Sophia is very fluent in English now (and is even getting pretty savvy at a little
espanol!)
It's hilarious the way language is revealing her personality... it certainly makes life interesting!
Here are some examples of some recent comments from Sophia:
"That daddy is a naked-butt!"
(jogging by another, male jogger with his shirt off)"Suki and I love dog food!"
(Sophia means that she loves giving Suki dog food... I've never actually seen her try any! And, really, I'm just including this one because the grammar thrills me!)"Hi, bunny rabbit!"
(this is my nickname for Sophia, and she'll say this when she wants my attention!)"Grandma and Grandpa live far away in Grand Forks!"
"I'm using the phone to call Grammy now!"
"Is the phone Grammy or Auntie Ruth?"
"Don't pee on the bed! That would be
ew, icky, gross!"
(she sometimes only has to be told something once!)"It certainly, certainly is"
"I'm riding on a buffalo!"
(she said this as she climbed on me while I was doing sit-ups yesterday. Sweet.)"Good job exercising, mommy!"
Imaginative play is a new skill for Sophia that is so intricately linked with language. The better her language skills the more interesting her play! Here are just a few examples of how she plays now:
1. Sophia will "read" to herself! This is her most frequent activity when her parents are busy or when she's in the jogging stroller. She will (with a very serious expression!) slowly flip through a book. She studies each page and then will either "read" something similar to the real story--if she's familiar with the book--or will "read" something that matches the picture. She has several books memorized, and she does know all of her letters--upper AND lower-case! (Yes, I'm shamelessly bragging!) :)
2. Sophia loves to make up Dora scenarios. Yesterday, while we were jogging, she pretended that she was "
Swiper the fox" and I was Isa. She would say things like, "I heard a noise, Isa! What was that? Benny the cow is hiding behind a tree!" She also finds things that she uses to pretend she's part of a Dora movie. For example, part of our jog is over a river, through some woods, and across an open space. One Dora movie is an adventure "across the noisy river, through the quiet forest, to the golden valley." Sophia will totally reenact the movie as we move through these
parallel landscapes! She
loooooves Dora! When we play Dora she always gets to be either Dora or
Swiper, and I get to be Isa or Benny. The cow.
3. Sophia loves to make up "Kitty Cat stories" with me. She begs for these mostly after her bath and right before bed. It involves me beginning a story about a kitty cat, and then we develop the story together. For example:
J "Once upon a time there was a kitty cat, and he was walking through the..."
S: "Forest!"
J: "And then he found a..."
S: "Frog!"
J: "sitting on a..."
S: "Rock!"
J: "The frog was feeling..."
S: "Sick!
Pukey!
Bleh!"
And it goes on...
4. Sophia loves being silly! Her new favorite joke is to call things by names that they are not... for example:
J: "Sophia, which book would you like?"
S: "A Casey book!" (then she'll laugh and say "
nooooo!" in a silly voice).
J: "Would you like the
dinosaur book?"
S: "A light book? No! A table book? No! A chair book? No!"
She'll do this with just about anything. And yes, it can get tedious!
I know that nobody finds these developments as interesting as I do but, since this blog has become my scrap book AND diary, I occasionally feel the need to document what's going on in our crazy world! Things are getting more interesting (and fun!) every day! :)
So I was trying to explain to my mom how we've rearranged our living/dining areas, and I decided to just post a picture! It's so much more cozy this way... feels more "lived-in!"
And the fall/Halloween outdoor decs, for fun :) The little white things along the front walk are little ghosts that Sophia helped me stuff with leaves on Friday... it was so warm we were out there in tank-tops!
New kitchen adventures: home-made croutons! I KNOW I'm a dork for posting this BUT I have to share because this was such a heavenly discovery... I made these croutons by toasting chopped up leftover homemade Rosemary focaccia in a skillet with lots of olive oil and they are the BEST croutons I have ever had in my life--I can't believe I didn't try this sooner! They were so divine that even Travis (who does not care for croutons) stood there with me eating them warm out of the pan. I fully intend to start baking hundreds of loaves of rosemary focaccia so I can eat nothing but croutons all winter! Haha
That warm weather I bragged about above? Yeah, it's gone now. Check out Sophia's new pea coat! I love it; I think she looks like such a little lady! You have to ignore her puffy little face, though, she has quite the little cold :(
My cutie! 
