Two Years

On April 29th, we celebrated Sonia's two years with us.  We had a little family gathering along with some friends.  The rose buds opened, the sun came out and Sunny had a grand time.  I think the highlight for her was when we all gathered round and sang "Happy Birthday."  It was a little like a wish come true for her because she has been discussing her birthday with us all for the past month.  She has a Dora book about Dora's birthday and would exclaim, "Sonia!" when the picture of Dora at her party came up.  We've been practicing blowing out candles.  She has been whipping up birthday cakes out of sand and soap suds and ticking off the names of her birthday party guests.  That morning she ate her fill (nearly a whole jar) of olives and happily danced around talking to all of her guests.

Then, everyone started singing.

As I mentioned, cake has been on her mind so she was very excited to get some.  Almost could not wait, as you see from the photo below.  When it came down to it, though, she seemed to prefer Poggy's ice cream and had seconds of that.  Then we sat down and watched Sonia open and play with her gifts.  She did pretty good with baby Milan- covering him with her silky and showing just a slight hesitation before sharing her ball toy with him.  Pretty good judgement considering he weighs as much as she does!

 

I still have to get the photos from Sonia's official photographer, Ian, so I will try to post some of those when I do as he always gets some amazing shots.

Sunny is telling us what she thinks about everything.  "No! Sonia! Self!" is one of her favorite proclamations.  She is very intent on putting on clothes right now even though she still has a lot to learn about that skill.  Most of the time I hear, "No! Sonia! Self!" then ten seconds later, "No! Mom!" as both her feet are sticking out of one pant leg.  She has also started to notice clothing and declares certain items pretty.  That is not to suggest she spends all of her time ordering us around.  Sometimes there are glimpses into just how much she understands but cannot yet articulate.  We have been reading a book called "Opposites" that she got for Chrisamas from our friends Lesley and John.  One page has a jack-in-box that is in then out.  She never seems particularly interested in that page and usually skips ahead to the page with puppies and chicks, but I read it anyway when it comes up.  Yesterday, she was playing with her new barn and farm animals.  To my amazement, she put the cow into the barn and said, "Cow in."  Guess she was paying attention!

Holidays

Happy new year everybody!  Sonia truly enjoyed Christmas this year, though she could only focus on opening presents for the first three or four, then she was off to other endevours.  Not such a bad thing, I think.  She did learn to recognize Santa Claus-first as a stuffed toy then as a two story inflated figure in the old town area of Albuquerque.  Every time one of these came into view, we would hear a little, "ho...ho...ho".  This was easily mistaken for, "oooo....oooo....oooo" (the sound an owl makes) or "oooowwww" (the sound a wolf makes), so Sunny sometimes had to set us straight.  We tried to go visit the real guy at the mall, but neither of us thought the line was worth it and we just waved from afar.  When things do not go as planned, Sunny takes  a lot of comfort in her silky, the brown blanket she is gnawing on below.  If something drops or spills, she says, "Uh Oh!" and grabs her silky.  She pretty much wants it whenever there is something troubling occurring like Ezra howling, her foot slipping, or hunger pains starting as well as when she is playing so she can cover up her dolls and animals.  Yes, it is in her hand most of the time.

Here are some pictures from Christmas Day with the Masons.  In the last picture, Jeff is looking at Sonia and Sonia is concentrating on a Barak Obama doll on the chair.  Tammy had gotten the doll (complete with a "Yes we can" soundtrack) for Ian as a gag gift and Sunny could not get enough of it.  Alan and I had to open her presents because she was so enamored with Obama she refused to even look in our direction.  Tammy has kindly sacrificed her living room for the jungle gym Jeff made Sonia.  She loves it and is already starting to hang and pull herself up.  Uh oh!

We made an unplanned trip up to Trinidad for New Years.  As usual, Sunny loved all the dogs and the llamas.  She desperately wanted to pet the cat as well, but he was in no such mood.  Sunny kept looking for him, pointing to locations of his past whereabouts and saying, "meow."  Grandma Sandy asked if Sunny could call her Mimi.  Sure, we said, and a minute later Sunny was saying, "Mimimimi."  Good choice, Sandy!  Uncle Matt, his girlfriend (who made Sunny the hat she is in below) and her kids all came down so Sunny got to watch some big kids sled on a toboggan.  She even did a little sledding herself on a saucer sled.

Directions

My Christmas present to you all- a blog post.  It has been quite awhile!  Although I was reminded around Thanksgiving, I had forgotten about it because of other projects.  Luckily, the other projects, family photo books and work stuff, are winding down so I can turn my attention back here. I have to catch up but I will try to get some holiday photos up soon.

Sunny is generally a pretty agreeable girl, but there is definitely a little toddler spark.  Her default answer to any question is "No!"  Sometimes, she will then realize what is being asked and then say what she really means, "Yeassss."  She is a stickler for the rules.  We try and organize things so we have as few rules as possible, but somehow we have quite a few.  For instance, she has to drop her silky on the floor and take off her jacket (which she often wears around the house) before she starts eating.  Often I am busy getting dinner on the table and I put her in her chair without noticing that she still has one or both of these items.  She will look at me and say, "No, no" then throw them on the ground.  Geez, mom.

One of my dad and Sandy's friends, Susan Benson, had a stuffed bear she had shown Sunny last time we were up there.  It was love at first sight.  And second sight, as you can see from the photo and video below when my dad brought the bear down.  She likes to tell us where to put the bear. Usually she wants it sitting on the couch where she can slide down its leg or face down on the floor so she can bounce on its back. He is officially part of the family; plans for the addition are underway.

Although she's a bit under the weather right now and not eating much, most days she is eating all sorts of non-kid foods. As long as we do not suggest it and/or she gets to try it from our plates. Here she is with fingers full of olives, but she has also taken bites of Posole and entire plates of Pad Thai.

Sunny is unusual not only in the variety of her food but also in the large amounts she eats. We think it's because she is so active. Sure she runs around the house for no reason, but she also goes on walks with us most days, often without a stroller. We carry her as needed, but those little legs are pretty strong. Below are two of her recent walks. The first is at the river of lights at the bio park (botanic gardens). The last one is at the nature center with her Poppy who came to visit a few weeks ago.

Fair day

For this post, I thought I would describe going to the state fair with Sonia. I highly recommended it.

Sonia has started noticing details in life. She has this radar which has not yet been trained to gloss over the mundane and is constantly pointing out these details. Her latest favorite is airplanes. I considered planes a preoccupation of a three year old and did not realize that such a young child would notice them. When she hears the sound of airplane she looks up and points, It turns out that planes fly overhead while Sonia is outside at least five or six times a day. They had some military show planes zooming around the fair grounds and Sonia would notice and look up even when she was surrounded by kids, animals, music and general noise.

Fortunately, she is noticing music in addition to noise. When there is a particularly moving song, she will turn and bounce with great passion. The cutest thing is when she does this little genie-arm motion, weaving her hand and twisting her wrists and shoulders. She definitely has her favorites. For months she has been groovin' to Burl Ives at Poggie and Grandma's house and lately to the Cabbage Patch Kid's record at our house.  She has some favorite sing-songs as well:  Six Little Ducks, Do Your Ears Hang Low?, Head and Shoulders Knees and Toes, and Rubber Duckie.  I got sidetracked there, but she also loved the background music at the fair provided by an omnipresent (in Albuquerque) group called Inca Gold.  They play  Peruvian music with traditional instruments and are good, but Alan and I are so used to hearing them in public spaces that we did not even realize they were there until Sonia started dancing and singing.  We took her over to stage so she could share her joy with the musicians and they seems very appreciative. 

The main reason we thought about taking Sunny to the fair (besides to get me my yearly gluten-free green-chili cheese fries) was to show her the animals.  I think her favorite animal exhibit was the pony ride, which was probably the first time she realized a girl could ride a horse.  She was a bit too young to ride, but she cheered on the other kids and their ponies until we had to drag her away.  She also got to see some rabbits, chickens, goats, horses and cows.  Each one got an adoring gaze and hopeful hand reaching toward the pen.  It is difficult to imagine this girl in a pet-free household.

I had to post the third picture for her great-grandparents, Drew and Janet, who are originally from Iowa.



At the fair, knee deep in corn provided by Future Farmers of America



Sunny with her chickens at home



Sounds

Lately, the English-Mason family has been taking evening strolls. It was a good move. We did it because we wanted to be more active and the evening is much cooler than the afternoon. In addition to those benefits, we also found that we have the opportunity to chat with, or at least wave at, our neighbors. Sonia is the most outgoing of our group, followed by Ezra, and loves seeing new people and smiling at them. The walks also give Alan and me a chance to chat. One of our favorite topics, of course, is Sonia. We talk about strategies for difficulties like throwing cups from her high chair (email me if you have something on this)and marvel at her little accomplishments and activities. So the other day we were just about home and talking about what she had eaten or pooped or something and suddenly we heard a little, "Uhhhh!" just after we said her name. We turned and Sonia was patting her chest. "Sonia?" we said, just to confirm. She patted her chest some more and looked at us. I could almost hear her saying, "Guys, I'm right here and I know you talking about me."

Sonia has been listening and speaking more and more. She now makes the sounds for a duck ("qa, qa k"), cow ("mmmm"), horse (blows a raspberry), and a snake ("sssss"). In addition to da and ma, she says, "Daw" (dog), "Es" (Ezra), "Baa es" (Back Ezra), "Behr" (blueberry). Her play is becoming more intricate and she focuses on things longer. Yesterday, she did the cutest thing while we were walking. We were walking into the sun, and she started placing her silky on her head so that it covered her eyes. She would then take off running the best she could and making a gurgley aaaaagghhh sound. After four or five steps, the silky would fall off. She would stop in her tracks, pick it up, then position it very deliberately on her head and over her eyes. The moment it was right, she would take off running and growling. This lasted for about 15 minutes, even after we turned around and were not in the sun any longer. By that time, it was just plain fun.

I usually try to link my narrative and my photos, but this time I am just posting some from our recent trip to Jemez Springs and at the Rio Grande Nature Center in Albuquerque. I had to dress Sunny in tie dye for Jemez Springs, as those from New Mexico will understand.