No way, chickens!

We took Sophie to the UBC Farm Market to pick up some local, organic produce and after we made our purchase, we took a little tour of the grounds. The highlight of the tour was the chicken coop with a couple dozen curious chickens who came over to visit Sophie. We must have exclaimed, "No way!" while we were describing the chickens, because Sophie has now got the two phrases inextricably entwined. If anyone happens to say "No way!" in her earshot, she immediately retorts, "No way, chickens!"

Happiness Is...

The other day, Sophie made one mess...



after another...



and both Sophie and I were getting frustrated, so I decided we'd go for a walk in the drizzle. We had a lovely time collecting leaves and exploring the neighbourhood and I was inspired to write a blog post in my head entitled "Happiness Is...".

It went something like this:
Happiness is...
- picking up a multicoloured bouquet of fall leaves



- puddle jumping with froggy boots

- walking at the speed of a toddler
- watching a spider climb around her web
- saying hi to the neighbourhood dogs

All was sweet and lovely, until ten minutes from home the happy toddler turned into a hungry, screaming 30-pound monster who wanted to be carried the whole way home. My ideal blog post crashed down around me, but Dean says this one is funnier anyway, so here you are!

A couple more random blurbs

- Sophie gave me a new pirate name the other day. She was pawing at my goatee and solemnly pronounced me to be "Chinbeard". Arrr...

- Coming home on the bus, Soph showed how parrot-like she's getting these days. The recorded voice on the bus was announcing our stops, and Sophie repeated two of them in a row: "Macdonald... Bayswater..." and then nuzzled into my arms and happily murmured "local bus". Goofy girl.

Sophie's a gomer

Tidbits about Sophie:

I told her to put her food (some carrot from a stew) in her mouth, and she tried asking if she could put it in various other body parts ("shoulder? ear? cheek? nose?") before finally agreeing to eat it.

She parrots back everything these days. We were talking with Janet about what we were planning for dinner, and she proudly yelled out "veggie burger!" (Her enunciation was a bit off, but parents are especially good at attributing crystal clear meaning to stuff that, in this case, probably sounded more like "eddy buggah".)

She's obsessed with pointing out noses. Anything that has a nose (e.g. strangers on the bus, pictures of frogs), or might conceivably have a type of stylized nose (cars, fire hydrants), get "NOOZE!" shouted at them more often than not.

I took her out on the deck of the ferry recently, up to the front, where the wind is the strongest. She was smiling as hard as she could, clinging to me like an extremely clingy clinging machine, and kept saying "indy! indy!" (windy). Tons of fun.

One and a half years of fun

Happy 18 month birthday, Sophie!

Happy first day of Fall!

Two new teeth

We've nearly got the full set now. Sophie's two bottom eye teeth made their appearance yesterday, just before she turned a year and a half. All we need now are the two year molars to complete the set!