Little Friends

Sophie had her little friend Lydia over to play today. Lydia's family lives near by, and we are so thankful that they do! The moms, dads and kids all enjoy each other's company, which can sometimes be rare to find. We've lost two other special friends/families like that to moves down south recently, so we're hoping Lydia won't be going anywhere any time soon!

The girls had a fruit snack tea party today. They made me pretzels in the kitchen, and they were good at helping each other clean up the toys. They were not so good at sharing them, necessarily, but that's the age they're at. Owen was very cooperative and slept in his swing most of the morning, which meant that I had my hands free (and toddler distracted!) enough to do some prep-work for supper tonight. Yesterday was a difficult day, so we got canned tomato soup for supper. Tonight we're having homemade Pasta Fagioli! I'm guessing Greg will want Sophie to have little friends over to play more often!

Rough couple days

It's been a rough couple of days at our house. I had surgery on Friday to get my tubes tied. Sorry if that's TMI (too much information) for some of you! When I got home, Sophie had a fever and was looking as bad as I felt. We were quite a pair! Thank goodness Grandma and Grandpa were around to take care of us invalids as well as feeding/caring for Greg and Owen! Saturday was a better day, but we had a rough night again when Sophie woke up with a fever again and wouldn't go back to sleep. She ended up in bed with us, awake, for at least 3 hours before finally falling asleep practically on top of me. While awake, she was whispering the alphabet, consoling her doll Lilly ("Shhh. It's okay Lilly," while she patted her back), rubbing my back, doing my hair, and generally flopping around a lot. It was a rough night! But it could have been worse--Owen could have joined us. The highlights of our long weekend were having Grandma and Grandpa here to play (Sophie especially liked playing upstairs with them or in their van in the driveway!), receiving Halloween presents from Florida, and watching more movies than normally allowed. Beauty and the Beast, pronounced "Cutie and the Beast" by Sophie, was the favorite movie of the weekend. Sophie kept wanting to wear her yellow "Belle" dress, which is her dress from Cassie and Gerrit's wedding, while she watched. We are hoping Monday will find us all much better rested and in better shape than we have been the last few days! We also hope to be getting out of the house soon and watching fewer movies!

Angel? Princess?? FAIRY!!

We are thrifty shoppers and love to score a good deal, so last year, in that regard, we bought Sophie's Halloween costume for this year at the end of last season's clearance. Just last night we took out the angel costume we'd bought to be sure it actually fits her. We also hoped she'd like it, since we bought it a year ago, and we had no idea what she'd be into this year. Greg took it out, and she immediately called it a princess dress. Okay, we can work with that! She was very excited to put it on. Then she saw the wings and declared it a fairy costume. Even better! She came down the stairs to model it for me, and said, "Mommy! I'm a fairy... Fairies can fly... I can't fly........ I have to get bigger." It was so cute! She looked at herself in her mirror and kept saying, as if to convince us all, "When I get bigger, then I can fly."

So, now she's ready for Halloween--today! When I got her up this morning, I asked her where we get to go (the answer being church!) and she said "Trick-or-treat!" I explained that we wouldn't be able to do that for a lot of days still. She said, "Ya, maybe later." Halloween can't get here fast enough!

More Zoo

Thank goodness for Cassie and Gerrit! It took all four of us to take care of two small children! Thankfully, Owen ate during the dolphin show and lunch, which meant we didn't have to split up so as not to waste time. One of us always needed to chase Sophie around, hold her up, push her in the stroller, or push the stroller along when she chose to walk. She loved seeing the animals and would say, "See more animals," as soon as we'd get to the next one. She loved the farm animals because we could actually touch some of them--again, we were amazed at how bravely she went right up to the animals to touch them. She wasn't so brave about the sharks, though. She was a little concerned that there might be some in every dark cage we saw, so we had to reassure her a few times as she reassured herself too, saying, "Don't be scared." It was a great day!

We're going to the zoo, zoo, zoo

We went to the "Big Zoo" today as a family, including Aunt Cassie and Uncle Gerrit. In June I had worked hard to get free passes to go. The week I finally accomplished it was the week my activity was restricted due to high blood pressure in my pregnancy. So, Sophie and Greg got to go without me that time. Today, I got to go along, and so did Owen! I was struck by how the Lord has been so good to us. I sat home crying during Sophie's first trip to the Big Zoo because I wasn't healthy enough to go. This time, Owen and I, both in excellent health, got to make the trip too. (And I was able to score free passes again, so that made it all even sweeter!) We've come a long way since June! Here are a few preliminary pictures. I'll post some more soon!

Jammies

The camera is finally repaired!

Last night, after her bath, Sophie got to stay up a little later than usual to watch post-season baseball with Daddy and Owen. She kept asking, "What's her name?" wanting to know the names of the players. This is the only time of the year that Daddy also stays up a little later than usual!

This morning, Sophie enjoyed playing with her brother and even stopped to pose for a picture with him.

extreme makeover

I have been wanting a makeover lately (my makeup, my hair, my whole body...). Sophie must have sensed it, as she has taken it upon herself to fix me up. Last night she donned the safety goggles from her tool box and whipped out her measuring tape to take my measurements. Then she used her drill to "blow dry" my hair, along with her flashlight (evidently for those difficult to manage areas!). She then politely told me to "Put your head back" while pushing my head down with her hands and then aggressively gave me a ponytail. And, evidently I didn't do a good enough job on myself this morning because she was back at it again today!

Today we ran to Target to do an errand and while we were there we stopped to play in the toy aisle for a few minutes (an excellent, free diversion!). Sophie came across some microphones on an end cap of a main aisle of the store and immediately knew what they were and what to do with them. She started singing a bunch of gibberish into one, and then handed me a microphone and demanded, "Sing!" So there we were, standing in a big aisle of Target, singing "The Wheels on the Bus" into our microphones. Sophie kept calling out requests when we'd finish one song, while I kept asking if she'd like to go see the babies instead. While she was busy singing, I'd lower my microphone to my waist as I continued singing, but pretty soon she'd notice and chastise me and remind me to put it by my mouth. We got several grins and giggles from people as they passed by us. I should have laid a hat at our feet to collect the money she'll need to audition for American Idol in 18 years!!