Sophie stats

This little firecracker just had her 18 month checkup.

Here are her stats:

Weight- 20.4 pounds, 4%
Length- 31 inches, 31%
Head circumference- 18.5 inches, 64%

Despite the fact that she's teeny tiny (we're just glad she's on the charts) she packs a punch.  She's energetic, enthusiastic and determined.  She has opinions and she wants those opinions to be known, and she won't quit until she's heard.  She still isn't talking much other than the decisive yes (or more often yah) or no, but in spite of that she communicates amazingly well (she's made up some of her own signs for things like more and now!) and her comprehension is fantastic.  She follows directions like a pro.

"Soph, will you go get your blanket?" "Could you throw this in the garbage for me?" "Where's your pink bear?" Or "You can choose three books." She actually selects way more than three, but I never said that counting was her strength.  Not yet anyway.

She can point to body parts and loves chasing her big sis around.  She insists on sitting in any chair at the dinner table but her own and often bursts into tears when her requests are denied (sometimes she needs to take a minute to compose herself, usually on Mom and Dad's bed) and wants to wash her hands every time she's in the bathroom.  She's interested in everything Lydia's doing, but is happy to do her own thing when sister clearly needs her own space.  She won't slide down the slide if there is anything that remotely resembles an insect on any part of the slide.  She even finds blades of grass bothersome enough to prevent her from sliding down, but once the slide passes her inspection she happily cruises down it again and again and again.  And as much as she enjoys the slide, her true love is the swing.  She gets giddy excited when anyone mentions swinging on the swing. Above all, she LOVES LOVES LOVES reading books and somehow my nighttime routine with her is not nearly as acceptable as what she and her Dad have established.  I can read three books to her just as well, I think, as Jon does, but he sings Constellation by Jack Johnson and Sophie Frazier, an altered Marci Playground song, and I simply can't compete with that.  Why won't Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes cut it?  At least she puts up with, and from what I can tell actually really enjoys it, after bath time.  I'll take what I can get.

And we just can't get enough of her!

Layton Fire Department

The girls and I went running with our BOB last Friday and three miles in we decided to take a break.  We'd made it to Ellison Park and the girls were ready to get out, stretch, and run around themselves.  At the playground Lyds and Soph raced each other on the slides and chased each other on the bridge until they were eventually worn out.  It was clearly time to leave, so I returned Sophie to her seat and Lydia hopped back into hers and we were ready to race home.  Or so we thought.  As we started off I noticed that the stroller was pulling to one side, and on closer inspection realized that the left back tire had lost a significant amount of air.  What?!  It had been fine when we'd left home, and Jon has done numerous repairs on these tires (due to the abundant number of thorns we have in our area) and I was amazed that after all the goo and the insert that he'd put in it that the tire could lose that much air that quickly.  Perhaps if I'd been pushing the stroller the goo could have done it's job and filled in the guilty holes releasing our air, but who knows.  I knew we'd never make it home without some help, and I really didn't want to bug Jon at work even though I knew he'd come rescue us in a heartbeat.

Fortunately for all of us Ellison Park is right next to the Fire Department, and so we took a chance and went in with the hopes that they had a tire pump and would be willing to assist us and send us on our way.  I'm sure we looked a mess, at least I looked a mess!  But they were quick to lend a hand.  One of the gentlemen sitting behind his desk went to look for a converter so he could pump up our tire while the two women in the entrance entertained our girls from behind their desks.  They loved Sophie's curls and learned all about Lydia's pigs and how she's growing up and will be "tall as my Dad" one day.  One of the women went into a closet and retrieved two Junior Fire hats and two sets of bracelets.  The girls were delighted.  It was then that we were directed past the fire trucks  to the equipment that would hopefully do what we needed it to do.  And thankfully it did!  There was some concern from the man who'd gone to find out what sorts of tools he had that he might blow out our tire as he tried to pump it up with just the right amount of air.  Fortunately it didn't blow, and in total it took no more than ten minutes from the time we walked into the Fire Department until we were on our way again, but it meant so much to us!

Oregon

If you want to be shown a good time, go visit Jess and Derek in Aloha!  The twelve hours in the car brought back so many memories of vacations to Spokane.  Maybe it's just the way the Northwest is, but driving around Portland and where the Stott's live felt so much like driving around Grandma and Grandpa Blackhurst's twenty years or so ago.

The biggest difference in our trip verses trips to Washington was that the girls got to watch movies on these little DVD players.  Kept them happy, distracted and entertained.  We tried not to keep them going the whole time, but they certainly were appreciated by all!  I'll have to ask Dad if we were uber annoying, asking if we were there yet five minutes into the trip, and again and again and again long before we arrived.  Lydia asked if we were close early on and then continually noted that we were very far from home.

Jess texted a few hours before we were to reach Aloha and offered us dinner, so we joined Jess and Derek and Derek's sisters and nephew for some scrumptious chicken enchiladas, a recipe I must have!  Then Jess and Derek joined us at the hotel for a swim in the pool.  Lydia was keeper of the stairs, but reluctantly left her safety net to rescue Uncle Derek several times.  You couldn't tell by Sophie's expression, but I think she was enjoying herself for the most part.  Sophie Sophie.  She has one incredible poker face!  But more on that later.  Swimming was the perfect way to end a long day in the car and start our vacation.

The next day we took it pretty easy in the morning and then met the Stott's for lunch at Popeye's.  The girls were not a fan of the food, but Jon felt like it rivaled KFC in it's chickeny goodness.  Outside it was pretty moist and drizzly; the perfect day to spend inside a museum.  Derek suggested the OMSI (Oregon Museum of Science and Industry) and it didn't disappoint!  I'm not sure who had more fun... Jon or the girls... We all really enjoyed ourselves, but the girls especially once we moved on from the the exciting dinosaur exhibit.  They liked excavating for dinosaur bones and shading over fossils, but the large life like dinosaurs were terrifying!  We might have pushed things a little bit too far with Sophie, but she was so cute and handled it all quite well despite her parents.

Some highlights from the rest of the afternoon included bottle rockets, Lego towers that were built to withstand earthquakes (Jon totally rocked this one; of course he did!), sailboats that floated down stream, stations that showed the earth's gravitational pull and centrifugal force (Lydia didn't want to leave the former and Jon had a hard time moving on from the latter), a sandbox, a water station (don't the girls look awesome in their smocks?!) and this contraption the demonstrated airflow.  I loved watching the girls try to catch the floating ball!  Another great day that ended with a pizza party.

Sunday we joined Jess and Derek at church and I was completely caught off guard when this cute Filipino called out my name!  One of the Sister missionaries from my mission married one of my District Leaders and they live in Beaverton and are in the Stott's Ward.  Who knew?!  Church was wonderful.  Lydia had a great time in nursery playing with three little pigs.  They were bigger than the ones she has misplaced at home, and I think they were just what she needed.  Sophie slept the whole time, and we just really enjoyed being with family.  Derek's mom invited us to join them for dinner. We didn't know that the Sister missionaries had been invited as well!  The food was excellent and so was the company.  It was so fun to spend time with the Stotts!  Our girls fell in love with little Gretchen (their itty bitty dog) and Raja, the kitten (that was at least four times bigger than Gretchen).  Sophie was so giddy happy when she was anywhere near that kitty and Lydia would have been happy to pet him all vacation long, though it became clear that Raja had other plans.

Monday morning we headed to Multnomah Falls.  Being Labor Day, and knowing that Jess had an interview later that day, we left earlier than we might have otherwise.  We were so glad we did because after we'd hiked up, enjoyed the Falls and returned to where we started, the place was packed.  On a side note, driving out there after Jess and Derek had told us the name of the Falls, Jon and I could not for the life of us remember what they'd said, and wondered if we had even heard it correctly in the first place.  Melanoma Falls?  That didn't seem right.  Mulch had stood out to me.  Mulch-noma?  I don't think so.  So we decided to document the memory by taking our picture next to the sign.
 

 The hike was wonderful.  The Falls were beautiful.  I'm quite certain all of our expectations were met.  Lydia started requesting we go hiking months ago.  She'd gotten it into her head that she needed to go hike on a trail, and even though we reminded her several times on our hike up that we were on a trail, I think she knew that, and was entirely happy about it.  Perhaps she just wanted to make sure.  She walked most of the way up, except when Jon, and then Uncle Derek carried her in the hiking backpack, and a significant part of the way down.  I think her favorite moments were when she got to be propelled between two of us as we lifted her up and swung her forward.  Sophie, on the other hand, didn't seem to mind the hike, but she simply put up with the hiking backpack.  She clearly didn't want to be in it, but besides her grumpy face we'd never have known it otherwise.  She didn't complain and eventually  fell asleep for the bumpy descent.  That might have been her real issue because once she woke up she was much cheerier.  And at the bottom we enjoyed some delicious fudge.  Or fludge, according to Lyds.

We spent the afternoon walking around Tualatin Park with Derek and Jess.  It was beautiful!  So green and dense.  If we lived in Portland I'd love to go running there.  Lydia found some leaves to add to the acorn and leaf collection she started on her walk with Jon and Sophie Sunday morning.  Then we headed to The Old Spaghetti Factory for dinner.  Our girls inhaled their pasta; one of the best meals, according to them, of our whole trip.  Derek's family invited us to their family home evening.  It was so fun to see them interacting!  And they made us feel so welcome while we were there.

Tuesday morning we  drove to Cannon Beach and one could argue that it was the Best Day Ever!  It's possible that had we gone there our first day, we might not have gone anywhere else.  The skies were clear, the temperature was pleasant and the sand was irresistible.  Lydia didn't seem able to walk more than a yard before she felt the need to plunge her fingers in the sand.  Sophie has developed this fantastic shuffle.  We call it the Sophie shuffle.  I can't get enough!  And that poker face I mentioned earlier?  She totally gets this smirky smile that kills me when she finally cracks!  I don't know if she just wants us to die wondering what she's thinking or if she's working on developing a killer poker face, but either way, it's entirely entertaining.  I imagine she works pretty hard to keep her face so expressionless. And her sand beard!  Amazing!  The seagulls, however, brought out the most giddy giggles in Soph.  She loved finding them and loved pointing them out to all of us.  I think she could have gone home happy after seeing those seagulls.  Lydia worried that the ocean would grab her and was not fond of how noisy the waves were, but before she distanced herself from the water and us, she found great enjoyment in destroying all of Jon's creations.  She just loved to knock over anything he packed together!  In fact that was how I lured her back to where the rest of us were.  She seemed determined to upturn every bit of moist sand (it began raining while we went for lunch and met up with Derek and Jess) she came in contact with on her way to the hill leading off the beach.  She actually made it quite far before I caught up to her.  And her tracks in the sand were amazing.  All. Over. The. Map.  I'm so glad she loved the sand.  Our destroying daughters.  I gave all the credit to Lydia for knocking things over, but Sophie clearly enjoyed collapsing sand piles just as much.

Before the sun came out again

Lydia tracks, escaping the noisy water

 Oh!  And the creps!  Just before we headed back to our hotel we stopped to enjoy them. They were delicious.  That is all.

And that was our trip!  It was perfect.  We could easily have spent much longer there, and it was horrible saying goodbye to Jess and Derek, but we sure have some great memories!