Last Conversations With a Two Year Old

Tomorrow Sophie turns 3! Making today the last day she is 2. I feel this need to chronicle everything about her 2 year old days: cute things she said and did, the things she wore, etc. So here it is, the last Conversations With a Two Year Old post:

Me: "I like you :)"
Sophie: "You LOVE me!"

Sophie: "Where are you going?"
Me: "Just outside to take out the recycling."
Sophie: "Okay, well, put on your shoes. You don't want to hurt your feet."

Sophie: "Am I a person?"
Me: "Yes, you're a person. And Lilah is. And I am. And Daddy is."
Sophie: "Daddy's not a person, he's a boy."
Me: "Boys are people too. Hard to believe some times, but they are!"

Sophie: "Mommy! Lilah has teeth!" (This was said when Lilah had about 6 teeth already.)

Sophie (to Shimmy): "I would hold you if you were a little boy."

While playing show and tell (whispering): "Mommy! Mommy! Can we run in the library? Nooo... We have to be QUIET!"

Upon seeing our new house for the first time: "Is this the Beatles' house? Where's John? Where's Paul? Where's George? Where's Ringo?"

Sophie: "Can I have a tissue?"
Me: "Yes... does this mean you're going to be sick and pitiful now?"
Sophie: "Yes."

In a sing-song voice: "I have a nipple! I have a nipple!"

At the grocery store, pointing to some dog treats: "Mommy, can I please have some of these cookies?"

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I'd also like to remember some of the funny ways she used to pronounce things. She has very few of these funny words now, but when she had just turned two her speech was rampant with Sophie language:

Meecote= Wacky Mac
Fwakamony= Maccaroni
Peppamonny= pepperoni
Meegut= music
Yaya= Lilah
Diwun= dinner
Bwata= blanket
Fwack= both quack and black

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Last Sunday evening we had Sophie's birthday party. It was soooo low key compared to past years' parties. I just had no idea where we'd be up to with packing and moving. It was sort of a last minute decision. Shimmy's sister and cousin were already in town, so we decided to have a small pizza party at our house for family and Sophie's few friends outside of school. Tomorrow morning I am bringing cupcakes to her classroom during snack time for another little party.




Here is a picture of her on her birthday last year:



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Happy Birthday, sweet Sophia Grace. Thank you for making me a mommy. I love you more than life itself. I can't wait to see what you will learn, say, and do this year. You never cease to amaze me.

Wimpy Wimpy Wimpy

I took Lilah for her 9 month check up yesterday. She is healthy and perfect in every way, Thank G0d. She's working on teeth #5 and 6, she is eating more table food every day, she is babbling with a couple of consistent words (Lilah and Mama), and she has always been a star sleeper. But she is wimpy. She has only gained a little over a pound in the past 3 months. While she can kick the crap out of you and can even do pelvic lifts, and she is seriously lacking in the upper body strength department. In related news, she has no will to crawl. So, we're going to squeeze in an extra meal a day even though she never seems hungry, and we're going to do an upper body workout every morning (which she hates). Over the next 3 months we're going to beef up. GRRRRR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm cute, even though I'm wimpy:



Work out? You must be joking.



No, really, I'm good.



See my baby biceps? No? Hmmm.



Who needs to learn how to crawl with a smile like this?

Hmmmmm, updates anyone?

Oh, look! A blog! I kind of forgot about it. So here's what's been going on:

Snow! First we had a little, then we had A LOT. After the first snow, Sophie helped shovel:

We celebrated Chanukah for 8 crazy nights. Well, 6 out of 8 were crazy with parties, dinners, etc. Sophie lit her own menorah for the first year and it was Lilah's first Chanukah!



Aunt Ave graduated from nursing school- with an award! The original graduation date was postponed due to the blizzard, causing Aunt Sharon to miss it even though she flew in specifically for the occasion. We partied on the original graduation date and attended the ceremony the next night. We are so proud of Avery!


Sophie is completely potty trained- even at night! That was FAST! I guess when you're ready, you're ready.


So that's basically what's been going on. All of that plus packing for the big move (less than 2 months to go!), hanging out with friends, not treadmilling as much as I'd like (with the exception of one awesome 16 mile week), and having colds.

You can lead a toddler to a toilet...

...but you can't make her use it until she really wants to. Like every other developmental milestone she has embarked upon, Sophie would not be potty-trained until SHE decided it was time. We went through this with crawling, walking, self-feeding, EVERYTHING! The girl is smart. She is a fast learner. But, boy is she strong-willed. (I wonder where she gets it from?) We had been working on potty-training for the past year. Each time someone had a suggestion for us, my response was, "Thanks! We've actually tried that. She knows exactly what to do and how to do it, she just doesn't WANT to do it yet. When she decides to, she will." This past Friday night she decided it was time. I still don't even know how it happened- it was that quick. One second she was playing, the next she was sitting on the potty going. There was no turning back after that. We've had four successful days now with just a couple of accidents (which were my fault for taking my eyes off of her for one second). Here is our potty training experience in pictures:

This is Sophie a year ago, sitting on her new Elmo potty. She is very excited about sitting on a potty (and getting stickers), but has no interest in actually using it:

This is back in the summer when we bought her underwear. Again, very excited about wearing undies, but when she needed to use the bathroom she would cry hysterically, pleading for a diaper to go in instead of going on the toilet.

The products of yesterday's trip to Target now that Sophie has decided to start using the toilet regularly- new Ariel undies (Elmo was so last year), pull-ups for night time, a second potty seat for the downstairs bathroom, M&M's for rewarding successful potty trips, a princess tea set from Nana and Poppa because WE ARE ALL SO PROUD!!!, and resolve for the inevitable accidents:

We are on a roll here, people, on a roll!

More Turkey, Mr. Chandler?

I love Thanksgiving. It is one of my favorite holidays. I love the warm coziness of hanging out by the fireplace for the first time each year. I love the food. I love the company. But it seems like every single year some debacle takes place which puts a damper on my good time. This year it was a bunch of men smoking cigars on my lawn, forcing my kids and myself to be confined indoors for 4 hours as we watched what was supposed to be a fun time. Last year it was a huge fight which erupted the night before Thanksgiving mostly having to do with a general disrespect for me, particularly in my pregnant condition. The year before that, some guests were late, causing the Turkey to be dried out and not the succulent meal I had perfected over the years. And so on and so forth. Each time, I recover from the debacle and still manage to have a nice Thanksgiving. But I can't help but dwell on the fact that it wasn't the perfect day it should have been. I know this probably speaks more about my unrealistic expectations for Thanksgiving to be perfect. You know what would help me lower the bar? If I heard about other people's Thanksgiving debacles. This would shatter the mental image I have of everyone else's day going perfectly. So if you have a bad Thanksgiving story please, please share it! It will be just like the Friends episode!

Celebrity Gift Bags

You know how when celebrities attend events they are provided with fabulous gift bags full of amazing things (because who deserves free stuff more than the richest people in the world?!)? Well, I got to thinking. If I could afford to provide fabulous gift bags for all of my friends, what would I put in them? There are some items and products I use every day that are just so awesome I want to share them with everyone. (And obviously if money were no object I'd buy all my friends diamonds and cars, but these are more like household items.)

Dawn Power Dissolver- you just spray this stuff on before you wash the dishes, then save those items for last. The caked on stuff just wipes away!

Almay Eye Make-up Remover- The only eye make-up remover that takes off waterproof mascara without messing up my contact lenses.

Nutella- holy crap this stuff is good. Highly addicting and most certanly NOT part of a nutritious breakfast as the ads claim. But OMG so good!

A Dyson vacuum cleaner- After using my Dyson for a while now I can say it lives up to the hype. It does a great job and is very user-friendly. I am someone who has had a lot of bad luck with vacuums in the past- they always seem to break on me after a year, no matter how expensive or cheap they are. But the Dyson has outlived them all and I actually like using it.

Tim Gunn Doll- Because I love Tim Gunn and love to hear his catch phrases all day long. Work work work! Designers... Talk to me... Make it work!

Thermacare heat wraps- I have already given these away on many occassions. They work miracles where and when you need them to.

2007 Flechas de Los Andes Gran Malbec- My favorite wine lately. I love rich, spicy dishes and this wine is the perfect pairing with them.

A meal to go with that wine- Either one of my famous roasts or my curried lamb. Both are heavenly.

Pink Fuzzy Bootie Slippers- because they are warm, fuzzy, and kind of dorky, so they make you smile whenever you look down.

The Beatles complete digitally remastered box set- for obvious reasons.

So there you have it. A fabulous gift bag for my fabulous A-listers.

Perspective

2 crazy little girls who did NOT want their pictures taken
2 babies who were tired, hungry, and cranky
2 mommies who just wanted a few decent pictures
3 hours at Picture People and Starbucks
$100 spent

But the results are just priceless: