Happy two and a half years, Sophie!

This kiddo just turned two and a half yesterday and she learns more every day! Her language skills amaze us and we're always laughing at her quotes. Here are a few recent ones:

Janet: "It feels like fall, holy cow!"
Sophie: "It doesn't feel like I'm falling!"

Dean: (offering Sophie pasta) "Do you want a spoon or a fork?"
Sophie: "A T-Rex would be fine."



Today, she showed me her new hopscotch skills for the first time and I was amazed at her progress. The last time she tried hopscotch, she sprinted from one end of the court to the other and dubbed the game "runscotch". (Thanks to Grandma Jan for the great photos!)


With a schedule that includes entertaining her grandparents, starting preschool, working on toilet training, and learning dozens of new words a week, being two and a half is an exciting time. We love you, Sophie!

Imitation

At the recently installed "Meeting" sculpture in Coal Harbour. It's part of the Vancouver Biennale sculpture exhibit.

Fun at 4,039 feet

On the last day of summer, Sophie and I took advantage of the great weather and took the skyride up Grouse Mountain. We watched the beautiful video of BC in the Theatre in the Sky, cheered on the brave and crazy people climbing up the Grind, got up close and personal with two grizzly bears, and took the chair lift to the peak of Grouse (1,231 m or 4,039 ft) to enjoy a picnic on the top of the mountain.

Happy Talk Like a Pirate Day!

Arrrr. Tis one of the swashbucklingest holidays ever today - Talk Like a Pirate Day! Yo ho ho!

To celebrate, we balanced our grog-drinking parrot Arturus on our little pirate's shoulder, and snapped a few shots. Here's one of them, yarrrrr...

We also gave Soph a choice between walkin' the plank and watching the Dead Parrot sketch. She chose wisely, although she didn't seem to fully grasp the genius of the Pythons... She does at least understand that pirate parrots sit on your shoulder, so that's something, ye dog.

That didn't quite satisfy my pirate needs for the day, so I also started playing The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition, on sale on Steam for $4.99 this weekend! Gotta love Guybrush Threepwood... Avast.

Well, until next time, my scurvy bilgerats.

Fall wardrobe

Sophie's new-to-her pea coat


The shot from behind because her curls look just too cute with the coat

A couple days ago, we took a family trip to a local consignment store and loaded up on pre-loved clothes for Sophie's fall wardrobe. I just had to share a couple of pics of Sophie in her new pea coat. We also got some cool whale pjs, an orange and red corduroy skirt, a ski jacket, and a sweet robot t-shirt. I love buying used clothes for Sophie, they're in great condition and we get to give the clothes a second chance!

A Maisy quilt

One day while Sophie and I were reading "Maisy Goes to Bed" by Lucy Cousins, the idea to make Sophie a quilt like Maisy's came into my head. I immediately dumped out my fabric stash and discovered that I had everything I needed to make a doll-sized version of Maisy's patchwork quilt. Sophie helped by choosing pairs of fabric squares for me to sew together. She also enjoyed playing with the string-pieced fabric.


After Sophie went to bed, I finished the quilting.


I think it's a pretty good match with the quilt in the book!


And Sophie loves snuggling under the quilt with her head on a pillow and calling it her "nest"!

First day of preschool

Our little two and a half year old headed out to her first day of preschool this morning! She's in the 2s class, which is one and a half hours once a week with a parent in attendance. Next year, she starts going by herself.

Last night, Sophie was so excited about preschool that she wanted to go right away at 7pm. We managed to wait until this morning and biked up the big hill as a family. At preschool, all the cute kiddos sat on the carpet while we sang the intro song. Our Soph was one of just a couple kids who said their own names (everyone else was introduced by their moms). Sophie enjoyed playing with building logs, the dollhouse, the tools (including wearing the stylish green goggles!), and the food in the play kitchen. There's so much more to explore next time!

At the end of the class, Sophie went up and hugged her teacher. I think that's a good sign!

With thanks to the Blonde Designs blog for the photo idea.

Mmm... chocolate muffins!

Aunt Kristi makes good chocolate zucchini muffins!

Art group

Sophie's been going to a weekly art group with three little friends since January. We always have fun and get nice and messy. Today, Sophie is showing you her lobster made using the classic art supplies of egg carton, pipe cleaners, feathers and glitter glue.