Church with Sophi

We have always had trouble keeping Sophi occupied during church--she's just too curious and too social!  Today, Michael and I were just way too tired to care as much as we usually do.  We allowed her to run a little farther today, talk a little more, and play a little harder during sacrament meeting.  For the most part, she was great.  She stayed close enough to us to always be in our sight, and only a few times did she try to get too far.  There was one point where she decided she liked a pew hosting a few older people better than sitting with us.  She climbed up and sat next to an older gentlemen for a good little bit:

Can you see the top of her head at the end of the pew?

At the end of every sacrament meeting, a member (called earlier in the week usually) gets up and gives the closing prayer.  This particular member prayed a little longer than most others, and Sophi saw her window of opportunity.  She booked it for the stage!  She goes behind a partition where the deacons prepare the bread and water for sacrament, and then reappears after she's done exploring.  She walks down the back row of the choir chairs, head bobbing just in view, and finds a sister missionary that spoke earlier in the meeting.  She coerces the missionary to play with her (it didn't take a lot of effort from what we could observe), but an older lady sitting next to the missionary decides this is not acceptable.  She picks Sophi up and sits away from the sister missionary with Soph planted on her lap until the prayer is over (I told you, this was a rather longer than normal prayer).  The last few minutes of the prayer, around the time that Sophi bobbed down the choir row, Michael and I gave up on not laughing and just tried to make sure we weren't laughing too loudly.  Our friend, Summer, wouldn't open her eyes because, she said, she knew she would laugh, too, if she could see what Sophi was up to.  After sacrament let out, and Michael claimed Sophi, about three moms came up to me telling me they thought Sophi was absolutely adorable.  I think that was a nice way of saying, 'I'm glad it wasn't my kid, but it gave me some amusement!'

Sales and Popcorn

After this week, I will be very faithful to Joanne's Craft store for fabric!  I had a 40% off coupon for a regular-priced item.  I was intending to get a yard of PUL for diaper covers for Sophi (growth spurt last week, anyone?), and found that it was on sale.  Not going to argue with that, although I couldn't use the coupon on it. I bought a yard and then spied some PUL in the remnants basket--a very rare thing, since it all seems to be snatched up very quickly.  It was .91 yards, and since it was a remnant, it was 50% off!  Awesome!  I went again, today, after running out of fabric, and took advantage of the sale again.  This time, though, I was hoping to get lucky and get the end of a bolt (if the end wasn't a full yard, it would be considered a remnant--an extra 50% off of an already sale-priced item).  The fabric measured out to one yard and 34 inches!  Score!  I also found another remnant in the bin.  I am loving the sales this week!

Sophi has a food stash somewhere in the house, and I cannot locate it!  She somehow put away an un-popped bag of popcorn, and brought it out this afternoon.  She held it in one hand, grabbed my hand with her other, and positioned me in front of the microwave.  She then handed the popcorn to me and pointed to the microwave.  I put it in and sat down on the couch while the popcorn nuked.  I waited a little after the microwave beeped, but apparently I waited too long for Sophi.  She moved the laptop off of my lap, grabbed my hand, and drug me to the microwave.  This girl is serious about her food!

Our Honda

The day that Michael and I were married, we owned two cars, a '00 Durango, and a '96 Accord.  Our first apartment was not in the best part of town, but it wasn't the worst, either.  We felt confident enough in our neighborhood to park our cars on the street instead of forking over $50 for a remote to the gated parking available to us.  The morning after we were married, we quickly washed all of the 'Just Married' junk off of our Accord.  We picked up some cheap furniture from Walmart, and by the end of the day, the car was completely cleaned out, and we were happily furnishing our humble abode.  We planned out our honeymoon road trip (a drive up and down the west coast), and went to bed.  In the morning, we woke up too early to start on our trip, so we started putting together the last piece of furniture that we bought the day before.  In the middle of our project, my cell phone rang.  I answered it to find it was the California Highway Patrol asking me if I owned a white Honda Accord.  No, I told them, mine was green.  They said thanks and hung up.  We thought that was weird, but shrugged and continued on our project.  Five minutes later, we get a call again from the CHP.  This time, they tell us that they have a few of our documents, including vehicle insurance papers.  They had been found next to an abandoned white Accord on the freeway.  I started getting a little worried and told them those papers had been in my own Accord last night.  They stayed on the phone while I ventured outside to see if my car had been broken into.  I walk out to the street and wonder if I parked my car elsewhere the night before, but the lady on the other end of the phone is already asking me if I see any broken glass where I thought I had originally parked the car.  No glass, but no car, either.  The car was found a week later two streets down from us with many items taken out of it, like the alternator and the tires (it was sitting on three flat donuts when the police found it).  We found our camera under the seat, and a pair of boots that had sentimental value for Michael, so the only thing that was devastating for us was the 'totaled' state of the very wonderful car (32 mpg was not something to turn a nose up at, and it was our primary vehicle since the Durango drank gas like it was water).  We collected the insurance money and found another car, our Corolla.  Over the next two years, we would pay $315 each month on a car payment.  It killed us each time we wrote out that check!
I was thinking tonight about my old Accord, and wondered where we would be today had we not had to replace it, thinking of how we may have already bought a house, or been able to get a family van, etc.  I then thought about where we had been in life while making those car payments, and I realized that those payments were a huge blessing.  Because we didn't have the car in our name, it was not considered an asset when we applied for Medicaid back in 2010.  We were not bogged down in medical bills while trying to get on our feet in a new state.  We didn't have to worry about hospital bills while worrying about putting our baby through two surgeries in four months. The money that we would have been putting towards a car payment would have been just a drop in a very big bucket.  Add financial stress to an already stressful time, and you have a disaster.
After thinking on all of this, I can truthfully say that I am thankful that my Heavenly Father is in charge and has a plan for us.

Zoo!

We took Sophi to the Hogle Zoo Wednesday morning and had a great time!  It started off a little rocky, but after we figured out Sophi was super thirsty, the problem was fixed, the tantrum ended, and we were able to continue with our visit.  Soph wasn't too interested in most of the animals, but the tigers and the giraffes caught her attention.  The tigers were very testy with each other, and we even saw a couple of spats and heard a few roars.  Sophi was very unsure at first, but later started roaring back at them.  When we saw the giraffes, Sophi pressed her face into the wooden barrier in front of the fence, trying to get as close as she could.  She sleeps with a stuffed giraffe, so we believe that she recognized the real deal.  We were able to test out our double stroller, since that was the one in the car's trunk, and we love it.  It's a side-by-side umbrella stroller that we found on craigslist, and I am so glad we chose this style!  Sophi was comfortable (she did not struggle to get out, nor did she protest as much as she does with her single stroller.  I think I will be getting rid of the single stroller a little earlier than planned.
Sophi's hair is long enough now to look scary when she wakes up from the night or a nap, but too short to really do anything with, if she would even allow it.  We are stuck with chasing her down with a spray bottle and comb every morning (you think I'm kidding about the chasing part?  Ha!) and every afternoon.  There are days where we don't feel like dealing with it, and she gets to go around looking like Einstein.  This was the case Wednesday morning, although it was more of an each-parent-thought-the-other-would-do-it sort of thing.  By the time we realized that nothing had been done about her hair, we had already locked the front door and were trying to keep up with her going down the stairs (seriously, if I could bottle her energy and sell it, DEA would be at my front door).  Every time I looked at her at the zoo, I felt like the most neglectful mother, especially when seeing other little girls with perfect hair and little bows.  Michael, too, said he felt awful.  Lesson learned, I guess.
Last Saturday we bought Sophi some finger puppets from IKEA.  They are all animals of some sort.  There's a shark, lion, frog, moose (I think), turtle, parrot, and rabbit.  We never had any luck teaching her what sounds each animal makes using 'Old MacDonald' or books, but these puppets seemed to do the trick!  She loves making them attack each other, and she is trying so hard to make the noises that Michael and I make for each one when we play with her.  She has the lion down with her 'ROAR!', and she is working on her 'ribbit' and a 'tsking' noise that Michael makes for the rabbit.  I'm thinking we need to look into farm animal finger puppets and start teaching with those, too.

Cooking Class

A wonderful lady in our ward held a cooking class tonight for an RS week day activity, and Soph and I made sure we were there.  This is the same woman that had us over for Christmas dinner, so I knew the food was going to be wonderful.  The BEST part was that I didn't have to make it!  The kitchen was so small, and there were so many ladies present that it ended up being just a few ladies squeezing in and helping Ketley while the other women talked and watched.  There were other kids there running all around the apartment, so I let Soph follow suit.  She played well with the others, as far as I could see.
By the time that dinner was almost done, most of the moms that brought their kids had returned home, so there was only Soph, one other toddler girl, and Ketley's nephews, an 11-year-old and a 12-year-old.  The 11-year-old pulled out a small water gun and started squirting it all over, and Sophi was fascinated.  She followed him around trying so hard to get a better look at the neon orange contraption that shot out water.  He tried squirting her a few times, and she became even more determined to see it.  I figured, 'eh, he's nine years older than her, he can hold his own I'm sure.'  About five minutes later, a SOAKING Sophi greets me in the kitchen, just as pleased as punch.  I am laughing so hard I'm crying.  Both of the kids had a lot of fun with each other for the rest of the evening, and Soph was so sad to leave him behind when we started home.

Projects

A few projects that were completed this week:

Sophi's birthday gift to Michael:

Michael chose the colors--yellow background, red ink for his hand, and black for Soph's hand.  We inked up Michael's hand, practiced on a few pages before we got it how we liked it, and then did the same with Soph's hand.  She now has ink prints all over her belly, but I was able to save everything else from her messy hand!  Now I need an idea for the other side of the wedding photos...

I loved this idea that I found on pinterest, and the walls in our bedroom are bare, so it was a perfect solution:

It works the same as my calender.  Use a dry-erase marker to write down something that the other has done that day that you were thankful for.

One last project today.  Remember the mobile I made for Sophi?  Well, when we were done with it, we didn't store it and try to save it (it's just scrapbook paper, dowels, and string).  I really wanted the same type of mobile for Tristan, only this time, we decided to stick with the colors of his bedding (the same bedding we used for Sophi--gender neutral is very convenient!!).  Also this time, I used thread instead of bulky hemp, dowels as thin as kebab spears, and I had a glue gun on hand to make sure the pinwheels remained hanging from the dowels instead of slipping off as the last one tended to do.

I like how it turned out.  :)

After I had spent some time working on my projects, I looked in Soph's room to see this:

If this keeps up, it looks like she'll be able to climb in and join Tristan when he arrives.  Any suggestions on keeping Tristan safe?  I can't exactly ban her from their room every time he takes a nap...

Happy Birthday to Michael

We had a wonderful weekend with Michael's parents!  They brought over one of Sophi's cousins, Acelin, and the two were thick as thieves from the very start.  Acelin found a container of sprinkles for baked goods and promptly showed Sophi how to open it.  Both girls were diving into the sugary tidbits in no time at all.  Acelin was the perfect playmate for Sophi--they played together, and then they were content to let the other play on their own when it was needed.  I don't think I heard any fighting or fussing from the two regarding each other that whole weekend.
Friday morning and early afternoon was spent going to thrift stores and a second-hand store.  We found some pretty wonderful things, like a wooden easel for $10.  Sophi has just gotten into using chalk, and the chalkboard on one of the sides of the easel thrills her each day.  We also found a scoot-along toy fashioned as a pirate ship, onesies for Tristan, and a wonderful swing for Tristan.
Saturday was the one full day we had with Michael (he had work Thursday and Friday evenings), so we celebrated his birthday then.  We made tri-tip sandwiches and busted open a watermelon.  It was a great way to spend a Saturday afternoon!  A few hours later, as our stomachs had just finished with the sandwiches and watermelon, Michael's dad took us out for Teppanyaki.  It was a fun show, and Sophi loved trying the chopsticks on some fried rice.  Afterward, we took Sophi to the swimming pool at the hotel Michael's parents were staying at.  She was fearless!  She wanted to immediately jump in the deep end.  She loved 'swimming' in between Michael and I (we would toss her through the water back and forth to each other).  She made a game of hanging on to the rail leading down the steps and swinging in the water.  When the time comes to teach her to swim, I don't think fear will be an issue, but rather the absence of fear will give me a couple heart attacks.
Soph was so devastated when everybody left for California.  She was crying her little heart out for a good 20 minutes before she let Michael and I comfort her.
I hit a huge, energy-sapping brick wall an hour after getting up today.  I took a nap (that early???--yes), and Michael was wonderful and took care of Sophi for me.  After an hour, he brought in a prenatal and a glass of cold water and got me started on the day.  I did some calculations later and realized that Sunday marked the beginning of my third trimester.  I am suddenly feeling like I did in the first trimester, only this time with a huge belly and creaking bones.  Now I remember why I did jumping jacks as soon as I hit full-term!  Anyways, Michael kept the energy going through the rest of the morning, and I was able to snap out of it.  We went to the library and happened upon an activity that they hold every Wednesday at 10am called Lap Time.  One of the librarians reads a few books to a group of babies and toddlers, and leads them in little songs like 'Itsy Bitsy Spider' and 'Old MacDonald Had a Farm.'  Sophi loved it and tried to sing along each time.  We later went to Hobby Lobby and picked up a few things for a couple of projects I will post about later today.  I love how every time I go there, whatever I am going for always seems to be on sale for half off!