Way Too Long To Wait For An Update

Sorry everyone, it's been almost three weeks since the last update, and we have been busy, so I'll get started!

A week ago, Stacy and my sister Allison went out of town for a girl's weekend, so Sophie and I had some extra time to spend together. On Saturday, I took her to Chuck E. Cheese (CEC for short) for the first time.



Things have changed alot in the last decade - places like CEC are not everywhere like they used to be, and they certainly don't have 3 Pac-Mans, 2 Donkey Kongs, and all of the other machines from my youth. Things are now aimed squarely at redemption games - the things that give you tickets and then you redeem the tickets for prizes. That is fun for little ones, though I miss the days where you could go to the local 7-11 and play a few games of Mr. Do!

Sophie and I played a bunch of games - all of which Sophie really enjoyed...

She did have a couple of favorites. The first one, shown here (kinda) had her pushing buttons to launch balls into a frog who would open and close his mouth, so you had to time the launching. Kind of like a Mr. Mouth game from wayyyy back.

Her favorite game, though, was this one - it had a bunch of moving things, and a conveyor belt that took plastic eggs around a farmhouse, and if you hit the button at the right time, it would knock an egg into a chute and score points. I think we played this one for ten minutes solid.

CEC also has kiddie rides - some of which Sophie was okay with...

Some she liked...

Some she loved...

She actually had her one melt down when I had to pull her out of the bus so another girl could ride it. She did not want to leave, she really loved it.

That same weekend I was scheduled to work in the cafe at church, so Sophie came with me to help me for both services.

First, she had to say hi to her friend, Emma:

You may recall the she went sliding down the inflatable slide with Emma on Halloween...

And of course, she wants to "help" with everything. She helped us to put donuts onto plates for the families going in and out of the children's area...

Sophie has finally started playing Play-doh with us. She really enjoys it, and it's helping her to build her dexterity.

Stacy was playing with her the other day, and they were making animals with the Play-doh and some pumpkin adornments Sophie got from her grandpa Cal and grandma Julie.

They then switched to making bracelets...

Another thing to note - Sophie now has a big girl bed! We bought a Cinderella toddler bed for her, and it finally arrived a couple of weeks ago.

We haven't had any problems switching from the crib to the bed - I guess the only thing is that she can now get out of bed and play when she should be sleeping. That's mostly an issue at nap time, but she hasn't tried to leave her room, and we have always found her in her bed when we wake her up, so I call that success!

I'll get some pictures up of it soon - I just need to find the pictures I took of it.

Our social worker came over last Monday for our final visit. Everything went well, and we have no further documentation to provide to China!

That's all for now, talk to you later!

Larry

Princess Party

Sophie and I went to a princess party Saturday at Northwestern Bookstore. They were doing a promotion for a line of books they sell called "Gigi. God's Little Princess". They served a little snack of cheese cubes and some sweets (brownie bites, mini eclairs and cream puffs) and pink lemonade. It was all served in princess style. There was a square of cloth in the table center with princess pictures on it, pink plates and napkins and pink balloons. Then the girls worked on some princess projects: a paper craft, a necklace and a crown. While at the party we saw other little girls all dressed up. I kind of regretted not bringing Sophie's Sleeping Beauty costume with but she was wearing her princess shirt and shoes :) She was pretty quiet while we were there. But afterwards she kept saying "Pripa Party, Pripa Party. One more?"


Whenever you ask Sophie to smile, you pretty much only ever get her "cheesy" smile (squinty eyes). The picture above just caught the tail end of that.

The other "princesses" at our table, Rebecca and Claire.

A group little princess picture.

Gotcha Day! (1 Year Later)

Happy Gotcha Day!

It has been a whole year since we met Sophie for the first time...



Wow. I think back, and I am getting very close to crying. I love her so much - I always have!

I try to think about all of the changes all three of us have gone through in the last year - and as I sift through all of the memories, it just boggles my mind that so many things have happened in such a short time...

What will the next year bring?

...

And now, for something completely different...



I have one of Sophie's table and chair set in my office so she can color or play when I'm working in there, and a few days ago she decided to grab a couple of spare keyboards and play like she was typing. She had earlier set Elmo up on his own chair so she and he could color together.

On the same day, she was playing with he fishy puzzle, which has a bunch of fish with tacks in them, so that the included magnetic fishing pole can grab them. I think this is her favorite puzzle because it's not only a puzzle (which she loves) but she likes the fishing play mechanic as well.

She also plays with the fishing game we got her for Christmas for the same reason.

A week ago we got Sophie her first purse! It's a Hello Kitty, of course.

I can't believe how in one year she has really gone from the baby look to looking like a little person. Amazing.

Now that her hair is getting long enough (almost) we're trying to get Sophie used to having it pulled back, rather than the bowl look. Stacy put a headband in her hair, and she actually liked it (she hates it when we play with her hair - must get that from her mom). She looks so different with her hair pulled back!

Sophie's uncle Cory sent a valentines gift for Sophie - a nice doll and a Twinkle Twinkle Little Star book. She loves them both - thanks, Cory!

Tomorrow, Stacy and Sophie are going to a Princess Party at the local Christian book store. I'll see if I can get Stacy to not only take pictures, but to hop in and write about it!

Later!

Larry

January Update

Hi everyone!

We've been so busy lately, I haven't had much chance to post, but I've managed to find a few minutes tonight to get some new Sophie stuff up.

A week ago, it was warm enough again to play with Sophie outside - this time Stacy was home so she could take pictures. Here I am pulling Sophie in her sled up and down the driveway - she loves it!

A rare picture of Sophie and daddy together...

I have been building up a pile of snow everytime I clean the snow off of our driveway, and I finally got started digging out the inside of her fort...

So far, we have a nice throne for our princess...

So that's the fun we've been having in the snow!

Yesterday, Sophie got a very nice gift in the mail from her cousins Maddie and Jake:

They made a fish and ladybug for her - they are really nice, and it was very cool of Jake and Maddie to do that! Sophie loves them - thanks guys!

Well, time for me to kiss Sophie good night - see you all later!

Larry

Fun In The Snow

About a week ago, on one of the few days it's been warm enough that I feel comfortable letting her go outside, Sophie and I played out in the snow for about a half hour (until it got dark and colder)

Of course, I got Sophie all bundled up in her coat, snowsuit, hat, gloves, and boots...



The first order of business was to play with her new sled that she got for Christmas. I dragged her up and down the driveway a bunch of times both slow and fast. She loved it. I can't wait to go sledding with her for real!



I'd be a bad Minnesotan if I didn't teach her how to make snow angels! Not bad for her first one - okay, I moved her arms and legs to make it, but still...




Over the last few weeks we've had an average of two snowfalls greater then 4 inches per week, and all of that snow from our driveway I have been piling into a big hill on the far side of the garage (where we don't normally drive) so that Sophie and I can make a snow fort.

Unfortunately, the weather here has been cold - and I'm hesitant to take her out when the air temp is below 15 degrees (with wind chills near or below zero), so hopefully we'll have a warm snap soon and we can get that fort carved out.

Later!

Larry

Christmas 2008

Okay, so I'm a few days late - but here is the wonderful Christmas 2008 post!

To begin, we already had the big family Thanksgiving / Christmas celebration with Stacy's mom's family, so we now move onto last Tuesday evening, December 23rd...

We went over to Stacy's mom and step dad's house, and had a small get-together that was just for the five of us.

We had a good meal, and then it was time for presents.



It didn't take Sophie long to figure out the whole presents thing. She had previous experience both on her birthday, and at thanksgiving, but that was just a warm up for the next few days...



Sophie got a lot of nice gifts from Deb and Duane, and was especially thrilled with the last present, a sled!



Duane and I pulled her across the carpet several times (until we got tired) - she loved it.



It didn't take long for her to figure out just how much stuff she could get into her sled, so that she could drag it around herself...



We had a nice evening, and then went home so I could get sleep before work the next morning...

On Wednesday (December 24th - Christmas Eve) - I had to work a half day, and then we hopped in the van with my sister Allison, and I drove us all up to Aitkin (so close to the edge of the Earth you can see the dragons lurking) to see my mom and step-dad.

Again, we had a good meal, and then it was off to the presents! But first, Stacy and Allison took Sophie upstairs so that we could pretend the Santa had come with presents (the tree was pretty bare when we first got there.)

One of Sophie's first gifts was some dress-up stuff - a crown and earrings...




Now would be a good time to mention Sophie's unwrapping style. She tears a small piece off, then must give it to someone or set it carefully on the floor before tearing again. We had to keep egging her on to get her to get the paper off in any reasonable length of time - it was pretty funny.



Sophie got a nice porcelain doll with a music box, a "Moses basket" with stand, and a whole bunch of play kitchen stuff (to go with our big gift for her - the Rose Petal Cottage - see more on that below)

We left around 8PM, and headed home so that we could try and get Sophie's gifts from us all ready before Christmas morning.

Well, it took a lot longer than we thought it would to wrap all of Sophie's gifts and set up her play room withe the cottage and fort. We got to bed about 1:00 AM, and had to get up at a decent time so that we'd have time for our Christmas, as well as for me to make the meatballs for the Ziegler family celebration on Christmas afternoon.

We finally got out of bed around 8:45, and went downstairs to see what Santa brought Sophie this time!

By now, Sophie knew what presents were, and knew they were for her. She wasted very little time in digging in...

From us Sophie got an easel, a guitar, a Geo-Trax train set, a couple of kids games that we can play with her, and a mini mixer for her kitchen - which she had yet to see...

Which we set up down in her playroom...

The cottage is taller than she is, so it fits perfectly. She love playing house with us with all of her new stuff...

We also got her this modular fort from the people who make the Cranium games. It's kinda like the old putting blankets over living room furniture style, but modernized. She loves playing peek-a-boo in here.

All of this fun took us until after 11 AM, which put me wayyyyy behind on the meatball making.

Stacy gave Sophie a bath, and I cooked like mad. We were able to arrive at my step-sister's house only 30 minutes late.

We ate, and then came the presents, which were heavily focused on Sophie and her cousins Maddie and Jake...

Sophie got a set of twins, with a stroller and rocking seat, as well as some more play food and some bigger girl Legos (Duplo now, not the super big mega-blox).

Needless to say, she was very happy to get even more babies...

Here's Madison, Becky, Sophie, Steve, and Jake, posing together

Sophie also got some CDs, and the "Horton Hears a Who" DVD - so now we have a new movie to put into the van and listen too 500 times :)

Sophie has been working on playing catch with me and Stacy, and she needed to try some more playing with Grandpa...

We got home late in the afternoon, and crashed for basically the rest of the weekend...

Now we are a little more than a day away from the new year. 200i8 went by really fast!

I'm still working on the China DVD, but it will take some more time - there's a lot to do to make it coherent.

That's all for now - see you next year!

Larry