November Artwork

Sophia did some really fun artwork for fall in the last few weeks at school. They made a raccoon which we've named Rocky and she knows that he likes to eat food straight out of the garbage can.

Then she made Indian corn. I think it's one of my favorite "pieces" so far.

I also really like the Indian guy because when I picked her up from school that day she told me she drew his smile. It's it a fantastic smile?

I'm assuming she also put his eyes on all by herself as well. I looked around at the Indians her classmates had made and I have to admit that hers was one of the better looking ones.

She made the little turkey at school. We call him Fat Turkey. The larger potato looking turkey was created by yours truly at a play date at Haley's house two weeks ago. The brown potato looking body is Sophia's feet - outline traced, cut and glued together. The "feathers" are her hands - outlined traced, cut and glued on. Imagine tracing and cutting all those pieces while holding a squirming 6 month old! It's no wonder I glued the hands onto the bottom of the turkey body instead of the top! Oh well.

Funny

We've all heard of a "rabbit in the hat", right? Well how about a "carrot in the shoe"?

I gave Sophia 2 mini carrots to hold her over before dinner on Friday. She really wanted chips, but I said no. She protested that she didn't want the carrots! I told her to eat them! She screamed NO! I guess she meant it because later that evening I found both mini carrots shoved into her shoe!

Indian Headband

Yesterday Sophia's craft at school was an Indian headband. She was really pleased to tell me all of the feather colors.

Typically when Will arrives home from work she runs to the frig to show him her craft from school. Yesterday she was irritated that he took the headband off the fridge to try it on. NO NO NO DADDY!!!!

Jingle Bells

Goodness, what a fantastic memory my little Sophia has! Or....maybe she's learning some "bad" songs at school, but I doubt it.

For a while she didn't like riding in the stroller for long walks, but Sadie, Aubrey and I enjoyed it. To make it more enjoyable for Sophia I would sing songs to her. Usually we got stuck on Old MacDonald and the ABC's, but one day I sang the Alexander version of Jingle Bells for her. It went something like this:

Jingle bells
Aubrey smells
Mommy laid an egg
The Dad-mobile lost a wheel
And Sadie ran away.

Then we sang the other bad version:
Jingle bells
Batman smells
Robin laid an egg
The Bat-mobile lost it's wheel
And the Joker got away.

During Sophia's quiet time today I heard her singing this:

Sophie goes to school

This photo was taken on one of Sophia's school days. She loves to get dressed up and go to school. Each day in the car we talk about what she's going to do in school that day and we decide what she's going to tell Ms. Lisa and Ms. Dawn when she gets to her classroom.

Last week I picked up an extra large tub of pretzels from BJs for her to take in to share with the class for their snack. She was so proud to carry them in with her that day, but when I picked her up to go home she started to cry because she wasn't bringing the pretzels home with her.

Aubrey weighs in on solid foods

YUM
- sweet potatoes
- carrots
- frozen strawberries
- frozen peaches

YUCK
- peas

TOLERABLE
- peas mixed with sweet potatoes

Finger Paints

Ever since Sophia dressed up like a cat for Halloween she's been really excited about painting whiskers on both of our faces. In fact, the other night she painted some on my face with purple eyeliner after her bath. I forgot (and Will didn't think to say anything about it) and walked out the door to go to pick up dinner at Chili's. The whole way home I wondered why the girl acted so strange toward me when I was paying for our food. When I got home and saw my face in the mirror I realized she must have thought I was a total weirdo.

I guess I should add that Sophia doesn't have a steady hand yet so my whiskers really looked like some strange war paint.

Here's how she "finger painted" whiskers on her face while I was upstairs putting Aubrey down for a nap last week!

Mommy, I see Super Letters

Super Why is Sophia's new favorite TV program. It's a group of four characters that reinforce the alphabet, reading and letters in Story Book Village on PBS. Each episode is about a different fairy tale. Sophia now knows Little Miss Muffet, the Three Pigs, Jack and the Beanstalk, Humpty Dumpty, etc.. Sophia absolutely loves acting out the fairy tales and finding letters all over the place. Now every time we're driving in the car she spies letters and numbers all over the place - on road signs, buildings and even cars.

I appreciate her yelling out, "Mommy, I see a 4 and a 5" when I'm driving because I know that's the speed limit sign. I'm always going faster than the posted limit.

Aubrey in the exersaucer

This is the one time Aubrey actually enjoyed being in the exersaucer. Of course, for Aubrey, everything is better with a little Sophia!

Aubrey - 5 and 1/2 months old

Aubrey is now eating some solid food. She's gobbling up her rice cereal and in the last few days I've introduced sweet potatoes. Each time I offer them she acts like it's the first time she's tasted them, but then remembers and eagerly eats the whole bowl full.

She's got a funny piece of long hair that just keeps on growing. It's on the left side by her ear. The hair on the right side has fallen out. Doesn't she look a big goofy? And below her is her goofy sister at 5 months old. It looks like she had already lost most of her baby hair.

My birthday card

Sophia (and Will) made me a birthday card. How sweet.

The front has tiny bits of toilet paper glued all over it. The inside has a perfume scent insert from a magazine glued to it.

Playing at home on Friday

Friday was a rainy, ugly day so we didn't leave the house! We played all day. We had a fun Girls Day at home. Here are the pictures (and movies) to prove it.

Sophia stayed in her pajamas for half of the morning. She was trying on her Dora hat and playing Peek-A-Boo. We play it with Aubrey all the time. Then Sophia decided she was going to put on her boots and coat and go out to play in the rain.



Sophia just discovered my "secret" drawer in the dining room buffet. This is where I have a stash of fun things like Play Doh and markers to play with and other things I'm saving for her until she's a little older. Now that she's discovered it, she thinks it's a free for all. She even pulled her stool over to get a birds eye view and have a browse on her own. She's asked several times to FIND SOMETHING TO DO.



Here she is (below) dressed up and waiting for Cinderella to pick her up for a tea party they were going to have with Snow White. She picked this out all by herself - and she even asked for some money to put in her purse! We found some plastic Barney money for her to use.

Aubrey wanted to play dress up too so we gave her a lei.



Click here a look at all the pictures.

Then this happened....

Total Opposites

These two are TOTAL OPPOSITES! Here's a short list of examples, but I could go on and on....

So far their similarities are: They will both end up with green eyes.

Take a look at all of the pictures in this series. Sophia decided she was going to pick on Aubrey...and make her cry! Is this a glimpse into the future? I hope not.

SOPHIA	AUBREY
Fell into a natural sleep schedule and was sleeping through the night at 4 months	Still gets up EVERY 2-3 hours ALL NIGHT LONG. Can you say serious sleep deprivation for Mom?
Loved the exersaucer	Doesn't enjoy the exersaucer
Needed/Still needs constant attention and entertainment	Likes to just sit and explore on her own. She's so fascinated by everything that she can entertain herself for short periods of time
Hated just sitting in the high chair to play	Loves chilling in the high chair

The Wiggles

I took Sophia and Aubrey to see the Wiggles on Thursday night. Sophia was utterly speechless for the first part of the show. She seriously couldn't believe she was going to see Wags the Dog, Dorothy (she says Dorothly), and Henry (she says Harry) the Dinosaur. When they appeared on stage she went bonkers!!! We stood in a huge line to get the Wiggles light stick that Sophia is holding in this photo.

We had great seats. We sat at the end of the second row in the upper level. Sophia was able to dance in the aisle and steps through the whole show.

Aubrey enjoyed her very first concert too.

Take a look at all the pictures.

Video with Aubrey and Sadie

Mama Sadie

Top: Sadie and Aubrey.
Bottom: Sophia and Sadie.

Halloween is over

Sophia told Will that Halloween was over because Mommy put the pumpkins away. How cute. Now we can finally move on to the next holiday season. Afterall, we did see Santa Claus at the mall in Norfolk last week! He waved to us and Sophia seemed pretty excited to see him. I hope her enthusiasm continues.

SOPHIA'S HALLOWEEN ARTWORK & SCHOOL PICTURES:

Redskins vs Steelers Weekend

Thankfully the Redskins lost and thus upheld the tradition that... "If the Redskins lose the last home game before an election then the opposing political party will win and take over with a new Presidency" or in this case "Hope for Change".

We arrived in Northern VA on Sunday afternoon and had fun playing some poker with the Alexander clan...including Rob's new girlfriend, Christina. As is turns out I woke up with a stomach bug and mostly slept on Monday. Apparently there is another tradition that was upheld too..."Shirley gets sick in November"! This will be the third November in a row that I've been sick when we've visited with Grancy and Big Daddy. The first year it was in Kansas for Mike and Misty's wedding. Last year it was at Thanksgiving. What gives?

We didn't end up going to the game that night, but Will did get to watch it on Rob's new big screen tv complete with 6 or 7 (I can't remember) surround sound speakers! I think Will is a little jealous of his younger bro's entertainment system.

Sophia had a blast, of course!

Teddy Bear Tea

On Saturday morning Sophia had our first "date" day sans Aubrey. We signed up for the Teddy Bear Tea at the Botanical Garden from 10-12. Addie and her mom, Amy, also signed up for it with us. Sophia dressed up and decided to bring her friend, Lamby. Go figure. I tried to encourage her to take a teddy bear friend since the program description led me to believe we would actually be having tea with teddy! Instead we each decorated a cookie, Sophia decorated a tea cup and a plate using the only two colors offered (you can see it in the photos) and then we instructed to go outside to explore the kids sprinkler garden (done that a million times) and then return for a story about a tea party (done that a thousand times). Can you say LAME? Amy thought so too.

We still had a good time...Sophia, as usual, loved finding and shouting out all the names of the letters on the Alphabet Path. She's really into walking on walls these days. We do it every time we take a walk in the Castleton Loop, we did it at the Library today and again last Sat at the Botanical Garden.

Aubrey tries rice cereal