The Dummy Story, and a scary accident

Just to keep you out-of-suspense, Sophie is ok. She is happy and well and has a very exciting story to tell about going to the doctor. She always likes those! Here is evidence - a photo of her last night - looking totally herself, except for that slightly beak-like look to her top lip. Hopefully that's just temporary, with the swelling. I think it'll go away!

Thursday morning, Sophie stacked it. She took a fall, and it didn't look like a terribly bad one at first. She fell off a chair she was sitting on, while trying to climb off and while feeling a bit overtired. She lost her balance and fell flat on her face- onto a concrete floor! The dummy in her mouth at the time (it was just moments from naptime) probably protected her front teeth a bit, but also helped to split her top gum in a long bloody slice. Suddenly there was blood everywhere, and terrifying screaming. At first she refused to drink any water or suck on ice blocks or put anything helpful in her mouth at all. We were pretty scared. But after taking her to her doctor, we finally relaxed a little and started to realise that she was actually ok. Her mouth's healing very quickly, there's no head injury or even bruising, even the one slightly wobbly tooth looks like it will right itself. She didn't get much of a nap that day, what with rushing off to the doctor, but she did get to eat mostly frozen yoghurt bars (“ice cream!”) - for lunch and dinner yesterday, so she was a pretty happy little girl. I am so so thankful that it’s not as bad as it could have been. :)

Also, it looks like we're going to come out of this little adventure dummy - free. We've been thinking about how to make that transition for awhile, and now the answer has just arrived, with no room for argument. Sophie couldn't have a dummy at all on the day of her fall - as it could have disturbed the gash in her mouth and made her bleed more, and also could mess with that delicate tooth. It really stressed her out for awhile not to have it while she was scared, and when she was trying to fall asleep - the only times she really uses it. So that was hard. Getting her to sleep without iton that first night took...longer than I want to calculate! But she finally did fall asleep, and she's slept soundly all through the night. Nap times since have been a bit hit-and-miss… it’s like she has to learn how to fall asleep all over again. But over all she’s getting enough sleep, and we’re all really happy at the success she’s having letting go of a security she’s had for over 2 years now.

We made a bit of a big deal out of saying goodbye to the dummies;  here's how we did it  - We took her to Target and let her pick out a present - a "big girl" present. She chose a big cuddly Elmo, and an Elmo-in-a-Submarine wind-up bath toy. (Cheap,but a BIG hit! Best 7 dollars ever spent!). Then we went home, rounded up all the dummies we could find in the house, and she threw them away in the bin herself, saying “bye-bye” to them. She understood that it was because the doctor said she can't have them and because she's a big girl now and doesn't need them. She was all for the idea, and loved the whole trading them for new toys, which we got to open after the bin ceremony.

Still, actually following through on the change, and not falling back on the reliable dummy in those two-year-old meltdown-moments – that’s a bit hard…for her and me too. Last night I found a surviving dummy in my handbag – the one that got away! I hung onto it…just in case! We were out in the city with friends, and it was a fun and happy night, but got long and late for her at the end. By about 9:00 she was over-tired and was absolutely over it. Just chucked a wobbly, as the Aussies so cleverly say! It was all I could do not to reach into my bag, resurrect the dummy, and calm her instantly.

Ahh…the temptation! The only thing that kept me from it was thinking about her poor little mouth, and how easily the wound could re-open (it’ already done it a few short times in the past few days, for no particular reason) and how much worse things would get if she started bleeding and feeling pain again.

So that's what it took for us to stop "using" - a traumatic injury. I’d better get rid of that one surviving dummy in my bag, before Sophie fully heals and we can backslide! Here's to moving on...to growing up...to healing and learning and getting over it!

Things we are learning

Good morning! Sophie and I take a break from housecleaning... She to ponder and sort her colouring crayons (she names them and then tells them what to do - "g(r)een, get in there. This boo (blue), you stay dere..."), and me to ponder...well life. And photos. And Sophie.

Things Sophie is learning:
How to sing "Happy Birthday to you."

How to build sandcastles. No, not really, more like -how to direct the building of sandcastles and then smash them!

How to swim underwater (in the pool - she's back in swimming lessons on Wednesdays.)
How to share and parallell play happily with other children (she does this pretty well!), and not to boss them around (she's still got a ways to go on this)


What else? Sophie's learning to recite and sing nursery rhymes. Snippets of them are occasionally understandable, as she tells them to her dolls. It is beautiful, but I have yet to successfully get it on video. Some of my favourites are when she improvises the bits that she forgot. For example:

"Rain, rain, go away,
come back next week."

and also..

"Jack and Jill go up a hill...uh..water,
Jack fall down and bump his head! Owww! poor Jack!"

She's learning to make up her own songs too. In the car on the way to church tonight she was singing a song that sounded like the tune to the abc song, but went something like..."...asher....chloe...austin...all my friends and ALL my friends...next time you sing wa (with) me!"

She is learning about plants and how to water them. (No, we don't pull the flowers off of bushes, yes Mama can pull the leaves off our herbs, but not Sophie. Yes, please help mama water the plants in the pot. No, please don't play in the potting mix with your fingers.) Ah the confusing world of the toddler! At least she's happy enough taking several trips back and forth to the plants, watering them with each different coloured tupperware cup in her cupboard.

Sophie is learning how to clean up messes she has made, comfort friends who are sad, and tell stories about things that have happened to her. "I touch pan - hot. I got docka (doctor). Man help me." She's also learning (I hope) to assess the consequences of choices she's made, so she can make better choices in the future. "Sophie, are you going to touch hot things again?" - "No!" (I am such an optomist!)

She is learning to describe her likes and dislikes, and ask for what she wants in more precise language. For example, today, while I was in the kitchen working on dinner: "Mama, I want cheese? P(l)ease?" So I offered her some of the cheese I had just shredded. "No, I want cheese, cutting." "Oh, you want a slice of cheese?" "Yes please." This is a nice example, with plenty of good manners. There are other ones too of course - "I don't like it. I don't want it. Too little/stinky/yucky."


Things I am learning:
I am learning that Sophie is fearless about the ocean at the moment. She loves to run into it, and she loves to fall down. She needs to be watched like a hawk, every second that she is on the beach. And I have also learned that the beach is probably her favourite place in the world - besides Papa and Gramma's house in the snow!

I am learning how to do digital photo manipulation, with a program that's much simpler than photo-shop, called paint.net. It's fun. It's a fun, very slow learning. This one has the oil painting effect. Can you tell? Yeah, I'm not so sure either.

I'm learning that Sophie is developing a strong will of her own..."No, I don't want to nap. No sleepy." Oh dear!
This is the sweet little girl of mine who loves bedtime. Routines really do the trick for her...usually. She loves her cuddles in the rocking chair, reading a few stories together (sometimes more than a few), our regular poem before the lights go out (adorable sappy stuff -"It's time to sleep little bee, little bee, yes I love you, and you love me..." See Mem Fox's book - Time for bed.) All this usually gets her all relaxed and reaching for the pillow. Her eyes are shut or she's mumbling "loz you mama" (that's love) through her dummy as I quietly close the door. Then she sleeps. It's bliss. This is the same little girl who's been going to sleep in this same routine with such surprisingly little drama for so long, that even when we would have guests over and we put her to bed, they would always comment, "That's it? That's all it takes? Is she asleep?" And we were so proud and pleased.
Ah, but now, it's a different story. It's as unpredictable as a Minnesotan April. On the days she decides she doesn't want to go to sleep-for nap or bedtime...well it's a mess. I try many different tricks...sometimes some of them work and sometimes not. So I am learning how to be patient again at her bedtime. How to help her re-learn how to settle into sleep. How to not let it get to me the 10th time she opens the door and comes to find me. How to stay calm. And I wonder, can I get faster at this...can I speed her through the process? Or will it sometimes just take her 40 minutes to decide she wants to go to sleep? Maybe I have to just let it take the time it takes. This is one of those things that's not an easy answer for me. I want to be a patient mother...teaching and modelling the best behaviour... not losing my cool or shouting. Sometimes I succeed. Sometimes not. I pray for more patience with my little one as she stretches her wings, pushes on those boundaries, tests out her independence. And I pray for patience with myself too.

Maybe soon, we'll move on to toilet training. Stay tuned for that exciting chapter!


New experiences and friends:
Sophie had a new experience yesterday - we took a train with a friend into the city. That was good fun! Here are Sophie and Asher on the train. this is a very brief moment they were both sitting down. As Debbie mentions in her blog, their favourite thing was standing up weaving around as the train wobbled. I think they liked trying to keep their own balance, which of course, was tricky. but when they agreed to hold on to something, it was pretty cute!

In the city of Brisbane, unfortunately there is no Children's Museum like the one we miss so much in St. Paul. There is, however, a fun & educational pocket of the city with a surprising mix of fun things to do. The State Library has a room dedicated to kids activities- fun and learning and free! Wasn't hard to convince me! Sophie's was mesmorized by the guitar player- she watched and danced and tried to sing along...I cannot resist video recording it. I'm sure it won't be half as exciting to anyone else as it is to her mother, but humour me if you like!

Sophia turns Two!

Hello friends and family! Last Sunday, as you may know, we celebrated Sophie’s 2^nd birthday -which is actually today, but we didn't make a big deal about today. This week Dan is flying in the Outback, and today he visited Uluru, or Ayers rock (the big red monolith in the middle of the country - famous postcard stuff.) So we had the party early. It was a small-ish party at home. Sophie had a blast! For weeks leading up to the party, she could name for you every person who was coming, and now everyday afterwards she tells me something that happened on the day. When I asked her that night what her favourite thing about her birthday party was, she answered without hesitation – “Cake! Elmo cake!” She loved the part where everybody…. “Sing Happy Day Soshie!” She also remembers playing outside, running, making cookies (just with play dough), colouring, balls, balloons, pizza, strawberries, and of course, everyone who came. She also likes to talk about Papa and Grama their gift and card and phone call – oh, and the other day she got Noah’s card and she loves to read that. (She tells stories about the photo of Noah, Aaron and the other “Soshie” too.)

Here are some photos to help tell the stories (Most are taken by Dominika). Enjoy!

First gift- from Dom & Dom & family. A realistic baby doll, complete with a dummy, a potty, a nappy and a change of clothes. You can turn her on and she tells you what she needs. Sophie calls her Missy, and really loves to play with her!

Nana and Grandy arrived with many gifts – Here you can see Nana giving Sophie the bandaids featuring Pooh Bear and Barbie. One of those went on straightaway - suddenly she had an “owie” on her hand. (Play Spot-the-bandaids in upcoming photos.) This baking set got played with right away. The kids set to work using all the tools to make cookies and cakes out of play dough.

This kept them happy for ages: the highly-technical toddler art of breaking a piece of play-dough into several tiny pieces, throwing them onto a tray and calling them “cookies.”

Who will be...the next MasterChef Australia?!

Oskar

Sophia

Sebastian (Bo-Bo)

Zuzia and Olivia (Livi)

At the moment, Sophie calls her "Baby Lizzie." They adore each other! Sophie kisses her on the head, tells her stories and makes up songs about her. Livi gets so excited when she sees Sophie that sometimes she just screams and squeels at the top of her very strong lungs!
She also does an excellent serious face.

Brothers.

The gift from baby Livi and co. ABC puzzles (Or "ADC's" as Sophie calls them!) At this stage, they're great fun to empty out all over the floor, name the pictures like flash cards and put them back in the box. Good times!

Just a few of the birthday cards. She loves the princesses from Papa and Grandma! She likes to talk about all of the dresses and who likes which dress best! But the cards didn't actually last up there very long. As you can see, they are fascnating reading material! They then get marched around the hous and discarded somewhere on a floor :)

Gift from Great Nanna and Great Granddad ("Big Nanna and Big Grandy") - a gorgeous waterbabies doll. She calls her Gracie, and she loves to walk her around in her new doll stroller (from Nanna and Granddad), and feed the baby milk. She also loves to give directions, and at the party she happily insisted that Sebastian sit beside her on the couch while she opened a few gifts. "Bobo sit here!"

Bubbles! All together now...

Bec and Jeremy and Ryan are here! Let's open this box, since the present is trying to escape. We'll go over there and open it. Sophie takes charge - "Comeon Mama! This way!" This is one of her favourite phrases these days.

PUPPETS! These are awesome - a whole collection of hand and finger puppet animals - including a moose! I don’t know who enjoys them more – me, Dan, or Sophie.
All the kids had a play.

After playing outside, we went back in for food.
(Dan was an incredible help in the kitchen all this time!)

Ok, I got a bit silly and took some photos of the food. I just love Strawberries in the winter here! I had fun prepping the fruit before guests arrived and snapped these shots. I'm such a wannabe foodie!

The cake! Just a simple box mix – tasty, and none leftover. The best part for Sophie was the topper toys. She likes to name all the instruments and pretend to play them. Oh – did you notice the bandaids? Yeah, they were a big hit!

We didn’t get the actual blowing out of the candles on camera, she was too quick! But she did wait until we finished singing to her. She loved that! It’s one of her favourite parts that she likes to tell me about: “People sing happy day me!”

That’s pizza above her eyebrow. I think she was trying to talk with her hands while eating. Imagine that!

We ate on the floor - picnic style.

There was a LOT of excited toddler squealing.

Artwork …a nice calming end to things.

A cheeky smile for the camera, from a sweet and happy two-year-old.

On the 3rd of May, Sophia got baptised

You may have already seen these photos, as they are also posted to my facebook photo albums, but I know that some of our dear family and friends are not big facebook-ers, so I'm putting them here as well.

It was a really fun night, and Sophie did really well. Father Michael is lovely, and he led the whole ceremony in a really personal, unfussy way. Everybody gathered around the alter, the kids ran around a bit and talked and played, Sophie was happy and Dan and I felt very blessed to have so much love and support surrounding us. She didn't even fuss when she had water splashed on her head and oil rubbed into her hair. She looked a little bit confused, but didn't cry. Ah...good times :)

(One of three busy tables at dinner after the ceremony). Thanks Dominika for the gorgeous photos, and Pam for the beautiful dress. I decorated the candle....I really liked it, but as you may notice, the little letter "i" in Sophia Michelle's name came off. oops. Guess I didn't get sticky enough stickers. :)