Sophia learns to sew during ICD fall break

 While Kaylee was at preschool today Sophia and I spent some quality time together shopping, having lunch, and learning a new skill.  She asked if I would teach her how to sew when we stopped in the fabric store today.

 I told her she could pick out a fabric and I would teach her how to make a simple skirt.  She chose this whimsical spooky cat fabric.  She was SO excited.  The photo above is her wearing the spooky skirt she sewed this afternoon. She actually remembered how to thread the sewing machine.  I better watch out.  She is going to want to play with my serger next. I am so proud of her.

She chose a fun whimsical fabric for her sister too so as she stated, "Kaylee needs one too so she won't be jealous." 

  I quickly serged a little fun spooky skirt for Kaylee too.

Routine and chore charts

Sophia's routine chart




Sophia's chore chart

Sophia has been quite a challenge lately. She says she doesn't want to do what is asked or does the opposite if she can. It is driving us crazy. So, I talked with her yesterday and we decided with of course my forceful suggestion this is going to be a new way for us to handle some things around here.

She and I discussed what items should be on the lists and why. Hopefully, this will be a positive way to get her to do things that need to be done. I hope this happens without yelling because she will get reward stars and points for doing what is on the chart each day. She understands she can lose points for bad behavior so she has to be good to get whatever the surprise is.

She is pretty excited about this because it gives her some autonomy by helping her remember what she has to do. She is responsible for her actions and can win a surprise by maintaining a certain number of points each day.



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March 25, 2009 My Little Cleaning Lady

 

Sophia and Brandy are cleaning the kitchen for me. For the last two days, Sophia has taken an interest in helping me clean house. Yesterday, she grabbed her Elmo vacuum and went zipping around the house with it. She went into my bedroom where I keep my vacuum cleaner and started saying "Ma Ma!  Ma Ma!" I finally went in there to see what all the fuss was about and she was pointing to my vacuum cleaner and showing me her vacuum cleaner. I had told her we needed to clean but I really didn't think she understood what we were going to do.  This morning I was making breakfast and Sophia grabbed the little broom I use to sweep up the dog food and crumbs around the kitchen and started sweeping while I was making her food.  Her hair is all messy and she is still in her pjs in these photos but it was too cute to pass up.  

 

I can't believe she is actually using them correctly.  Obviously, she has been watching me more than I realized. 

 

Here she looked up at me but moved the broom right in front of her face when I snapped the photo.

 

Here she is showing Brandy what she is doing.  I also noticed some weird shadows in these photos but I think that is because it is early in the morning and the sun was just peeking in and creating some weird lighting effects almost like an undirected spotlight. 

January 28, 2009 Grandma's Old Rocking Chair

The Old Baby Rocking Chair has been passed down to Sophia from her Grandma and Great Grandma.

This rocking chair has somehow made it through 3 generations. My mother rocked in this chair as a small child. I played with it as well and can remember rocking in it when I was younger. I do remember it being broken at some point but have no recollection of breaking it. I do know that Mike, Nicholas, and I played on it as we ran through my grandmother's house as kids. My father miraculously repaired it recently for Sophia.  The arm was completely off and the wood was really rough. Dad was able to sand it down and repair the very badly damaged arm.  I couldn't believe it was all back in one piece for my dearest Sophia considering I took it over to him in pieces. I didn't hold out a lot of hope for anyone to fix it.  If anyone could fix it, I knew my dad could fix it and he did.   I have learned over the years that my dad can fix just about anything. 

It took a while for Sophia to warm up to this chair. I have put her in it several times over the last few weeks and she always screams and cries "Mum,Mum, Up!"  She is not a fan of moving objects.  I have been putting her dolls in the rocking chair everyday.  Everyday she throws them off of the chair and onto the carpet.  She doesn't want her dolls in the chair either.  
Tonight was different.  I had just prepared her for bed by putting on her warm footed pajamas seen here and reading books.   After we finished reading books, she got down off my lap and looked at this rocking chair and sat down. I sat on the floor rocking her in it and singing songs. "Rock a bye baby on the tree top....Down will come Sophia cradle and all."  Here she looks happy. I am not sure if she is laughing at my horrible singing or if she is just happy to be rocking in the chair.  We all love you.   Sophia love and enjoy that old rocking chair now that it is back in one piece, it is yours darling.  I am such a sentimental sap for stuff like this. I am not sure why, but I have a very strong attachment to this little chair. 

December 24, 2008 Christmas Eve

Uncle Mike building Sophia's new Radio Flyer wagon. Thanks Uncle Mike for such a cool gift.  Sophia is anxiously helping Uncle Mike build the wagon in this photo.

Sophia is grabbing a wheel for the wagon.  We are surprised by the fact that she stands up and tries to put the wheel on the wagon.  I thought about it and realized she knew what she was doing  because she saw Curious George fix his wagon wheel.  So she knew the wheels needed to be attached to the wagon.  Amazing for a  girl of 15 months.

Sophia received this sweet little "Lots to Love" baby doll from Grandma. It looks like a real baby with its chubby little cheeks. It has a mini potty chair that Sophia can put the doll on.  There is a story here. Sophia is using the potty pretty regulary now at 15 months.   She is still wearing Pull-Ups because it takes a while to train little ones but she knows what is going on and tells us when she has to go.  We couldn't be more pleased with her progress since Thanksgiving on the potty chair.

Uncle Mike finished the wagon and Sophia had to try out her new wheels.  Zoom Zoom around Great Grandma's house.  

See slide show of the complete Christmas Eve experience below.

January 6, 2009 A New Year with New Words

Sophia' vocabulary has increased all of a sudden.  It seems like whatever word she hears, she simply repeats it. The other day was Grandma.  Here are some of the following new words she has said in the last few days:

Andma (while Grandma was leaving our house)

Clean Up (while mommy was showing her how to put her toys in the toy bins)

Yellow (She learned this from the man with the yellow hat on Curious George on PBS) Now whenever she sees the color yellow in a book, she says yellow. 

Up Means everything from getting up out of bed, to put me in the kitchen with the dog so we can play.  We have to lift her up over the gate.  Getting out of her high chair is another instance where she uses "Up".

Pee She said this last night January 5 after using the potty.  Daddy asked her if she used the potty chair.  He asked if she went poop or pee.  She replied "Pee".  It was so funny the way she said it. Scott and I both clapped for her and laughed. It was if she understood what he asked.

ABC EF For Christmas Sophia received a Leap Frog - Fridge Phonics Alphabet reader from her cousins in the mail.  She loves it. She goes to the refrigerator and pushes the alphabet song button.  She then proceeds to sing the song along with the reader.  The letters listed are the only ones that are really clear as she sings so far.  She also takes each letter and puts it in the reader and says the name after the fridge reader says it.  So, not only is it great for learning her letters, it also teaches her fine motor skills. She learns how to put the puzzle piece letter inside the reader correctly.  What a great toy!  Thanks to the cousins. 

Yummy Yum She has been using this for about a month when she likes  a food she is eating. The first time she used "yummy yum" was when she was feeding her baby doll a bottle. She looked down at the baby doll and told her "Yummy Yum."

There may be more new words but that is all I can think of for right now.  I can't wait to hear what she says next. We know she understands a lot of what we say to her as displayed by her resulting actions.  I look forward to the next things she learns. 

November 16, 2008 Caught stealing food out of the frig...

Hope mom doesn't catch me in here. I will just snatch a quick snack and maybe grab something for my poor sore gums.

These look pretty good. Uh, oh!  Here comes mum mum!  

Sophia what do you have there, a bag full of teething rings?  Are you teething again, sweetie?

 Caught in the act, stealing Jello from the refrigerator.  "Maybe I ought to feed you once in a while." 

You look pretty proud that you can get Jello out of the refrigerator all by yourself. I guess I will have to keep tabs on how much Jello we have to keep you stocked up on it. 

December 19, 2008 Climbing on the Couch

Sophia is climbing onto the couch all be herself.  This can't be good.

Uh oh!  She succeeded at getting up there all be herself today.  Now, what am I going to do?

Now, she grabbed the spoon I had and started parading around on the couch pillows.  What is a mom to do, but grab the camera and then tell her this is a "No No!"

How can you get mad at such a sweet little face?  I just couldn't get mad at her.  She was so proud of her accomplishment "climbing" on the couch.  Looks like she might be needing a climbing toy of some sort from Santa Claus.  Guess we will have to email Santa to pack a special climbing toy in that big old sleigh. 

December 19, 2008 Examining the Christmas Tree Ornament

Sophia is checking out this Hallmark ornament with the Christmas tree and the little toys going around in a circle at the bottom.  She was captivated by the motion happening under the miniature tree.  She even had drool running down her chin as she stood staring the movement of the ornament.

 Merry Christmas sweet Sophia. 

December 18, 2008 Trimming the Christmas Tree

Daddy and Sophia are putting up the Christmas tree.  Last year, Scott bought a new pre-lit 12 foot Christmas tree.  In the photo Scott is plugging in the tree and showing Sophia how we put up the tree.  

Sophia found the Angel "baby" as stated by Sophia, for Daddy.  Scott is really into Christmas decorations and has collected Hallmark ornaments for about the past 20 years. Many of the ones we have are sound and motion ornaments.  They plug into the light sockets for power.  This makes putting up our tree a several day adventure to say the least.  Well, this year we just barely got the tree up in time for Santa to make his delivery because I was working too much. Retail hours make it tough for us all to be home at the same time.  So, Dec 18 was the first chance we were all home and not completely exhausted to get the tree up.  With our new 12 foot tree, it was quite a challenge to figure out how to get the Hallmark ornaments working.  I tried to plug in a few and they didn't fit into the light sockets.  That meant we would need to put additional lights on our already pre-lit tree.  There just wasn't time for extra work this year and so the ornaments didn't work. The majority of them are on the tree, but they are not magically working and I am slightly disappointed. 

Not only am I sad about the ornaments not working, I am also very disappointed that I was also not able to display my collection of Department 56 villages.  How I miss my large collection of churches and villages. I just really didn't have time to put them out and figure out how to keep Sophia from destroying them in the process.  I suppose I will get over it in a few days when the magic of Christmas happens and we see the delight in Sophia's eyes as she discovers the neat things Santa will bring.  Merry Christmas!

December 9, 2008 Drinking water from a cup

Above are just a few quick snapshots of Sophia practicing drinking water from a cup.  She is getting better and better at it, but she is still not ready to give up the sippy cup as evidenced by her water soaked PJ's here. 

December 8, 2008 In Search of the Perfect Claus Part 3 - Reindeer Flight Patterns

"What is it with Santa Claus and Reindeer anyway?"

"What are you thinking, making me ride reindeer?  Mommy must be crazy."

"Mum Mum!"

Definitely not a big fan of reindeer, "Mum mum!"

"I am so out of here........get me off this wild reindeer!"

December 8, 2008 In Search of the Perfect Claus Part two getting to the North Pole

Sir, if you could, please tell me how to get to the North Pole, I would appreciate it. I need to talk with Santa Claus..........

If I crouch down really low, maybe I can see Santa Claus in there......

Hhm, let me see.....is this the right way to the North 
Pole?

Almost there, keep going..........

1

The North Pole.  Oh goody! We are here. I wonder if Santa is here making toys....