Ready for Spring

We are so ready for Spring but Winter just keeps coming back, darn it! Sofia even got a nasty little sunburn on her face last Saturday hanging out in the back yard while we finished putting together our new play set that cost only a small fortune. But like I always say, "Anything for the children". I even forwent my last undeveloped area of the backyard that I had drawn out for a vegetable garden. Since I don't know the first thing about maintaining a vegetable garden and most of my indoor plants have dried up from neglect (even cacti), I was happy to give, this too, to the children.

There were many boxes and three new trees or pines or whatever those are.

Getting started

Teaching the girls the classic art of playing with boxes.

As usual, Dudi is of absolutely no help

... here you can see him lounging about as others do all the work.

When we finally got the structure up, it was so late and cold we didn't even get to try it out. So when the sun broke out for a few minutes the next day, although it was still a frigid 35 degrees, we ran outside and hooked up the swings. Even with cold hands, they approve.

Disney On Ice

After much deliberation about the cost and some poor planning, I decided to get tickets for the Disney on Ice show and take Sofia and Autumn on the last day. We dressed in style, I packed some lunches to fend off the Disney chochkey and junk food that was sure to assault us when we got there, and we set off to the Delta Center Energy Solutions Arena in downtown Salt Lake. I attempted to introduce them to the concept of manners telling them they needed to act like ladies. They were totally on board with the idea and proceeded to get all their burps and farts out in the car on the way there.

The girls were not too excited to make the 75 mile half a block walk from the parking lot to the arena building. There's no use fighting it, they just turn out spoiled no matter what. I'm considering dressing Sofia in a potato sack and feeding her bread and water to see if I can remedy this condition. Ironically, when I mentioned the bread and water diet to her one day that her whining about the particular temperature, color, and consistency of her food was grating quite hard on my nerves, she responded with some curious excitement. The next day, as I served her regular extravagant breakfast of warm oatmeal with raspberries and a glass of orange juice, she was, frankly, rather disappointed and reminded me that I was supposed to give her bread and water.

Anyway, we picked up our tickets at the Will Call counter downstairs. Getting Sofia to walk downstairs after just having walked UP a bunch of cement steps was another struggle. Thank God there was an elevator inside that took us to the next floor. The elevator attendant complimented the girls on their pretty attire. We made it there just in time, so I told the girls I wanted to get a picture of them before we went in to find our seats. They responded with utter indifference and maybe a tinge of disgust. They refused to stand next to each other or hold hands. It wasn't easy trying to balance a fifty pound diaper bag on my slope-y shoulder, crouch down to midget level and beg them to smile for several minutes, but I was determined to capture the "special memories".


By the time, we made it in, the show had just started, the music was a bit loud. Sofia was making her way down the stairs by herself as I held Autumn's hand and helped her down. Halfway down, she refused to move anymore and got scared. I supposed, if you don't know what your going into, this could be a scary sight. So I carried her the rest of the way down. Luckily, we found our seats easily and right at the beginning of the row. No one else was on our row or the next couple rows above us. We sat down to watch. The girls were attentive but not offering much of a reaction as I watched them. I think at first they were just trying to make sense of the spectacle before them. As they watched more and began to recognize the characters, they got more and more into it.


At intermission time, the damn sales people with the plastic trinkets, sugar candy, and artificially colored ice drinks started working the isles. I panicked as I saw Sofia's eyes light up like spotlights --much bigger reaction to the chochkeys than to the show. ??? She asked if she could get a disgusting colored icy thing in a Stitch cup and I tried to gently explain that we could not afford it and that we would never afford anything like it. I offered her bento box with lunch and snacks. I was pleasantly surprised that she was willing to console herself with that and didn't push for the expensive crap food and toys. But I could tell she was disappointed. I wanted to get her something. I wanted her to have fun and be excited. But I reminded myself that is the way of the spoiled brat, and I can't go that way. Both Sofia and Autumn had a good time with their bento lunches, although, I noticed only too late that Autumn had taken the ham with mayo out of her sandwich, eaten it, left the bread, and possibly wiped the mayo on the bento bag. Yum, I love to touch stuff like that.


The show was a lot smaller than I thought, I guess I'm too big now. It started off a bit underwhelming but it got better as it went on. Sofia's favorite part was clearly Peter Pan and the pirates although she's never seen the movie or read the story. When it was over, I asked her if she enjoyed it. Without smiling, she said yes, but she wanted to see it again. As we left, she demonstrated several levels of difficultness. She wouldn't hold my hand, and although she didn't throw a fit of any kind, I could see she wanted to get some kind of overpriced Disney trinket. She asked for one again, but I had to say no. She was clearly deeply disappointed. Thank God Autumn didn't ask for anything. I don't think I could have taken it.


When we got outside the mood was somber, I tried to take a few more pictures before leaving. You'd think after the show, there would be happy faces. I was slightly more successful but not by much. When we got to the sidewalk and as we were soon to cross the street, I told Sofia, she HAD to hold my hand. She refused. I think this was her way of demonstrating her utter unhappiness over not getting anything (the show doesn't count I guess). At the time, I just didn't get it though. I was very upset that she wouldn't cooperate. I had to be very harsh with her and after a brief bout of crying, she straightened right up.

Can we go now? I have a wedgie.

Sadly, I think Sofia just requires a certain degree of "harshness" I guess from time to time to sort of readjust her out of whack attitude. Hmm, if only this would work with Ray. By the time we got to the car, she was all about demonstrating how well behaved she was being. I was relieved at her turn around but sad too. Apparently, learning how to diaper, feed and put your child to sleep is really just child's play when compared to the hard tasks that lay ahead of understanding what the hell is going on in their heads.

In hind sight though. Maybe an overpriced plastic trinket would have made all the difference. [Mental note: for the next child -buy cheap Disney trinket at Walmart and hide in trunk of car then pretend to have bought it at the event].

Winter '08-'09 Fashions

Sofia has been getting a lot of use out of this wool riding caplet from Janie & Jack, a very good sale find. It is paired with her also wool Village Frock sewn by me for Thanksgiving last year. Riding boots from Land's End, not my first choice, but also getting a lot of use this winter. And cute Scottish doggy tights and matching beret from Gymboree.

[See more Village Frock here]

Alphabet Crown

After several close tries, Sofia finally passed off all her letters and corresponding sounds to earn the much sought after and highly regarded Alphabet Crown. The testing process is no easy task requiring a double pass off not only with the class teacher, Ms. Heather, but then also with the preschool director herself, Ms. Mimi in her office.

Seeing how close she had been to attaining this goal for several weeks, Ray encouraged her by promising her a Daddy and daughter outing to the movies once she earned the Crown. When I went to pick her up from school that Thursday, the alphabet crown was not even on my mind after the recent misses, so much so that it didn't even dawn on me when I saw her already standing outside proudly with Ms. Heather smiling from ear to ear and wearing, in fact, the infamous paper crown.


When she got in the car and Ms. Heather excitedly told me the news, I congratulated her gratuitously of course. Sofia was very excited and asked where Daddy was right away. As if somehow, he should have materialized immediately upon her accomplishment to take her straight over to the movies. I told her that he was still at work of course and explained that even when he came home, they were still not likely to go to the movies that very same day and that it would probably be on the weekend. That was a bit of a let down for sure.

But when it was time to go to the movies, she decided she wanted everyone to come. So we did. We went to see Bolt at the dollar movie. Remind me not to do that again with little kids. Even I had a hard time sitting through the extra half an hour of previews before the real previews, before the movie. Sofia was fine, it was Marcelo that was basically done with the movies by the time the actual movie started. I smuggled some home made popcorn and drinks in (you have to pinch pennies somewhere to have the luxe life that we do, you know). Sofia ate the entire bag less one kernel that she generally offered to me three quarters of the way into the movie. I didn't mind, it was her day after all and she enjoyed the movie from beginning to end.

--

This is the sheet they use to pass of the letters and other skills. Sofia knows her colors and most of the shapes. You must first have your Alphabet Crown to start blending letters, so she will be learning this next.

[Click image to enlarge]
Certainly there is room for improvement. Also, I don't know whether I should be impressed or perplexed that she can "Always" subtract one from numbers under five, but needs "One-on-one guidance" to add one to numbers under five.

In the summer we are considering a Spanish language immersion preschool which she already took for a test drive a few weeks ago. I only spent the first half hour with her at the McKee Language School but I couldn't get the "Soy una pizza" song out of my head for weeks. She was rather shy at first, but still reservedly wanting to see what it was all about. The classes are structured so that they rotate through six different activity types every fifteen minutes or so (Greeting and weather, Kitchen, Arts & Crafts, Drama, Shop, and Shopping). When the children participate in short conversations with each other and the teacher, they receive tokens which they can use to shop with at the end of each day. Sofia was very intrigued when she saw the teacher giving out tokens and the children putting them in their little fanny pack style bags. The teacher tried to get Sofia to participate several times while I was there but she wasn't ready to say anything. However, when they moved on to the "Kitchen" room, the bananas and yogurt snack got her talking immediately.

Suddenly she was having such a good time that she readily said "Yes" when I asked her if she wanted to stay for the whole class time and have me come back and pick her up later. When I came back, I was almost shocked to see she had a respectable number of tokens, I helped her count them and she purchased a bouncy ball.

It will be a lot of driving. The classes will be Monday, Wednesday, and Friday in the afternoon in Orem. But hopefully, it will be worth it.

Legacy Center Gymnastics

Sofia has been going to gymnastics twice a week at the Lehi recreation center since December per her wishes. On her first day, we got there early and she met another little girl with whom she made friends with right away. They compared their gymnastics skills, hoping around on one foot, and their gymnastics attire. After a few minutes, more kids started trickling in. Sofia's new little friend took a place on one of the mats forming a semi circle on the floor. Sofia followed and took a place right beside her. They were giggling with delight. For some reason, Sofia left her spot for a minute and another little girl, seeing how much fun it was to sit there, took her place. When Sofia returned, she was quite upset and started recoiling from the group. I tried to coax her to take another seat and call her friend over but she was just frozen with her hand clutched up to her mouth.

It was bitter sweet seeing how quickly and easily she had made friends with this little girl and how excited she was to participate in her new gymnastics class to then see her outcast herself from the group. Luckily, the little friend took it upon herself to bring another mat next to her and call Sofia over to it. Sofia was happy again, but the confidence wasn't there. Unfortunately, they didn't end up together when they broke off into smaller groups but Sofia seemed to enjoy herself following directions and cautiously trying new things.


Sofia and her new friend were together in a few more classes but eventually, the friend stopped coming. Sofia hasn't made any new friends like this in her class since. At the beginning of the class, there is a stretching period for which Sofia usually refuses to participate (she has slowly improved). Then they sit around in a close circle with feet in the center and sanitize their hands. Sofia is always sticking out of the circle. Next, they separate into groups of 4-6 and rotate through three different activities on the floor by marching in a line from one area to the other. Sofia usually gets picked last and ends up at the back of the line whether by choice or by attitude. She doesn't allow anyone to touch her and she doesn't touch the other kids when they form a train putting their hands on the shoulders of the child in front of them. Once its Sofia's turn to try out the activity at hand, she readily participates.


It makes me a bit sad to see that her behavior stands out from everyone else's. I don't mind her being an independent thinker, if fact, I encourage it. I don't even want her to be like everyone else but in a positive way not a negative way. It's the outcast effect of her behaviour that bothers me. She's either the class clown that everyone wants to be around or it's nothing at all. I'd like her to be a bit more regular when it comes to getting along with other kids, instead of one extreme or the other. But she seems to want to seek the most attention by being the favorite or by calling attention to herself by not participating. She doesn't seem to want to be just regular and get regular attention. I wish I could figure out a way to steer her in the right direction but I feel more and more, that she has set her own path and she's sticking to it.


It's probably for all of these reasons that I hadn't taken pictures of her doing gymnastics, but on this day, Tia Marcela stopped by to watch her from the viewing area above, where I sit with Marcelo and sometimes Autumn. Sofia was excited over the special occasion. In fact, when I went to drop her off, she told me she wanted to come upstairs with us instead. As if, in her mind, she's the one missing out. I had to convince her to go in the class, that we were all here to see her, that there was nothing better going on upstairs with us. Finally, she relented. She kept looking up to see if Tia Marcela was there and when she finally spotted her while doing the balance beam, she looked up with her gleaming smile full of pride.

Sometimes ...

Sometimes, when Sofia is not cutting mouse cords, painting Marcelo's face with marker, cutting up my to do lists into a million little pieces of paper, spreading out every blanket in the house on the floor for a gigantic stuffed animal sleep over party, or clogging the toilet with wipes ... if you're really, really quiet, you might be able to catch her quietly reading to herself in her reading nook. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, I've witness this rare glimpse of peaceful sanity on more than one occasion. And, for purposes of further study, I'm documenting it here.

Santa Baby

This year Sofia has been preparing for Christmas with great interest.

She's helped stuff birdies for her teachers at school.

She's come up with ideas for gift giving, such us "pots and pans for Tom" and "an alilen t-shirt for Josh because he likes alilen t-shirts".

She helped decorate the entire back side of the Christmas tree again.

She watched The Polar Express without winking once [nor peeing on the couch].


She sang a medley of songs for the Christmas Sing with her preschool class and although at times the expression on her face would have led you to think she had never heard these songs before, I managed to catch some very animated moments.

I think this was her reaction after Ms. Mimi announced that Santa was about to make his appearance.

She skeptically and eagerly met the arrival of Santa when he visited her preschool class. I think her excitement was doused by thoughts like "holy poop, what if he really does know when you're good or bad? What if he knows I cut the cord to the mouse on my Dad's computer. Poop! He's coming! I think the poop is about to hit the fan. What do I do?" --just a guess.


And today, she made a special trip to the mall to have a longer chat with Santa and have her picture taken again. She Ray waited patiently in line for almost two hours to see Santa.

Apparently, she was not happy with this arrangement. After, one of Santa's helpers suggested she could have some alone time with Santa, she perked right up and generously gave us her best princess smile.

When asked what she wanted for Christmas, she replied, "I want a dragon". Of course, a dragon, what else would Sofia want. What happened to, "... and what are little girls made of, sugar and spice and everything nice". (Yes, I know, she's missing a leg. No, we didn't cut it off).

Winter Wardrobe '08

Fall Winter '08 Home Made Fashion

"Mommy, can I go to gymnastics?"

Apparently Sofia has had enough of staying home with me. At the beginning of each day, she asks me if it's preschool day? if she can go to gymnastics class? if she can go to dance class or something? if we can go to Aunt Becky's house? or Walmart.

On this particularly cold and snowy day, she suffered all day indoors. Suddenly I realized that she had stopped complaining and there was quietness --finally. Twenty minutes later, she appeared before me decked in her full on snow suit with boots from two years ago that she jammed her feet into as she declared at a quarter to five in the evening that she was going outside to play.

As I go about making dinner, I step over to the window every couple of minutes to check on her. I see her going down the slide full of snow, pushing the toy wheel barrow full of snow, riding the tricycle. All fairly normal things. The next time I go look out the window I have to stop and look closer. I find her doing this --somersaults in the snow. I guess, she really does want to take gymnastics classes.

Halloween '08

This year we joined Sofia at preschool for some simple Halloween activities on Thursday. The teachers put on a little skit for the children where they made a witches brew and the kids sang Halloween songs, then we went back to their classroom where they played a couple more games and had apples with caramel and the witches brew (root beer). Finally, they got to out and play in the playground. Sofia was very happy (and a bit distracted) that we were there. Her and Marcelo's costume were a big hit. Everyone kept coming up to them to take their pictures. Sofia left a trail of feathers where ever she went.

about to take flight

Later that day, we got to go to a Halloween party at Aunt Becky's house. Sofia had lots of fun playing and going through the haunted spook alley in Lydia's room.

On Halloween day, we went out trick-or-treating around our neighborhood around six o'clock. After the haunted train ride at the neighbor's house, we headed over to Tia Marcela's house to show off the costumes and then to Abuelo's house. Sofia went trick-or-treating with her cousin Autumn again and got severely spooked by a prankster that didn't quite realize that they were just little girls. Sofia didn't actually get scared by the prankster as much as by Autumn's reaction but they recovered.

Unfortunately, I didn't have any tricks up my sleeve this year to keep Sofia from eating all her candy. Last year I surprised myself by successfully convincing her that all the candy she collected, she was to take home and save in her potty treat jar. No such luck this year.