Like a peach!

Oh dear oh dear oh dear!  If Sophie makes it through the year it will be a miracle.  You remember the horror of her choking on that plastic sticker?  Well, this afternoon I set her down for ten seconds while we were setting up at the church and she found the metal and eraser end that once belonged on a pencil and promptly popped it into her mouth.  Then when I went to pull her and her car seat from the car I discovered that she had a tiny pink rubber band in her mouth.  What the heck?!  When?  How??  Why Sophie?  Why??

And last night.  Should we talk about last night?  She's a fan of boxes.  It just so happened that we had a large box of Pampers strategically place in our family room.  Sophie was loving it.  She kept climbing on top of it and then almost falling off of it, but somehow kept hanging on.  This continued for quite some time, but didn't last.  Jon and I were keeping an eye on her, trying not to hover too much... when she toppled.  She was suddenly no longer on top of the box.  She took a fall and landed...  Not just landed; that sounds okay.  She was totally upside down and in shock.  She could have been sitting, almost doing the splits.  Except for the fact that she was on her head.  And she stuck that landing. She seriously seemed frozen like that for a whole thirty seconds.  Pretty sure time froze on us as I raced over wanting to laugh and cry.  Did that really just happen?  She was fine, just surprised.  I'm sure it hurt a bit too, but she's tough.  So tough that she climbed right back on top of that box.  Why not?

Saturday she landed herself in the bathtub.  Smacked her face flat and hard.  Came up with a huge red spot on her cheek and forehead.  And then last week I discovered that stairs are once again my enemy.  I was sorting laundry and found her on the eighth stair and loving life!  We've been gating the top of the stairs for weeks now, but only realized last week that it's necessary to gate the bottom as well.  Lydia got a kick out of Sophie being able to do something she couldn't only a few days ago.  The three of us went up the stairs again and again because it was so exciting!  So exciting for Sophie.  So exciting for Lyds.  And it should be!  

Sophie's favorite place in the house is the book case and she loves grabbing at everything on the bottom shelf.  She climbs up onto EVERYTHING and loves loves loves! standing up as much as possible.  She really does bruise like a peach.  Such sensitive skin!  And Lydia's furniture is none too friendly, but Sophie can't seem to stay away.  She's crawled away with war wounds, but doesn't seem to mind much.

Taken right after she landed in the bathtub

She is high energy and super opinionated.  Lydia used to be able to sit at the dinner table with us while we eat even if she had nothing in front of her.  Sophie will not put up with that.  She's at the table and she wants food just like everybody else.  This wouldn't be so bad except that Sophie cries hard and Lydia can't handle it.  She tries to comfort her, then tells us what Sophie needs, then demands that she (Lydia) be moved closer to me and farther from Sophie.  It's very bothersome to her.  And Sophie's cries are not the sweet little newborn cry they once were.  She has a set of lungs and she's not afraid to use them.  We're going through some sleepless nights once again, and Soph basically lost her voice crying so hard!  I'm still convinced she's teething, but who knows.  It would be so nice if they'd just surface!  If that really is what's going on.  At any rate, an explanation would be nice! 

Thank you!!

A few weeks ago the girls and I were at the post office, finally mailing off Nate's calendar much much later than originally planned.  I was holding Sophie on my hip and directing Lydia to stay close.  We found an envelope that suited our needs and that's when I realized I was not prepared.  I looked around wondering if the floor was clean enough to set Sophie down for just a few minutes while I wrote Nate's address on the envelope.  It wasn't.  Why hadn't I thought to put her in the Bjorn?  I was rummaging in my purse looking for the Sharpie I'd thrown in there and was surprised that even trying to retrieve that wasn't as easy as it should have been.  And then there was Lydia.  She was not staying close and just wanted to explore and make the doors open on their own.  And that's when this kind lady offered to hold Sophie for me while I did what I needed to do.  Sophie cried for just a second and then stopped.  This woman had two granddaughters about the same ages as Lydia and Sophie and she figured stranger danger might be an issue, so she turned Sophie away from her and let her distract herself by looking at all the people surrounding her.  It was just what we needed.  I know it wasn't a big thing, but in that moment it meant everything to me.

Last week we were at the grocery store waiting for a prescription to be filled and Lydia was not Lydia, she was a kitty.  And as you would expect from a cat, she was on all fours.  This elderly gentleman saw me with the girls and told me what gorgeous eyes Sophie had and how beautiful she was.  He used to be a doctor and some of Jon's family were patients of his.  Anyway, he soon took an interest in Lydia, found out she was the dancing cat, and told her what a nice kitty she was.  He started petting her and she loved it!  I couldn't get her to stop crawling around the store on her hands and knees after all the attention she's just gotten.  It was all the encouragement she needed from this kind grandpa.  She's been talking about him for days and yesterday she went into kitty mode when she saw an old man at another store expecting the same treatment.  He didn't bite.  :) And who can blame him?  I am grateful for the grandpa at the grocery store and appreciated him taking an interest in my girls.