Sophie is REALLY good at spelling! These are the words I know of that she can spell by heart (!): Sophie, Mama, Dada, Benjamin, music, food, love, bowl, spoon, pizza, water, Ohio State, buckeyes, Brutus, Elmo, bubbles, home, America, Ohio, Canada, Russia, Africa, and Australia. She knows some of these better than others, but if she has spelled it by heart at least once, I included it.
Throughout the day, she sings "OH, cookie, cookie, cookie starts with C!" More often than not, she will substitute in some other word that she knows and the letter it starts with. I tested her once and she knows a word for most letters of the alphabet. Her clear favorite is "yogurt, yogurt, yogurt starts with Y!" I hear it several times a day.
She can count to 20 really well. With some prompting, she can count up to 50, but she pronounces 20, 30, 40, and 50 pretty much all the same. Counting to 10 on her fingers is another thing she does spontaneously many times each day.
She's very focused on music, and her memory is really good for that, as well. Since she knows her childrens' CDs so thoroughly, we've started singing and playing some of our own favorite music to her, and she enjoys learning it. Her favorite CD is Regina Spektor's new album "Far;" she also likes many songs by Sara Bareilles. She also really likes when her dad plays certain songs for her on the piano, her favorite being his version of "Desperado" (which he sings as "Desperbaby"). But she'll be excited about any song once she gets to know it, so we do a lot of repetition. When I get some time, I'd like to make a big playlist of all our music that's appropriate for children. Then we can have dance parties! Well, maybe not, since her favorite thing to do during music she likes is just to walk/run in laps around the room, faster and faster the more she likes a song. What happened to shakin' what I gave you, Sophie?
She's already learning to play the piano! We taught her to play a fifth up and back down again. She's very proud of herself for being able to do it, but she's very meticulous about getting it exactly right. For me, it's like looking in a mirror -- a mirror that reflects back yourself of 20 years ago! I remember lots of frustrating times in my own piano education, playing a few measures over and over again and getting so angry when I couldn't make it sound good. Now I can see myself coaching a crying Sophie through those same exercises, just like my mom did with me. Or maybe Sophie will lose interest in piano; who knows? At any rate, here is a video of her at the ivories. It's interesting to compare it to our video post of her at the piano from almost a year ago.
We've recently introduced Sophie to YouTube... not sure that was a good idea. Now it's pretty hard to use the computer without her asking to watch something. Her favorite videos to watch are Andrea Bocelli singing good night to Elmo, Feist doing a parody for Sesame Street of her song "1234," and really anything with Sesame Street characters.
Inevitably, we're approaching some discipline problems, and trying to figure out how to control the behavior of this little person who can now act on many of her desires (or collapse into frustration about the ones she can't act on). I've started giving her time-outs when there's something I feel is urgent for her to learn quickly. This is definitely new territory, so we're learning as we go. Time-out means she has to be in her crib for a short time, but without her usual buddies (blankie, Bunnybear, etc). Even though I know she can't really understand me, I explain on the way to the crib why she has to have a time-out, doing my best to link the idea of time-out in her mind with the behavior that caused it. I've read that time-outs are only really effective when they immediately follow the infraction and when they are short, so I try to follow those two rules pretty strictly. Another rule I've made for myself is to let the time-out speak for itself, and not otherwise act angrily toward her about whatever merited it.
The only times when the time-out lasts more than a minute or two are when she is in time-out for screaming. This is new, but she's getting into a habit of squealing loudly when she doesn't get her way, and it's a really irritating sound. We certainly don't like it at home, but we especially don't want her doing it in public, so we're trying to break her of the habit as quickly as possible. I'm trying to teach her to ask for help instead, but if she continues to scream, then she has to be in her crib by herself until she stops, and that may take longer than a couple of minutes. Again, we are figuring all this out together!
Another rule that has just gone into effect is that she has to eat dinner at the table with us, and it has to pretty much be whatever we're eating. She has gotten too locked into her eating routines, which involve only a very few foods, and she needs some encouragement to try new things, especially now that she can learn their names and remember them. It's not always easy going. Last night, she ate two pieces of bowtie pasta and a piece of mango for dinner -- nothing else. And if I hadn't given her ketchup to dip the pasta in, she wouldnt even have eaten those two pieces! It's very hard for me not to give her lots of food at mealtime... I guess it's just an instinct. But I definitely don't want her to expect me to make a special dinner just for her.
Sophie is getting better about strangers. We had two very nice visits this past month from my friend Sara and from Grammy Sue and Grampy Mike, and Sophie had a lot of fun. It seems to be ok for us to host playdates again, although Sophie actually spends a lot of the time off by herself, like actually in another room from where the rest of the kids are. For the time being, she seems to be kind of a loner when it comes to other kids. But she loves to play with us, and with her grandparents, so I'm not worried.
Sophie quote of the month: "you are so buh-bus [beautiful] to me?" Also, "oh my guh-gus!"
Sophie can spell all those words?! Oh wow oh wow oh wow! She's a smart cookie! And oh so super cute (especially in those last 2 pics!
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