Wednesday, April 30, 2008

Sofi's Illustration

Sofi's Drawing of Sofi, Grandma and Dad

SoAbove is a drawing Sofi made with Mary, as an illustration to a story, which Mary wrote out near the top. Originally Mary thought this was a story Sofi was making up, but like most things at this age level the story was an imitation, in this case an imitation of an actual book that was read to her at the YMCA child watch.

I love this drawing! It is a drawing of, from left to right, Sofi, Grandma Ardelle, and Dad. Note the women are all decked out with bows in their hair. Also note that she has started adding joints to her legs and arms, represented by circles either half way on the limb or else closer to the body. Except for one of Grandma's legs, which had a bad knee, in which case she filled in the circle so that it became a black mark on the leg. Dad is distinguishable by his curly hair (I'd been letting it get quite shaggy when she drew this). In this drawing we are "all headed to church", as can be noted by the cross hanging in the air on the left.

Originally this drawing was only a pen drawing, which she put on display on our fridge. But the following day she decided to add some color, which was when the rainbow and the grass were added, along with a beard for Dad (which I notice is grey...), and some letters written across the top.

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Monday, April 28, 2008

The Princess

Sleeping Beauty

If you've ever met Sofi it doesn't take long for you to realize that one of her favorite things is to play princess. She usually asks any and every potential playmate "Do you want to play princess with me?" This is usually followed by the dispersal of roles and directions on how to play the parts. Sofi is, of course, the princess. Always. Everyone else is usually assigned the role of "Bad Guy". Even if you're female you will probably be assigned the role of "Bad Guy". Maybe, if you're lucky, she'll assign you the role of "the Queen", but usually this will be the "Evil Queen", or more often than not you may find yourself playing "the Mad Fairy Witch".

One weekend, a couple of weeks ago, I was playing with Sofi, and I was assigned the role of Bad Guy. Such an assignment isn't surprising, but what was surprising this weekend was the direction this particular play time was taking. Usually the Bad Guy captures the princess and locks her in a dungeon or a tower, from which she escapes, thanks either to magical spells, sheer strength or cunning. Whatever it might take, she doesn't spend much time being captured.

But this weekend she wasn't running away from the Bad Guy. Nope. This time, she announced, her and I (the Bad Guy), were going to get married. This was quite the change in story! After all, I hadn't been assigned the role of Prince, but the Bad Guy. So this change in plot took me by surprise, and left me wondering what I have to look forward to during high school if she is talking about marrying bad guys! But what took me by surprise even more was the next direction of the plot. Since we were getting married, that meant we had to kiss. "But", Sofi added, "before they can get married, she has to make sure there are no boogers on his lips." Decent criteria to have in a husband I thought, but of course this caused me to do a double take on my own lips. Thankfully, I was clear.

That one weekend aside, I usually find myself being the Bad Guy who is constantly capturing her and then chasing her when she inevitably escapes. The other day when I was asked, again, to play princess and being rather tired of being type cast I decided to mix things up a bit. I refused the role of Bad Guy and assigned it to her teddy bear, who quickly came to life as the Evil Teddy Bear. Thankfully Sofi accepted this replacement by my understudy, and the Princess and the Evil Teddy Bear were soon having at it.

But on Wednesday I discovered another way to escape this constant type-casting. I realized I just have to dress for the part! So I went downstairs, put on the outfit that Mary got for me to wear to her Madrigal Dinners... and finally was asked to play the role of the Prince. And was Sofi ever excited!

The Prince and the Princess

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Looking Back on April

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Isaac is now 17 months old and, as Mary likes to say, he is now babbling in complete sentences. And it is SO true... he will just babble on and on and on. One really has to wonder what he is thinking, because you can tell he is definitely putting it all out there.

Isaac has also begun pushing furniture around in order to reach new heights. He'll move a chair across the kitchen in order to climb up on it to see and reach the counter top. He's learned this approach by watching his sister do the same. But his sister is able to move things much greater distances (from one end of the house to the other) and can reach much greater heights... such as the very top cupboards (pretty much NOTHING is sacred in our house anymore).

Isaac's vocabulary:
"NO!" This is pretty much straight up, and loud. Another thing he learned from watching Sofi. He often repeats her shouts of protest (which as a parent is a "thrill", hearing a protest "echo"), so it isn't surprising he picked this one up as soon as he did.
"ott", for hot.
"hat", for hat.
"baa-baa" for grandma
"wa-wa" for pretty much anything he can drink, including water obviously, but also milk.
"boot-ah" for boots, and also shoes, pretty much anything that goes on his feet.
"by-by", when he waves good-bye, which is usually waved backwards, at himself more than at the person he is saying good-bye to... it's very cute.
"boe", for bowl. He's started to eat his cereal out of a bowl.
"upple", for apple.
"OW-EEE!". This would appear to be as it is... a cry of pain. But instead Isaac uses this word as a cry of protest. Whenever he doesn't like what you're doing (setting him down when he wants to be held, taking him out of the tub when he wants to stay in), he cries out "OW-EEE!")

Has also started to "sing" a line from Old McDonald. He can often be overheard saying "ee-ah-ee-ah-oh".

He signs for "bottle" when he wants a bottle of milk, but unfortunately for him we've decided this past month to cut him off from the bottle. He is still protesting this loudly most every night. Unfortunately for Dad this withdrawal of a nightly bottle means Isaac wakes up earlier in the morning, so no more perks of late mornings.

Red Rubber Boot Day

Isaac is starting to ask to go outside. He'll stand by the back door and slap it, pointing at his boots and jacket. This is uniquely Isaac... Sofi rarely ever asked to go outside at this age. The picture above was taken on a rainy day, the first day that Isaac got to wear the red rubber boots that the Jacobson's so graciously loaned us. They're a bit big on him, so he walks kind of awkwardly in them. And yes, if you're wondering, this is a photo of him licking his fingers after dipping them in the mud.

All of us have enjoyed the warmer weather (though, as an aside, it SNOWED TODAY! What the heck was that about!). We've spent quite a bit of time as a family working in the backyard on the weekends, splitting wood, prepping the garden, and improving the grade around the house.

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In the above photo Sofi is "brushing the flowers to help them grow". While I love the child-like imagination behind this gardening technique, what I love even more is the gardening outfit: a yellow princess dress complete with red gardening gloves and blue rubber boots with white polka dots!

Sofi has learned how to spell her last name, and considering that it is longer than four letters we are all very impressed. And how she learned it is also impressive. We haven't been rehearsing her. She picked it up one day by listening to Mary spell it out for a child care provider at the YMCA Child Watch.

For some reason Sofi has taken to calling us by our first names instead of calling us "Mom" and "Dad", despite our constant insistence that she do otherwise.

For an overview of all the photos taken in April, visit Flickr...

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Thursday, April 17, 2008

Bringing the Picnic Indoors

Just now, for lunch, Sofi dragged the little table that we keep outdoors for gardening into the house and declared "Let's have a picnic!"

She had said she wanted this earlier, so I wasn't surprised by the desire, but the location was unexpected. "So you want to picnic indoors?"

"Yes", she replied, and added "We don't usually do that, but I thought we could do that." And then a few moments later, when I thought our conversation was over, she surprised me again by continuing with "We're having a family meeting."

"Oh, really?" I responded, wondering where in the world she had heard about family meetings.

"Yes," she continued, "a family meeting is where we sit at the table. And eat popsicles."

Sofi once again chalks up another method of trying to get something she knows she probably won't get. Why not do so by setting an agenda for a meeting! Watch out CEOs of the world, ties probably don't mix well with popsicles....

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Tuesday, April 15, 2008

Sofi's Unicorn

Sofi's Drawing of Sofi, Grandma and Dad

Another drawing of Sofi's that she created without anyone around. This one amazes me in how she used the entire page (and she actually used the blank side this time!).

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Wednesday, April 9, 2008

Dance Class

Sofi has been taking dance class on Thursday nights through La Crosse's Park and Rec (they charge about $1/class, so how can we say no?) Sofi LOVES it. At the end of every six week session they give a performance for the parents. Below are some videos of Sofi's most recent performance (she's the one in the black leotard with the magenta stockings... yes, she dressed herself...)







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