundly till the morning.

Our poor baby... I can only imagine how petrified she must have been if she really did have a bad dream or just a dream. That itself must be strange and frightening for an 18 month old, even if it wasn't a bad one. How does someone Sophie's age process the experience of dreaming? And while she does understand what we're saying, it's not like we can talk to her about it after, at least not in a way that's going to help her comprehend what her mind was doing. I'm guessing that as she gets older and as cognition and imagination become more complex, dreams in general are going to become more common. But until she gets old enough though, Mama, Dada, and Dodo (her teddy bear) will just have to be there to let her know that everything is going to be OK after.

[Sophie at 11 months]

Resistance is futile

Guess who's sick from school today? :(
Originally uploaded by ghetto of our mind

We had no choice. Before this week, we were nazis about Sophie's media time- TV only during that 20 minutes when we're nebulizing her in the evening, video on the iPhone only for those desperate moments in the car when Sophie decides to wage war against her car seat, and we've even stopped letting her play with the iPad because it was getting too hard to get her to stop once she started.

But we had to give in. Sophie fell sick on Monday and stayed home from school for two days. Usually, it wouldn't be a huge deal- we always have stuff to do at home- all her toys, craft, reading, dancing, or we'd go outside, even if it's cold, just to get some fresh air and let Sophie run around all bundled up. And then there's always our fail-safe back-ups- the public library or the Hands-On Museum. But between the fever and the relentless coughing, Sophie was just zapped and too listless to do anything at all. And going outside into the cold would have made it worse. She had no appetite (still doesn't), was really clingy, and just wanted to stay close to me all day. And so I had no choice- I busted out the DVR-ed episodes of Ni-Hao Kai Lan and Curious George, and a whole slew of YouTube videos we know Sophie really enjoys. It was one of those moments when I thought to myself, OK on a scale of 1- 10, 10 being a parent who drives with her child in her lap without a seat-belt à la Britney Spears, how bad a parent does this make me? I'm allowing Feist and OK Go to babysit my child for 20 minutes while I make myself a sandwich (you do the math on how many times I had to put those videos on repeat); I give in to Elmo and his ducks' persuasive powers of entertainment so I can squeeze in some email time; and I let Abby Cadabby sing about how much she loves words so Sophie will give me a 5 minute break to go to the bathroom. Maybe a 2? OK, 3. Tops.

It was a humbling moment of contrition as I reflected on the sanctimony of my former opinion about media exposure. Clearly, they were formed by a woman who had yet to experience the profound depths of the sad Whine or its first cousin, the humorless Cling, otherwise known as a toddler with a cold. You try being a working mom attempting to be somewhat productive while staying home to take care of her sick toddler; and then you let me know if you still think TV and videos are really the Big Bad Wolves Waiting to Turn Your Babies Brains to Mush...

My Valentines

If you were a wink, I'd be a nod
If you were a seed, well I'd be a pod.
If you were the floor, I'd wanna be the rug
And if you were a kiss, I know I'd be a hug.

- Barry Louis Polisar, "All I Want Is You"

Row row row the boat

gently down the... scream? ;)

[taken using the self-portrait function of the iPhone]

Random Daycare Daily Report #9

Sophie had a great Friday. Today we were dancing to some African jazz music and Sophie was really getting into it! She was squatting until she almost touched the ground, then bouncing up and down. It was really cute :) Sophie also enjoyed exploring snow in the sensory table. For her, it was a big snow buffet :) Sophie LOVES to eat snow!

Hi Mr. Squirrel

Watching the squirrels
Originally uploaded by ghetto of our mind

For as long as I can remember, there've always been squirrels outside our house. They're fearless- coming up close to you or remaining still even when you approach them. And in the last month of so, Sophie has developed a real interest in watching them. Every time we draw open the blinds to our glass door, she'll prop her pudgy hands against it and ask for "squirrel". We've even taken to buying sunflower seeds (which we tell her are nuts) and occasionally leaving handfuls of them outside so that the squirrel will return. Sort of like a pet. Just not in the house.

Well, this morning, to let some light into the house, I drew open the blinds and Sophie promptly runs to the door and asks for the squirrel. He's no where in sight which only makes Sophie press herself even closer to the door (we'll have to explain to her that this really isn't an enticement for the squirrel to appear). And then she turns up to me and says "nuss! nuss!" I had no clue what she was saying and kept trying to explain to her that Mr. Squirrel wasn't around. She looks completely exasperated and just keeps going "nuss! nuss!" Only then do I realize that she's asking for nuts! Not too bright, Mama... So I bring out our container of sunflower seeds, throw a couple of handfuls our the door, and lo and behold, in under 10 seconds, the squirrel appears. And you should have seen the look on Sophie's face- it was a mix of pride (this was my idea!), incredulity (you mean this really works???) and pure and utter joy (hi Mr. Squirrel!!).

I think her mind was officially blown... :)

Guess who's 547.86 days old today?

[Updated with full-length version of video]

Name: Sophie Yew

Age: 18 months

Weight: 24 lbs 3oz (11kg)

Height: 31.25" (80cm)

Head circumference: 18.5cm (47cm)

Favorite foods (in no particular order and not all at the same time, although some times it happens...): pasta, sweet potato, oatmeal, rice puffs, oranges, crackers, peas, fish porridge, chicken nuggets, broccoli

Favorite words: "I need it!"

Favorite activities: Peeling/unpeeling and eating stickers; reading multiple books at the same time; playing in the snow, dragging her inflatable donkey all around the house ("hold hands!"); giving her parents hugs; running away from her parents' hugs.

Favorite toys: Dodo (teddy bear), Aquadoodle, Totoro plush, iPad.

Favorite books: I Love You Through and Through, Ten Little Rubber Ducks, Giraffes Can't Dance, Knuffle Bunny, Richard Scarry Best Word Book Ever, One Drowsy Dragon

Favorite songs: Itsy-Bitsy Spider, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, Sing- Sing a Song, The Wheels on the Bus, How Much is that Doggy in the Window, Firetruck Song, Oh Mr Sun

So there- the most wonderful, time-consuming, mischievous, affectionate, beautiful, fearless, rambunctious, patience-testing, audacious, precious, and treasured thing in our lives right now.

And we love her more than life itself...

[full-length version]

She is no Goldilocks

This is what happens when I leave the two of them at home alone... :)

Random Daycare Daily Report #8

Sophie had a terrific morning. She was so excited to go outside and play in the snow. She went right to the shovel and started "shoveling" the sidewalk. Her method of shoveling consisted of holding the shovel in one hand and dragging it behind her while she walks up and down the sidewalk :)

Well, at least now we know who to put to work when the next blizzard hits... :)

Random Daycare Daily Report #7

[Sophie's wearing a bright red floral dress to celebrate Chinese New Year. She wasn't at daycare on Thursday- the first day of the new year-- so we sent her to school on Friday all decked out for the occasion!]

Sophie had another great day at school! She enjoyed playing with the parachute in the gym this morning. She kept hiding under it :) We made a ball pit in our room later and Sophie had fun jumping in the balls. She was more interested, however, in throwing all the balls out of the pit! Our silly Sophie :)

Sophie wishes everyone 恭喜发财!

Really? That's all you've got?...

1. Riding the playground toys in the middle of all that snow, 2. Scooping snow onto herself, 3. Trying to trace her hand, 4. Books and blankie

In the end, it was more "meh..." than "oh man!". I think people were expecting to get totally plastered (like Chicago. Now that's what I call a blizzard...) and in the end, even though we did get a lot of snow and the temperature was truly, truly cold, Snowmageddon 2011 didn't quite live up to its hype. In the words of our friend, Lana, "The weather around here is starting to be like a bad boyfriend- huge promises of epic adventures jerked out from under you at the last minute." ;)

Not that we didn't enjoy the snow day though. Like we planned , there was plenty of snuggling under the blanket, reading, imaginary feeding of stuffed toys, sticker-peeling and attempted consuming of said stickers, and the watching of more TV than we usually allow Sophie. The winds even settled down enough in the afternoon for a short jaunt in the snow. Sophie's still not particularly enthused with the whole sledding business so we just stomped around the snow a lot (ok, tried to stomp around the snow- in some parts, the snow came up to her thigh, which did not make for easy stomping...). She also saw her first real snowman and wanted to give it a hug. That didn't quite happen although she did give it a high five on its twiggy hands.

And how happy was our little lovebug with having her parents all to herself pretty much all day?

Snow, schmow

[All that blue? That's blizzard area.]

Snowmageddon. Snowpocalypse. Snowtastrophe.

All the words used to describe weather I'm looking at outside our window right now. We're experiencing a blizzard (yes, a blizzard- 7 years here and we've never had a blizzard warning before) and that's basically all that anyone here has been able to talk about for the past 3 days. Someone at the office even said we get weather like this only once every 15 years. This is the real deal, folks- not just a lot of snow, but very high winds (I can hear it rustling the trees), low temperatures, and blowing snow that reduces visibility. In other words, don't mess around with a blizzard.

Gretchen's House informed us earlier today that they will be closed tomorrow which is just fine by us- I probably would have kept Sophie home anyway. I don't want to have to worry about not being able to get to her in severe weather conditions. I made a quick Whole Foods run (and got the last shopping cart there- everyone had the same idea) and stocked up on essentials like milk (soy formula for Sophie), bread, fruit, veggies, pasta, and broth. And chocolate :) We also have flashlights and candles all ready. Thankfully, our furnace runs on gas so we don't have to worry about losing heat if there's a power outage.

We'll all be staying home tomorrow, likely hanging out in our PJs all day surrounded by blankets. Perfect for snuggling :) We have back episodes of Ni-Hao Kai Lan, Clifford, Sesame Street, and Curious George on the DVR, all of Sophie's toys have been alerted to what will be a day of committed indoor playing, and the sled, her snow suit, and boots are on standby if the wind and cold lets up tomorrow afternoon and we can go outside to tumble in 18-inches of freshly fallen snow :)

Alright blizzard, bring it on!

How you make me smile? Let me count the ways

Sophie makes me smile everyday. She makes me laugh. She makes me incandescently happy (to quote the Americanized version of Pride and Prejudice). Which is why I love the weekends because I am made happy all day long. It's only 2.30 in the afternoon and there have already been so many moments of delightful Sophieness:

- She's lying in bed with us after she wakes up and we take turns reading/playing with her so the other can get a couple more minutes of sleep; but our daughter will have none of it, shoving and barking "Get up!" whenever she catches one of us with our eyes closed.

- We sing along to the Firetruck Song and she knows exactly when in the song (around 0:56) to shout "Wheeeeeeee!" Cracks us up every time...

- At various points of the morning, Jude and I sneezed. And after both times, Sophie knows to say, "bless you." We've been making it a point to teach her the special words like "please", "thank you", and "bless you" so this was especially awesome to hear :)

- As I prepare her mid-morning milk, I turn around to see quietly reading to her Elmo doll. She even sits him on her lap exactly the way she sits on ours.

- While we're playing outside in the snow at the play structure, she says to the big kids around her, "careful..." I'm not sure if she means for them to be careful not to fall on the slippery snow, or to be careful not to knock into her.

- This. 'Nuff said...

Random Daycare Daily Report #6

I just love how much Sophie enjoys being at school each day! She always has so much fun! Today, I found out that Sophie knows every verse to "The Wheels of the Bus"- I tested her! We also did art using stampers and stamp pads. Sophie loved the stamp pads, especially with her hands instead of the stampers :)

[There are no horses or fish in the original of course, but Sophie loves to say "bubble, bubble, bubble" and "neigh, neigh, neigh" so we'll pretend for a while that they let horses and fish on buses...]

Not quite Tom Hanks in Big...

... but close enough :)

The hot stuff

Alright Birkam Yoga, bring it on.
Originally uploaded by ghetto of our mind

It was like running the half-marathon all over again. Except in 90 minutes. And in a hot room with 30 other people breathing heavily along with you. By the end of it, I felt light-headed, a little nauseous, and I couldn't speak (I did call Jude to try telling him about it immediately after but ask him, I could barely string a sentence together...)

I went for my first Bikram Yoga class today.

Up until a couple of months before Sophie was born, I practiced yoga for two and a half years and loved it. Loved what it did to my energy levels, how it helped my running, and with just my all round sense of well-being. But when Sophie came along and having to juggle writing the dissertation, research work, taking care of her, and just chores in general, working out (and yoga) fell to the wayside.

Then earlier this week, LivingSocial (a Groupon-like company that offers daily deals) featured 10 sessions at the Ann Arbor Bikram Yoga studio for $20 and I bought it in a flash. I'd never done Bikram before but an old friend of mine, Shirlyn (those of you reading in Singapore may know her and her music), is a certified Bikram yoga instructor and has been waxing lyrical about what a life-changing practice it is. I was really looking forward to it and to how I wanted it to snap me out of this winter lethargy I've been feeling.

Oh god, in Jude's words as I walked through the door after class this morning, "You look like you just got your as* handed to you..." I'm not going to lie. It was HARD. Getting used to the temperature is one thing, sustaining the poses in that temperature is something else. I'm used to Ashtanga Vinyasa yoga where poses flow dynamically into each other, giving you a cardio workout as well as some good stretching. But in Bikram, holding the static poses works your heart just as much, if not more because of the heated room. I've never perspired as much in 90 minutes as I did today and my giant towel was soaked through once I was done.

But as exhausted as I am (I actually had to take a short nap to recover), I'm also exhilarated and invigorated. And challenged. One of the things I loved (and still love) about yoga is how acutely aware of my body I become- my posture, alignment, breathing, reach, strength, etc, and I find that kind of self-awareness very calming. Plus it's all me- the poses don't rely on machines or weights- it's what my body is capable of and comfortable doing at that moment. Every yoga session is a challenge. How much further can I stretch? How much longer can I hold this position?

I have 9 more sessions to go and I'm determined to be feel a little less pummeled with each class. My body needs to first remember all the things it used to be able to do when I practiced yoga more regularly, and then it needs to get used to the whole heated room thing.

And then maybe it'll realize that I'm working hard to be good to it and wasn't trying to torture it into submission this morning...

Animal cracker love

Sophie loves animal crackers. Loves. And specifically, she loves the animal crackers from Trader Joe's. They're not too sweet for her (with just a hint of lemon) and so I like them too and don't mind even if she has one too many for snack.

And so we were in her play-yard yesterday afternoon having a little late afternoon snack picnic-- milk and animal crackers for Sophie, a Nutella sandwich for me-- when out of the blue, she picked two of her animal crackers up, put them sort of nose-to-nose, and then nonchalantly said, "kiss!", as if she (or maybe the animal crackers) have been doing this everyday her/their whole lives :) It was so sweet and funny and I think I laughed so hard I might have startled her.

I was hoping she would do it again so I could take a photo but she ended up gobbling them both (and then some) up, effectively ending that short-lived animal cracker love affair...

Animal crackers, and cocoa to drink
That is the finest of suppers, I think
When I'm grown up and can have what I please,
I think I shall always insist upon these
-Christopher Morley

Our Saturday

For the first time this year, we had a regular "no one is sick and in need to special attention" Saturday. Little Miss Sophie is recovering from a bit of a cough but nothing we had to stop the clocks for. She did give us a treat by sleeping in till 9am though (!!!) which meant we all got some good rest and woke up all peppy and happy :)

9.30: After rolling around the bed and reading with Sophie a little, we all finally trooped into the bathroom and got ourselves washed up for the morning. For Sophie, this means making sure that she "brushes" both our teeth with her toothbrush before brushing her own teeth. And saying "morning!" to the two monsters on our bathroom door. It's her morning ritual- go figure.

9.45: Breakfast for us is buttered kaya toast, thanks to the Ya-Kun kaya my parents brought over for us over the holidays. Sophie ate some oatmeal. One day, she will out-grow her allergies and we will share with her the comforting goodness that is kaya.

10.30: We all get changed and bundled up for a grocery run. Between all the yummy food my mom made and froze and the Omaha Steak's meat that both Jude and my aunt sent us as holiday gifts, we haven't actually had to do much shopping except for fruit and veggies. But our lunchies (quick and easy items for lunch) were running on low supply and we had to stock up on pantry staples like pasta and broth anyway, so it was off to Trader Joe's. No more balloons for Sophie there (they stopped their balloon-giving policy) but she had a usual grapefruit to hug and gnaw on so she was a happy camper. And she kept herself busy by waving and saying hi to complete strangers.

12.00: We drop Jude off at school so he can clock in some work for the day. Sophie and I head home for lunch (fish porridge for her and pasta salad for me) after which we spend some quality time with her blocks. The architectural project for today- a tall tower built entirely of just the square pieces. Not structurally the most sound but at least now I know she knows the difference between squares and rectangles. Sophie was also in a "dancey" mood so we put on some Pomplamoose and danced to their holiday songs. Sophie loves "Jingle Bells" in particular (she calls it "Jindle Bell") and I had to put it on repeat for at least 20 minutes.

1.30: Nap-time for Sophie. I catch up on my email, read the news, watched an old episode of Grey's Anatomy (don't ask...), and started planning for class for next week.

3.45: Had to wake Sophie up from her nap because we were meeting Jude downtown soon. Recovering from a cough is hard work but I didn't want her nap to interfere with her night sleep. She roused the moment I opened her door so she was probably close to waking up on her own anyway.

4.30: We met Jude downtown to run some errands- picked up some pants that needed alteration, popped into Van Boven to check out their sale (where Jude scored a nice jacket and a wrinkle-free shirt, and where the sales guys were rather smitten with Sophie and gave her free reign of running around the store), and let Sophie run around the children's section at Borders which basically meant her meandering around the shelves, randomly pulling out books she wants us to read to her, grabbing whatever Elmo product that's within her reach, and alternating between yelling "running!" or "coming!" whenever she sees a long stretch of uninterrupted floor space for her to blaze through. Sometimes, I feel like I am unleashing a mini tornado through a prairie.

6.00: It was getting cold and dark and we were hungry so we decided on some Tomukun ramen for dinner to warm ourselves up. We were planning on having dinner out anyway so I had packed Sophie some cherry tomatoes and chicken nuggets. We ordered her a bowl of rice and she was all set. Jude and I both got the duck ramen and dinner was us taking turns to eat while rolling the rice into little rice balls for Sophie. She likes feeding herself and having little morsels of food to work with keeps her occupied.

7.30: We get home in time to Skype with both Jude's and my family before everyone had to go to church (it was Sunday morning in Singapore). Sophie has come to anticipate these Skype conversations and will say "Yiyi" (what she calls my sisters) once she sees the Skype icon popping up.

8.30: It's the weekend so Sophie gets to go to bed a little later. Bedtime is usually between 7.30 and 8.00 on a school night. Tonight, Sophie was really interested in the Charley Harper ABC book that we checked out from the library. Sophie knows his art from his 123 book that my friend Teresa gifted us with and the Peekaboo Forest app on the iPad and so Sophie had fun identifying the animals in the ABC book even though his stylized take on animal illustrations isn't the most easily recognizable.

The thing about having an early(ish) sleeper is that Jude and I get the rest of the night to ourselves, mostly to do work. Or on Wednesday nights, Top Chef. But today, we actually squeezed in some laundry-folding, which is amazing considering we only did the laundry two days ago and we've once let the folding part wait almost an entire week...

As I'm typing this, I can hear Sophie coughing a little here and there. But I'm hoping it will all clear up tomorrow.

Then we'll see what Sunday will bring :)

The little imp in between bouts of dancing this afternoon.

And we're back...

And by we, I mean me. Back to the land of the non-sniffling, non-coughing humans, where things don't sound like they're operating underwater, and where I'm not constantly hacking away at night while swiping at my nose with my fourth box of Puffs (yes, I was sneezing so much, I went out and actually bought the expensive tissues that I would never buy otherwise. That's how much my nose was hurting...) It took about a week but I think things are slowly blowing (pun FULLY intended) over. And I finally gave Sophie a proper kiss and hug today after avoiding doing that for the past week. The poor thing was so confused as to why I would be playing with her but not snuggling like I always do.

Speaking of the little human, she's been having fun amidst all the precipitation we've been getting. Between jumping into snow piles whenever she thinks we're not looking and biting off her gloves so she can "tatch" (catch) the falling snowflakes, Sophie's really enjoying snow in general.

[Snowflakes are tasty!]

[Now that I teach on Monday and Wednesday evenings, Jude and Sophie get some quality "Dada & me" time with each other on those days. They usually try to have a little adventure before dinner...]

We're currently busy but we'll get back to you shortly

This is a placeholder post to reassure everyone that no, we have not in fact fallen off the edge of the earth nor did our house burn down rendering us without access to the Internet. But between coming back from Chicago, Sophie falling sick over the new year, Sophie getting better but passing the bug on to me, me sniffling, coughing, and sniffling some more, and then having to prepare to teach my first class post-graduation while sniffling and being half-drugged out from Dayquil/ Nyquil, I just haven't found time to blog.

But maybe sometime this weekend I will. That is if my nose stops leaking...