Enjoy.

Sophie loves to watch John and John from They Might Be Giants and loves to talk to them as if they were here (same with Steve and Joe from Blue's Clues, but not so much Rachel from Signing Time, even though she watches that show more than any other). She also loves to climb and slide. She's watching Here Come the ABC's and talking to John (and John) while she's going around and around on the slide in these three videos. The Kritter is out of control.

She's wearing just a shirt and a gDiaper in these videos because she kept getting caught up with her jeans on the slide somehow. She actually took a digger from the top of the slide because of it and wound up with a tiny bit of rug burn just under her left eye.

I think the second video is my favorite. The part where I'm laughing... yeah, I'd never seen her do that before. I crack up every time I see it now.

I have pictures to share... later.

For now, two videos, some random info, a link, and a request.


Thanks to kingdavey for sharing this one:



Thanks to dantex for finding this one:



Attention Devo fans... and Yo Gabba Gabba fans: Heh, Mark Mothersbaugh from Devo is the Mark who draws on Yo Gabba Gabba! I found this out a while ago and completely forgot to mention it. That show is just chock full of goodness.

More for my own reference than anything else, this is a handy little zipper tutorial, shared with me by msbluerasp. Thanks! I think I will have to make a few of those little pouches. :)

Request: This is a request for anyone on my f-list or not, whoever wants to participate. I know there are some music fans out there who might enjoy this project.

First, let me give a little background... I don't have a problem with most music made for children. I would just like to have other options for when people who might not have children are with Sophie and me in the car (or when B tires of Sophie's music). We love all sorts of music, and the For the Kids series is one of our favorites. We also love Ralph's World and They Might Be Giants.

Now, for the actual request:

Create a CD of music YOU like that is suitable for children's ears. Please, no swearing, no illicit drug use, no crazy sex references, etc.. Remember, The Kritter isn't even two yet. ;) I don't really want her running around singing "Nookie" or "Don't Marry Her" around the neighbor kids. Please have the playlist contain roughly 15 songs or so. Most importantly, please explain why you made the selections you did. Just post them (artist and song) as a comment to this entry. Feel free to create an album cover and label the compilation if you'd like. Go nuts with this!! Show me your creativity! :)

Edited to Add: I meant to mention the new Knitty is up. Yay! I haven't had a chance to look at it yet, but it's on my list of things to do today.

This is an extremely heavy video post. There are eight more videos behind the cut. Sophie was having a blast playing in her room while I was trying to tidy it last night. I was having a blast watching her being crazy. Yeah, some of these might get old after a while, but remember, whenever I post video, it's mostly so my family gets a chance to see her.

In all of these videos, whatever she's wearing she has chosen to wear on her own. Well, she just asked for a dress and agreed the one I picked was fine, but other than that... Yeah.

The videos actually get shorter near the end. I didn't really mean to be taking three or four minute videos. I just lose track of time when I'm watching her be silly like that.

• When something is difficult, Sophie says, "So heavy." I'm not exactly sure how this works, but that's the way it is. When trying to put macaroni and cheese on her fork, when the noodles won't stay on her fork they're "so heavy." When she's trying to put the bracelet back on her baby doll, it's "so heavy" to fasten (it's a simple Velcro type closure but she always turns it backwards). I don't know why, but I find this all highly amusing. There's a face and a sound that go along with this that just makes it that much better. B thinks it might be because we say, "so heavy!" when picking her up.
• Sophie has named her baby doll "Sophie Kritter," which, of course, comes out sounding like "Sowie Tidder." Love it.
• .
• Miss Thang went up the little slide and then down again all by herself with no help from me after a few times of sliding together. She also managed to walk up a rather large plank so she could go down the big slide (all on her own). The only bad part about hanging out at the neighbors' house is Sophie loving their play fort just a bit too much. She hates leaving!
• Sophie also played in the little play house last night and closed all the windows so she could throw them open and yell "peek-a-boo" (which still sounds like "piddaboo").
• I had the back door open during dinner and Sophie kept announcing she could hear the kids playing ("Hear tids!"). She was so excited to go play with them she had a difficult time finishing dinner.
• Lately, while reading our books, she has taken to eating the food off the page of the book (pretends to pinch at the picture with her fingers and put it to her mouth saying, "Mmmm, dood!"). She has also started tickling people and animals right on the page of the books ("tiddo tiddo tiddo" with her little fingers going wild over the picture). Seriously, when the heck did she get to be so funny??
• Sophie likes to wear hats. She has a variety of hats she wears from time to time. Her favorites are the pompom hat, one of my straw hats, and Papaw's train cap.

There's probably more, but that's all I can remember for now.

In other somewhat slightly related news, I think my camera is coming down with some fatal disease. If you watch the videos (and bless you if you do, they're long and just of the Kritter playing with a ball, so exciting!), you'll here a clicking sound that simply shouldn't be there. I'm not sure what the deal is. It's also fighting to focus. I'm not sure if someone jacked with a setting or what, but that still shouldn't cause the clicking. :(

Too clever!

But I found these commercials incredibly humorous anyhow.

Sophie had a blast this weekend at the park. I took her Saturday and we met up with "Missy Tay and Lala." Sophie had a blast on the slide and the swing and in the tunnel. I had to drag B to the park with us the next day so he could see just how much fun she had. The child hates getting out of the swing! She could live in it, seriously!

In the videos of Sophie swinging, if the volume is up high enough, she can be heard squealing, saying "Whee," and possibly saying "fun" or "swinging." The video of her in the tunnel is probably my favorite because she goes down the slide at the end. Unfortunately, the severe static electricity she experienced crawling through the tunnel was totally missed. Her hair was standing straight out (all the wisps not in the pigtails).

Okay, LiveJournal has now made posting video a serious pain in my butt. Way to go. Here are the videos from the painting session. The first one is from my phone, which is why it's so small.

This entry is going to be even more all over the place than other random entries... I think. Watch, I'll get to the end and realize I didn't really have anything to post in the first place. That's always fun.

For those of you looking for a new home in the DFW area, this little site is one of the coolest MLS searches I've seen... ever. I wish there was a site like this that would search the entire country. I know there are other areas who use this company (Diverse Solutions), but they don't link together. That would be the ultimate.

Yesterday, Sophie sat and colored for about two hours. Two hours! Every now and then she'd give me a crayon and ask me to color. I drew a bunch of shapes for her and she tried to color them in! This is the reason I want a scanner. I want to be able to scan these things so I don't have ten thousand papers laying around, but also so I can show my family what she's doing now. It really was too cute. She was almost heartbroken when I took away the crayons so she could eat dinner.

Tonight we are having Thai chicken with peanut sauce. Of course, it's a Dream Dinners meal, but I'm still looking forward to it. B will probably hate it, unfortunately. I wonder if I have an onion in the pantry for fried rice....

Sunday's game was incredible. I seriously should have bet on it. I knew it was going to be close and had a feeling the Giants were going to win, but I was afraid it was just wishful thinking. Any team that gets light penalties for cheating and drug abuse and continues to win games regardless, and then has the audacity to actually trademark the phrase "19 and 0" needs to be taken down a notch or two. After watching how cocky some of the Pats were on the field, I was very pleased when Eli had a shining moment at the end and helped his team pull off a major victory. Sorry Pats fans, it's not your fault and this isn't against you.

I have to admit, the commercials just haven't been as good as they used to be, though. There were a few worth noting, I think Coke, Pepsi, E*Trade, and possibly a few others were pretty decent. I think Budweiser will have a tough time trying to beat the frog commercials, although I did like their commercial this year (hasn't that one been aired before?).

I have a couple memes to post (one from my mother, of all people), but I'll put them in a separate post... whenever I get around to doing them.

I need to go get the child out of bed now, since she has awakened from her nap and is currently giving herself "boops," I'm guessing on the nose.

( The rest of the post (pictures and videos) will be behind a cut, just to be nice.  )

She's growing so quickly right now. There are things she was doing just last week that I wanted to catch on video but never did, and now she doesn't do those things any longer. Cookie is now teetee instead of toodoo. :( Pizza is still potsy, so I should try to get that one on video. Cracks me up! Anyhow, enjoy the pictures.

I am even more behind on catching up. Eventually I'll get there, but it won't be tonight. I have read a lot of posts from my phone, but haven't had a chance to comment. There's so much I want to say, really.

So what have I done tonight? Absolutely nothing as far as catching up. My heart just isn't in it tonight. Of course, that puts me even farther behind.

However, I do have lots of cute pictures and a video to share. :)

Dates are all in yyyymmdd format. Some of these have been hanging around for a while, sorry. I am putting all the pictures behind a cut except for one. The video is my only other teaser. In the video, Sophie was helping Daddy by mopping the kitchen floor. She chatters almost the entire time, but it's difficult to hear it.








The tutu (which Sophie says beautifully, along with "wings") was made by isyllt. It scared her at first, but she got to the point where she didn't want it off. I absolutely love it! I wish the wings were a little darker red and that the elastic was black, but it's still terribly cute overall. B agrees that I need to figure out something for antennae. Perhaps we'll do that tomorrow.

I have had this song stuck in my head all morning long. I have no idea why. I don't even remember the last time I actually heard it. I'm pretty sure it's been years. I swear, there's a DJ in my head with a mind of his own and he doesn't consult me on the playlist.



I know the A/V is out of sync for that video, but it's still a killer song. I absolutely love Dusty Springfield. I don't think there's a song I've heard from her that I didn't like. My all time favorite song from her is probably Son of a Preacher Man, though. I love it.



It doesn't get much better than that.

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.

I have succumbed to the craziness that is Yo! Gabba Gabba. I don't normally let Sophie watch Nick Jr. because of the crappy commercials they have, but she loves this show. I have to admit, I'm not opposed to watching it, either. I don't like it as much as Between the Lions, but I don't hate it as much as Sponge Bob, either. ;)

Besides, who can hate anything that has a tummy party song?

Sophie loves this video. She asks for it all the time, especially when she sees the computer.

"minahminahminahminahmin"

I am growing tired of this song. ;)

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.

We had a blast today at Scarby, of course. B, Sophie, B's mother, and I all braved the elements today and enjoyed every minute of it, even the muddy shoes and wet clothes. The forecast called for a 70% chance of rain. It rained for a bit this afternoon, but other than that (and the mud before and after), the weather was wonderful. It was a bit humid (which caused my glasses to fog randomly) but tolerable.

Sophia was a super trooper (shoutout). She entertained during the rain and kept everyone smiling. She danced with the drums of the belly dancers and the bagpipes. She cheered during the parade and popped many fairy farts.

While she was eating lunch today, Sophie signed cheese and then cracker, please. Cheese is a brand new sign for her. It was only introduced within the last week! She's putting words together and understanding the idea of a sentence. I have a feeling we will be going to KidzFest after all. By the way, if you look closely at the beginning of the video you'll see Sophie sign Daddy. :)

We had to trudge through much mud, but enjoyed every minute of it. It was pretty difficult with the stroller, but then I realized the stroller actually kept me on my feet. When I tried to walk to the Privies without the stroller I found myself slipping a lot. I'm just glad I didn't land on my face (or my butt, for that matter).

I picked up an Ocarina. I can't wait to give it a whirl. I didn't buy a bamboo flute this year, although I did consider it several times. I found a bodice dagger I absolutely love (they have no bodice daggers online that I could find, though) that was a double garnet with beautiful cuttings in the dagger. It was a bit too rich for the pocketbook at this time, though. I think that will have to be a finishing touch to the costume I don't have yet.

I thought I had more to mention about today, but apparently not.

I was lucky enough to catch a little video (sorry the video is so dark for some reason) of Sophie the other day while we were watching one of the Signing Time! videos. Lately, she's been standing more and more on her own. She hasn't taken any steps yet (at least not of which I'm aware), but she's pretty close (the distance between reaches continues to grow). She happened to be standing on her own at the time of this video and she actually signed wash hands without falling down (okay, maybe she did fall down at the end, it's difficult to tell)! She doesn't use this sign often, but as soon as she heard Rachel say it, she started signing. I am still so amazed at how much she has learned!

By the way, we are considering heading to Abilene June 9 for Signing Time! Live at the KidzFest. Abilene will be the longest car ride Sophie has had yet, so we're not entirely certain we want to do this. I think Sophie would get a kick out of seeing Rachel (she gets so excited when she sees Rachel's picture, even on the DVD cases), but I also think maybe we should wait until she can remember it.





Edited to add: How little sense does this make? While viewing my main page, the video that shows for me in this entry is the Bananas! video, not the video mentioned in the post. However, as soon as I click the link for this entry or the video tag, I see the correct video. I would not be surprised if it is just my computer since it is in dire need of a reinstall Just in case it isn't, I thought I'd share this for anyone interested in the correct video.

Sophie absolutely loves bananas. She gets so excited when she knows she's going to eat a banana during a meal. We've been out of bananas for about a week now, and while we were at the grocery store today, she made it very clear that I was to buy bananas for her. Since this is the only word (other than mama, dada, and other babbling words) she says, she says it very well and with much confidence. As I was trying to pick produce, Sophie kept shouting "bananas!" as loudly as she could, signing it while she was shouting it. Of course, it doesn't sound exactly like "bananas" but it's pretty darn close. She had quite a few other shoppers laughing about this, and a couple even checked to make sure I had a hand of bananas in my basket.

I was lucky enough to capture some of this on video using my handy dandy little cell phone. The quality isn't the greatest, but I think it is clear enough to get the idea.

Sophie has been watching her Baby Signing Time videos nearly every day now (not straight through, but for minutes at a time throughout the day). She's picked up quite a few more signs. I believe she signs thank you but doesn't quite know what that one means yet, and she signs dog when we're talking about Chui. She signs eat and juice both very well now, intentionally, even without us asking her to sign! There are other signs we think she might be trying to do, but I'm not quite sure yet. She's certainly getting the hang of it, though.

In this little video (which is almost three minutes in length), she signs juice quite clearly. This was about a week or two after she first learned to sign juice. I am still amazed at how well she does this sign, since I would think getting the little pinkie out there would be pretty difficult for a baby. I guess not, though! She does the sign pretty early in the video, so there's not much need to watch the full video. I just don't have anything here to use for editing videos yet, though.

Sophie has been cruising around the ottoman and sofa for a while now. She has also been pulling herself at the kitchen table and taking a few steps holding onto the chairs there. Just yesterday, though, she started something new. She has pulled herself up by holding onto a wall before, but yesterday, she actually took steps while holding onto the wall! I was able to capture this on video today. I'm so proud of the little kritter!