Recently in Sophie Category
We've fallen behind a bit in updating the girls' photo albums since we've been here, partly because we've wanted to group all of our experiences together rather than split them into separate areas. I guess it's a sign that we're finally feeling more settled to just have everyday photos to post again.
At any rate there are some real beauties in here, about three pages worth for each: mostly they're the result of my lovely wife's excellent photographic eye (and of course her ability to make beautiful babies!)
Sophie's New Pics
Josie's New Pics
Have you got any? I seem to have misplaced mine. Oh no, wait: some small villains stole it.
Here is a conversation I imagine takes place sometime after we put the girls to bed:
Sophie: Josie, it's your turn to get them up tonight!I almost got up to post this last night, as I lay wide awake from 1am to 3am struggling to get back to sleep. Thankfully I didn't, was able to catch a little sleep and still remember what I wanted to write today. Bon soir!
Josie: No Sophie I too tired.
Sophie: But I got up last night!
Josie: Sophie I told you!
Sophie: Josiiiiie! Ugh!
After months of pining and test drives during their weekly expedition to Moore Wilson, Sophie finally got to get her very own scooter this week. She decided to name it 'Mine Dog', inspired by the name she gave our car ('Moon Dog'). So far Mine Dog has had a photo shoot, gotten to watch a tv show with Sophie and go into the bathroom while she goes potty. Mine Dog also has a special parking spot next to the bed in Sophie's room, where it (excuse me, 'she') has to stay when it's not being ridden.
Each day Sophie sits at the table in the same chair at least 4 times, mainly to eat. It's during these times that she seems to contemplate various things about life on a deeper level than when she's running up and down the hall like a crazy woman.
"Do cats have skeletons?"
"I'm hard because I have a skeleton under my skin and muscles."
"You wouldn't want to make a sandwich with me because you might get a BONE in your sandwich."
Most recently, the topic has turned to death. It first started when we were discussing Sophie's grandparents and she asked where Grandma Berta was. Jake explained that she was dead. Sophie asked how she died and it took us by surprise. Suicide is a tough thing to cover and while we had discussed not making up a story for the girls, we hadn't expected either of them to ask so soon. We settled on "She was very sick." It was a very emotional 30 seconds. Sophie was sad that her Grandma was dead. She was worried that she was going to die as well because she recently came down with a cold. And Jake and I were raw from the sad fact that we had to discuss this with her at all. Since that conversation, Sophie has been concerned with things dying. She realized that when we chase flies around the house with a towel, we are killing them. "Not very good" I think were her exact words. Cats eat mice, Spiders eat flies, we eat fish and cows and pigs. We haven't really held back or disguised any of the facts from her. She expresses sadness but then digs in to her fish and chips.
We also recently rented Charlotte's Web from the library. Sophie has a pretty debilitating fear of spider webs and I was hoping that watching this movie would get her over it. I totally spaced on the end where Charlotte dies. We watched the first half last night and she was enraptured. She was terrified when the farmer was going to kill Wilbur, overjoyed when Fern was singing and swinging with baby Wilbur and heartbroken when Wilbur was sold to Uncle Zuckerman. When we picked up this morning, she was so confused when Charlotte was dying. She wasn't sick and nothing killed her. All the cute babies in the following scenes were distraction enough to keep her from crying. After the show we had a snack. While in her thoughtful spot we had this conversation:
"Ok honey. Sounds good."
"Do cats have skeletons?"
"I'm hard because I have a skeleton under my skin and muscles."
"You wouldn't want to make a sandwich with me because you might get a BONE in your sandwich."
Most recently, the topic has turned to death. It first started when we were discussing Sophie's grandparents and she asked where Grandma Berta was. Jake explained that she was dead. Sophie asked how she died and it took us by surprise. Suicide is a tough thing to cover and while we had discussed not making up a story for the girls, we hadn't expected either of them to ask so soon. We settled on "She was very sick." It was a very emotional 30 seconds. Sophie was sad that her Grandma was dead. She was worried that she was going to die as well because she recently came down with a cold. And Jake and I were raw from the sad fact that we had to discuss this with her at all. Since that conversation, Sophie has been concerned with things dying. She realized that when we chase flies around the house with a towel, we are killing them. "Not very good" I think were her exact words. Cats eat mice, Spiders eat flies, we eat fish and cows and pigs. We haven't really held back or disguised any of the facts from her. She expresses sadness but then digs in to her fish and chips.
We also recently rented Charlotte's Web from the library. Sophie has a pretty debilitating fear of spider webs and I was hoping that watching this movie would get her over it. I totally spaced on the end where Charlotte dies. We watched the first half last night and she was enraptured. She was terrified when the farmer was going to kill Wilbur, overjoyed when Fern was singing and swinging with baby Wilbur and heartbroken when Wilbur was sold to Uncle Zuckerman. When we picked up this morning, she was so confused when Charlotte was dying. She wasn't sick and nothing killed her. All the cute babies in the following scenes were distraction enough to keep her from crying. After the show we had a snack. While in her thoughtful spot we had this conversation:
Sophie: "Mom, why did Charlotte die?"I just couldn't let it go on any longer because I didn't want to get to the realization that Sophie will have to see some of her loved ones die. Mainly I couldn't stand the fact that Jake and I will die before Sophie (Please God) and I was closer to that conversation than I would have liked. This seemed to satisfy her thoughts on the subject and she went back to eating her salami, cheese and crackers. Then she looked up at me and said, "When Dad gets home, I'm going to tell him that I am going to DIE."
Me: "Because she was old honey. Spiders don't live very long."
Sophie: "I'm old Mom, maybe I am going to die."
Me: "No honey, you aren't very old. You won't die until you are really old."
Sophie: "I don't want to die Mom."
Me: "Well (conjure up James Earl Jones here as Mufasa during the circle of life talk), everyone dies honey. Just like everyone has to be born, everyone has to die. But remember, Charlotte had all of her babies so more spiders could live."
Sophie: "But what if they all die? Then there won't be any spiders left."
Me: "Some of them will grow up to have their own babies. Just like Grandma Roberta had daddy. He was her baby and even though she died, Daddy is still alive and he grew up and had you and if you want someday, you can have a baby."
Sophie: "Mom! Grandma Mary is old. Maybe she is dying right now!"
Me: "She's not dying, I just talked to Grandpa Joe yesterday. But she will die someday."
Sophie: "And Grandma Sue will die too?"
Me: "Yes, Grandma Sue will die someday too."
Sophie: "But not until after me right?"
Me: "Well.... sure."
"Ok honey. Sounds good."
What would you do for a sticker? My kids will do pretty much anything for a sticker. Plus if you display all of the stickers they've earned on a piece of paper with their name on it they go crazy!
Currently we're running three motivational sticker charts here at the house. One for Josie to start using the potty. She's pretty good at letting us know when she has to go #2 but we like to reinforce it with a sticker (most if which were provided by our dear friends Susan from Idea Duck and Amy). We keep the chart taped right on the tile wall next to the potty so that it's instant gratification.
The second chart is for Sophie to start telling us she has to use the bathroom before actually going in her underpants. I know life is exciting and I'm sure she doesn't want to miss a thing. So she waits until the second that she actually starts going to the bathroom to tell us she needs to go. Hence the chart to motivate getting there before actually going. I like to call it the "dry underpants" chart. (ok, I just realized that anyone who doesn't have children will probably be bored to tears by this post. Sorry, Potty is a big portion of our life, like it or not). Her chart is also right next to the potty for instant gratification. She's been progressing through her numbers recently as we have some scrapbooking stickers that I've never used and she can't get enough of the numbers.
The third and final chart is Sophie's sleeping chart. In the past two weeks she's been getting up and coming in our room at all hours of the night for various reasons. "I need my covers on", "I wanted you", "I'm scared". Most of these are valid for a 3.5 year old (other than the covers request. Jake has actually given her instructions on how to pull up her own covers if she is cold.) however, they seemed to becoming more frequent. So we told her for each night she stayed in her bed all night, she'd get a sticker and after 7 stickers she could choose a reward. At first she requested a candy bar as her reward but with a little suggested redirection, she settled on a trip to the Zoo. This chart is right next to her bed and we remind her how many nights she has left before bed each night. She did pretty good at first, three nights straight. Then she got scared, then she got sick. So we are stuck at 6 stickers with that reward square just in reach. I keep hoping she'll sleep right before the weekend so Jake can join us at the Zoo.
So the question stands, what would you be motivated to do if a sticker was involved?
Currently we're running three motivational sticker charts here at the house. One for Josie to start using the potty. She's pretty good at letting us know when she has to go #2 but we like to reinforce it with a sticker (most if which were provided by our dear friends Susan from Idea Duck and Amy). We keep the chart taped right on the tile wall next to the potty so that it's instant gratification.
The second chart is for Sophie to start telling us she has to use the bathroom before actually going in her underpants. I know life is exciting and I'm sure she doesn't want to miss a thing. So she waits until the second that she actually starts going to the bathroom to tell us she needs to go. Hence the chart to motivate getting there before actually going. I like to call it the "dry underpants" chart. (ok, I just realized that anyone who doesn't have children will probably be bored to tears by this post. Sorry, Potty is a big portion of our life, like it or not). Her chart is also right next to the potty for instant gratification. She's been progressing through her numbers recently as we have some scrapbooking stickers that I've never used and she can't get enough of the numbers.
The third and final chart is Sophie's sleeping chart. In the past two weeks she's been getting up and coming in our room at all hours of the night for various reasons. "I need my covers on", "I wanted you", "I'm scared". Most of these are valid for a 3.5 year old (other than the covers request. Jake has actually given her instructions on how to pull up her own covers if she is cold.) however, they seemed to becoming more frequent. So we told her for each night she stayed in her bed all night, she'd get a sticker and after 7 stickers she could choose a reward. At first she requested a candy bar as her reward but with a little suggested redirection, she settled on a trip to the Zoo. This chart is right next to her bed and we remind her how many nights she has left before bed each night. She did pretty good at first, three nights straight. Then she got scared, then she got sick. So we are stuck at 6 stickers with that reward square just in reach. I keep hoping she'll sleep right before the weekend so Jake can join us at the Zoo.
So the question stands, what would you be motivated to do if a sticker was involved?
Inevitably, the first question asked every morning: "Can I please play Faloney?" Sophie loves to take care of her little digital friend (Nintendogs on the DS), which surprises me a little since the tasks are very mundane: she has to give her food and water every day, take her on walks, clean up after she goes potty. Not a bad intro to pet guardianship, if you ask me.
It's not as surprising though when I remember how much she loved letting Eula out first thing in the morning, and how much taking care of the pets formed the first part of our day. Usually Sophie would come out of her room in the pre-dawn hours and get greeted by Eula, thump-thump-thumping her tail on the wall in the dark, then Eliot would start meowing for his breakfast (poor, famished creature that he was, I guess he always suspected we'd put him back on the 'Fat Farm' up in Grandma & Grandpa's barn.)
New Zealand is definitely a dog-friendly country, so there aren't too many days where we don't see some dogs around the neighborhood. The girls both get very excited wen we do. Whenever we're at the beach I'm also reminded how much she'd love romping there with the girls. As much as we miss her we know she's resting very comfortably on a very nice Oriental rug in upstate NY, and that she'd still be in quarantine if we had brought her along for our adventure. (To be honest, she'd probably still be shaking from the 32-hour flight!)
We miss you, Pupperoni!! Take good care of Grandma & Grandpa for us, and take it easy on that leg - don't show off too much!
Well we've been here a little over a month now and are starting to feel somewhat settled in. We've got the house sorted for the year, our car and we've started finding some activities for the girls to enjoy. I feel like we are starting to take advantage of all the wonderful things this town has to offer it's children.
The most frequent outing we have is to the many various playgrounds around town. The girls love the slides and see saws. Sophie almost always makes a new friend and asks them if they would like to play chase. She seems to have more endurance for the game than others though as toward the end of our play time she's shouting out the new friends name and waving them on.
We've attended storytime at one of the local libraries. The girls very much enjoyed hearing the hours worth of free stories and songs. Several of the words are different and Sophie usually picks up on it.
"What's a ladybird?"
to which I answer "In New Zealand they call ladybugs ladybirds."
She's always satisfied with this answer and often tries it out on me.
"Can I play on the hodgie?"
"What's a hodgie?"
"Mom, in New Zealand they call trampolines hodgies."
"Ohhhh."
She's also started picking up a hint of an accent. Not throughout her entire vocabulary but there are certain words that she's traded. Water is now wahtah, tomato is tomahto, car is caah, shoe is something close to shor, to me it sounds like she is chewing on the end of the word. It's pretty cute!
The most frequent outing we have is to the many various playgrounds around town. The girls love the slides and see saws. Sophie almost always makes a new friend and asks them if they would like to play chase. She seems to have more endurance for the game than others though as toward the end of our play time she's shouting out the new friends name and waving them on.
We've attended storytime at one of the local libraries. The girls very much enjoyed hearing the hours worth of free stories and songs. Several of the words are different and Sophie usually picks up on it.
"What's a ladybird?"
to which I answer "In New Zealand they call ladybugs ladybirds."
She's always satisfied with this answer and often tries it out on me.
"Can I play on the hodgie?"
"What's a hodgie?"
"Mom, in New Zealand they call trampolines hodgies."
"Ohhhh."
She's also started picking up a hint of an accent. Not throughout her entire vocabulary but there are certain words that she's traded. Water is now wahtah, tomato is tomahto, car is caah, shoe is something close to shor, to me it sounds like she is chewing on the end of the word. It's pretty cute!
We bought a new car yesterday! It's quite a change from our Honda Odyssey Mini Van back in the states. We decided to go with the compact, fuel efficient Honda Jazz. It seems to be a great car for getting around and to be honest, we shouldn't be driving all that much while we are here due to the crazy gas costs. We took the car for a test drive yesterday, talked to the salesman for 5 minutes, Jake walked in signed some papers and we left the dealership with less than 10 minutes of wheeling and dealing. Our salesman was super nice. The price was all inclusive so it wasn't like in the states where you see the price then get passed off to the "finance" guy where he adds on thousands of dollars in extra fees that you didn't even think of. We got a bottom line price and that was it. Soooo easy.
So, we let our kids name our cars. Sophie named our mini van "Rocket" after the Little Einsteins mode of transport and our Forester "Pokey" after a turtle shaped hot air balloon. For the longest time she would just name things "car" or "puppy" but lately she's been on a streak. She has a teddy bear that my dad gave her for Christmas who she named Bologna. We've never had Bologna and I have no idea where it came from. Then she got a Nintendog game and she named her dog Fologna (Fuh - loney). She named a reindeer from her dream Tologna (Tuh-loney). So I was a little nervous when asking her what our new car should be named. Dologna? Kologna? I really like the name she came up with though. MoonDog (or as I think I'll spell it from now on, MoonDawg).
We pick MoonDawg up this afternoon and turn our rental car in. I am so excited and relieved to be making progress and not feel like we are just bleeding money on rental items, hotels etc. Soon we'll be settled and zipping around in MoonDawg.
So, we let our kids name our cars. Sophie named our mini van "Rocket" after the Little Einsteins mode of transport and our Forester "Pokey" after a turtle shaped hot air balloon. For the longest time she would just name things "car" or "puppy" but lately she's been on a streak. She has a teddy bear that my dad gave her for Christmas who she named Bologna. We've never had Bologna and I have no idea where it came from. Then she got a Nintendog game and she named her dog Fologna (Fuh - loney). She named a reindeer from her dream Tologna (Tuh-loney). So I was a little nervous when asking her what our new car should be named. Dologna? Kologna? I really like the name she came up with though. MoonDog (or as I think I'll spell it from now on, MoonDawg).
We pick MoonDawg up this afternoon and turn our rental car in. I am so excited and relieved to be making progress and not feel like we are just bleeding money on rental items, hotels etc. Soon we'll be settled and zipping around in MoonDawg.
Josie's language skills have really exploded in the past few weeks, to where she can get through her ABCs and the better part of Ariel's Song ("Part of Your World" from The Little Mermaid) on her own (even while sleeping!)
Combine this with her irrepressibly boisterous nature and the result is our almost-two-year-old belting out her ABCs at the top of her lungs as we roam the streets of Wellington, either from her stroller or our shoulders. It's a new take on an old favorite too, because the last line ("Now I know my ABCs,") becomes the start of a new round ("Now I know my A-B-C-D-E-F-G").
We also have our relocation coordinator to thank for our new favorite thing: The Fluffy. It's apparently a cafe standard for the under-5 set here: warm milk topped with foam and cocoa powder in an espresso cup, usually accompanied by a few fancy marshmallows or chocolates. Starbucks I'm sure would take advantage to price this treat around US$5, but here they're usually NZ$0.50 so other than the sugar-guilt you don't have to feel bad. Most of the cafes here have boxes of toys for kids to play with too, so going for fluffies is their new favorite thing.
In our current two-bedroom accommodations the girls have also discovered the joys of falling asleep at the same time in the same room. They're having so much fun at bedtime I'm not sure we'll want to separate them again when we occupy our permanent residence here. We've been lenient so far and haven't had to resort to Uncle John's patented Sugar Bowl TechniqueTM, but I foresee that in our near future (probably when Uncle John comes to visit.)
Since being here, I have noticed that anytime I am in public, I feel like I am smothering my children. We went to Te Papa, the national museum and I had the girls in the stroller. As soon as we walked in I noticed that almost none of the kids who were there (many of them younger than Josie) were holding anyone's hand. They roamed around and stayed near by their caregivers.
I took the girls up to the Discovery Center area for kids and let them run loose. My confidence started building slowly as I watched them politely interact with others and not bolt for the nearest exit. So I decided to let them walk as we found another Discovery Center on the same floor. Of course they ran off like wild children and I ended up scolding them out of fear. I felt like anyone within ear shot was looking at me like I was a monster. One passerby actually mocked me as I was telling Sophie "I don't want to lose you" they said "I don't want to lose you either". I was furious!
We had a similar experience at the playground (see the picture of the "Slide of Death"). Sophie wanted to climb up two stories to go down this slide and I said no. But as I looked around, kids Josie's age were climbing up unassisted to go down this slide. It freaks me out and makes me question my parenting at the same time. Am I overprotective? Should I let them try these things and get hurt?
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