Typing my paper....I was looking for the right word..

and I said, Maya, what's a word that means, like, to cause something...to make something happen, to have an effect...??

I didn't expect an answer, though she offered "rapido." An interesting interpretation, I thought.

So when I decided on "influence," I asked her if she knew what it meant. I explained that it was like how what I do and think and say has an effect on her...that for example, my loving music, might influence her to love music. That "I have an influence on you", I said.

Maya: And I have an influence on you.

Me: Right, exactly! That's true. (wondering if she really understood or if it was just her tendency to have a quick and smart reply to everything...wherever could that trait come from??)

Maya: and we have an influence on other people too....all over the world.

???

The Eric Carle Museum

I think I've mentioned before how much we really like The Very Hungry Caterpillar.

So when Ryan discovered this place very near Kelly and Sean's home in Massachusetts, we were pretty excited. It was the day before Thanksgiving, so the place was pretty quiet. The exhibits were great, but we also loved the library, art room, giant caterpillar, and gift shop.

Sophie fell in love with the "pillar."

More about Massachusetts, Kelly, Sean, and baby Chloe to come later....

A First!

A regrettable first.

I missed a whole month of blogging about my children. I've never let my blogging habit slip quite so much.

Oh... the guilt I could pile upon myself. But I don't have the energy or the time.

So instead, here are some pictures from our October...

On our way to a very elegant wedding at the Hope College Dimnent Chapel

Our first annual visit to Lewis Farm with some good friends.

Boyne Mountain weekend with the Peoples in adjoining condos...quite decadent (in a chasing-four-small-kids-at-a-waterpark-but-we-can-still-stay-up-late-and-have-adult-conversations kind of way)... REALLY fun.

The cutest Halloween Penguin and Dalmation you've ever seen getting ready for their cold "hay ride" at the Kamps.

A leisurely Sunday breakfast...(I think this was officially November...but oh how I love when we 'fall back')

favorite new Sophie words

"all-lo?" (hello)
"app--peee" (happy)
"shoes"
"Eye-yah" (Maya)
"noh" (nose)
"Eyye"
"Mowww" (Mouth)
"Eee" (Ear)
"Baby"
"dainty" (Thank you)
"Bell-lay" (Ballet)
"play"
"Bah-lay, Bah-lay" (blanket)
"app-jew" (apple juice)
"milk"
"book"

She loves saying names of family members too. I won't list them all here. But she's got most of them down. Hardly any of them rank, though, with "Go-Go" or "Emma" both of which are repeated at LEAST 20 times a day.

We sing the Doxology at most meals. Sophie usually gets us started by singing the first "Praise..." and then she just listens with eager smiling eyes to Maya's loud voice belting out the rest. When we get to the end ("Amen")...Sophie confidently joins in.... shouting "Emma! EMMA! EMMA!" ....which of course reminds her of .... "Go-go...Go-go..."


Unfortunately though, even with her advancing vocabulary, "NO" is still a favorite word...often screamed in a rather demonic sort-of monster voice over and over again. She thinks it's hilarious... mostly because it drives her sister crazy...especially in the car. Maya tries hard to respond with kind words, "Sophie, don't talk that way....sweetie....talk nice" "Sophie....please stop saying that" "Sophie...say 'yes'...don't say that."

Eventually though...the unnerving sound gets to her... and Maya's face tightens, her teeth clench..."SOPHIE! STOP THAT!!....RRRRR"

then back to..."Sophie..here....do you want this toy?" "Sophie..hi...I love you."

"Momma, Sophie is pee-pee-ing!"

It's true.

The two girls were sitting on the potties together in our red bathroom, Maya on the big potty and Sophie on the small one. Sophie loves to sit on the potty like her big sister. She often tells me when she wants to use the 'pot-pot' or if she's busy with 'poo-poo'. Usually when I let her sit, she still has all her clothes on though...it just isn't usually worth all the trouble. But this time I let her try it, no diaper. I was just outside the door clearing the dishes from lunch...when Maya yelled...

"Momma! Sophie is pee-pee-ing!!!"

After lots of smiles, cheers, applause, we made a few phone calls.... Daddy. Two grandmas.

Sophie is pretty proud of herself. She knows this is big.

I've been breathing more slowly these days....

Settling into our slow schedule (just before it ends). Baking too much. Playing a lot. Folding laundry. And remarkably, having a somewhat clean house....at least today.
Yesterday we celebrated summer with Grandma Go-Go, shopping in downtown Grand Haven, though...not actually buying anything. My mom and I agreed about how much we both love beautiful paper, still refraining from making any purchases. Maybe we were feeling bad about eating such an expensive lunch on the open porch of the Kirby Grill.
After said lunch, we all walked down to Chinook Pier to catch the trolley. Breathing-in the delightful wind that blew through the huge open windows of the trolley, Sophie blinked...no, fluttered her eyes happily. She loved this. The homemade cookie-dough ice cream probably added to the magic of the ride. Since it was long after the usually nap time, I was certain that they'd both fall asleep on the ride home. Instead, they both giggled and teased each other in the back seat, and as we pulled back into our driveway, Maya reminded us all with a panicky voice...that we had forgotten the promised (bribe) carousel ride! So..since she had been a kind sister, and a very contended, not-whiny child on our adventure, we turned around and drove to the Cinema as promised. She rode an orange horse named 'Mo' and I rode the brown 'Molly' beside her. Sophie cowered in Go-Go's arms on the little sleigh behind us. It is a really fast carousel ride. I always forget how wonderfully dizzying it is.

Soon, the dizzying grad school/teaching schedule will probably tighten my breathing again, but for now, we're still enjoying this laziness.

I'm starting to smell the fresh bread that's rising....

I just can't keep up....

...with Sophie's rapid changes this month...this week.

She just seems more aware, more intelligent every day. Less like a baby, and more like a tiny little person with a developing sense of humor.

She's been sitting longer for stories...whole books, and sometimes several in a row. She really pays attention to Elmo's voice or Cookie Monster (she's actually the only member of my family that thinks my attempts are even valid at Cookie Monster or Elmo's voices, though I can perform a very convincing 'Zoe'). She eagerly answers Elmo's questions by pointing to the right picture, laughing with excitement..... or possibly, she is just laughing at how silly I sound.

She has this new face of shared humor...both hands covering her mouth, which is open wide showing her few and very crooked teeth, as she snickers and wrinkles her nose, eyes sparkling. It is so. cute.

I love laughing with her.
Usually when I walk into her room to get her up, she's standing at the end of her crib, jumping up and down, dancing with her shoulders, the light is on...because she can reach the switch from her crib, and she is laughing wildly. And of course, I can't stop laughing either.

We read several animal stories today, lots of dogs and cats. In fact one of her new words today was "doggy". She of course, loves books about animals and the sounds they make. And lately, she's been eagerly trying to imitate more of their sounds... "Baaah," and "Meeeowwwweeeeeowwwwww," and "Cheep cheep," and her favorite...

"Rrrrrahrrrr."

It's actually not very loud; it's more like a whisper. A very serious whisper-y growl.

She's always loved anything that roars. Our soft lion mask has been a favorite toy/costume of hers for a while now. When she puts it on, all you can see are her big eyes behind the holes in the mask. She crawls around delightedly 'scaring' us with her ferocious 'growl.'

more of our month of may...

...mostly in pictures. (again)






Sophia has been changing so much in the last few weeks. She seems more eager to interact socially ...not that she's ever been shy.
But she seems to be listening and trying to discriminate more carefully how words are formed and how to attach meaning to the things around her.
Her big cousin Emma taught her to hold up one finger in response to the question, "How old are you, Sophie?" For a while, whenever she saw Emma, and only when she saw Emma, she held up her one finger proudly. Now she shows everyone. She loves her impressive trick.

She also loves to wave to everyone (and even inanimate things) we see. It still sounds surprising even to me, whenever she so clearly articulates "Hi!" with her small and feathery soft voice.

Her gibberish also seems to be getting more serious, complex, and 'sophisticated'...and more imitative of our language. But she still really loves it when I respond to her in 'her' language with "doogle, doogle, oooh, bah-da, bop, pshoo, ....etc...." :)


Maya's new favorite word lately seems to be, "what?" My ears have become so immune to it, that I sometimes find myself repeating the same thing to her 5 times in a row...before I realize that she did in fact hear me the first time, she's just testing her powers. She thinks she's hilarious when she 'teases' us.

Her favorite story lately is Little Red Riding Hood. She has memorized much of the musical version that my students performed earlier this month. And we act it out at least once daily. We love to include other willing family and friends in our shows too (Uncle Andy made a great wolf...sinister and convincing. Similarly, Uncle Sean was described by Maya as "really silly, but... kinda scary").
This week, my students at school gave me a storybook of the 'real' Little Red fairy tale , beautifully illustrated, and signed by all of them. It's a pretty dark story. The wolf eats Granny and Little Red, and the heroic Hunter holds up his gun to the sleeping wolf's chest, then on second thought takes out his knife and slices open his belly rescuing Granny and Little Red.

I was hesitant to read it to Maya without editing, but she's pretty perceptive of my occasional attempts to alter what's written. So I read it on Tuesday when I came home from school. And by Wednesday, we'd read it so many times that she was familiar enough to correct any words I may have tried to skip. She still pretends to be scared rather melodramatically...I think she actually was a little nervous the first few times we read it, but she kinda likes to be scared (in a very 'safe' sort-of way)...

I wouldn't exactly call her a risk-taker, but she is a bit of a 'thrill seeker'.

Sophia took....

...seven steps tonight!

She's been stubbornly refusing to walk for a few weeks now. She can walk, she just won't let go of our fingers. She'll stand for a long time without help...but if she wants to go anywhere, she sits down....then crawls.

But tonight she did it. Again and again.

And I think she likes walking.

Maya turned three today.

And she was so excited that she could hardly eat her breakfast.





She'd like for you to think that she is a poor, sad, lonely child here. But no sympathy is needed. She is always acting out a very dramatic story. After I took this one, she asked to see it. I think she was pleased with the way I captured her 'convincing' look of despair.


After we got dressed and ready....

...three (approximately three-year-old) friends came to celebrate Maya's birthday.





We had a lovely lunch.

Happy Birthday, Maya, my now sleeping three-year-old.