Bon Anniversaire Ma Plus Petite Princesse!

Yesterday our littlest princess turned two. Sophie has been growing in leaps and bounds (sometime soon I'll update her photo slide show in the sidebar- actually all of them need to be updated- whoops).

Fun things about Sophie:
She loves to dress up- which makes getting her ready for church pretty easy- it's the keeping her clean that's tricky. She'll bring me a skirt or dress and say "dresssh" with the ss accentuated- so cute :) She also is saying necklace really cute, it sounds like "neckle" because she has to have her fancy neckle to wear with her pretty dresssh and shiny shu.

Here she is dressed as flower fairy dancing with Sally and her friend, Courtney. 

We recently figured out that she calls Sally "baby." When Sally went to visit my parents for a few days over her birthday at first it seemed like Sophie hadn't even noticed she was gone, but the second day when I went to put her in her car seat to go to the Y she looked around and said "Where's baby? ...Baby, where are you?" At first, I thought she was talking about a doll but as I handed her various dolls and she insisted on calling for "Baby" I guessed "Do you mean Sally?" and she looked all happy and said "Uh, huh" (that's another cute Sophie thing- she rarely says "yes" you have to kind of pry a yes from her- she prefers "uh, huh"- I don't remember any of our other kids being like that). Ever since that time in the car I've noticed her calling Sally "Baby" all of the time- I wonder how long she was doing that before we noticed.

Sophie sleeping with her "banky" and rainbow fish.

She LOVES her "banky"- a super soft pink blanket with white clouds on it that is looking pretty grey now from all of her loving. I know that having a comfort/attachment item is not peculiar to children her age in general but for our family it is- she's the only one that has formed so close a bond to anything like that.

Coloring.

Sharing.

She likes to do anything her big sister is doing and wants anything her sister is playing with. She's been super sad every time we drop Sally off at preschool- mostly because she realizes that she's missing out on something fun- and maybe a little bit because she misses her sister when she's gone. I've been trying to do fun things with her so she doesn't get upset. At first, I was taking her to the Y so she could play with other kids while I worked out but then she started throwing fits when I would leave her there- maybe she doesn't like being there without Sally. So lately I've been taking her to the park or riding my bike with her. Jon recently got me an awesome adult Schwinn tricycle and he attached a baby bike seat to the front between the handlebars and the seat so she sits right in the front and can see everything and we both love it- it also has a huge basket between the back tires so I can easily bring the diaper bag and almost anything else we need- I'll have a separate post about our bikes really soon- I just need to get some more pictures.

She also loves being outside- she would stay out all day if I would let her. Unfortunately, its still pretty hot (although just this week it's started cooling down significantly in the evenings- which has been awesome). We are also having a mosquito problem and for some reason they love Sophie blood the best- maybe its the bananas she eats. I feel so bad because every time she wants to play outside I have to dress her in long sleeves and pants even though its usually more than 100 degrees out and she still ends up getting bit- we've had people ask if she has chicken pox because she has so many bites (Yes, we're sure she doesn't have chicken pox). Hoping it gets cooler soon so the mosquitos  will die or go into hiding or whatever they do in the winter.

She LOVES cats. I know, how can she be my daughter, right? I actually didn't have a problem with cats until I was about twelve so it's not so strange. Instead of even trying to say "cat" she just calls them "meow." We'll be riding the bike in the park and she'll see a cat and she'll point and say "Meow!" So cute. And the way her eyes light up and she gets all excited about kittens is just too precious. She got to play with kittens at my parents house last weekend and she was over the moon. She likes dogs too but I think she is definitely partial to cats...hopefully it won't last ;)


We're having a joint princess themed party for the girls this Saturday so we didn't do a whole lot yesterday. I did take her to the dollar store and bought a whole bunch of pink and white princess helium balloons- they'll last for the party and they're easier and a better deal than getting a helium tank and blowing up balloons, plus super great and easy decorations. She was thrilled about the balloons-as I tied them down to the cart she looked like she could have flown away (both literally and figuratively). I also let her and her sister have an ice cream cone after lunch. She received some Happy Birthday phone calls and cards- thank you, you know who you are :) and she had a pretty nice day with me reminding Sally to be extra nice to her and share with her and let her have her way because it was her birthday. I think it was a good day :)

Enjoying her birthday ice cream cone :)