• I have to say apparently many of the fans at Nationals Stadium are twelve because it's pretty rude and disrespectful of them to boo the president. I can't think of many things I like about GW but that doesn't mean I'm going to disrespect the man and boo him off the field. Didn't these people ever learn manners? I don't like Hillary, but that doesn't mean I'm going to boo her off a field (or anywhere, for that matter).
• Keith Olberman is a little too bitter and angry for me.
• .
• Wal*Mart is the devil.
• The Kritter gets cuter and cuter. Things she's been doing lately:
• We had the most disgusting poop experience we have had yet with her. This is total payback for not having to deal with nasty poops when she was little. I'll post details behind a cut, though, as this isn't very cute... at all.
• I woke up this morning shortly after 3:30 to Sophie nursing. She went to bed in the guest room and I honestly have no idea how she managed to crawl into bed with us. It's a little higher than the other bed and she has a difficult time getting into that bed without help. She then asked me to change her diaper (I obliged) and when I tried to put her back to bed in the guest room, she wanted to nurse again. I absolutely will not nurse in the middle of the night anymore (I'm SO tired of nursing, really), so I told her she could have a cup of milk instead. She actually wasn't too difficult to get to sleep after that. She asked me to rub her back and then she asked to cuddle.
• She has not only been signing words lately, but has been taking the time to tell us how to sign words (dessert: you take two "d's" and tap them!). Cracks me up.
• She says, "Mommy, you're beautiful" and "My favorite Mommy" and "Friends with Mommy." Makes my heart melt. She also tries to sign friend with me where she hooks her finger with mine. Too cute!
• She loves to make shapes with her Play-Doh. We have lots of fun rolling it out and using my cookie cutters.
• We say prayers together at night and she alternates lines with me instead of repeating me. The child remembers so much!
• Before prayers, we read books, and she's able to read along with us (thanks to her memory, I'm sure). She gets very involved in every book we read (always the same books), including 10 Little Ladybugs, Henry Builds a Cabin, Chicka Chicka Boom Boom, Knuffle Bunny, and The Perfect Purple Feather.
• She loves to play in the sand. She calls it snow. She says she's making snowballs. I'm not sure why she would do that since we've never played in the snow before. Crazy kid.
• Last week we had a picnic lunch and she talked about it for days. We only took the picnic basket to the front yard but she thought it was the best fun she'd ever had. To complete that day, we took her out to Chili's with us and she talked about going to the restaurant for days afterward as well. Sometimes she really amazes me with the things she remembers.
• I hope the chicken pox disappear soon. Sophie has two new spots and I have no idea how many I have. Mine have mostly been in my hair and on my back (haven't had a lot, but enough to drive me nuts). I don't normally go many places, but I hate being confined by something I can't control. I have things I want to do this week! JoAnn Fabric is having a sale on all of their sewing notions and I want to pick up a few things. I also want to get some material for a few outfits for Sophie.
• Bibs are coming along nicely. I have more to cut out, but they're getting better and better.
• I need to pick up my needles again soon and get the blanket for my niece finished. Gah.
• I also need to get my Craigslist stuff listed. B is tired of seeing it (as am I) and we could use the money.

I think that's about all there is for now. I've forgotten things I wanted to mention, as usual.

( Poop - TMI )

Because I like uawildcatgrl and her writing rocks, PLEASE go vote for her here in therealljidol. When voting for her, you'll actually need to vote for wildcatwrites. Also, vote for her teammate, lilmissmagic71. The links to their entries are listed next to their names in the poll. You don't have to be a member of the community to vote.

If you haven't seen it yet, the big Friending Frenzy post (dubbed as such by uawildcatgrl) is located here. Check it out, have some fun, and make a few friends! :) By the way, this entry is a friends-only entry because I didn't want others to worry about putting stuff out there about themselves if they normally keep a locked journal. For those of you who aren't part of LJ yet but are interested, sign up, jump in, and splash around a bit; the water's great! ;)

Sophie and I had a play date the other day and we met up with isyllt and her little girl, Lillie. I have a few pictures of the kids that I want to get up eventually.

B recently posted about the fence and the bike here. Nothing terribly exciting to anyone other than us, most likely. It doesn't appear as though the pictures are working properly, though. Something is amiss.

Sophie and I went to MOPS today. I was doing daycare with one of my neighbors (extra cash always helps) and Sophie had fun playing with the kids. I love watching her with other kids! She was running around at the end when the older kids were playing tag. She was just running back and forth like a crazed child.

I think I might let Sophie audition for Signing Time. If she gets in, it will cost us more than she'll make as far as money is concerned, but I think it could be a great experience for her. I could handle a non-work related trip to Salt Lake and I think she'd get a kick out the whole thing. I'm not sure if it would mean she gets to meet Rachel again or not, but it's worth a shot. I just have to take a video of her now.

I think that's about all... for now, at least.

My sister messaged me this morning to share this atrocity with me. I swear, I don't know if I can believe this site to be true and not just some huge joke, but either way, it's no wonder so many people have a serious hate for Christians. They run across nut bags who blow hot air like this, saying deaf people are the Devil's minions and spouting off other such drivel, they assume all Christians are the same. Thankfully, people like this are not the norm (believe it or not), but unfortunately there are enough of them (and they're a vocal lot) to give Christians a bad name.

What's truly sad about all of this is Anna found this site while looking for the ASL alphabet. Maybe it's not sad, but ironic. She's actually using the chart from this page to learn how to finger spell.

Ugh. This just makes me sick to my stomach.

Edited to add: Based on comments here, some reading of my own, talking with B, and a few emails from friends, this most likely is satire. It doesn't mean it's good satire, or that it doesn't give Christians a bad name, but still.

Almost 14 years ago I made the trek from Minnesota to Tennessee for my grandfather's funeral. On the return flight, I discovered I had picked up a stomach bug from my aunt. Last week, we made the trek from Texas to Tennessee for my grandmother's funeral and on the drive home I felt a tell-tale tingle in my nose. This time, I actually picked up some sort of head/chest bug from my mother. B has it as well, but thankfully Sophie seems to have escaped the bug so far. I can't even begin to describe how awful I feel. Bleh.

It was great having the whole family together, even if it was under rather depressing circumstances. B got a chance to meet more of the family. I think we might actually be making a trip to Arizona some time to visit my aunt and uncle out there. If we could get my parents and my sisters to plan a trip around the same time, that would be best. For some reason, my dad wants to go in the summer. He's nuts. Texas is hot enough, thank you. I think winter would be the best time to go.

My sisters both loved the idea of us signing with Sophie so much that they have decided to use the Signing Time series as well. Tracie has been using it with Emily for long enough that she's been signing for some time now. She does amazingly well with her signs, too. Tracie took Emily up to the casket to see Grandma and Emily signed sleep. She wasn't told anything since Tracie wasn't really sure how to handle it and how much she would understand since Emily is only 13 months old. Tracie said she nearly lost it when she saw Emily sign that.

Tracie was very impressed with Sophie and her ability to echo. She said something was "amazing" and Sophie repeated it. Of course, when Tracie tried to get her to say "hilarious" Sophie was unwilling to cooperate.

Sophie had lots of fun being able to play with her little cousins. She passed out plenty of hugs and kisses. The morning after our trip home, she woke up naming off all the family. It makes me sad we live so far away and that she can't play with them all the time. Hopefully my sisters will be able to come down for a visit sometime this year. We don't plan to make another trip until January of next year when we drive up to Michigan for the auto show.

I'm sure there was something else I wanted to say, but my fever is back and I feel like last week's garbage. It's time to hit the Airborne and Tylenol again (started the Airborne too late this time, rats) and cuddle up underneath the electric blanket. Meh.

Sophie is currently watching Baby Signing Time (vol 2 right now). We don't watch either of these videos very much anymore, even though they're my favorites. I was afraid she was growing bored with them. However, while giving her a bath earlier, I was singing the "Wash Hands" song and she was singing along (or trying to, at least)! That was when I decided we needed to pull these out again. She's been signing along with all of the signs ("Momma! Socks! Momma! Hat!") and it's been fun watching her.

We're having a gray dreary day here. It started off rainy and chilly. It's now just windy and chilly. I think I actually want to find my slippers. I love weather like this. The high for today is supposed to be in the mid 50's (F) and tomorrow is supposed to hit 64° F. This is the fall weather I've been waiting for!

This morning I took Sophie out to the front porch to show her our little pumpkin family (still uncarved). She got very excited and almost surprised they were still there (she saw them yesterday as well). "Hi, pumpkins!" she said, all happy. As we closed the door, "Bye, pumpkins!" Sometimes she's too cute for words.

Okay, I've made it through the B's. benedorm, billzy, blondieoubre, bppubjr: If I've missed anything, please let me know. By the way, I really do think billzy posts more than I do. I didn't think it was possible, but I had a lot to read when I hit his page!

Sophie is spending some quality time with Daddy this morning reading lots of books. I think she's picked out nearly every book she has so far. She comes up and tells us what the book is about (usually spoken and signed) and then asks to be picked up and read to. I love it. They are currently reading one of her alphabet books, and Sophie is repeating the letters as B is saying them, and they're both trying to sign the letters and the pictures they see. It's really too adorable for words.

I should take a video. Oh yeah, my camera is still dead. Go me.

Yesterday, while Sophie and I were out shopping, she decided to impress me again with her signing abilities. I was in the process of buying clothes, and said as much to Sophie. She then promptly signed buy (not "bye") and clothes. She didn't sign store yesterday, which surprised me (she knows the sign and has used it before). It made me chuckle that she was signing buy clothes though. She wouldn't stop until we left that store.

I swear, the kid never ceases to amaze me. I think this just goes to prove children pick up a lot more than people give them credit. Her little mind is such a sponge right now. I wish I still had the ability to learn like she can at this age, but I don't. At least I can be happy for her and feed her as much information as she can possibly handle while still having fun.

The trip to the zoo today went very well. We were supposed to meet up with a few other mothers, but that didn't pan out. That's okay, though. B was able to take a day off today and go along with us. I think it works out much better with Sophie at this age when I have someone else with me. She got to spend a lot of time with Daddy today, too. She was loving it.

The first exhibit we saw was the primate house and Sophie wasn't quite awake at first. Thankfully, the exhibit was pretty large, and by the time we were about halfway through, she was signing gorilla and monkey without us even asking (complete with sound effects, of course).

She was quite a trooper and walked a lot today. We saw lots of animals (she was quick with the signs for most of them, too) and she actually stayed awake to see all of the animals. I think she loved seeing just about all of the animals. In the amphibian house, she was signing snake and turtle and crocodile and having a blast... until one of the crocodiles turned to look at her. She didn't like that one bit and promptly made Daddy pick her up.

Sadly, the camera died about halfway through the trip. B got some pictures but I have to dig the camera out of the diaper bag.

The Fort Worth Zoo has some excellent exhibits. It's amazingly nice, especially for a city owned zoo. My only complaint would be the feeble offerings for food. They have a Grandy's, Pizza Hut, and Dickie's on site, none of which really has anything decent to offer. Next time, I'll know to pack a lunch for myself. We packed a lunch for Sophie but only brought water for us.

All in all, it was a good day. Sophie had fun and we always enjoy that. When I tried putting her to bed tonight, she decided it was sign review time, and she went through the majority of the animals she saw today. The child will never cease to amaze me.

I finally cleared the videos off of my memory stick (I can take pictures again, yay!). I just need to clear off the pictures (especially the pictures from the last trip to the zoo) and it will be as good as new. I want to have lots of room for when we go to the zoo next week, as well as for taking more videos.

In clearing off the stick, I found an adorable video where Sophie is looking through her little photo album, naming the people, and then giving them kisses. The sign that she makes when we're talking about Aunt Anna is the sign for aunt.

Recently, someone asked in a comment to one of my posts about Sophie signing why it is we decided to teach her to sign. I don't think I've ever actually posted about why we sign with her, but I've answered the question a few times in comments.

I read a lot about signing with babies while I was pregnant and wasn't sure if it was for us or not, but B's mother knows a bit of ASL and his aunt is an interpreter. I took ASL in college, but don't remember most of it, and I figured this would be a great way to relearn it. The more reading I did on signing with baby, the more determined I was to at least give it a try. We chose to go with ASL instead of baby signing because we already had people in the family who knew ASL and because we wanted the opportunity to take it farther if she really seemed to like it.

Because this question always comes up, I will state right here that Sophie does not have any hearing impairment of which we are yet aware. Some of the reasons we have for choosing to sign with Sophie include increased vocabulary, hands on learning of a second language (yes, ASL is considered an actual language), higher IQ, and an easier time dealing with the terrible twos.

I do believe her vocabulary is much greater because we sign with her. She tries to say the bigger words more often than the smaller words, and I think part of that is because she knows signs for many of the smaller words already, like eat, sleep, and bath. These are all words she'll sign, but might not say. On the other hand, she tries to say words like watermelon, butterfly, and ladybug instead of signing them. She also says/signs principal, imagination, animal, pay attention, and various other words and phrases.

It's impossible to say right now if this will affect her IQ. If it does, great, if not, oh well. I honestly can't see how it will cause any harm. I don't even know if this really will help with the terrible twos. I do know she is able to tell us better why she's crying, if she's hurt or tired or hungry. Tonight is a perfect example: we were all sitting at the table eating dinner and Sophie was happy, eating her dinner and talking to us the entire time. All of a sudden, she went from happy to screaming mad and without her signing, I don't know how long it would have taken us to figure out that she was tired. Even if she would have said the word sleep (which she has from time to time), we wouldn't have been able to understand her because she was screaming so much.

We use the Signing Time video series (which can be found on some PBS stations, check your local guide) and Sophie loves watching this more than any other show (we've tried several others, believe me, nothing is as good as Signing Time). She is constantly asking for Rachel and Signing Time. It's one of the few things that will actually slow her down. She will even try to sing the songs, too. Signing Time has worked very well for us and I would recommend it to anyone trying to learn ASL. Sophie has all the flashcards they have available right now and she will literally beg for these. Unfortunately, she dumps them, and then gets up and winds up stepping on them, slipping and sliding everywhere, so I don't let her play with them on her own very often.

I've gotten quite a few questions about signing with Sophie as well as a little bit of criticism. I can honestly say Sophie appears to genuinely enjoy signing with us, and this is the main reason we've continued signing with her.

I am always more than happy to answer any questions anyone might have about Sophie and signing. :)



In the video, we are going through her flashcards. This was taken Aug 3, 2007, and there is already a huge difference in how much she knows and how well she signs. It's a bit long at 6:46 minutes, but even if just the first minute or so is viewed, many signs can be seen.

Sophie has the cutest response now for whenever we ask how she's doing. This afternoon, I went to get her up from her nap and she was sitting up in bed. I walked into the room, turned off the fan and radio, and then asked, "How are you, baby girl?" She smiled at me and signed and said "great." It took me a second to figure out what she said. I was shocked she responded, to be honest. It was so adorable. :)

Sometimes she'll respond with fine, but she's pretty consistent with great. I love it. :) She's such a crazy kid.

Little Miss Thang is a little out of control with the signing sometimes. Today, she was signing train and animals. Of course, I was so confused at first until I put the two together. Her sign for train isn't quite what it should be, but when she says and signs it at the same time, I can usually guess what she's trying to say. When she says animals, however, it sounds like "Elmo," and I couldn't figure out why she would be saying that since she doesn't really care about him one way or the other. It finally dawned on me she was trying to sign and say animals and once I processed this it made so much sense. Earlier, we had watched Signing Time! Volume 9: The Zoo Train. She was either asking to watch it again or was talking about watching it, is my guess.

She cracks me up how random she is with her signing. We'll be quietly cuddling or sitting at the dinner table and, all of a sudden, she just starts signing something. Tonight at dinner she was signing tree, most likely because she could see one of the trees in the backyard from where she was sitting. Another sign she pulled out of her little bag of tricks tonight was lion, pointing at the television, looking at me as if to ask me a question. Sadly, our local PBS affiliate has rearranged its schedule and Between the Lions is on mid-afternoon and we almost always wind up missing it now. I think she was asking to watch it.

Whenever we say "wait" or "please" to her, she almost always comes back and signs both wait and please (probably my two favorite signs she does). She's still working on I love you, but is getting closer every day. She will also sit with her books and read through them, signing most of the pictures she can.

I think one of the funniest things she does with the signing is she'll sign words that sound like the words she knows, but aren't even close in meaning. When she hears me ask her if she wants to give Chui a "treat," she signs tree. There are a few others she does like that, but that's the one she does most often. Krazy Kritter! ;)

• We received the new Signing Time DVDs and I have to admit I'm not as impressed with these as with the others. I love the program still, but Rachel has a smile plastered to her face the whole time. I like the older episodes where she seems more "real" better.


• Sophie is already signing words from the new videos. She's out of control.


• .


• I love when I ask Sophie a question and she says "no" and means it. It always comes out as a question. "No?" This is a little different than when she's running around the house and just randomly saying "no."


• We finally cracked into the Blockbuster gift card Anna gave us for Christmas last year. We rented The Fountain, Idiocracy, and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. Half-assed reviews to follow.


• Every meal we've had from Dream Dinners this week has been excellent except for the first meal of the week. The Madras Chicken was really my fault it didn't turn out (doubled part of the recipe by accident at the store). The Coconut Shrimp, Parmesan Crusted Tilapia, and Tuscan Turkey Medallions were all wonderful, however. Sophie loved all three as well. She even signed shrimp when she was eating it. Crazy kid.


• B and I had a celebratory dinner last weekend for something that hasn't been disclosed as of yet. No, I'm not pregnant. ;)


• Tomorrow morning I will be making blueberry muffins for breakfast. I have never made blueberry muffins since I'm not terribly fond of them. However, I know they're good for us, so I am going to try to start incorporating them into our meals a little more often. I know Sophie will love them.


• Sophie likes to sit on her potty chair. She doesn't like to do anything else other than sit, though. It's all good, though. She asks to sit on it when she needs her diaper changed, so at least she's making a connection, I suppose. I am not trying to train her right now, but I am not going to stop her if she wants to sit on the potty. ;)


• She has had a bit of a cold the past couple days but seems to be much better today. She still sounds a little stuffed up, but she is sleeping much better tonight than the past two nights.


• I need to start Christmas shopping. I know I want to find something similar to the Dressy Bessy doll (if not the actual doll itself), possibly some wooden blocks, and I have no idea what else. Suggestions are always appreciated, of course. :)


• Speaking of Christmas, I can't wait to start decorating this year! I know I still have a couple months, but I'm so excited!

I thought I had more, but I've really got nothing.

I've been pretty bad about updating about the baby lately, and this is really the only way I keep track of all she's done.

• I'll have to go through the lists of words from the Signing Time DVDs and mark all the ones she knows, but it's easily over 100 now.
• She just said "Emo." I thought she was saying "Elmo" but we don't watch Sesame Street often enough for her to know his name. Come to find out she was actually saying (and signing) animal.
• .
• The vocabulary has increased by leaps and bounds, not just signed, but spoken as well. She is also starting to put words together on a regular basis. "All done, mama," and "please, more __," are two phrases I hear quite a bit.
• Sophie loves to watch Between the Lions (as do I). She seems to be genuinely disappointed when the show is over. We don't watch it every day, but she is pretty much glued to the television when she does watch it.
• We went to visit B's grandfather last week. As we were heading out to his place, Sophie saw a train and said, "Chee chee!" (which is what she often says for French toast) and then said "Choo choo" (sounded about how she would normally say shoes) but of course, I had no clue what she was saying. Her Uncle Nathan had to clue me in to the fact that we were passing the train yard. Duh me.
• Some of Sophie's favorite words include monkey, gorilla, butterfly, imagination, dream, pretend, principal (don't ask, I don't understand it), and chicken. I'm sure there are others, but I can't think of them right now.
• Sophie has been trying some foods from my plate and she loves nearly all the chicken I've made, shrimp, fish, most noodles, rice, and various other foods.
• Applesauce is another big hit with her. She loves to paint herself with applesauce, too. ;)
• She runs around very well now and is tripping on her feet less and less. She's pretty good about getting out of bed (with a little help from us) but hasn't started climbing yet (thankfully).
• One of our favorite games is a hybrid of tag and hide-n-seek. She usually stands in the kitchen and I try to sneak out with her following behind me. Because of the way our kitchen is laid out, I can usually sneak up behind her from the other direction before she's completely left the kitchen and say, "Boo!" to which she always giggles and replies, "Boo!" I love it.
• Sophie is one book reading fool, and loves to ask us to read to her. I'm so glad for this.
• The 12 month clothing is finally a thing of the past. Some of her 18 month clothing is too small for her but some of it is too big for her still. I need to start shopping for 24 month soon.
• Sophie loves to walk whenever we go places. She sits in the cart for a few minutes and then signs walk. I love letting her walk with me as long as we aren't at the grocery store alone. That's the worst time for her to want to walk.

I'm sure there's more, but this is all I've got for now. Dinner is screaming to be fixed and it's drowning out all other thoughts.

• I am still trying to get the laptop configured to my liking. I've been having issues with Semagic not wanting to work correctly, but they are minor issues. I am still having minor issues with Trillian as well, but that issue is even smaller than the Semagic issue.
• Probably the most frustrating issue so far is the fact that whenever I try to install the drivers for my old Photosmart printer, the silly thing freezes. *sigh*
• .
• Sophie is really becoming rather unbearable with her teething lately. She has been constantly wanting to nurse and has been constantly cranky when I try to redirect her. Since I'm so tired of little miss crankypants, I just cave and let her nurse whenever she wants. Hopefully teething will be over soon.
• I need to do a little shopping soon. We are needing another car seat for Sophie as well as a potty seat (she has shown a little interest and I don't want to miss my window of opportunity here). I believe we'll also be picking up some jumbo crayons for her. Maybe I should make some chunks for her instead.
• Speaking of which, I think it's also time for a pudding paint session soon. I think she'll get a big kick out of that.
• We have another Dream Dinners session coming up this Saturday. Tonight, I made maple thyme pork chops (they were cooked a little too long, but that was all my fault), bountiful baked beans (FIVE different types of beans!), and asparagus. All in all, the dinner wasn't bad. It would have been perfect had I not cooked the meat too long, though.
• Our lunch today actually used the leftovers from last night's roasted pecan chicken. B and I split the chicken to add to our big salad. It was quite tasty.
• I knit a little tonight. I have three and a half boats left to finish on this blanket and then I can start working on the cables. I am so ready to be done with this thing.
• Sophie surprised me the other day with a new sign. She put her hand up near her head and started shaking it. I had *no* idea what she was trying to sign. Then she signed wind and leaf and it dawned on me she was trying to sign tree (which she did pretty well, but I'm slow on the uptake at times). When I exclaimed "TREE!" she got all excited and started nodding her head.
• Of course, her spoken vocabulary is growing all the time as well. She tends to try to say the longer words and sign shorter words. She says buhnabies (butterflies), cado (avocado), mahnamel (watermelon), bellybuh (belly button), nooduhloos (noodles) and more. The kid cracks me up with the whole butterfly thing, too. She will get stuck on the first part and say "buhnabuhnabuhnabies." Sometimes she never even gets the end out at all. There are some shorter words she likes to say, but not many. She says nuh (nurse), breh (bread), mih (milk), chee (cheese or Chui, depending), cheechee (French toast), pish (fish), pea (peach), appie (apple), and others I don't remember.
• We had a Rainsoft water filtration and softener system installed a few weekends ago and absolutely love it.
• B has been looking at sheds, so that will probably be next on the list.
• Hopefully, B will be able to get to installing the baskets underneath the bathroom sinks so we can finish getting organized in there. As it is right now, I have all of the stuff out of the cabinets and in a laundry basket. I have to keep the door closed to our bathroom so Sophie doesn't wander in there.

Man, I really had a whole lot of nothing to say.

• Little Miss Thang is teething. She has four molars all trying to pop into existence at once. I suppose it's best this way, but this can make for a seriously cranky baby.


• I *really* need to purchase a new cordless mouse. My feet keep getting caught on the cord of my old mouse.


• .


• I need a vacation from life. Would someone please stop the merry-go-round and let me take a breather?


• I still need to get the pictures transferred from my camera to my computer from my trip up north.


• We made a little trip to IKEA the other day and have found the new furniture for the office. I'll probably sell our current desks on craigslist or something.


• Once B gets the drawers installed in the bathroom cabinets I'll be able to do some serious organizing in there and then we'll be ready to paint. I've picked a serious red, but I'm not sure if we should do the entire bedroom/bathroom or if we should do one room and not the other, or if we should just do an accent wall. Thankfully, it's only paint and isn't permanent.


• After the master suite comes the new office. That means tearing down the old guest bedroom and moving it into the dining room. I do not look forward to the work involved in this project. We'll have to make another trip to IKEA since we didn't purchase the office furniture yet.


• When the new office is finished, we'll tear down the old office and move everything (only what is necessary and in a very organized manner!!!) to the new office, sell off what we don't intend to keep, and then paint the new guest bedroom and reassemble everything.


• The dining room is last on our list, but I'm pretty excited to do that room since we found some interesting window treatments and lighting at IKEA as well.


• We have shelving that needs to be hung in the living room and a message center that needs to be hung in the kitchen.


• Sophie's signing is out of control. I have no idea how many words she signs. I can't keep up with her.


• She jabbers all the time (which I love to hear). It sounds like she has some pretty serious stories to tell.


• Big words seem to be her favorites when she's talking. Butterfly and watermelon are words she loves to say. I need to take video.


• She's walking everywhere now. She still crawls from time to time or wants to be carried every now and then, but she really loves to walk. She walks in circles just to be walking sometimes.


• I love when she sits on the floor (on her big cloth diapered gBooty) and spins around in circles. The kid cracks me up.


• I need a haircut.


• I will be making cherry freezer jam. I hope it's not a total train wreck.


• I believe I've done this before, but it's been a while. It is not:


• CPU unit


• ATM machine


• NIC card


• ICU unit


• LAN/WAN network


• PCA anywhere

Oy.

• Our trip to Michigan this time was just over three weeks. Half of that time was spent at my parents and the other half at my sister's. Sophie had lots of family time.
• B was stuck at work again. No vacation for him.
• .
• The whole family went to the zoo and we had a blast. Sophie was a signing fool that day, especially when she saw the birds and the fish. She was so well behaved, too.
• After the zoo, we all went back to Tracie's for dinner and a little birthday celebration. Tracie made a beautiful ladybug cake for Sophie (still on my camera). I will post a picture of the cake and all the cupcakes that went with it when I get all the photos off my camera.
• Tracie's daughter, Emily, is the cutest little monkey. She actually uses her feet to pick up things and to scoot her around on her back (she has a bald spot to prove it). I can't believe how flexible this little girl is!
• Maddy is such a tiny little thing. I don't remember Sophie ever being that small. I barely remember Sophie being Emily's size/age.
• Sophie is signing more words, but I'll be darned if I can remember what they are. She signs bread now, which is wonderful since she absolutely loves the stuff. She also signs apple for nearly all fruit (except for banana, of course).
• Sophie is also trying to say more words. She says "appie" for apple, "nummy" for yummy, and "ahmie" for Emmy. There are more words in her vocabulary, but I can't seem to remember them all right now.
• Each day Sophie is taking more steps on her own. Today was a big day for her as far as walking goes. She might not take many steps together but she was trying to walk on her own often.
• The professional pictures came back while we were out of town and they're positively adorable. Our photography editor suggested sending them off to an agency since Sophie is so photogenic. I'll add that to the list of ten thousand other things I want to get done.
• I showed Anna the boat blanket I'm knitting for Maddy (mostly to make sure she liked it enough for me to continue knitting it) and she loves it. I am done with two panels of boats and have one panel of boats left, along with two panels of cable and four border pieces.
• Jet's Pizza exists in Texas now. The one location in Texas is very close to us. Yay!
• Earthquake Cake is very interesting to make, and very tasty to eat.

I can't think of anything else really going on here. We're trying to get back into a routine now that we're back in town. Let's hope that happens soon. I think Sophie's napping is in the process of changing, but I'm not so sure if it's just her adjusting to being home or if it's really changing.

To do:

• finish knitting the boat blanket (nothing else is on my needles until that is done)
• clean desk
• reinstall pc
• clean guest room and nursery (purge)
• help B install fence in nursery (yay for fence!) and finish hanging butterflies and other bugs
• list extraneous crap on Craigslist
• do Dream Dinners fun times!
• paint master bedroom
• repaint guest bedroom
• move office to old guest bedroom and repaint old office
• move guest bedroom to old office
• paint dining room
• Shop: IKEA, Home Depot, BBB or LnT, Fossil

Bird and diaper, while not exactly signed properly, were just discovered over the weekend, possibly more by me than by Sophie. She's probably been signing them for a while and I just have not picked up on them until now.

More to follow about the trip to Abilene...

Just when I think I have it all down...

I forgot to add brush teeth to the first list. She's been signing that for a while now.

Also, while watching Vol.1 and 2 today of Signing Time!, I realized that she's been signing airplane for a while now and also knows how to sign friend and play.

The child is in overdrive. Sheesh.

Of course, Sophie surprised me with a little more signing today. I wasn't able to catch any of it on film yet, but I'm working on it.

This morning, she started signing baby and was singing a little song. It dawned on me that she was trying to sing the Baby Signing Time! theme song while signing baby. I would not be surprised if she starts signing signing time within the next few weeks.

While waiting for my hair stylist this afternoon, we were sitting outside the studio reading. Normally, Sophie will sign book and say "ree?" when she wants to read a book. Today, she signed read! I was so impressed.

She might not be any closer to walking, but her vocabulary is growing by leaps and bounds!

Sophia continues to amaze me on the signing front. She recently added a handful of words we rarely use around the house to her signing vocabulary. On top of this, she's trying very hard to say the words we use on a regular basis. We are still using Signing Time! and Baby Signing Time! just about every day. I discovered that she knows the songs pretty well and will actually sign the words she knows when the songs are playing from CD.


* recent additions to Sophie's signing vocabulary
- words Sophie has been trying to say (some more successfully than others)

Of course, her signs aren't always perfect. Some of the signs that she used to sign well are a garbled mess now (cereal almost looks like frog now, what's up with that?), but some of the signs she hasn't been signing well are finally starting to click with her (see the cracker video below). The sign for daddy is still not quite right, but it's close, and we know what she means.

I noticed recently that she will sign while we are reading a book together if she recognizes the word or the picture. This is how I learned she knew flower and ball (her sign for ball is not correct, but it works for now). She has also been signing cold whenever we see polar bears in her books. I thought this was a bit strange since I didn't think she should have any concept of hot or cold, but apparently B taught her that polar bears live in the cold.

One of the signs she could never get quite right was cracker, but tonight she is one step closer. At the very beginning of the video, she signs cracker the old way and then realizes she knows how to do it correctly (well, almost correctly) and switches. She was pretty proud of herself tonight when she realized what she had done, and I have to admit, I'm pretty proud of her myself.




We have the first three Signing Time! DVDs and the two Baby Signing Time! DVDs along with the music CDs for all of those videos. Sophie absolutely loves to watch Rachel, Alex, and Leah and she loves to sign and dance to the songs. I need to work on getting the rest of the videos eventually.

I hope all goes well in Abilene and Sophie enjoys seeing Rachel live as much as I think she will. I'm sure she'll be signing her little heart out.

• I finally caved and joined the masses at MySpace. Amazingly enough it has put me in touch with people I never thought I would see again, even some people I had almost forgotten. I don't know if I'll bother to copy the blogs from here to there or if I'll just leave the blog there blank.
• Cordless mouse death makes me sad.
• .
• We are going to go to Abilene to see Signing Time! Live at KidzFest. I'm pretty excited. I hope Sophie enjoys it.
• Yesterday while at Target Sophie signed shoes when we passed the shoes and clothes while we were in the clothing section. She also signed bananas when I put some in the cart, but big surprise there.
• Apparently, some wanker is trying to phish for credit card information via phone. I received a phone call today from 561-204-5441 (probably not the correct phone number) with a pre-recorded message stating something about being eligible for a lower APR and to press one to speak to an agent. I pressed one and the man asked me for my last name. Before giving him anything I asked for the name of the company and promptly heard a distinct click.
• I have the headache from hell right now and just want to go to bed and sleep it off, but Sophie would much rather play. Silly kid, what is she thinking? ;)
• The critter is trying very hard to drink out of a big girl cup now. She doesn't want to have anything to do with those silly sippy cups when she's trying to drink water. It's very cute but can also be very messy if I'm not careful.
• In Texas, all students are required to take the TAKS test at some point (several times, if it's anything like the standardized tests we used to take when I was in school many moons ago). I have no opinion one way or the other about the TAKS test in particular since I don't know enough about it, and I'm not going to voice my opinions about standardized testing right now. I just hope and pray that the person in this picture isn't one of the students trying to graduate without passing the TAKS test.

Hmm. I've got a whole lot of nothin' right now.

Edited to add: This was actually written June 1, 2007, but failed to post until June 4, 2007.