Soph's first Freudian slip

I was just teaching Sophie how to shake hands, and I was trying to get her to say "Pleased to meet you" when she shook my hand. She was concentrating hard, and tried to say it, but it came out "Pleased to eat oatmeal", which I think is a vast improvement. It bypasses the whole politeness-for-politeness's-sake thing, and really tells the other person something about you (which is perfectly true in Sophie's case, her grandpa got her into oatmeal over the holidays, and she now wolfs down two servings and asks for more).

The next steps will be:

a) get her to stop shaking hands - she finishes with one, then demands the other hand, gives it a good shaking, then wants the first one back again, etc., etc., until you impolitely pull away from her or yell "that's quite enough hand shaking!" - and then she just grins and says "oatmeal"

b) get her to stop pulling the person close during the handshake and sneezing all over their face

After that, we're ready for the Miss Manners competitions.

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.