Long Time, No Blog

OK, so it's been a long time.  First came Thanksgiving preparations, and then I broke my ankle the day after and things got quite desperate around here (although Grammy Sue and John managed to hold things together while I couldn't walk).  Lately, baby Ben has been getting a few teeth, which means it's quite a bit harder to put him to sleep.

But of course it hasn't been all bad news around here.  Sophie had a great time spending a week getting lots and lots of attention from Grammy Sue, who taught her to sing "cookie, cookie, cookie starts with C!" and then fill in other words and their initial letters (e.g. turtle starts with T, yogurt starts with Y, Sophie starts with S, etc).

Here are some pictures from Grammy Sue's visit:

She is in a big imitation phase right now.  Her vocabulary is expanding rapidly, in part because she will try to copy just about anything she hears.  So although she may not understand what she's saying, she still likes to talk and communicate even when she's just copying us.  For example, when we go into her room to get her out of her crib, she'll greet us by saying "hi, Sophie!"  She also has a very good memory, and she likes to hear things over and over again to memorize them.  She knows most of her CDs and books by heart, and will fill in words and sentences if you let her.

While she listens to her music, she walks in laps around the family room.  Lately we've been listening to "Snacktime" by BNL a lot, and her favorite song is called "Eraser."

Some things she says a lot:

• Although she's been able to say the alphabet for several weeks now, she has started to sing it.  You can't recognize the tune, but the rhythm is right and she ends by saying "now I know my ABCs, next time won't you sing with mama... and dada... and Sophie... and baby Ben."  Sometimes we hear her singing it to herself before she has fallen asleep in her crib.  Afterwards she says "yay!" and "very good, Sophie!  The latter is something else she has copied from us: if we just say "very good!" she'll add, "...Sophie!" and repeat it until we add it too.
• She has started to use "ok," although she says "otah-otay" and uses it mostly in an imitative way.  She'll use it to answer "yes" if we ask if she wants something, and that makes sense.  But in situations where we would say "ok" to her, she'll imitate it and add it onto her own part of the dialogue.  For example, she might say "something to drink? otah-otay!"  Or if we ask her if she wants something and she doesn't, she'll say "no, otah-otay!"  I'm a little sad to see that "bah" is disappearing.
• She loves me to sing songs to her.  At the end of each song, she'll say "another song? otah-otay!"
• She doesn't say many complete sentences, but the one she says most often is: "Baby Ben has a big burp!"  She says this regardless of whether he did, or even whether he's around.  She'll also say "I have a big burp."  She thinks that hiccups are burps, so when she has the hiccups she'll make that comment for each one.

Other news:

• She is slowly getting over her stranger anxiety.  The thing most likely to set it off is when a new person acknowledges her directly, by looking at her and saying "hi."  Our next door neighbor's daughter is really interested in other kids and often wants to touch Sophie when we get the two together, and that is also the kind of thing that does not go over well with Sophie.  So unfortunately, they haven't gotten to play together as much as the moms would hope!
• We have to tell her "no" with increasing frequency, because she is more curious and able to pursue her curiosity, and because she can ask for the things she wants now.  She has not yet reached the point of deliberately being disobedient, but I can see that it's close.  We have yet to figure out how we want to discipline our children -- what age-appropriate consequences are at this point.

• We've recently taken her high chair/booster seat and her small bath tub out of her routine because she was getting too big for them.  Each has taken some adjustment: she makes a bigger mess at the table, and after about three successful baths in the big tub, all of a sudden she developed a strong aversion to it.  We don't know why.  Maybe some bath toys would help...
• She likes baby Ben more now, mostly because she can talk about him easily and because she likes his toys (which, of course, used to be hers).  We still keep a close eye out whenever she gets too close, but she usually just wants to look at him.

We're very interested to see how Christmas goes.  Will she be able to open the many presents under the tree for her?  How quickly will she lose interest?  We'll find out soon!