Nana and Poppy

Sophia has decided to call my parents Nana and Poppy (or Pop Pop).

I'm pretty sure Nana and Poppy had a pretty good handle on "normal life at the Alexanders" while Will and I were out of town. From the pictures it looks like they all had a great time.

One of Sophie's favorite things to do is read books in her room. She's got a chair that's just her size and even knows how to turn on her lamp. She will literally select a book from the shelf, carry it over to her chair, climb up, turn around, get situated, then read her book out loud to herself. I love standing in the hallway listening to her little voice....and I think Nana got a kick out of this too.

Friday included lunch at Chic-fil-A and lots of screaming fun in the indoor play area. Sophie loves to scream and believe me, this can be quite embarrassing at times! Then they all went to the playground where Sophia saw a few spiders and a real squirrel eating a nut. Squirrel is one of her newly acquired signs so this was awesome for her.

I'm pretty sure each night after dinner and before bed Sophia played one of her favorite games with them. It's called "You guys sit on the couch and I'll run back and forth in between you and jump on you". Doesn't that sound like fun?

On Saturday I suggested that Nana and Poppy take Sophie to the Children's Harvest Day at our Farmer's Market. There are tons of pictures from this day. Sophie got to pet a baby duck, get lost in a pumpkin patch and participate in a bean bag toss and select a prize afterwards. Surprise, surprise, she chose a book.

Nana told me there was a band playing and that Sophie turned into quite the groupie. She didn't want to leave until she heard the band's second set of music. She really liked watching all the little kids dance although she didn't join them. Believe it or not, she's still on the shy side.

Sophie really enjoyed playing in the back of my parent's minivan on Sunday. Nana said she was sliding down the reclined seats and would take breaks by reading a magazine she found in the car. I'm sure this enclosed space - just her size - was the perfect playground for her active imagination. Nana said she was acting like it was her little house! How adorable.

Walks, walks and more walks. I know Sadie was lucky enough to go for a long walk everyday with Poppy - a treat for her since I've been slacking a bit lately. Sophie also got to go on stroller walks and wagon walks. She pushed her baby in the baby stroller one day. And simply walked on her own around Mulberry Loop (an impressive .6 miles for a 17 month old).

One afternoon Nana was in the kitchen and realized that Sophie was awfully quire in her playroom. Will and I call this the "Silent Sophia" - and we know she's usually up to no good when we can't hear her. We also have "Silent Sadie" - which typically ends up being 100 times worse than "Silent Sophia". Sophie found her brown magic marker (which I think had rolled under our china cabinet) and was silently drawing all over herself, a little trick her dad taught her a few weeks ago! Fortunately all of her markers are washable! She protested very loud when Nana took it away from her!

It appears that Sophia learned another new trick while we were gone. The picture speaks for itself. She's my little dare devil for sure!

Take a look at all of the pictures.