Our family wishes all of you a happy and healthy holiday and 2007! This year has been a real whirlwind! We watched our baby girl grown into a little pre-schooler who laughs and runs and sings and gives big wet kisses and hugs. It has been an exhausting but wonderful year. Our hope is that yours was just as wonderful.

I have finally gotten some photos up from Thanksgiving and our birthday party. Check them out here. The last few weeks have been incredibly busy between the holiday, planning the birthday party, deciding to make my very first cake, going to Brad's corporate holiday party (and running around trying to find a dress that didn't make me look rolly-polly), and attending our nephew's christening. Oh yeah, and working full-time, managing the finances, grocery shopping, cooking, and trying to appease a little two-year old. It has too get better after the holidays, right?

I decided to try adding one tiny lil' ole ad to my blog, so I am now officially an Amazon Affliate. If you like the product shown in "Sophia's Toy Fund" section, click on it and purchase. Sophia gets a little cut on the purchase to go towards a new toy. Times are tough. Any way we can get a few bucks here or there, why not?

<end of shameless plug>

OK, time to catch you up on things since once again I have lapsed. Should only get worse now that we are moving into the holiday season and Sophia's and my birthday (Dec 5).

Momis and Friends

Most every morning and evening now includes building track and playing with Momis (Thomas). Sophia LOVES trains. And to be honest, I seem to be having a good time too. Who knew? The other day she began taking the trading cards out of the box and matching them up with the correct train! Truly blew me away. She also knows all the names of the trains and when she says the name "Peter Sam" I have to control myself from kissing her silly.

Language Explosion

Aside from the occasional episodes of defiance, I am really enjoying the nearly two's. Sophia is now singing her "ABC's" (A, B, C, D, E, eh oo ah ee wa , Q, R, S, ee oo V, ubeloo, X, ee ah ee), counting to 10, having conversations with herself and her teddy, and generally just talking up a storm. It is nice to be able to get a sense of things that are bothering her rather than her just crying and flailing about.

Daddy is on the outs

While I love being the favorite, it does have it's drawbacks. Mommy has to dress Sophia. Mommy has to change Sophia. Mommy has to bathe Sophia. Mommy has to play with Sophia. Mommy has to have Sophia sit on her lap in the bathroom. You get the picture.

The other day I really wanted to get out of bathing duties. So I told my clinging child I would put her PJs on and read her book once Daddy was done. By the third time of saying this, we had a deal. She reached out to her Daddy and while he was holding her she patted me on the head and said, "Sorry Mommy." Oh my gawd she is good and wrapping me around her finger.

Miscellaneous Cuteness

Sophia loves to smell all the spices in the cabinets and laughs after each new smell. She must have her teddy or her kitty staring at her while she eats. She says thank you (datoo) without us asking. She gives big, wet kisses at bedtime to her bedtime book and her Mom. She runs to the door screaming with delight when Grandma and Pop-Pops or her big sisters arrive.

OK, enough. I must stop now before you all get stuck in an endless "Aw!" loop.

I keep thinking that I need to step things up when playing with Sophia and do something other than just playing with her toys over and over again. But I always seem to lack the time and creativity to do something different. Today I came across a wonderful website that provides a newsletter of crafty things to do with your toddler with each week focusing on a particular theme. This week its all about food. The ideas seem very doable for a two-year old (and a craft challenged mom) and don't seem to require massive amounts of craft supplies, so I have signed us up for next week's letter. Let's see if we can squeeze some of these ideas into our busy schedule!

Sophia is now singing the ABC song and counting to 10. This behavior abruptly started this weekend. I better brush up on my Algebra and Latin soon.

If you feel you can stand it, take a peek at our costume-clad child. But we must warn you, you could immediately decombust from the adorableness that radiates from her body.

Unfortunately we have no pictures of her stalking Elmo at the Halloween parade. Little did the innocent child know that posing as Sophia's furry red idol could result in a crazed little girl running after him screaming "Melmo!"

This weekend was an exercise in patience, which I have never admitted to have a lot of. Friday night...clothes laid out for three little girls, everyone given instructions that we needed to get dressed and ready to go to Brad's friend's house around 11:30. Saturday morning...I run around getting everyone dressed, hair brushed, bellies fed, toys for the ride gathered and we are off...Well, nearly. Where's Brad? According to Sara who runs inside to look for him, he is covered in blood and might be while. Okay. So we wait (yeah, I know, I should have run in to see if he was still alive but somehow I had a feeling it was a manageable bleed), and wait. Five minutes later, no Brad. So in I go to drag the bloody man out into the car already. Somehow, after cutting apples for the kids, he got a tiny cut on his hand which got all over his shirt and pants. Clothes changed. Off we go, 20 minutes late.

At 1:20 we arrive at his friend's house. The door opens. "Um, hi Brad. The party starts at 4pm."

Breathe in, breathe out.

So feeling like complete idiots after hanging out in the living room for 10 minutes while his friend and wife run around the house in their sweat pants getting things ready, we pile all the kids back into the car to go have lunch and to drive around the area until 4pm. (P.S., Sophia did not take a nap on the ride up as planned so you can guess how well the lunch went.)

Breathe in, breathe out.

At 4pm, it's back at their house again to start all over. At 5:15 I ask Brad when he plans to tell his friend that we have plans to meet my friends in Philadelphia at 6:00. "Um, ok, Brad. We actually got you a cake since you're leaving the company next week. Guess we'll pack it up for you." Plans with my friends cancelled.

Breathe in, breathe out.

Dinner is ready. Everyone sits down to eat while I am led around and around the deck outside by our littlest, rowdiest child. Soon, I am granted a few minutes to sit down and eat. No conversation longer than 3 minutes is possible with anyone at the party because our darling, cranky child continually wants "uppa, owside, and walk". At 8pm, all children are piled back into the car for our ride home. No one falls asleep. They are all revved up from ice cream and brownies.

Breathe in, breathe out. Tomorrow is another day.

Since my posting schedule seems to be slipping as of late, I have added some new functionality to the site to allow you to be notified via email when something new is added so you poor souls don't have to keep checking my sorry site each day to find, yet again, nothing. See the area to the right to sign up for alerts. I am really trying to kick my self in the ass and get posting since my daughter is becoming quite possibly the cutest thing on the planet. Stay tuned...and thanks for sticking with us!

Over Sophie's lifetime, we have come across just a few toy items that have truly been worth the money we paid and then some. This week it is her "My Giant Sticker Activity Book" which for $14.95 has provided hours of stickerlicious fun. She awakes in the morning and wants to bypass breakfast to get a jumpstart on the "stickas". After school, she runs right to the couch to continue locating all the "gucks", that's trucks to you and I, in her sticker book. After finishing her dinner, she screams "All done!" so she can run back to the couch where she sits quietly pulling off the stickers and sticking them to the cushions. If the stickers were waterproof, they'd be with her in the tub too, no doubt.