Yesterday Sophia's craft at school was an Indian headband. She was really pleased to tell me all of the feather colors. 
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. 
YUM
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. 
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 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.
These two are TOTAL OPPOSITES! Here's a short list of examples, but I could go on and on.... | 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 |
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. 
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".
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. 
Man! What a day. Sophia was really under the weather today. Aubrey too. Hopefully this was the turning point day and tomorrow we're on the uphill again. Sophia's appetite today called for Jello, 3 bites of jelly toast, Cheez-its, juice, popsicles (sugar-free, of course), 1 bite of a Pillsbury Crescent roll, 10 strawberries and two lollipops. She didn't want to take a nap until 5pm when she crashed for 90 minutes. When she woke up she didn't want to dress up and go trick or treating. She only wanted to watch her Wiggles Christmas movie. A different Wiggles movie...another Christmas idea. This is how Sophia spent her evening.
These are all of the things Sophia brought home from school in the last several weeks. Her favorite is the witch. I like the trick or treat bag and the black cat because it's her handprint. The witch, frankenstein, and black cat are actually three individual crafts although in the photo they look like one thing. 
On two separate occasions this month Sophia received the Star Singer Award from Ms. Sharon.
She dressed up in her kitty cat costume for school today (you will find her dressed all in black with pink fringe in the center of the photo). Will and I dropped her off together this morning and stayed for the Halloween Parade. Only the 2 and 3 year old classes dressed up, but the older kids also joined in the fun and basically sang the songs for the little ones. Well Sophia does look like she's singing the last few words of the last song in the last video:
I took the girls to the WoW Botanical Garden this week for a special visit from Elmo. Sophia was beside herself and literally ran up to him when he walked into the park. She hugged him twice. Take a look at all of the photos. Elmo planted a sunflower with all the kids and then he rode the tram back to the Visitor's Center. I collapsed our stroller and we hopped on the tram to ride back with Elmo. 
Sophia and Aubrey are hosting a Halloween costume party at our house at 11 on Saturday for 10 of their friends (and their parents). 
Sophia bent over in the driveway to look get a better look at something. After close examination she called up to me, "Look, Mommy. A tiny snake." 
Original Artwork is what was listed on Sophia's school calendar on the first Tuesday of October. She didn't bring anything home that day either. This week I found out what she actually did for her craft that day when I received an invitation to the "Big Room" to view the kids' Original Art Works. Guess which one is Sophia's...? It's one of the biggest. 
On Tuesday of this week the calendar said First Letter and showed an A. Coincidentally, Sophia wore her A is for Awesome shirt because I figured they were starting to talk about the alphabet. Instead she brought home an S for Sophia!! Ah, cute! In the car on the drive home that day I told her that my name, Shirley, starts with an S too. And she said, "Sadie starts with an S too." And then she said, "Scratch starts with an S too."! WOW. Scratch is MISSER TONY's dog. 
At the beginning of the month her craft was Fall Leaves (on a tree). I love this piece. You can't see the details in the photo, but there are tiny squares of crumpled up tissue paper glued all over the tree (and on the S). Sophia was so proud of it. "Don't pull them off, Mommy." That's what I heard the whole way home that day. 
The school holds two types of fund raisers: The Book Fair which was at the end of September (and we sure did our part, but who doesn't love books?) and School Pictures (Fall and Spring). A professional photographer had his "Italian Countryside" background and fake stone set up from 9-9:30 for sibling photos. I resolved I would get everyone dressed in their best and out the door this morning, but it simply did not happen. Sophia slept in therefore so did I today. I can't wait to see Sophia's picture. I have no idea what her hair will look like in the photo, but it did look perfect when she got to school this morning.
I would like to propose a toast. 
