They came and went

My parents were here this week for a short, but sweet visit. They arrived on Sunday afternoon and left on Wednesday morning. Sophia was in her glory, as usual when she's with a grandparent. Sunday evening was very laid back. Sophia entertained us the entire night. Here she showing off her pirate costume and playing the piano.

I had a few meetings on Monday and Sophia had school so Nana and Poppy had a lot of Lilly time. They came with me to drop Sophia off at school. They took her in and met Mrs. Harden. Sophia was so proud.

In the afternoon Nana took the girls around the block a few times. Sophia was on her tricycle and none of us could believe that she made it around once let alone two times.

Lilly enjoyed being pulled in the wagon. While they were out Sophia met some kids who had baby kittens and she got to hold a few of them. She couldn't wait to tell me and Daddy about it.

Tuesday was the really fun day.

We went to Hunt Club Farm which is basically a mile down the road from us. They offer hay rides, a petting zoo, four or five different wooden play grounds, an enormous mountain of hay, a couple of pumpkin patches and many wonderful settings to take great photos. I think I took 300 pictures and literally didn't get a good one of both girls looking and smiling at the camera! Same old story.

Anyway, Sophia really enjoyed the play grounds and there was one slide in particular that she kept sliding down. Her hair got more staticky the more she rode it. It was the kind of slide that was covered and tunnel like. You could see her smile beaming each time she emerged from the slide. Her favorite thing by far was the tire swing of which she became quite possessive!

Lilly enjoyed going down the slide a few times all by herself. She grinned from ear to ear. She really would have enjoyed the tire swing if she was welcomed to ride it. She had fun pushing around a big yellow toy dump truck and playing in the giant mound of hay.

We went to a pizza joint for lunch and then headed back to catch the hay ride which departs every hour. We took the 2:00 hay ride and then went back to the play ground, saw more animals, pet a cat, jumped in the hay, rode on the slide again, etc...until Lilly couldn't take anymore. She was practically falling asleep in my arms and I knew I had to get her to bed. Sophia and Nana stayed for another hour and then came home and crashed on the couch with some popcorn.

Nana and Poppy put the kids to bed that night while Will and I went out to eat. It sure was nice to get away for a little bit.

There was one point on Tuesday evening when Sophia and Nana were rolling a big ball back and forth. Lilly was in the corner of the room appearing to be interested in a toy, but when Sophia walked away for a moment Lilly made a beeline to play ball. She plopped down in the same exact spot that Sophia was sitting in and begged for the ball. It was so cute. Of course, the minute that Sophia realized that she wasn't the center of attention she was immediately back and demanding to play ball too.

When it was time for Nana and Poppy to leave Sophia got very quiet and shy. She didn't want to hug anyone good bye. About 10 minutes after they left Sophia told me that she was sad. I sat with her for a while until she felt better.

There are tons of photos to look at, but I really must edit out the bad ones before I publish a link.

I'll take Words & Phrases for 1,000, Alex

Lilly is starting to talk a bit. She says THANK YOU (and uses it in the right context), COOKIE (surprise, surprise), GOOD GIRL (I think I mentioned this before), DOGGIE (of course), SHOE (what can I say, this girl loves shoes.

She can make animal sounds too. She can ROAR and she can act like a monkey and say OO OO AH AH.

Norfolk Children's Festival

On Saturday we all went to the The Children's Festival at Town Point Park in Norfolk. The whole time we were there Will was nudging me that he was ready to leave and that we should wrap it up. I guess that's what the dads do - complain about being there because Haley's dad . We met Sophia's three best friends (and their families) there. It was raining when we arrived so we met Haley and at the indoor "Mermaid" area. The girls got arm tattoos, colored a few pictures and then danced on the pageant stage before the Little Miss Mermaid show began. We were literally in a sea of mermaids of all ages (1 - 65 yikes!). When it did eventually stop raining we headed outside for some more pandemonium.

Once outside we spent a lot of time in the Princess area where the girls got to dress up and have their pictures taken. This was the best photo I got of the four of them (Carlie, Lilly, Haley and Sophia). We also spent a ton of time having tea parties at the Alice in Wonderland area. The girls absolutely loved it.

We stood in line for about a half hour waiting to get Sophia and Haley's faces painted. They both chose to get dogs.

There are 124 photos to browse. I have to admit that I didn't have a chance to edit out the "bad" ones. Sorry there are so many to go through...

Isa & Pirate Piggie

Just for the record....

I've always thought that Sophia looks like Will and that Lillian looks like me.

Not very many people (in fact I can only think of one right now besides Will) agree with me.

In these pictures I hope you can see what I'm talking about a little bit.

Sophia looks like Will and Lillian looks like me.

Where are your feet?

The Bquarium

Yes, you read that correctly. Sophia calls the Aquarium the Bquarium. HA

The Aquarium, of which we are members, just started a Toddle Thursday program called Nature Walks. We've gone to the Toddler Tuesday programs before and liked them so I thought we should check it out. Both girls had an awesome time. On this nature hike we were in search of different types of leaves on the ground to celebrate the new Fall season. When Sophia found a few leaves that she liked we got to place them under a piece of paper and then run a crayon over it to show the veins in the leaves. (See photo: that was our best one)

When the nature walk was over we strolled around in each of the buildings and on the path between them for another hour and a half. While we were walking from one building to the next Lilly only wanted to walk and Sophia only wanted to ride in the stroller, of course.

Sophia is becoming a little less camera shy than she used to be. She actually asked me to take photos of her with Lilly sitting on various benches along the path. I took at least 50 of them...and I don't think I got a nice one of both of them looking at the camera at the same time and smiling! It's hard to coordinate such a shot because by the time I'm done making an incredibly embarrassing sound to get Lilly's attention Sophia has drifted off into her make-believe world and is either "talking" to one of her friends or acting out a Diego scenario.

We had fun and plan on going back next week Thank goodness for cool memberships. See all the pictures and I warn you, there are a ton.

Big Daddy comes for dinner

Big Daddy has not been to our home since we got married - over 5 years ago. His visit was surely a treat for all of us. He arrived with gifts in tow. He brought the girls matching purple fairy princess dresses and tiaras, although I suspect Grancy was responsible for picking out such adorable costumes. (I'm now considering changing their Halloween costumes!)

Sophia was beside herself with anticipation for Big Daddy's arrival. Of course she did ask if Grancy was coming too. It just so happens that earlier in the day Sophia had her very first dental appointment. She was absolutely wonderful and even allowed them to take X-rays. They gave her a goodie bag to bring home (toothbrush, flossers, toothpaste and a rubber blue frog). They let her scratch off a "lottery ticket" and she won a $2.00 gift card to the Dollar Store. Of course I had to take her that very day. She picked out a unicorn on a stick and a squishy centipede. She couldn't wait to show Big Daddy her finds!

As soon as he arrived Sophia immediately began talking and didn't stop until her head hit the pillow that night. She took Big Daddy's hand and decided to show him where Mommy and Daddy sleep! So much for me or Will giving him the grand tour.

Lilly went to bed only a little bit after Big Daddy arrived, but I don't think we really wanted her to stay up with us because she was pretty grumpy.

Sophia didn't want the adults to be talking because she wanted to be the center of attention and show off for Big Daddy. It was really cute. Or maybe it wasn't.

When Sophia woke up on Wednesday she asked if Big Daddy was coming back.

Lilly's new words

Lilly has two new words/phrases.

BA = bone. Lilly constantly feed Sadie. She knows where bones are kept and several times per day she'll grab a bone, start yelling BA and run off to find Sadie.

GOO GIR = good girl. Lilly sleeps with her lamby and a paci. Neither one is allowed to leave the crib in the mornings, but I let her have them while I change her diaper. When I'm done we walk over to her crib and she drops her paci and then says a quick good-bye to lamby and drops him too. I always say Good Girl to her and now she's repeating me.

Other things that Lilly can do:
- Go down a slide by herself. She also likes to follow Sophia's lead and tries to climb up the slide the wrong way.
- Chew gum. Whenever she finds it in my purse she unwraps it and then shoves in the whole piece. I always take it from her and she knows that I'm not happy about her chewing gum because she takes off running away from me.
- Put her shoes on. Well, ok, maybe she can't actually put her shoes on by herself yet, but she gets an A+ for effort. She sits down, holds the shoe to her foot and literally looks like she's going to get it on her foot. She doesn't discriminate though, she loves all shoes...mine, Will's and of course, Sophia's.

Bragging rights.

So I'll just say it. I think Sophia is super intelligent. She's a sponge for information and learning how to do things.

At school the teacher works with each kid individually every day. So far Sophia has known everything that the teacher has asked her to do. She comes home with Supers and Wow and Excellent written on her pages.

First she had to identify shapes and colors. That's a piece of cake for her so the teacher moved on to bigger and better things. Each day the Mrs. Harden has her draw a line to the matching letters. She does this with ease. Now, she's tracing letters. She did the "S" for Sophia on Monday and yesterday she came home with her page of "A"s and "B"s. WOW! I think this must be impressive for her age, but I'm not sure. Maybe Grancy can weigh in on this amazing kid of mine!

Bathtub babes

The girls love to take a bath together. Sophia enjoys the company and Lilly wants to copy everything Sophia does. It's cute. Together they make quite a pair. Lilly thinks it's hysterical to stand up even though she gets in trouble. Sophia loves to take everything Lilly is playing with and call it her own.

Mommy, how did Lilly get in your belly?

Um......think think, Mom. Come up with something quick!

Well, Sophia, the stork bird put Lilly in my belly through my belly button when I was sleeping one night. She also put you into my belly. Nobody ever sees the stork. She's just like Santa Claus. (pathetic answer, I know)

Sophia then asked if the stork bird hurt Lilly with it's beak or did it just pick her up by her hair and put her in that way.

Yes, Sophia, that's exactly what happened!

Please, can I have some more?

My Pirate Piggie

The games we play

Sophia is obsessed with playing the following games and nobody knows how to play them except her. She tells us what to say and what to do.

Pirate Piggies: Mostly she pretends she's sleeping and we have to find clever ways of waking her up, but she never actually gets up! ARrrrr. I just got her a pirate costume today at one of my favorite consignment store. They were having a huge Halloween costume extravaganza. I also got her a few new princess dress-up costumes.

Diego: He's Dora's cousin. She's moved on from constantly needing to be called Dora to constantly needing to be Diego. The cat that Aunt Carole got her is Baby Jaguar (Diego's pet). In this game we have to rescue Baby Jaguar. This involves me pulling on Sophia's waist and her pulling on the cat. Sometimes we free the cat and other times we don't. We play this over and over and over and over to the point of exhaustion.

Adorable Photos..

I thought about not sharing these pictures until I had a chance to mail out copies, but they are just so darn cute I can't keep them to myself and I have no idea how long it's going to take me to accomplish the goal. Click here to view all of them. Enjoy.

Fundraisers!!

Okay, so Sophia has a fundraiser for school and another for dance class, if you can believe that! I've decided not to participate in the dance class one for more reasons than one. First of all the fundraiser proceeds will go toward a new dance floor for a completely different dance studio. And secondly they are selling Party Lite candles which go for $20 a pop. I've already coughed up enough money for dance class and don't feel the need to participate in supporting another dance studio. Enough said.

I am going to participate in the fundraiser for her preschool because 50% of the proceeds go directly to the school and I would like to extend the invitation to out-of-town family and friends. You can help earn prize credits and support the school by shopping the Innisbrook Online Store by clicking here. If you're part of our closest inner circle you will be receiving an email from Sophia about the fundraiser and how you can help. Act quickly because the sale ends on October 8th. Thanks in advance for your generous purchase.

Just FYI: Innisbrook Wraps has beautifully designed gift wrap printed on quality recycled paper, coordinating gift wrap accessories, gourmet foods and fine Helen Grace Chocolates that make great gifts, Time Inc. magazine subscriptions, and more.

Hide and Seek

Sophia and I were playing hide and seek before school today. Mostly I hide and she tries to find me. She hides in the kitchen pantry every single time and then gets mad at me if I come find her too quickly. She threw me a curve ball today when she hid inside the toy box.

Lilly playing with sidewalk chalk

I took these pictures

First Dance Class

Sophia's dance class started today at Art of Dance Academy. She and Haley are the only two kids in the class. How special for the two of them! They truly are best friends and thoroughly enjoy each other's company and silly jokes.

There is a one way window that I could peek through and I saw the girls playing a version of "Simon Says" with Ms. Monique while she taught them some ballet moves. They were giggling and jumping around a bit, but Ms. Monique does not tolerate any horseplay so she kept trying to get them to focus. And they did. WOW! I need Ms. Monique at our house. She doesn't call it discipline she calls it structure.

Both Haley and Sophia went to Ms. Monique's Princess Camp earlier this summer and remember there that the class was much longer and that there was a snack time. On the way home Sophia kept asking me why it was so short and why there are only 2 kids in the class and why they didn't have a snack.

Ms. Monique requires all the dancers to wear buns in their hair and it must be tied back with bobby pins and a hair net. Talk about strict (and unreasonable if you ask me). I'll have to practice that one before the next class. It's literally a battle every day just to brush Sophia's hair. I have no idea how I'm going to put it into a bun!

All the work they are doing in class will culminate into a Nutcracker performance on December 19th. I can't wait. They were measured for their costumes today before class started. (A side note: Sophia grew so much this summer that the ballet shoes she wore in July for Princess Camp are too small!)

I was a little bit nervous that Sophia wouldn't get a lot out of the class at this age, but after seeing her today I feel confident that she's going to love it and learn alot. If nothing else she'll learn proper posture.

First Day of School

Sophia started school today. She was so excited to go and play with the Potato Heads. When we went to the open house last week she was obsessed with them.

This year she's going in the afternoons (12:15 - 3:00). There are three other kids in her class and hopefully it means she'll get extra special attention. Her friend, Addie, is one of the kids. There is also a boy named Christopher and another girl named Adrianna. We met Adrianna at the open house and, guess what, I think she's taller than Sophia! I can't wait to see them side by side.

Mrs. Harden is Sophia's teacher this year. She was very welcoming this afternoon when I dropped Sophia off. Sophia made her a book this morning before we left. Mrs. Harden really liked it.

I got Sophia a new backpack with her name painted on it and she was very excited to put it on and get in the car and go to school. In fact, she was ready this morning and thought it was a bit odd that she wouldn't be eating lunch at school.

We arrived a bit early because I wasn't sure how much traffic we would hit in the middle of the day. We didn't hit any and it only took us 8 minutes to get there. A blessing for sure!

There is a small bench (toddler size) at the entrance to the school. Sophia sat down and I placed Lilly beside her. Don't they look adorable? There are a few more pictures to look at here.
Sophia came home with an apple picture that she colored and an Shrinky Dink apple necklace.

Happy Labor Day

My brother and his girlfriend, Ali, came to visit over the long Labor Day weekend. We hit the beach Saturday and Sunday, but Saturday was the nicer of the two days. We took the girls with us on Saturday when we went to Sandbridge Beach. Sophia and Lilly had a blast at the beach. Sophia was busy making sandcastles with a few buddies she met that day and splashing in the waves with Will. Lilly was eating every thing in sight including the sand. A great time was had by all and we all got some nice color from the sun too.

On Sunday morning Will and Daniel hit the tennis courts while Ali and I took the girls to the playground.

Take a look at all the pictures.

She's finally signing

Yesterday Lillian performed three signs for me. I've been trying to get her to do a few for the last few months and I think my persistence is finally paying off. I'm so proud of her. She did the signs for EAT, MORE and FLOWER. She can also do the sign for DUCK.

Cucumbers

Both of my kids love cucumbers. I peeled and sliced some up for them tonight for dinner. Lilly loves to dip hers in ranch dressing. She loves to dip dip dip.

When I presented the cucumbers at the table Sophia started to cry and told me she wanted the crust on hers! Ha ha ha

Princess Sophia and Princess Haley

I pooped my pants

I totally forgot about this story until Sophia reminded me earlier today. On Saturday when we were at the beach Sophia told me that she pooped her pants. I was dumbfounded. Since she's been potty trained she's never had an accident let alone a poop accident! When she told me about her poop we were in the process of moving to a new spot on the beach and all of our hands were full of beach gear. As Sophia ran ahead of everyone we could see the big lump in her swimming suit and I plotted how I was going to take care of this fiasco. When we finally arrived at our new spot I immediately pulled out Lilly's wipes and planned to put the poo into one of Lilly's extra diapers so I could toss it out. Sophia was smiling and grinning from ear to ear as I braced myself to peek in her swimming suit. Guess what? It was a huge pile of sand! It wasn't a poop! She totally tricked me (and everyone else). Later in the day I caught her shoveling more sand into her suit. Crazy girl.

Growing like a weed

Sophia is growing like a weed. I had her weighed at the doctor's office on Monday and she was 43 pounds! Yep, 43 pounds! That puts her into a size 6 clothes. To be honest I'm not sure if she needs a size 6 or a 6X yet.

I didn't have the nurse measure her height, but according to my chart she's over 42 inches. My little baby is almost as tall as me! Well, not really, but I think she'll pass me up pretty soon.

Little Miss Toothy

Lillian just got 2 more teeth for a total of 13 and you'd never even know it. She handles each one like a pro. I took her for her 15 month checkup on Monday. She's completely healthy, but we already knew that!

Here are her stats: (She's the ideal model child according to her height and weight. She's smack dab in the 50th percentile in both.)

Length: 30.5 inches (50%)

Weight: 22 pounds 11 ounces (50%)

Side note: She's really slimmed down from her 1 year appointment. In May she weighed 22 pounds 3 ounces and was an inch shorter. All that walking must be paying off. It does make me a bit sad that her chubby little legs are getting slimmer and slimmer.

A couple of smiles

Weekend

We had friends visiting from Northern Virginia, Alexandria to be exact, this weekend. Sophia had a terrific time with Ben and Katie. Their little boy, Gavin, is only 8 months old so he was a little young to play with Lilly, but she really enjoyed getting some extra attention from Katie.

We hit the beach on Saturday for a few hours and couldn't have asked for a better day. The weather was beautiful, their was a nice breeze blowing and the water was perfect. The beach was packed with activities including 2 tents with live music, a BMX competition and a surfing competition. The guys enjoyed some body boarding while Courtney and I played it on the safe side. Court got clobbered by a big wave while she was laughing at Ben for getting knocked over by one. It was hysterical. Talk about karma.

That night Sophia and "the kids" as she was calling them tried to have a sleep-over on our air mattress which was in Lilly's room. It didn't work out because Sophia didn't quite understand the concept of going to bed when there were fun kids to play with her. At my suggestion she ended up moving into her own room and was sleeping within minutes.

We had a great time with Courtney and Joe and hope to make it an annual family get together. We even tossed out the idea of going to Great Wolf Lodge with them this winter. We're keeping our fingers crossed for this because we had such a great time when we went there a few months ago.

Allergies

Will was getting ready to take Sophia to the playground yesterday when I asked if they wanted to take Lillian with them. Sophia commented that she didn't want Lilly to go because she was allergic to her. Ha ha ha

Critter

Yesterday morning I took Sophia to the Rec Center for a stuffed animal story hour called "Let's Go to the Beach". She got to bring Kitty and Lamby with her to listen to the story. Then the kids got to make a craft (Critter dressed up as a snorkler) and have a snack.

Lilly was too young to even sign up for the story hour, but she came with us anyway. She toddled around with a little girl that she made friends with.

The craft was pretty difficult for the 3-5 year olds present. First they had to color all the "clothes and accessories" which Sophia tired of after a few minutes. Then each thing had to be cut out with super dull school scissors and pasted onto Critter. Sophia helped with the pasting, but for the most part I was on my own while Sophia ate her snack!

After the Rec Center we went to the library and spent some time looking for books and playing with their toys. We found two books about Critter and 7 other books about cats and dogs. (I think we've checked out every single book they have about cats and dogs.) Sophia sure loves her animals.

It's Christmas all year round

Sophia loves her Mrs. Santa outfit and thinks of it as a costume. She wears it 3 or 4 times per week!

As we were cleaning out Sophia's closet to get ready for some new school clothes (because she's outgrown everything from last year including her shoes) we found the matching hat for the Santa dress.

Sophia thought she struck gold. She immediately put it on and actually asked me to take her picture! She even posed for me. Incredible.

**Note** Notice she's holding Lamby and Kitty. Now they both have to come with us wherever we go.