the time has come...

I finally finished my Masters after 20 months of hard work, and now I have time to...update Sophie's blog! We are fully and firmly in the realm of potty. Sophie won't even let us in the bathroom, which Michael says is "exciting, yet terrifying". It's so bizarre to look at those first posts from before she was even born, and now she's kicking us out of the room with the loud exclamation: "I can do it myself!" We hear that a lot lately, and for the most part, Sophie can do almost everything herself. I'm just glad to have the energy and time to focus on her, play mermaid, and run around cleaning up accidents (I'm so glad we don't have carpet).

Barbies, ballerinas, dresses, oh my!

If there was any doubt that Sophie is a girl, this photo proves otherwise. Sophie's Barbies (named Ballerina, Ballerina Lucille, and Fairy Princess, respectively) have a place of honour in the big bed. I don't understand how kids can sleep with hard plastic toys, but apparently they are a necessity. Sophie is also starting to do a lot of play-acting, which involves Michael and I being princesses or riding invisible horses in our cowboy hats. To balance this out, Sophie still loves to get Michael to lie on the floor so she can jump on his belly and do amazing feats of acrobatics...maybe we should have had kids earlier; our backs are killing us!

HAPPY HALLOWE'EN

Although Sophie's had two Hallowe'en before, we feel this was Sophie's first Hallowe'en. She got excited about dressing up ahead of time, she chose her costume (made by Michelle) and after a couple houses, she really got into trick-or-treating. It's so nice to be in a house this year, and in a great neighbourhood where we can go out, see everyone's scary decor, and meet our neighbours. We made a quick pit-stop at Opa's for trick-or-treat, then finished the evening with hot chocolate at Starbucks. Sophie still talks about how she was Yoda and Daddy was Luke Skywalker.

Big Bed for a Big Girl!

Sophie has moved to a full-sized bed! We sweetened the transition with princess pillows, a princess blanket, princess poster, princess wall stickers...did we mention Sophie loves princesses? The first few nights involved a couple night time wake-ups, and one incident of her appearing in our room without making a sound (creepy!), but we're on a normal routine now. To balance out the princess obsession, Sophie also loves the movie Cars. She often spends part of the evening zooming back and forth as a car (in her princess dress, of course). Never a dull moment!

When did we get a two-year-old?!?

It has been several months since we had a chance to reflect on life with Sophie on this blog. She is delightfully, challengingly, hilariously two-years-old now. We have a very sparkley house due to the proliferation of princess dresses. Sophie still loves Star Wars, but she chooses to do Whyte Ave in full gown and rubber boots! Despite biting a kid at daycare (hopefully an isolated incident), Sophie is adapting well to my university schedule and life. Michael is also being super supportive, and it's nice for both of us to see the end in sight, as I'll be finished my Master's program in April 2009. There's way too much going on every day with Sophie to get it all posted, but we'll try to be more current with this blog.

Changes, changes!

We've been through a roller-coaster of a winter. Sophie gained a new cousin on November 23, 2007. Kai Thomas was born 12 days late, weighing 9 lb 10 oz, and extremely cute. My sister Chris and her husband Simon have a blog for Kai, and when I figure out how to do it, I'll put a link on the side of Sophie's blog. At first Sophie wasn't too impressed with this disruption of her "Auntie Chris" time, but now she's quite keen on her "baby Kai" and she's even shushed us for talking too loud near the baby. On the other spectrum of life, we all lost my brother Evan unexpectedly on November 28. We'll make sure Sophie learns about her uncle, and how excited he was about her, even before she was born. Christmas was nice. We pulled Sophie around Hawrelak Park in her old-fashioned wooden baby sled, and she loved it! She was intrigued by all the toys coming out of her stocking. I'm back in school this month. It's a heavy load, but we spend most of our home time watching Sophie make-believe, dance with her shadow, "conduct" to Baby Beluga, and goof around. There's no shortage of laughter around here.

Little Dragon

We're behind with the blog, but it's not for lack of adventures or excitement. There's never a dull moment with a toddler...messy moments, noisy moments, crazy moments, but certainly not dull. We had a fun Hallowe'en. Sophie and Mommy went trick-or-treating as St. George and her dragon. Sophie didn't seem too interested in the treats (more for us!), but she loved shouting hi and bye at the doors and sitting on the sidewalks to look at the jack o'lanterns. We're getting a lot of use out of the dragon costume, because she wears it around the apartment, and dragons are her new favourite thing. She and Daddy make dragon noises when they read her dragon books (yes, we have dragon books). I'm still trying to find a balance between family and grad school, but sometimes it's worth it to put the books down and play on the floor. Milestones: 16 teeth and counting (we never get a break from teething); a dozen words, with "all done", "bye", "cracker", "up-up" and "open" topping the list; climbing up and down on the furniture; opening doors (hence the maniacal door-knob covers); colouring with crayons; eating with a fork; trying to put on her pants; succeeding in taking off her diaper...I said it's never a dull moment!

One Groovy Chick

We are having a blast with this busy, funny little girl! Sophie's starting to use more words, although she still lets us know what she wants by pointing and shrieking. She has her routine around the apartment, which involves sitting on her musical chair, bouncing on her step-stool,

opening drawers, carrying the salad spinner through the living room, spinning in a circle in the middle of the living room, singing and dancing, colouring with her crayons (thank goodness they're washable) and dressing up with her blankets, hats and sunglasses...all before supper. Can't wait to see what comes next.