Sophie- The potty training begins

 I was remembering the other day that in almost all of our letters to Uncle Nate while he was on his mission Jon and I would write about Sophie and how she continued to be our little sweetheart. And she really is. She's so sweet with Mia and she's the perfect buddy for me when Lydia is at school and Mia is napping. In fact I love that time with her. We read books together, she asks to sit on my lap and we find a pretty dress for her to wear and clothes for Mia for the day, which Sophie usually insists is a dress as well.  She rotates laundry and pours in detergent, puts ingredients into mixing bowls for me, sets the table at meals and is the best at putting away utensils. She loves to get diapers for Mia too. And those are just a few examples of how sweet she is and how she helps around the house.

She's made up a song about balls and gowns and jewels that has about 8 verses and she sings it loud and proud. And I absolutely love it. I love listening to her and Lydia play together. They act like princesses and take on roles from Sofia the First. They take turns being doctors and give each other or their stuffed animals check ups. They really love taking turns being a mommy and a baby. They'll tuck each other in a bed they've made on the couch and then make "breakfast" with tessellation blocks. One of them will often be sick and they'll work to get the fever down. I could go on and on, but I love their imaginations and especially that they enjoy spending time together.

She's also sassy and can be a bit of a firecracker. She'll tell us that we're not the boss of her. You don't have to guess what she's thinking either. She's definitely very honest. You might even say brutally honest. I hesitated telling her that I was getting my hair cut a few weeks ago because I knew she'd rather I didn't. Sure enough, when I came home from the beauty school Sophie told me she didn't like my hair. She liked it when it was long. I just about died when we were looking at pictures from a few years ago and she saw the family pictures we took of the girls in their gold dresses and she disappointedly asked, "who cut my hair?!"

She's super observant. She noticed that Grandma Frazier was wearing Christmas wreath earrings on Christmas Eve. She also told me that her doctor had a shark on his shirt when we were at a check up last month. He'd left to print some information for us and sure enough Bruce the shark from Finding Nemo was pinned to his shirt. It led to a great discussion. She tells me when she likes my shoes or shirt or whatever. She also has a thing with hair (in general, not just mine) and prefers hers down. I love putting a messy bun on top of her head. It's such a good look for her, but she doesn't like it and tells me so if ever I succeed in doing her hair that way. She talks about how Mia doesn't have a bunch of hair, but one day she will. She told me that "Mia can have some banana swirl when she's older, has teeth and a bunch of hair." She loves to wear fun patterned tights with her dresses. She talks about living in a castle one day. I tell you, this little lady is the real Sofia.

She loves nursery. Her nursery teachers love talking to her because she's so verbal and apparently has awesome stories to share. I can only imagine... And one of them told me, when I picked her up after class, that she said a really impressive prayer that day. Like really impressive. He was totally blown away that a two year old could be so specific. It was Valentines Day and among other things Sophie prayed that she was grateful for Valentines Day, and for Nursery class and her teachers. I love her nighttime prayers and the reminder to us that we read scriptures together.

Her favorite book these days is Knuffle Bunny by Mo Williams. She loves to sing "I am a Child of God". And today we dove into potty training. Like really dove in. I suggested she just wear her undies and not pants (which she shockingly picked out instead of a dress) so that if in the event she had an accident we'd still have dry pants. She refused and I saw her heart break when she didn't quite make it to the potty the first time. That happened two more times, but she's successfully gone on the potty another five times since then and doesn't even ask that I go with her. I'm cautiously optimistic that we're through the worst, not that I don't expect us to have several more bumps on this potty training journey, especially since our experience with Lydia is still fresh in my memory. Soph is thrilled to be flushing the toilet, washing her hands and earning stickers. And especially thrilled not to be wearing diapers. And I'm thrilled as well!