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.