Christmas on Vancouver Island

Here are a few photos from Christmas 2008 to fill you in on what's been happening. We had a White Christmas with about two feet of snow and we've enjoyed the beauty of the scenery.

Sophie wearing the dress her Great Grandma Louise made for Holly about 30 years ago:


Packing for two weeks on the island:


Sophie "enjoying" her first visit to Santa.


Making the traditional sugar cookies with Nonna:


Decorating the tree at Nonno & Nonna's:


Hugging her new mouse, a present from Aunt Kristi:


Watching the hungry and cold deer get a snack with Grandma:


A new toy on Christmas morning:


Trying on the new sweater Mommy knit for her:


Christmas Day 2008, clearing the driveway of fallen branches:


Mommy and daughter on Christmas:


Heartwood in the snow:


Reading Frosty the Snowman with Grandpa:


All-natural hair, no curling iron used in the creation of this picture:


Three Broadlands on Christmas Day:


The Kozijns and Broadlands in the new studio on Boxing Day:

Recent new words/phrases

Here are a few things Sophie has been saying recently:
- "opportunity knocks"
- "ridiculous" (learned while Daddy was awake at 3:30am, luckily too incoherent to think up any worse words)
- "bubble lights" (on the Christmas tree)
- "lovely day"
- "more sled!"
- "momma's reading a book"
- "winner chicken dinner" (we'll teach her to play blackjack shortly, and add the other "winner")

It's definitely a language explosion. Now to work on her motor skills...

Let it Snow!

The West Coast has been hit with unseasonal snow storms this December (we're much more accustomed to a rainy Christmas than a white Christmas). Sophie and I went out in the snow on Wednesday and made a snowman together. It was Sophie's first time making a snowman (if you count watching your mom do everything as making a snowman). Overall, she seemed dubious, but I sure had fun!




We're now in Metchosin and the snow has been coming down steadily since 5pm last night. It was a very cosy scene this morning as Nonno read to Sophie while the snow softly fell outside.

Sophie's word of the day...

...is "exactly". As in:

Sophie (pointing at the book I'm currently reading): Dada book.
Dean: Yes, that's Dada's book.
Sophie (pointing at one of her gajillion books, a bit further away): Sophie book over dere.
Dean: Yes, you're right, Sophie's book is over there.
Sophie: Yeah, exactly.

Anagram

Holy cow. If anyone ever tries to tell you that subliminal anagrams don't play a role in baby name choices, check this action out: I just realized that "Sophie" can be rearranged into "Oh, pies!"

One, two, three cookies! Ah, ah ah!

A fun new thing Soph's experimenting with is counting. She definitely gets the concept of "one thing, two things" - shoes, socks, baby legs, books, dogs - she can tell us if there's one or two of them, no problem. She also seems to get the concept of "lots" - lots of people, lots of books. And just today, she counted up to five out of the middle of nowhere! I think it may have been a bit of a fluke, since sometimes, it goes "one, two, six, one, four". She knows the numbers up to six, but I haven't heard a "seven" from her yet.

If we really wanted to accelerate the process, we could introduce her to the Count, but that could also lead to Cookie Monster, and that could lead to either a skyrocketing cookie budget, or that unfortunate "cookies are a sometimes food" nonsense, which I'd be hard-pressed to explain (or justify) to Sophie. The Count is a gateway muppet, so (as responsible parents) we'll have to watch out for that.

Sophie's favourite books

Holly here. As a visual aid to Dean's post about Sophie's love of books, here are some of her favourite titles at the age of twenty months. This is just a small sampling of the books we might read her on any given day, but definitely is a snapshot of some of the books that are in high demand.

If she likes a book, she'll immediately turn it over once you're finished and demand, "Again!" Also, if you're too slow to start reading a book, she'll take your hand and place it right on the book. She doesn't let you get away with daydreaming when you're supposed to be reading to her!

Books, books, books

Books are one of Sophie's favourite things in the whole world. She wants to read first thing in the morning, she reads all day long, and she finishes each day with a quick story. She really enjoys bookstores, but she loves the library.

We were walking home tonight, and when we were crossing the road that leads off to the library, Sophie started wriggling around in her stroller, waving her arms, and yelling "library, library, library, library!" When we failed to turn down towards the library, Sophie started thrashing around, and crying her eyes out. "Nooooo... Library! NOOOOOOOOO!"

Holly and were talking about how nice it is that she's so attached to things like books. I guess it's only a matter of time until she's a teenager, borrowing our, uh, bus pass, and raising hell. We'll just have to enjoy this as long as it lasts.

Part of this complete lifestyle

You know, I find my days just aren't complete unless I've had a mouthful of soggy Raisin Bran sneezed on me from three feet away by a highly amused toddler. It's funny what you get used to.

A sense of self

Philosophically speaking, there's something significant about first recognizing yourself as a distinct entity, realizing that you persist through time, that you can interact and affect those around you, and indeed, that things like noses, hats, stuffed animals, and even (oh joy) shoes can *belong* to you.

Sophie has recently (over the last few months) entered this stage, and is now very fond of assigning ownership to various things around the house. "Dada pants", "Mama brush", "Sophie (everything else)". She's (currently) particularly attached to a couple of "Sophie bags" and the "Sophie shoes" that Daddy bought for her. (They're runners.)

She's still quite the avid reader, but doesn't claim possession of them as "Sophie books". They're just books - sometimes named by a minor character/feature in the book - "little boy", "chicken" (a book about cows with a tiny chicken on the back), "fat baby", and "galleries" (a book about urban yuppie babies).

Back to the topic - now that she's realized she's Sophie, she's showing signs of having a pretty solid self-image. We've recently taught her to say "I love you" (awww, so cute, shmoopy), and on the bus today, she started saying/yelling "I looooove... SOPHIE!". And then she'd call out the stops for people, as usual.

Sophie's second Halloween

This is how she rolls

Sophie and I had our very first mommy/daughter baking session on October 30th. We made pumpkin cut out cookies and they were delicious.

Here she is going through a dry run with the rolling pin. Things got very messy very quickly once we added the dough and flour.



On Halloween, Aunt Kristi came over and helped bake the second half of the batch.