A Giggle to Start the Week Off Right

(These Are) A Few of my Favorite Things

These cheeks. They kill me.


These blue eyes. Where did they come from? Will they stay around? We don't know, but we sure like them.


These dumply, chubby thighs. Is dumply a word? It is now.



These sweet hands. She holds her hands together all the time. I love it.


The dimples in these elbows.


These rubber band wrists.


Did I mention these sweet hands? I just love them.


The expressions, the sweet noises, and every single minute with this sweet baby.

First Day of Kindergarten

Catching up on posts today! Whee!

Here she is, ready for her first day of Kindergarten. Or as Sophie likes to call it, "Big School."


I got her this "Getting Ready for School" chart. It really does help to keep her on task in the morning. Each box represents something she has to do, like "Get up on time" and "Eat breakfast." As she completes each task, she moves the square from the red column to the green column. When all six tasks are done, she gets a star for the day. When she got all her stars for the first week, she earned a prize. Hey, whatever works!


Here is her school! It's only a few years old and it's very nice.


Here is Sophie with the class pet, Chub Chub. He's a Chinese Pygmy Hamster. (Why do I always want to put a "p" in hamster?)


Sophie loves her some Chub Chub.


And here she is, settled in at her table with her first-ever Kindergarten assignment. It was a big day for a big girl!

A Tale of Two Girls

We just returned from a week at the beach.


Sophie loves the beach and everything about the beach. This was an historic year, because it was the first year that we could let her run around without having to worry that she was going to dive headfirst into the ocean.


Elisabeth is new to the beach. This was an historic year because it was her first time ever visiting it. This was also her first ever vacation. (As if ten-week-olds actually need a vacation.)


Sophie spent all her time on the beach running around in the surf and playing in the sand.


Elisabeth spent all her time on the beach in this tent.


We went to Broadway at the Beach, which has a little amusement park. Sophie rode the airplanes...


the Ferris wheel...


and the choo-choo train.


Elisabeth rode the stroller.


One of these days, these two girls will get to run around the beach together and ride the rides together.

I can't wait.

Welcome to the Family

On May 6th, we welcomed a new member into our family. Elisabeth Rose was born at 12:50 PM, weighing 8 lbs 3 oz and was 20 inches long. Sophie has been eager to help take care of her-- she loves her new little sister. Elisabeth smiles a lot and has been a joy. We are happy to have her in our family!

Click here to view these pictures larger

Cooking with MeeMaw

One of my favorite childhood memories was going to Grandma's house and cooking in her kitchen. There was always something cooking at Grandma's. A few weeks ago we went to visit my Grandma's house, and Sophie got to cook with her for the first time.

Grandma had a perfect little apron and rolling pin all ready for Sophie to use. And together they made biscuits!



Grandma never measures when she makes biscuits. If you ask her for her recipe, she will look at you a little blankly and say, "Well honey, you just put your flour in the bowl and work in the buttermilk..."

Which is exactly what she does.


Next, Sophie got to roll out the dough with her rolling pin. She did a great job!




Then, Grandma showed Sophie how to use a biscuit cutter to cut out the biscuits. I'm pretty sure this was her favorite part.


They put the biscuits in the baking dish and they were ready for the oven!


Sophie learned that a watched biscuit never browns. Or something like that.


Once the biscuits were done, we all enjoyed the fresh hot biscuits with apple butter and sweet tea. (Except Sophie, who enjoyed them with apple juice instead.) Sophie was very proud of her biscuits. And I know the feeling.


Because a long time ago, I did the same thing myself.

The Three Little Peeeeeegs

Yesterday we took Sophie to her first puppet show! We saw Tangle of Tales at Children's Theatre of Charlotte. You might say I'm slightly familiar with the show. A little bit.


Before the show started I told her that the stories she would see were The Frog Prince, Three Billy Goats Gruff, and The Three Little Pigs. She was very excited about the pigs.


During the show, every time a new puppet character popped up she would ask me, "is that the three little peeeeegs?" The Three Little Pigs story actually comes last in the show, which was great since it definitely built her anticipation. Meanwhile, she really enjoyed the show. She laughed and clapped and was mesmerized by all the action.


After the show, we went out into the lobby where there was a puppet theater set up for the kids to play with. It was a big hit! It was cool to see all the kids really excited about trying out the puppets for themselves.


Sophie was in her element.


After the show, we rode the light rail train into SouthEnd. Sophie was ecstatic about getting to ride the train! This is the second time she's ridden the train, so she's an old pro.


Getting on board the train.


We got off the train and had lunch at the Phat Burrito. We had a great time!

Snow Day!

Last week we had a rare snow day in Charlotte. We only got a dusting at our house, but other parts of Charlotte got more.


My parents got about four inches at their house, as you can see from this picture my Mom sent. But even with our modest 1/2", Sophie was thrilled. I opened the blinds Tuesday morning and told her to come look outside. When she did, she said, "It's snowing! Does that mean it's Christmas?"


She couldn't wait to get bundled up and go play out in the snow. The very first thing she did was to grab a handful of snow...


And throw it at me.


She tried catching snowflakes on her tongue.


Then she played on the swingset for a while, until we were both so cold that we went inside for hot chocolate. The hot chocolate was Sophie's idea-- I think she probably got the idea from an episode of Max and Ruby. (That's where most of her inspiration comes from.)

By noon the snow was almost gone. But it was fun while it lasted!

The Best Christmas Pageant Ever

Every year on Christmas Eve our church has a "Family" service where the kids do a pageant. Our pastor, Jim Kallam, calls this service "Organized Chaos." That about sums it up.

Her first year in the pageant was 2007. She was a sheep. This year, she was promoted (by virtue of the fact that she turned four) to angel.


Here we are in the dressing room before the show. She's practicing her angel moves. They will be non-existent by the time the pageant starts.


Here are Mary and Joseph. As you can see, they've arrived at the stable. Take a good look at them now-- soon they'll be obscured by approximately 3,500 angels, shepherds, and sheep, all clamoring for the spotlight.


And here are the shepherds and the sheep, obscuring the view of Mary and Joseph. This picture reminds me of the scene in "Charlie Brown Christmas" when the Peanuts gang surrounds the sad little Christmas tree and decorate it to within an inch of it's life. I sort of expected that when the shepherds and sheep stepped away, the manger would be strung with colored lights.


The angels arrive on the scene. Now it's time to play "Can You Spot Sophie in This Picture?" Take a good look.


How about now?


I'll give you a hint.


Ahh, that's better. And look how happy she is! She's smiling! She's "in the moment!" She's... she's...


Uh oh. This doesn't look good.


Aaaaaand... she's gone.


Now she's hiding behind the other children as they sing. I have it on good authority that while this song was going on, she was doing an Oobi puppet show that could only be seen from backstage.


This picture has nothing to do with my story. But how often do you get to see a group of angels doodling on a marker board?

Here's a video of the pageant. You can see Sophie at the 5:41 mark.