first day of school 2009

Monday, August 24th was Sofia's first day back at school. One of the wonderful things about Valdez Elementary is that the ECE program is Montessori, with a mixed-age classroom. Sofia will have the same teachers for three years - ages 3, 4, and Kindergarten. She was so excited to see Ms. Rachel and Ms. Jen again. When I dropped her off, she greeted Ms. Rachel at the door, then waltzed right in, hung up her Tinkerbell back-pack, and found a "work" to start on, all without direction! I had to call to her from the doorway to say good-bye! I'm so glad my little girl feels so comfortable at school, and is ready to learn.

sofia's cast

Doesn't the red look nice with her yellow dress?

On July 2nd Sofia fell off the neighbor's trampoline and fractured her wrist! The trampoline is as "safe" as trampolines can be, which a net around the outside to keep the kids in. Sofia just happened to be walking around the edge, OUTSIDE the net! She was a brave little girl, and didn't cry too much, so I didn't know it was really hurt. I sat her down with an ice pack, and she fell asleep. When she woke up she was still complaining about it hurting, and wasn't moving it at all, so decided we'd better see the doctor. She had the cast on until yesterday (July 31st) when we saw the doctor again, and took the cast off. Monday we'll go in for another x-ray to see how it's healing, but she's in a splint for now.

sofia meets dinger

Dinger is the mascott of the Colorado Rockies. We went to the game for Sofia's birthday, and she was a very lucky girl! First, the usher gave us a real baseball used by the Rockies during practice (Kent was thrilled!). Then, a group of ushers came to sing Happy Birthday to her. Then, she got a picture with Dinger, and and autograph on her ball-cap! Lucky girl!

sofia's birthday

Sofia turned FOUR on May 28th! (According to Sofia, she passed by four, turned five on her birthday, the next day she was six, and a few days later she informed us that she's now seven.) We celebrated the following weekend with friends, family, pizza and cake in our back yard. It was a beautiful day!

catching up

I've fallen way behind on my blogging this past month, and things just seem to be speeding up! Here's a quick update:

Sofia has enjoyed her new freedom these summer days, spending most of the days outside playing with our next-door neighbors, Serenity, Faith and Kaylee. We are so glad she gets along with these girls so well, and that they live right next door! They divide their time between our backyard with the playhouse (now the "clubhouse"), and Serenity's trampoline. We've also visited Dinosaur Ridge twice, and have spent time in many parks! This week she's in a "Camp of the Creative Arts" every morning for 2 hours. She really loves it. It is Spanish and art, and at the end of July she'll do another week of Art and dance.

Emerson is making leaps in his development. He is very clear in his communications (at least to us!) and definitely says "no" when he doesn't want something. His "words" are:

caa-caa = cracker (I think is a generalization for "food")
haaa = hello / hi
mo = more

He is also starting to stand on his own, and walks holding onto our hands. He loves animals and noises - so far, all animals say "roar"! He loves the book Goodnight Gorilla, and looks for the lion in it. It is fun to see how he "reads" to himself in the car!

fia's birthday celebration at school

This was Sofia's birthday celebration at school. We did it last week, since we'll be just arriving back from Germany on the 26th, just 2 days before her actual birthday, which also happens to be the last day of school, so I didn't want to commit to doing it then. Ms. Jen is the teacher with Sofia in the middle of the circle. Ms. Rachael is sitting with some students in the back. The Montessori birthday celebration is really neat. They light a candle in the center of the circle, representing the sun. Then the birthday child carries a globe (the earth) and walks around the sun. The spokes you can see around the candle are the months. Ms. Jen shows the children a picture of Sofia as a baby, and Sofia walks around the sun as the children chant the months, from June through May. When she gets to May, Ms. Jen says "now Sofia is 1 year old," and asks us questions about what Sofia liked to do when she was one. Sofia walks again around the sun as the children chant the months. When she gets to May again, Ms. Jen says "now how old is Sofia?" The children answer, "Two." Ms. Jen asks again, "What does she like to do at 2?" Then the process begins again until she reaches 4. It was fun to see, and Sofia was such a star, so composed. Ms. Jen asked her what she likes to do now, and Sofia answered, "Well, I like to play with Emerson."

sofia's performance - pictures

And here, a few photos to remember the occasion. Sofia was so happy! Her teacher is Miss Kelly, and Sofia adores her.

Sofia's 1st performance - 2nd video

Here's another little video.

sofia's 1st performance

We joined the proud parents of all little princesses who danced on stage for the first time on Saturday. We will get a full-length video from a fellow parent who had a better camera, but here is a snippet of her performance. The song they are dancing to is called "Baking a Princess Cake", hence the blue whisks!

the world through sofia's eyes

the wiping incident

OK, so I'm not certain that I want to - or should - publish this one, but it is a day in the life!

One thing about Sofia, when she's gotta go, she says "I'm peeing!" and runs to the potty. This usually happens during dinner, and generally turns into a call of "I poooooooooped!" after a few minutes, and either dad or mom have to head in to wipe her.

So, on Sunday afternoon, I was trying to get Emerson to sleep. Kent was away. Inevitably, Sofia decides she needs to poop. She makes her call, "mommy, I pooooooooooped!" I respond, "Sofia, I'm with Emerson. You need to wipe yourself this time." She replies, "I CAAAAAAAN'T!" I say, "You need to try three times, then I can help you." She says, "But I CAAAAAAAAN'T!" I say, "Yes, you can." "No I CAAAAAAN'T!" "Sofia, you need to try three times." "I LOST MY TRIES!" By now, Emerson is NOT asleep, and I'm really frustrated. But, I started this, so I've got to see it through, right? (Why is being a parent so hard?) After about 10 more minutes of Sofia running around the house (not wiped) and telling me that she can't do it, and me telling her she has to try three times. After my closing her in the bathroom, telling (no shouting to) her I'll help her after she tries three times. After I'm about to lose it. I finally go in, I tear the toilet paper off the roll, put in her hand, and move her hand to help her wipe. I say, "that's ONE." Repeat. "That's TWO." Repeat. "That's THREE!" OK, NOW I CAN HELP YOU!!!

[BIG EXHALE]

Next we go to make easter eggs. Sofia is as happy as can be - completely in the moment, lost in the dying of the eggs. I am absolutely fuming.

Fast forward to Monday.

"I have to poop and pee." "OK." (waiting for the call.) Later, we're reading a book. "Hey, Sofia, did you poop?" "Yes." "And did you wipe?" "Yes." "Hunh!"

This happened - TWICE! So, maybe it was a small victory? I don't want to count my chickens...

Parenting is hard!! Especially with a three-year-old who is just as stubborn, maybe even more so, than I am!

It was a great day on Osceola St. - Emmo crawled, and Fia wiped!

sofia's valentine's day party

Sofia's preschool had a Valentine's Day party, where they made cards and frosted cookies. Here are a few pictures!


 
 

speakin' spanish

The other night, as Kent was putting Sofia to bed, as is our routine these days, it came time for story time. Usually Kent will read two books to her. But, this time, Sofia kept telling him the book she wanted to read in her gibberish-Spanish. After three tries, Kent finally got frustrated, and told her when she could tell him in English, he would read the story. He left the room, and Sofia ran after him in tears! She came to me, and cried that daddy wouldn't read to her. I told her that she has to tell us the book in English, because we don't speak her Spanish. She said, "but you speak Spanish with me!" I told her yes, I speak some Spanish it is true, but not the kind of Spanish she is speaking (i.e. not the gibberish-Spanish!) She said, "but you have to ask Ms. Rachel (her teacher). I said, "I don't think even Ms. Rachael could help us with this one! Sofia, you've got to speak to some people only in English."

This is only one of the many incidents we have lately with Sofia telling us that we have to speak in Spanish now! It will be nice when her Spanish is really Spanish, so at least I'll understand her! She does say quite a bit in Spanish, but it is usually phrases here and there.

the kleenex incident

On Friday, Sofia, Emerson and I went to friends house to play. Sofia and Rowan went back to Rowan's room, as usual, and played. We heard lots of giggling, and wondered, what were those two doing! As you would think, of course they were getting into trouble!

When I walked back to check, they had managed to completely destroy a kleenex box, tissue spewed and shredded all over the room! Sofia and Rowan looked like they had had the time of their lives!

Sarah came in, and said, "oooh, how wasteful!" Sofia responded, "that's OK Rowan, you can waste kleenex at my house!"

Fia and the Magic Wand

Hi, it's Kent blogging this time...

I just wanted to preserve the memory of Fia and this Christmas. First of all, everything is Cinderella. Anyone can be Cinderella. Our Shelf Elf is Cinderella, Fia is Cinderella, Lhasas or Leone can be Cinderella, and even I can be Cinderella on my best days. If someone is bad, they're Anastasia. Rounding out this magical princess/fairy trio is Tinkerbell.

So, we are in the land of princesses and fairies for sure. This despite all of our Jayhawk basketball watching (sidenote: She *does* love the Jayhawks. You'll be glad to know, that Fia's favorite player on the Rockies baseball team this past summer was... the Jayhawks).

Now with all of this as background, Fia is getting a Magic Wand for Christmas. Every day, 10 times a day, Fia is getting a Magic Wand for Christmas. This much, she is 1000% absolutely for sure. We're trying our best to communicate with Santa Claus in hopes that he's able to bring Fia *just* the right one.

The outcomes of this to me personally are a bit frightening. For instance, what if Santa doesn't bring the right one? I think he has 5-6 to choose from. And then...what if, once Fia has the Magic Wand, she's unable to "Wand you" with the desired outcome?

This is something Fia says all of the time: "If you are a good boy, and you say please and thank you, then I will wand you into a princess".

It'll be an interesting Christmas time for sure, this Christmas of Fia's Magic Wand.

We've got a Shelf Elf!

We started a new - and very magical - Christmas tradition. It's a "shelf elf". He appears every year before Christmas, and watches and reports back to Santa whether we've been good or not.

Sofia has been totally taken in by this magic of the shelf elf! He appears in different places around the house. She asks questions about him, and thinks a lot about how he does what he does. She has named him "Cinderella"!

The first day we met the shelf elf, she said, "why doesn't the shelf elf blink?" Then she answered her own question with, "I know, because he's plastic!" (of course I am a bit worried here...) Then, she asked, "why is the shelf elf plastic?" I didn't know what to say! Luckily, she answered her own question again, with, "I know, because Santa is plastic!" Well, I guess I hadn't considered the fact that to Sofia, plastic does not have the "cheap, fake, evil" connotation that it has for me, so it could very well be magical for her!

We're enjoying looking for the shelf elf and talking about all that he does!

sofia dresses herself

The first day we had snow, Sofia looked out the window and said, "I need to wear my Santa coat today because Christmas is coming!" (Sofia's Santa coat was my coat when I was 3.) Here is a picture of her, ready for school!

oh, sofia!

Sofia was taking gymnastics, for about 2 months. Then one day, she asked me, "mom, when gymnastics is done, can I take ballet and dance on the stage in front of all the people?" I of course, thinking gymnastics would be done in a few months, said "yes, of course, honey!"

Well, the next Saturday, when we were getting ready to go to gymnastics, Sofia said, "no, I'm not going to gymnastics."

I guess she was done with gymnastics when she asked me to take ballet classes!

old mother west wind

Lately, Sofia has really loved a set of books that Grandma Nori bought her while visiting last month. They are a collection called Old Mother West Wind. Grandma Nori remembers her grandmother read to her when she was a child. The neat thing is, these are chapter books, meaning there are no (or few) pictures! I have been amazed at how Sofia will sit quietly and listen to the stories, and then ask for more and more! This evening, she even paged through the books all by herself! (Thank you Grandma Nori!)