Growing Girl

Apparently Sophie has hit a growth spurt. She is a short and small kid, so 6-9 and 6-12 month clothes fit her really well, both in the length and waist...until now. They still fit in the waist, but the pants are all too short! My sister-in-law commented on it a few weeks back, but I just thought it was the one pair of jeans. Then I noticed another pair were getting short...and another pair. Her pants from both yesterday and today were too short, too. I finally had her stand up against the wall where I take her yearly measurements. Sure enough, she has grown at least an inch since August! How exciting for my wee one!
I guess this means that it is time to get out some 12 month clothes. Good thing I have a sewing machine now. It used to take forever to stitch up all the waist bands of her pants for them fit for her. Now it just takes a few seconds! That machine is going to pay for itself this weekend.

27 Months

Sophie now weighs 17 lbs 13 oz! We are so close to another pound party.

On the first day of this month, Sophie stopped calling herself 'Sosie' and started calling herself 'Sophie.' I was equal parts proud and sad. I am going to miss how she used to say her name. Also on the first day of this month, Sophie broke out a perfect 6 word sentence! Joe asked her if she wanted water or milk with her dinner. She replied, "I don't want water or milk." No mistakes. No baby talk. Just a simple, direct sentence. *proud*

Sophie's memory keeps improving. She sings along (somewhat) to the Mickey Mouse theme song and to a Doc McStuffins song. While watching Mickey Mouse she will identify correct shapes, objects, the correct 'tool' to use, etc (she is obsessed with this show so I'm sure she knows each episode by heart). She can identify at least 3/4 of the animals on these ABC animal cards that a good friend of mine made for her (some of them like 'narwhal' and 'quahog' are tough). She focuses on my lips while I am singing songs and tries to mimic with her own lips; she will the try repeating the song later on (For example, "row, row, row, boat...merry, merry...dream." It needs some work - haha.) She knows where items are and where they are supposed to go. She pulls out names of random items which never fails to make us ask "when/where did she learn that?" It is easy to forget just how much of a sponge kids are. The amount of information they pick up daily is astounding!

 

In 'terrible twos' news, Sophie bit a child at the baby sitter's house. Just once and she didn't break skin, but still. Joe and I couldn't believe it! She is so verbal and can express her feelings, so why did she bite someone? Ugh!

Speaking of the terrible twos, due to behavior issues, I spanked Sophie earlier this month. (I admit this because I try to be truthful and honest in this blog. That includes the not so great things about both my daughter and me.) She had been being a hellion all day long, no listening, being defiant, and throwing fits of the kicking and screaming variety. I tried reasoning with her (ha!). I tried time out (nope). I tried hugging her tight to get her to stop thrashing around (that just made her madder). So I did it. I spanked my child. Just three swats on the butt - diaper and pants on and not hard at all. She immediately started crying and said, "I sorry, Mommy. I sorry." (I think she was crying because her feelings were hurt, rather than her being hurt at all...because seriously, it was a pathetically soft spank). That broke my heart! I cried off and on for three days about it. While it did make her stop acting a fool, it made me feel awful. It isn't worth it to ever do it again.

Now lets transition from "ugh, the terrible twos" into "my poor daughter isn't feeling well" mode. This month brought on some sickness for Sophie. She had a runny nose and wet cough basically this whole month. The weather has been all over the place, so I didn't think much of it. We've been giving her vapor rub at night as well as turning on the humidifier, but nothing really helped. Well, that all then led to Sophie getting a double ear infection! Poor girl! She started waking up in the middle of the night screaming and refusing to sleep unless she was with either Joe or me. She became even crankier, too. I took her to the doctor's office and they gave her some ammoxicillin after discovering how gross her ears were. After 5 days of being on it, she didn't seem to be feeling any better. She had more fevers, was lethargic and just not herself. Joe took her back a week after her previous appointment only to find that both ear were still infected. They gave her a stronger medicine and thankfully she is feeling a lot better. She still has a lingering cough that has been waking her up the past two nights, but at least she is on the mend.

Not feeling well at all.

Just 10 more weeks until I can add some pictures of Sophie as a big sister! I can't wait to see what she is like when Josie is born. We will soon find out.

Here are a few other pictures from the month (not that many now that I'm not doing a photo a day with Sophie):

Family trip to the Redman Farm. (It is hilarious to me when I compare this year's pictures at the farm to last year's. It was so cold this year and last year we were in short sleeves! Same month both years, just very different weather.)

Sophie was so excited that we were going to get pumpkins.



Sophie really enjoyed the hay ride...especially when the pumpkin patch came into view.

Helping to pick out a pumpkin.

Feeding the goat. She LOVED this!

One of Sophie's favorite things to do this month is to get all of her hair bows out and have us put them in her hair...and ours, too. That is right, even Joe gets in on the hair bow action.

Sophie wanted to make soup with me. I gave her a sauce pan, an empty pepper shaker and a whisk. She loved it!

Grandma Z bought the girls matching dresses.

Halloween!

Happy Halloween everyone! As you can see, Sophie was a cow this year. She was able to dress up on three seperate occasions, and was adorable each time (spoken like a true mom). For the most part though she was a headless cow, as she didn't want to put her hood up. Oh well.


It was really cold here, but that didn't stop us from going out and doing a little trick-or-treating. Luckily the costume itself was nice and warm, and I was able to layer her up underneath. (she actually kept her hood up while we were outside when she realized how cold she was). Still, I didn't want her out in the cold that much, so I drove Sophie a few blocks over to visit my friends, Becki and Mike. We parked at the top of their street and hit a few houses on the way. People loved my little cow. We went inside to visit with my friends for awhile (and for Sophie to pilfer half of their candy). On our way back to our car, we stopped by another friend's house (whose son also goes to Sophie's baby sitter). She was so excited to see her Jayden, as he is her favorite at the baby sitter's house. When we finally made it back home, Sophie was ready for round 2 of trick or treating with Joe. They went down to his friend's house and stopped at some houses one the way. The kid made out like a bandit! Sophie is pretty excited with her candy and has already started to eat a few things. (It is funny to think that last year at Halloween was one of the first times we let her eat candy. Now she can't get enough of it!)  Still, I think her Mommy and Daddy are going to have to help her eat some of that candy. Darn! 

My little cow (unhappy because I wanted her to put her hood up) and me (the cowgirl or farmer or something. Whatever I am, Josie has me looking giant!)

Mmmm...candy
 

Daddy dressed as a cow, too!

Stealing candy at Becki's house (and I stole this picture from Becki, so I guess I know where Sophie gets it from)

 



Sophie and the pumpkin she decorated yesterday. She was so darn cute with it. She hugged it to her chest saying, "I love it!" and carried it all over the place. When she saw it today, she said, "Sophie color it." Then she put it in her baby's stroller and took it for a ride around the house. She carried it upstairs and wouldn't let it go. I love this girl!

26 Months

It is time to admit something...I am raising a strong-willed daughter. Big surprise, I know - not! It has been pretty evident that she is strong-willed since her feeding tube days (I attribute the tube to some of this stubborness. You don't go for months with having someone force something down your nose without becoming more than a little strong-willed). It is time to put that in writing though, as I try to keep this blog as honest as possible (I hate those 'our child is perfect and never does a thing wrong' blogs. How is anyone supposed to learn from those? I hope people can learn from our experiences. **Spoken like a true teacher**) I'm not saying that is a bad thing, nor is it a good thing. It can be both, and it is up to us to raise her to use it in the 'right' way.

Here are some examples of Sophie's strong-willed nature:

• Her favorite phrase of the month: "I not!" Runner-up is "I won't!"
• Sometimes she is nicer about not doing things and will say, "No thank you, Mommy" or "No thank you, Daddy."
• She loves to grab our pointer fingers and lead us around. This is usually paired with a "Come on, Mommy" or "Come on, Daddy."
• If we ask her to stop doing something, we will often get 'the stare' from her. This is usually paired with her throwing something down on the ground.
• Sophie wants to do a lot of things on her own now. If you try to help and she doesn't want it, watch out. A fit is probably around the corner.

Another prime example of Sophie's strong-willed nature tricked me a little. I didn't take it as her being strong willed at first. Instead, for a good few days there at the beginning of this month, I thought Sophie had been molested. Seriously. She screamed, wailed, kicked, said 'ow!' and 'no no no!' everytime we tried to change her diaper. She also stopped wanting to go on the potty (she was going multiple times a day before this all happened) and began freaking out at bath time. Her sleeping at night went downhill, too. I was getting really scared and nervous. There are only so many times that you can have these reactions before your mind goes down the worst possible route. I racked my head for any other reaction. There had been no changes to her routine, diapers (besides size - she is in size 3s now!), shampoo/body wash, or anything else. No diaper rash or infections. Nothing. I racked my brain and went through a bunch of scenarios with Joe but we couldn't figure anything out. Molestation seemed really far fetched, too. The only people who change her diapers are me, Joe, her baby sitter, Joe's mom and my mom. After her fits started, I thought back to where she might have been or who she might have been around. No one out of the ordinary. No one new changed her diapers. I was getting so upset. I finally called the doctor's office for advice. The nurse was very nice and asked all the questions I had been asking myself. Then she asked a doctor for  her advice. The doctor believes that it related to potty training. She said that this can be a normal reaction to kids who are being pressured to use the restroom or who are being made fun of and called a baby for using diapers still; it is a control thing. So her suggestion was to stop potty training immediately. Now we haven't really pushed Sophie with the potty. We would ask her twice a day and she would always happily comply, or would say no and that was that. Some days she would even tell us that she wanted to go to the potty. When she stopped wanting to go on the potty, we didn't pressure her. We have certainly never made fun of her or called her a baby for still using diapers. She is 2 for goodness sake! I couldn't help but roll my eyes at what the doctor said (it is the doctor I hate, so there you go). Still, it was the only thing I had to go on and it was a much better thought than where my mind went. So, we have stopped potty training. We still have some diaper changes where she freaks out, but she doesn't say it hurts anymore and it is pretty easy to distract her from them. Her sleeping has gone back to normal and so have baths. Thank goodness! Maybe it was just a control issue after all. Whatever the cause, I am glad it is over now.

Starting after her birthday, I tried taking away Sophie's pacifier and blanket during the day. She could only have it at nap time and when she laid down for the night, but no other time. I really want to break her of the pacifier habit now that she is 2. After the freakouts she was having earlier this month, I decided to back off and let her have them whenever again. If the freak-outs were a control thing, then this is a battle that is really not worth it. She is still young. We can try again in a month or two.

For every ounce of 'rascal' that Sophie has in her, she has just about double the amount of sweetness.

• When she goes for walks around the downstairs level of our house, she will tell us good-bye, wave, and blow us kisses. Often she will add a 'love you!' in there, too.
• When I spit out my toothpaste in the morning, she always asks if I am okay because she remembers that I've dry heaved there a few times during my pregnancy. She also asks if I am okay when I am crying (ah, pregnancy hormones).
• She is polite. Please, thank you, you're welcome often come out of her mouth without prompting.
• She will randomly give my belly kisses.
• When she wants to be held, she wraps her arms around me and puts her head on my shoulder.
• When we sneeze or cough she tells us 'bless you.' When she does it and we tell her 'bless you,' she thanks us.
• When we picked out a small pumpkin at the pumpkin patch, we had her pick out one for Josie, too. She picked out a little tiny one and didn't want to let it go. She kept saying, "It Josie!"
• She loves her cousins and her friends at the baby sitters' house. She asks about them all of the time and gets excited when she know she is going to see them.
• She tells us that she loves us. Everytime she does it, it melts my heart.
• Her favorite book is a Little Blessings one called Thank You God, Amen. She loves to 'read' it to us. Usually we get things like, "Thank you God, balloons. Aaaaa-men." It is so funny and sweet to listen to.

Sophie can be a challenging kid, but I wouldn't trade any of it for the world. She has always been my small but mighty girl; little with a big personality. I can't wait to see what next month brings!

'Little Momma' and her two kids

Giving her baby cousin a hug and kiss

Enjoying a smoothie

She only wanted to take a bath in her 'baby suit'

Enjoying a day at the zoo in her costume.

She wanted to eat every treat at the treat stations right away. She loved this cookie.

Sophie loved riding the rhino. She would even take one arm off at a time and wave it in the air.

Vacation!

We decided to take a quick trip to Lake Cumberland this year during a four day weekend. Sophie was surprisingly good in the car. I think Mickey Mouse helped a lot (thank goodness for portable DVD players). We had fun playing at the park, exploring some trails, visiting a pumpkin patch, swimming in the pool and playing in the room. Here are some pictures of our trip.

Sophie loved the cotton candy and ice ball...so did her Mommy and Daddy.

She kept trying to pick up these giant pumpkins!

She wouldn't sleep in her pack n' play at first. Instead, we would let her fall asleep on the bed and then move her. That didn't work the first night though, and she ended up sleeping between us in bed, upside down, and pushed up against my side. Josie woke me up in the morning by kicking Sophie in the head!

Sophie loved the 'big pool' (hot tub). She always wanted to go in it. Don't worry - it was cooler than most hot tubs (I put my feet in), Joe only let her in for a few minutes at a time and would dunk her in the regular pool afterwards.

Sophie loved wearing her 'baby suit' and swimming with Daddy.

She loved kicking around in the water. She is a lot more brave than she was this summer.