Treats Galore

Since Sophia has been wearing her Cinderella dress for months (and spreading around the glitter...), I guess I expected her to be somehow less excited about dressing up for Halloween. I was very mistaken.

Just before nap tonight, she told us, "When I wake up, it will be Halloweee-een!" That gave us a good idea that she was up for some fun tonight, and she really was!

First thing, we got her dressed up in her gitup and headed downtown. It was a little windy, so she needed daddy to hold her for a while.

 

We met our friends the Chandlers and hit all the stores. I love Trick or Treating in the District. You get to see lots of great costumes and families and all the people in the shops are great about showing lots of interest in the kids. It's fun.

 

We went to Hy-Vee for some more treats and for supper. Yum on both counts. Then headed home to trick or treat at the few houses on our cul-de-sac. Since our kids, plus one, are the only ones who come to the houses around here, they make quite a haul. The family on the corner bough 7 ounce Hershey's chocolate bars for all four kids (except Henri) on the street. Here are three of them.

 

Needless to say, it was a heavenly evening for Sophia. She so enjoyed being a princess, although with all the super heroes and strong boys around her, she would often flex her muscles and say, "I'm a strong princess!"

 

Happy Halloween everyone!

Dance Class Open House

 

This is Sophia's dance class with their instructor Miss Hallie. Today was the big day I've been waiting for. I got my camera batteries all charged up for the Open House. Sophia was so excited that Erick and I would get to actually watch her dance today. It was so sweet. At first, she was really distracted by our being there, but it didn't take long for her to get into the groove.

Getting to see it in person makes me SO pleased that we signed her up for this on my whim. Her face just beams with pure delight at every moment! Even when she has no idea what Miss Hallie is asking of her, she is just beside herself with happiness at giving it a shot.

She works really hard at everything, although her lack of coordination does show a bit. She's the second youngest in the class, and she has my gracefulness...

 

It's also fun to watch the other kids flit about and look so thrilled just to be doing something on their own, so grown up.

 

Really, though, I still think that for Sophia, at least, it comes down to the fact that she loves, loves, loves being a ballerina. As evidenced by her constantly checking herself out in the mirror...

 

There are other videos on my YouTube channel from today's class too. Check them out if you like!

Techno Sabbath Experiment

You wouldn't have even known it really, but I took the day yesterday to intentionally not participate in my usual web-based activities: Twitter, Facebook, Blogger and anything else on the computer. There are days that I don't get to the computer until late at night, but that's not intentional. I'm usually out most of the day or something. Yesterday, we stayed home all day long...

I regretted my decision for a while when Sophia woke up at 5:30. I figured with it being such a long day, I would miss it even more. That was occasionally true, but I was surprised at how little I missed all those things! So, I've decided to make it a weekly ritual. I don't know if it will always be Tuesdays or not, but I think it's a good idea. I was more engaged with Sophia and I definitely got more done around the house. Like I said, I didn't miss it all that much, so in order to actually feel some pain from it, I think I'd have to go two or three days - even a week. Maybe I'll do that some day. For now, it seems like a weekly techno Sabbath is effective enough.

Do any of you practice something similar? What has been your experience? Positive? Negative? Not a big deal at all?

Shopping Day

Sophia and I had a great Monday today in spite of the gray skies. For months, my mom and I have been trying to get a day to meet at the Outlet mall at Lake of the Ozarks, which is right about halfway. Because of her vacation and some random scheduling, she hasn't had a half day in several months, so we couldn't make it work.

Finally, we were able to arrange it today.

 

Imagine our delight when Dad happened to be serving jury duty this morning, finishing just in time to come with her!! We couldn't have scheduled it that way if we'd tried, but Sophia and I were both thrilled to have him along on girls' day out.

 

I love shopping with my mom. It really cracks me up how the flare for the sparkle and the drama in clothing selection has (mostly) skipped me and headed straight from my mom to Sophia. They nearly always agree on clothes, while I tend to think they're a bit . . . much? I've been reining my mom in for years on her clothes, although we almost always agree on my clothes. Now I'm going to just continue the battle the other direction. Oh well. Just another way to keep things interesting.

Homecoming Festivities

Homecoming Weekend has been fun, save the one particular disaster which will not be mentioned here...

The parade on Saturday morning was lots of fun. We waited for what seemed like forever, but finally it was coming. This was Sophia's reaction to hearing it was close...



Marching Mizzou is always a highlight for me, but Sophia covered her ears for every marching band, even the ones with a total of fifteen marchers...



The rest of the morning was a lot of fun just walking around and eating lunch downtown with all the excited fans, students and parents. Homecoming weekend is one of my favorites.

Then before the game, oops. Scratch that. Before bed, we had a tailgate on our street. See, an actual tailgate.



The best athleticism of the day right here. I'll cheer for this Tiger any day.

Spelling Perspective

Not literally spelling the word "perspective." I'm just saying perspective can be influential when one is learning to spell... Sophia knows how to spell her name. Ask and she will (usually) dutifully respond, S-O-P-H-I-A. We've been working a lot on her letters lately because she really seems to enjoy making and connecting the sounds.

The other night, she and Erick were talking before bed about letters and spelling names. She asked how to spell her friend Ava's name, and he made the sounds and asked what letter it sounded like. She lit up and said "A! I will spell it!" Erick was understandably impressed with her confidence when she spelled, A---O-P-H-I-A.

Okay, well that's understandable. So she asked how to spell Daddy. Again, she answered with the correct first letter. "I can spell daddy! D-O-P-H-I-A!!"

So, clearly we have to work on a little perspective. Seems like Sophia tends to think the entire world has names that are all spelled the same with the first-letter exception...That would definitely be confusing.

Concert in the Park

Sophia has been to many concerts in the park by now with all of our visits to Shelter Gardens. The other day, I was lucky enough to get my own concert performance. She keeps her songs simple, but gives it gusto. Enjoy!