Enough Snow

Seriously, enough snow already! Don't get me wrong, I like the seasons and I like snow during Christmas but by the time March roles around I'm ready for some sun and warmer weather. I feel trapped in this apartment with Sofia and I'm running out of ideas. There's only so much you can do with a 17 month old. We've been reading a lot of books, which makes me really happy. Her favorite is Bear in a Square and she has astounded me with the amount of things she knows. I'll ask her to point to the bear and she'll do it. She's a little sponge!

The Plague

Uch...the sickness is finally over (I hope). It all started with Sofia puking in her bed and then on the couch on Saturday night. Luckily I was out with the girls and Ryan had ot deal with it. Sorry Ryan. But don't worry, Sofia woke up with puke in her hair Monday morning, so I got my turn too. he wasn't too upset, she got to take a bath at 9:00 a.m. Too bad the smell wouldn't come out of her hair, even after two days of washing it. All seemed to be fine after that. Then Monday night Ryan started to complain of stomach cramps, then blech! I proceeded to go to work on Tuesday and brag to my coworkers that I haven't been sick ever though Ryan and Sofia have. Will I ever learn to keep my big night shut? Tuesday night around midnight, blech! Midnight until 4 a.m. I wanted to die. Ryan went to work on Wednesday, but when he called midmorning, I begged him to come home so that I could sleep. I slept from noon to 6 p.m. I finally started feeling better today, just in time for Ryan to go to Michigan with Dan to see a concert. I've washed all of the sick blankets, dusted, vacuumed, and Ryan cleaned the bathroom. Hopefully the sickness is gone. "Be gone from this house!" I say. Chelsea is coming up this weekend and I really hope she doesn't catch any lingering illnesses.

Okay, onto some less disgusting things. Can I just say Sofia is such a smart little girl! She can now identify head, feet, eyes, nose, mouth, teeth, ears and belly. She knows pants, shirt, socks and shoes (this is all pointing ladies and gents, she is still speaking her own language). She also knows that shoes and socks go on her feet. It's amazing how much she can understand. I can't wait until she can actually start saying everything. What an amazing little girl.

The Chef

Sofia's new thing is pretending to "cook" on her little kitchen. She takes her red plastic saute pan, adds a meatball (fake) or maybe some grapes (real) and then pours in milk (fake). Finally she adds some fresh ground pepper from her pepper mill and then proceeds to "saute" the food. I must say her technique is really good, must be all of the times she watched Ryan cook.

So, is it bad if all my child wants to eat is grapes and cheese? Sofia is obsessed with grapes, and I mean that quite literally. She wants them all the time. She will go to the fridge and keep saying "gape, gape." Then, if I don't give her any, she starts to cry. Today she ate grapes three times. I mean, it could be worse, she could want chicken nuggets or soda or something like that.

You'll have to ignore the shiny, snotty nose in the pictures. Poor Sofia has had a runny nose for over a week now and I'm constantly running after her with a kleenex. I wish she would let me suction out the goop, but after the first few times of trying (and what a battle it was with the crying and squirming) I decided to not ever try anymore.

Parenting Tips I Learned At the Library

I have now learned that you shouldn't drop your two and four-year-old children off in the Children's department and then a) leave the building, b) sit at a computer on the other side of the library, or c) completely ignore my children as the two-year-old takes a whole row of DVD's and proceeds to shove them between the shelves. Yes, I have seen this happen...almost daily.

Bad Parenting Day

That's what I'm calling them, when I have them, "bad parenting days." I know everyone has them and I'm not alone. Monday was one of those days. Sofia was sick and I cound't go to the gym because of that, so right off the bat our schedule was thrown off. Anyway, things just felt so stressful and Sofia was just crying and whining all day long! So of course I got frustrated and I yelled at her a couple of times. By the time I came home from class later that night, I felt horrible. Oh well....it was just a "bad parenting day" I thought. And so the idea was born.