Purple

This morning was the first day I held up two different shirts to Lilly and asked her to pick our what she wanted to wear. I didn't say anything descriptive about what they were. She proudly said PURPLE! One was purple and the other was green. She's so smart. I had no idea she knew her colors - especially a secondary one like purple.

Happy Birthday, Will

We had an uneventful day even though there was cause for major celebration. Will turned another year older - 34 to be exact. So young if you ask me, a 35 year old. Ha ha ha.

Sophia made Daddy a card this morning and picked out this cake this afternoon. She signed her name in the card. S O P H I A. She writes every single letter the same size. It's like she assigns the same value to each of them and boy are they tall. Tall and skinny.

Back to Will's birthday. He watched the kids this morning while I painted Sophia's room a pretty light blue color to blend with her bead spread. Blue has been her favorite color since she started talking. And guess what? When I tucked her in tonight she told me her new favorite color is purple and wondered if we could paint her room purple. I tickled her for torture.

We went to the mall to visit Easter Bunny this afternoon. I dressed the girls up in coordinating summer dresses (because it was 78 degrees today) and when we got there Lilly bawled her eyes out while she sad beside the Easter Bunny to get her picture taken. She sobbed until I picked her up. Sophia gave him a high five, a hug, danced with him, and sat right by his side with a smile on her face in the photo. I ended up buying the picture even though Lilly looks terrified. I think I'll take them back next week to see if I can get a better photo.

Will bought himself a pair of swimming gloves at Dicks. He's back into swimming laps at the rec center and, since he was off this week, he's also taken Sophia to frolic around in the shallow end a few times. She loves it! He took her swimming after school on Wednesday and she fell asleep on the couch at 5:30 (nice) and it's great exercise for her too.

Will ended the day with a 6:30 kickball practice and came home with a few more scrapes and cuts than he left with. I skipped tonight and put Sophia's room back together while they were gone.

Anyway, Happy Birthday, honey! We love you.

Lilly looks good in yellow

I posted some pictures on Flick.com last night. Take a look.

I also took a video of Lilly and Daddy playing on the bean bag chairs. Listen to her laughing. It's so cute.

1/2 Marathon

Well, I didn't meet my goal of under 2 hours, but I actually did a great job... 2:06:18 was my time. I'm signing up for another 1/2 marathon in September so I will aim to beat this time.

I placed:
176 out of 683 in my age category (which sadly is the 35-39 bracket)
2451 out of 6546 (total runners)
1091 out of 4030 (total women)

My shin was hurting through the race, but I made it.

When I got home Sophia asked me if I won the race. Of course I had to tell her that everyone wins, but I did give her my hanging medal to wear. They also gave out hats, a long sleeved t-shirt and a short sleeved running jersey, oh yeah, and beer. Lots and lots of beer in honor St. Patrick's Day. It's called the Shamrock 1/2 Marathon.

Kickball

Will and I are playing kickball again this spring. We have our first practice tonight, another practice next week and then our first game will be Easter weekend on Friday night. Rob and Christina will be here so I hope they don't mind coming with us. Last time they were here we tried to get them into our kickball game, but they didn't have the proper shirts so they got "kicked" off the field. Speaking of shirts....our color this year is Texas Orange. I know that will make someone happy!

Weight

I weighed both girls this week.

Sophia = 49.5 pounds

Lillian = 26.5 pounds

Craft Station

Lately the coffee table in the TV room has become the girls' craft table. I wouldn't mind if they would clean up the mess when they're done playing, but they leave that for me. Will can really motivate Sophia to clean up after herself, but not me. I have to threaten time-out for her to even acknowledge that I've asked her to clean up.

Daddy's computer

Lilly is always climbing up onto my chair and messing with things on my desk. She sometimes plays with my laptop and "types" and points to the screen. She's changed a few of my settings doing this. She also plays with the mail and my calculator and whatever else she can get her hands on.

Yesterday she chose Will's computer to play with and wore his hat too. I guess she really wanted to play the part.

Swimming

Sophia is signed up for an independent swimming class that starts at the end of April. Independent meaning that she goes into the pool without me. She goes in with 9 other kids.

To get her acclimated to the pool and the locker room, etc... we've decided to start frequenting the indoor pool at the rec center. All four of us went yesterday.

Lilly was slow to warm up at first while I had her on my hip, but when I put her into the water on her belly she started to really enjoy herself. She even tried to swim with her arms a few times.

Sophia and Will went today. Will said that she was jumping into the pool on her own in the shallow end, but of course he was standing right there for her. She also knows how to hold onto the wall and "walk" her way to the steps. She also knows how to walk laps in water up to her shoulders. We're making progress. Only 2 days ago she was sobbing about how much she hates swimming.

blurry, but cute

No pictures

Big Daddy came for a visit last night and we didn't take any pictures. Darn it!

It was really great to see him. Sophia was so excited and talked about it all day. She knew her GRAND FATHER was coming to see her. I think Big Daddy sensed her excitement during the entire time we were at dinner because she kept talking to him even if he was talking to someone else.

Lilly was cute...she watched Sophia hug big Daddy and then just before he walked out the door she ran over and hugged his leg. Adorable.

A "March" update

So far March has been very good to us. All week it's been in the 60s and 70s. It drizzled over night, but today is another gorgeous day. The only day it was cold so far this month was on Saturday at Sophia's first soccer game. (That's another story all together.)

It's been really pleasant for my 1/2 marathon training. On Sunday I was able to get out and run 10.16 miles. It was awesome to feel the sun shining down on me. By the way, I'm training for a 1/2 marathon (13.1 miles) in 2 weeks. This weekend I will run 12 miles and then the following weekend is the Shamrock Festival and races. My goal is to complete the race in under 2 hours. I should just hit my goal if I'm lucky and can stay focused. My new Droid phone has an app that shows me my distance, running time, elevation, minutes/mile, and it keeps track of my trail. I love it! I should say I love Will for finding it for me.

Funny Sophia stories

STORY ONE

Will thinks this tale is hysterical.

Lately Sophia's been repeating things that we say at random times throughout the day, but always in the right context (gotta be careful now about what we say). From things she says I can tell that she's repeating her teacher, Mrs. Harden, too.

Last week she came home and told us that Addie is a poopy head, but also very creative.

When I mentioned the story to Addie's mom, Amy, she told me that Addie had been talking about Sophia being a poopy head too. That's the part that I find hysterical. The things they come up with!

STORY TWO

Sophia and I always race up and down the stairs and guess who always wins? Not me. Yesterday when we got home she yelled out First one up the stairs is a rotten egg. Ha ha ha

Differences

Lilly peels the paper off any crayon that she comes across. Then she breaks it in half and/or tries to eat it. Sophia never did this.

Lilly eats Play-doh. Sophia never did this.

Lilly eats oranges and loves them. Sophia never did and still doesn't.

Lilly is a climber. We have to lay our kitchen chairs on the floor so she doesn't climb up on them. Sophia never liked to climb.

Lilly loves to push things (shopping carts, ball poppers, baby strollers). Sophia never really got into pushing things.

Lilly loves going to My Gym. Sophia, honestly, never did.

Lilly is small and compact and can still wear 12 months clothes in some cases. Sophia was never small and compact. In fact she was wearing 24 months clothes when she was Lilly's age.

Lilly is very independent. Sophia on the other hand is still very shy.

Lilly actually leaves in her hair clips. Up until about 3 months ago Sophia would take hers out within an hour of me putting it in her hair.

Lilly likes to sort, stack, throw away and organize things. Sophia never did this. In fact it's a good thing that I saved all of Sophia's toys because Lilly plays with all the toys that Sophia never played with. By the way....our siblings need to hurry up and have children because we're running out of storage space!

Baby Jesus

Sophia announced on Saturday that she was to be called Mary and that the baby doll that she was/is playing with is baby Jesus.

We went out to dinner on Saturday night and she insisted that I tell our waitress that her name was Mary and that she had baby Jesus with her. She had the baby wrapped up in a kitchen towel and was calling it a robe.

Yesterday at church she was a hit! Everyone thought it was absolutely adorable and they were all so proud of her.

I didn't have the heart to tell them that she's been watching the Wiggles Wiggly Wiggly Christmas DVD and at the end of the movie they do a scene with Mary and baby Jesus. Still it's cute that she wants to act it out. And, it's wonderful to see her showing such loving care to a little baby doll.

Lilly carries around babies all the time and loves to cuddle them and feed them bottles. When she first saw Sophia with one of her baby dolls she cried (pretty hard) but realized that sharing is the right behavior. When Sophia's not playing with baby Jesus and Lilly finds her (yes, I said her) Lilly picks up the baby and carries it to Sophia. She's such a thoughtful little girl.

Lilly by herself

It was pretty warm on Friday so I took Lilly outside while Sophia was at school. She was having so much fun running around on the deck I had to snap some pictures of her. Too bad this one is a tad bit blurry. Most picture studios I've been to would call this "soft focus" and try to convince me to buy it. It's so darn cute, I probably would. (I can just picture Will rolling his eyes.)

Mother Goose

For the entire month of February Sophia studied Mother Goose nursery rhymes at school. Each day she came home with a creative craft like a blue horn on Little Boy Blue day, a set of mittens for Three Little Kittens day and my personal favorite a mouse on a stick for Hickory Dickory Dock day.

We have a Barney DVD called Mother Goose Nursery Rhymes. Imagine that! We have a Barney movie for every holiday, shape, color, season, theme, you name it... Well, anyway, I randomly decided to play a Barney movie for Lillian last week and picked our Mother Goose DVD and let me tell you - Sophia was glued to the tv screen watching it and asking for it again. It was a fabulous review of all the hard work she did in February learning about new nursery rhymes. I was really happy for her.

But here's the funny part. In the Barney movie there is a girl trying to complete her homework assignment of writing a nursery rhyme. There are a few children spying through a window on this young maiden dressed like Mother Goose to get her inspiration. The young girl is scribbling on a piece of paper then she crinkles it up and tosses it over her shoulder.

As the spying children are watching they start singing:
Have you ever seen a lassie, a lassie, a lassie
Have you ever seen a lassie go this way and that?
Go this way and that way and that way and this way
Have you ever seen a lassie go this way and that?

Sophia thinks the name of this girl is Alassie! Isn't that a scream? She put this outfit on earlier today and told me she was Alassie dressed like Mother Goose. HA!

She's even has named one of her dolls Alassie and another doll Anassie. They are sisters.

Bean Bag "Pear" Chairs

The girls got some money for Christmas so I spent a bit of it on bean bag chairs for them. The one I got for Lillian completely matches her room colors. One day when the chair finds a permanent home in there it will look so cute, but until then we've got both chairs in the dining room. (It looks like we'll never get a proper dining room table!)

Sophia's color is persimmon (which looks like a really deep dusty rose color) and Lilly's color is lemon swirl.

They aren't your typical bean bag chair. Well, they are, but they are shaped like a pear so they can be used more like a chair than the regular "round" shaped bean bag chairs.

Regardless, the girls love to run laps around the house and then fall into their bean bags. It's a game they seem to play every night when Will gets home from work and they are still awake.

She can officially write her name.

Sophia wrote this yesterday. In the series of pictures you can see how proud she is of herself. She first writes SOPHIA then she writes ALEXANDER. Wow.