Sophie Every Day

I'm trying to keep posting up now, and to that end, here's a brand new post - only ten days since the last one!



Sophie is a tech head already (so surprising considering her dad, huh?) and we have fun playing games together. Here we are playing New Super Mario Bros. Wii. She does do a pretty good job, and has no problems using normal controllers and pressing multiple buttons with her nubby - she's pretty adept at using it.



Again, Sophie takes after both of us, and she is becoming a good Ms. Pac-Man player (and still not 5 years old!). She can now get to the 6th board completely by herself (which means she has seen both the "They Meet" and "The Chase" intermissions). I am very proud! ;)



As I am the tech side, Stacy is the crafty side, and Sophie loves doing anything crafty with mommy. Here she's learning to use rubber stamps, using her own stamps and ink pads that mommy got for her.



I mentioned reading in the last post, and Sophie is learning to read very quickly. Stacy and I got a set of Usborne First Reading books at the Home Schooling convention a few months ago, and Sophie is now up to reading the 8th one out of 15 (they build on each other and get harder as you progress). Here she's reading that book, Moon Zoom, in Stacy's lap.



We like to get Sophie the crafty kits at Target or Wal-Mart, to help her develop her creative skills, and this is a sticker-based mosaic picture project that Sophie quickly picked up and enjoys.



Sophie still loves to jump and run around, and here she's showing off how high she can jump on the mini trampoline that we have in the house.



Sophie and her friend, Olivia, were eating giant marshmallows, and then decided it was more fun if the stuck the marshmallows out of their mouths while smiling. They could barely stand, they were laughing so much.



And to close this entry, here Sophie and Olivia are giving each other a big hug!

We have a lot of stuff happening over the next month or so, so I should post again in a week or so, and hopefully I can keep the pace, as there will be pplenty of material to work with. Later!

Larry

Sophie Episode IV: A New Hope (Spring 2011)

Alright, I've got the final of the four updates to get us up to date (well, within the last week or two)...



We had originally bought this whiteboard easel almost two years ago for Christmas, but it went unused until a few months ago, when Sophie wanted to learn reading. As you can see, she also does some artwork as well.



We're pretty proud - she's very creative!



Sophie graduated from pre-school just before Memorial day, and here is a picture of her with the two other boys who attended that day with her mortar board hat.



This is Sophie's pre-school teacher, Miss Krista - wishing Sophie a good summer.



Sophie is a big ham, as you probably know, and here she is licking a bowl clean just to get messy.



This year we had Easter with our friends Tim and Cassie at our house, so Sophie had a familiar place to search for her Easter eggs. As she was opening her eggs, Tim was re-closing the plastic eggs with nothing in them and putting them back in her basket - it took her a few to realize the joke he'd played on her.



Sophie loves rainbows, so after the last big rainstorm, I ried to get a semi-artistic picture of her and a rainbow. I'll keep working on it :)



Now that she's at an appropriate age, and to encourage her to play outside, we decided to give Sophie a playset for her birthday. As is standard practice, Sophie wanted to help me put it together.



I put it together about a month ago, and the day was both cool and extremely windy! Here Sophie is testing out the fort structure after it was halfway built (it still needs a roof and side panels).



It took me another day (and after 15 hours in the sun the previous day, I was exhausted and sick), but I got the set completed, and here Sophie is swinging on her swingset for the first time! The birthday present is obviously very early (by about two months), but we definitely wanted her to be able to enjoy it the whole season. She loves it, and plays on it nearly every day!



Last but not least, Sophie started playing soccer in May. Here Sophie is stretching with her teammate Hannah.



Here Sophie is practicing passing with Kyra.



This is the whole team from the first practice. The two teenagers with them were their coaches, April and Anna.



Here April is passing with Sophie before the first practice.

When I said "were" the coaches - it wasn't a typo.

At the second practice, we found out that they wouldn't be able to be the coaches for the Lime Tigers after all, as they were both on the Princeton High School traveling team.

Guess who volunteered when they saw the need for a coach of ten 4 and 5 year olds?

That's right, the geek who's never played soccer! Me!

Just as we expected, it looks like Sophie is going to enjoy sports, and her parents who don't really care for or even watch sports, are going to have to learn 'em!



Coaching them isn't about technique so much, as it is about herding cats.

The other parents appreciate it, and the kids have a good time, which is what is important.

We have two more weeks of Soccer, and just got the formal pictures, which I'll scan and post very soon.

That's about it for now, I intend to get some more stuff posted in the next week or two, and try to stay regular.

Have a good night!

Larry