Snapshots of Matthew and Sophia

NICU Staff Visit

2011-12-17T08:03:00.000-08:00

December 16, 2011

To all the NICU staff, nurses, and doctors,

Thank you for all that you do on a continued basis for your little patients. Our two children were well taken care of and we are eternally grateful for the work you have done for us and that you do every day.

Sophia Rose (our oldest) was born on April 25^th 2007, six weeks early with hydrops fetalis. She did not have much a chance to live. At her birth, she had four doctors working on her. She had chest tubes to drain the fluid that she her body was making. They put a PICC line in and she was intubated. People in many countries were praying for her.

Sophia is now a healthy, thriving four year old that has caught up to her peers and is doing well in preschool. She is fiercely devoted to her own sense of fashion, all things pink, loves books and to be read to.

Sophia was in the NICU for three weeks. We cannot thank you for taking such good care of her, and for the constant support that we had every time we went to spend time with Sophia.

Matthew David was born on September 3, 2009. He did not want to be outdone by his older sister, so he also spent some time in the NICU. He was only in the NICU for three days because his lungs were still wet and there was concern of infection. Our experience during Matthew’s stint in the NICU only furthers our immense gratitude that we have for people like you who work on these children.

Matthew is now a two year who likes be himself no matter who the audience is. He is “all boy” and loves construction vehicles, sports, jumping on our couch, also loves books, and has no fear. We often find him “reading” in his room early in the morning, and even sometimes after he has been put to bed.

Thank you so much for taking such good care of our children and of us. We are so grateful for helping us through the most difficult time in our lives, when Sophia was born, and helping us maneuver through the days when we did not know whether she was going to stay with us or go to heaven.

Thank you, thank you, thank you!!

Rob, Danielle, Sophia, and Matthew Crandell

Winter fashion trends (according to Sophia)

2011-11-08T20:18:00.000-08:00

The weather is changing and it is time to get out the winter clothes. Since Sophia has a deep (entrenched) sense of style, I thought I would share the upcoming winter fashion trends with you, according to her.

The hot colors and let’s face it the only colors to wear are pink and purple. You can also mix this up with the only acceptable pattern out there: bright colored stripes. Every other color is not in fashion this season or any season. I think these colors are going to hot for quite a while. You should just throw out everything that does not contain pink or purple.

As far as pants are concerned: Jeans and “tight” pants are completely out for the season. Cozy pants and soft corduroy pants are in (only in the above mentioned colors, of course). Pants should fit below the belly button and should be long enough to reach the edge of the shoe when standing. If the pants are any shorter than this within a millimeter of the edge, these pants are unacceptable and should be given away immediately.

Shirts appropriate for the cooler weather are harder to find than you think. Be careful when you shop. After trying on several styles of t-shirts on her first clothing shopping trip, Sophia recommends the following tests when looking for a winter t-shirt.

ü The shirt should not be tight anywhere. Sophia recommends buying a larger size to prevent this problem.

ü The sleeve length should not be any shorter that wrist bone, even when you raise your arms. (Three-quarter sleeves are not an option!!)

ü When you fully raise your arms, the shirt must be long enough to not go higher than the belly button. Warning: many shirts do not pass this test!!

ü Also, layered t-shirts are out.

Winter Dresses. Although there are many stylish options for this type winter wear, they are out for the season. Let’s face it; you must wear tights in order to stay warm enough. Sophia cannot recommend any tights because they do not perfectly fit around the toes. Until Sophia finds a pair tights that are “form-fitting” around the toes, dresses are out for the winter.

Pajamas: Do not put your summer jammies away just yet. You can simply wear a cozy (pink or purple) sweatshirt over your summer jammies to maintain the proper warmth when sleeping.

Highlights from the previous seasons:

Heaven is for REAL

2011-08-05T21:17:00.000-07:00

The best thing, maybe the only thing to look forward to when I was 7 months pregnant is that I was so close to holding my baby girl.  All the discomfort and lack of sleep was going to be completely worth it when she was in my arms and I could see her. Well, as you know, I did not get to hold her until she was ten days old.

I went to Seattle recently. I read a book called Heaven is for REAL.
http://heavenisforreal.net/
It is a non-fiction book about a little boy's journey to heaven and back. It is a quick read and I read and finished the book to and from Seattle on the plane. I didn't have much time to process it.

Here goes the processing:

I think the best part about this book for me is that this little boy tells his dad Jesus took care of him and he got to sit on Jesus's lap. While his daddy was desperately praying/raging with God, Jesus was holding his son. As soon as I read this I knew that Jesus had held Sophia when I could not. He was caring for my sweet girl when I could not get that close to her. I am just overwhelmed with His love for my children and His love for me and everyone else. I cannot fathom how deep and how wide Christ's love is for us but I think I came one small step closer to understanding it.

But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
                                                                                    Romans 5:8

¹⁶ I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, ¹⁷ so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, ¹⁸ may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, ¹⁹ and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.
                                                                              Ephesians 3:16-19

Raw thoughts

2011-02-13T11:06:00.000-08:00

Baby Showers are an amazing celebration of a beautiful baby to come. It is time to support the new mother and provide much needed and oh so cute items for the baby. It is a time to swap stories about how other children were born and what it was like to have the doctor put your child in your arms for the first time.

Why then does it bring up so much pain for me? I have an amazing birth story to tell with my first but with this amazing story comes with so much pain and right now I cannot seperate the two feelings. My family baby shower was set for the middle of May. Sophia was born on April 25th. I decided to go ahead and go through with the shower even though we did not know what Sophia's future held at that time. I was amazed that everyone showed up bringing amazing gifts for a child who we did know whether God would keep her here with us or take her heaven. It was touching yet so painful to open up presents, praying that my little girl would be able to wear that or be able to use that cute towel after a bath.

After the baby shower, I went back to the NICU and told Sophia about all the wonderful things she got. The many, many dresses that Pam got her to the beautiful crib her Papa made her to the hand made blankets to the much needed diaper pail.

Oh, then there is birth stories. How I wish, I could have held Sophia like I see it happen on TV! I finally got to hold my baby girl, ten days later. It was great and beautiful. I was in awe that Sophia was such a fighter and I was so, so proud of her.

The first time I got to hold Sophia!

In Sophia's story, there are incredible moments of joy and there are incredible moments of pain. Right now those are intertwined. Yet, I am so incredibly blessed that the Lord decided to let us keep Sophia. I have an amazing little girl (and little boy too) who is full of love.

Lord, untangle these so that I may fully rejoice with women and their celebration of their little ones coming into this world.

Sophia's village

2011-01-19T17:12:00.000-08:00

It takes a village to raise children. It definitely takes a village to raise our children with both of us working full time. Sophia loves her family. She loves her Cantie Stephanie and the "train cousins". She loves her cousin Autumn. With three sets of families, she has three sets of grandparents, three sets of aunts and uncles and three sets of cousins. They all have a special place in her village. To me her village seems full but Sophia always has room for more special people in her village. She loves her Papa Chuck and Grammy Debbe at church and chooses to sit with them more than she sits with us during worship.

I love that Sophia has a special place for each person. During Christmas, we got a chance to video chat with my brother and his girlfriend. (They live in NYC.) At first we were just talking with my brother. As soon as Sophia got to say hi, she also wanted to say hi to Ms. Ashley too. Thank you Ashley for coming back on screen twice to say hello to Sophia and us.

We had the privilege of having our pastor, his wife and their two boys over. Sophia found room for all of them in her village, especially one of their boys, Spencer. She wanted Spencer to read the bedtime books to her and graciously did. Thank you Spencer!

I am amazed at this little girl who has a huge heart to love all these people and make special connections with each one of them. Each one of her family and friends has a special place and role to fulfill in this village. Thank you everyone for graciously playing your part and loving my wonderful little girl.

NICU reunion

2010-10-16T16:44:00.000-07:00

Thank you Deanna of Printsess Photography for this pic!

Went to the NICU reunion today. I had mixed feelings going back. Moments of sadness that we are members of this club and moments of joy that my baby girl could participate in everything and her body did not hold her back. It could have but God has healed her.

I brought a perfect 3 1/2 old to this festival. No one would know the difference between her and a child that was healthy at birth. Some children, you could tell that they have had an uphill battle to heal and need continued healing. Why did God bless us with a healthy child with no lingering health problems? Why does God choose to not bless others or at least allow them to still struggle in this way? Why does God allow some to be healed in heaven?

We were interviewed by a reporter today. He was asking me what my feelings were when I finally got to lay eyes on my baby girl for the first time. I had the feeling, he wanted me to say that I was utterly devastated and crushed. But I was not. I knew the Christ loves her and continues to love her more than I could ever love her and He will decide the best place for her. I knew that Christ was holding her in His arms comforting her.

What did I actually feel?

When I first laid eyes on her, I took a deep breath because she had so many wires and tubes. My feelings were feeling of love and being proud of her. I felt so proud of my baby girl for being a fighter. I felt it was important to let her know that I was there by her side and I that I loved her and I was so, so proud of her continuing to fight to live.

The Prince

2010-07-01T15:07:00.001-07:00

Matthew my sweet, sweet baby has turned into quite a little prince during our two week hotel adventure. We have a one bedroom suite at a Residence Inn Marriott. I highly recommend this hotel by the way. They provide a hot breakfast every day which they change up four of the hot items daily. They also provide a dinner, Monday through Thursday, all complimentary.

Prior to leaving I had been trying to get Matthew on at least on nap per day. He doesn't nap on a consistent basis. If he does take a nap, he cries for twenty minutes and sleeps for thirty minutes. At the hotel, we are living in such close quarters, I don't want to disrupt Sophia's nap, so he will nurse and nap on my lap for about the length of her nap - 2 to 3 hours. He is so spoiled!!

He is also getting up in the middle of the night too. The other night he woke up around 2 am and after I fed him, he would not go back to sleep quietly. I did not want him to wake up Sophia, so he slept in our bed. Rob and I did not get a lot of sleep that night. I was afraid I was going to squish him.

The prince also has a had ton of veggies fries when we travel or before dinner. I think when we get home is going to go through veggie fry withdrawals.

His sweet demeanor has not changed though. He still loves giving us tons of wet gummy kisses!

The hotel laundry room

2010-06-28T15:12:00.000-07:00

Our hotel has a very nice laundry room which is conveniently on the same floor as our room. I took Matthew and Sophia with me to put the laundry in the washer. As I was putting the laundry in the washers, Sophia and I were making small talk with a guy who was folding his clothes.
Sophia, who notices everything says, "My daddy has the same underwear like you."
I could of died laughing but I was trying to keep it to a smile.
The guy, who has small children of his own, replied with, "Yes, I think a lot of people have these, they are very comfortable."
Oh my goodness!!! Hilarious.

On the road to salvation...

2010-03-30T15:29:00.000-07:00

The other night, Sophia was having trouble going to sleep. She kept saying I want Jesus. Okay, let's pray to Jesus. We prayed to Jesus, thanking Him for our day and all the people in our lives. When we were doing praying, Sophia still said she wanted Jesus. We have talked about Christ dying for our sins and living in our heart but she is a little young. I asked her if she wanted Jesus to live in her heart and she said no. Sophia: "I want my heart empty." I asked her what she wanted to fill her heart with. Without any hesitation, she said, "Candy!". I guess the Holy Spirit still has work to do.

All smiles and giggles

2010-01-04T11:03:00.000-08:00

I know boys are supposed to be made out of puppy dog tails and snails, but Matthew might be an exception to this.

Christmas Festivites 2009: Christmas with Rob's Family

2009-12-29T10:50:00.000-08:00

One word to describe this Christmas: CHAOS!!!

Let's see who is at this one:
Great Grandma Marie
Rob's parents, Sophia and Matthew's grandma and grandpa

Rob's sister and her husband, Aunt Jenny and Uncle Damion
Their four kids:
Liam (11 yrs old), Katie (5 yrs old) , Mathurin (7 yrs old), Tristan (13 mos old)

Rob's brother and his wife, Uncle Tim and Aunt Kourtney
Their two kids:Tyler (5 yrs old) and Kylea (4 yrs old)

Of course us with Sophia (2 1/2 yrs old) and Matthew (4 mos).

That is eight kids, six of which were running around all day and night long!

Grandma made these huge stockings in which we all contribute to. Look for yourself. So big!

We open our stockings first, from youngest to oldest.While the kids were playing, the adults open our presents from each other. We also played a white elephant game too. The rule was to bring something that you already had from home. Rob ended up with a living room mantle. I have no idea where to put it.Then we brought the kids in - craaazy!! Between Rob handing out the gifts and me, feeding Matthew, I have no idea what present Sophia and Matthew got from which family people.

Sophia did get a piano from Grandma and Grandpa which she loves to play. She also likes to put on a dance beat and dance around the living room.

The Goodheart clan

Sophia sporting her new snowman pants!

Princess nails - oh boy!

Grandma and Grandpa opening a present from Sophia.

Spy gear!

The girls in their matching dresses made with love by grandma.

Matthew had quite a conversation with Great grandma Marie while everyone opened their stockings.

A Visit with Great Grandma

2009-12-25T20:42:00.000-08:00

On Christmas day after Sophia's nap, my mom, Sophia, Matthew and I went to visit my Grandma. Sophia loves to visit her Great Grandma. We passed by her school on the way there and Sophia said "Hey, not a school day, visit Great grandma!!" She was very adamant about this. Sophia is somehow very in tune to my grandma every since Sophia was a baby. Sophia gives her lots of love pats and kisses every time she visits. This visit, Sophia helped Great grandma open her presents and told her what they were. She, along, with two other people helped Great Grandma to the table. It is so cute, how Sophia just jumps right in there to help.

What did Santa bring?

2009-12-25T13:11:00.000-08:00

A conversation I had with Sophia, a few days before the train ride.

"Sophia, what do you want Santa to bring you"

A few minutes past and she says "food".

Me - "What kind of food?"

Her - "Papa cakes"

Papacakes are pancakes that my step dad makes. If Sophia could eat pancakes every day for breakfast, lunch, and dinner she would.

A couple weeks after that I mentioned that Santa might bring her an art kit, like the one cousin Autumn got for her birthday. She told me, "No, Santa is bringing papacakes!".

So Christmas morning, Santa put papa cakes under the tree for Sophia. Sophia was nice enough to share with us and this was our first breakfast of the day.

What did Santa bring Matthew? uuh, I guess Matthew was not on the good list. Better luck next year, my dear sweet Matthew.

Christmas Festivites 2009: Christmas with Mom

2009-12-25T10:10:00.000-08:00

Rob, Sophia and I had an early breakfast courtesy of Sophia's present from Santa. My mom, my step-dad, my , and our good friend Rebecca came over around 9 to have brunch. My mom made homemade quiches, cinnamon rolls, and ricotta balls sprinkled with cinnamon sugar, along with bacon and mimosa's. Everything was delicious!

We open our stocking that "Santa" brought us. Sophia was really jazzed about the Santa pez candy toy she got. I didn't realize how weird eating pez candy is until I was explaining to Sophia that you have to tilt Santa's head back and take the candy from his neck.

The adults played our annual white elephant game. It is so fun. My brother ended up with a very fluffy, very orange bathrobe.

We open our presents. Sophia was very patient, she wanted to big present that Noni and Papa had gotten. Every year, I like to get some kind of gadget. In years past, they have been, ice tea maker, digital photo frame, hot chocolate maker, etc. This year was no different, I got an apple slicer-corer-peeler.

Sophia loved her new trike and art easel. She also loved the Dora phone Uncle Clarkie got for her. However, Sophia does not like Dora when it is close to nap time since Dora asks her to play with her. On many occasions, Sophia says "Nooooo!" and hangs up the phone. When Dora calls back she ignores the call or puts the phone in a kitchen drawer. I am hoping phone manners with come later.

Later, we had homemade Lasagna that Jim, my step-dad made. He makes the best lasagna ever!

Noni with Matthew and Sophia

Opening stockings

White elephant present time!

Sophia helping Papa out with his white elephant choice.

Uncle Clarkie sporting his super cool orange bath robe.

Matthew is glad he is finally getting some presents today.

Mommy looking a little dazed in all the Christmas fun.

Sophia's first masterpiece on her new art easel. Thank you Noni and Papa!

Are you noticing all of the matching Christmas jammies? Every year, my mom gives us matching jammie bottoms and sweatshirts. Below is a pic of the 2007 jammies.

2007 Christmas jammies

Aunt Lindsay and Uncle John are in this pic too. We missed you this year!!

Christmas Festivities 2009: Christmas with Dad

2009-12-24T21:10:00.000-08:00

Like all great things that are carefully planned, the reality turns out better or worse that what you have planned. It turned out much better than what we had planned. We hosted Christmas with my dad, step-mom, brother, sister, brother-in-law, niece, aunt, uncle and cousin on Christmas Eve day. The plan was to eat brunch at 10, dinner at 4 and Christmas eve service at 7. Brunch was ready at 11ish and people came between 10 and 1 to eat. We had my dad's amazing hash browns, cheesy eggs, little quiches, cinnamon rolls, bacon, Italian sausage, and a "winter" fruit salad. After everybody was done with brunch, we were going to open presents, except little Sophia was melting down. So she had to have a nap, right about the time we were going to open presents and everyone was gracious enough to wait for her to wake up. I have the best family!

When Sophia got up from her nap, the amount of presents had quadrupled in size. Uncle Keith said, "look Sophia, what I brought you". So on Christmas morning, I told Sophia that Santa might of brought her a present. She replied with, "Noo, Uncle Keith!" [brought presents]. Apparently all presents come from Uncle Keith now.

We were supposed to have this nice honey baked ham dinner with all the fixings around 4 except no one was really that hungry. Instead, we brought out the ham, dinner rolls, and cheese for ham sandwiches along with the appetizers. Everyone could snack at their leisure. We spent the whole day just hanging out talking, watching movies, and sleeping. Sophia, my sister Jess, and my niece (her daughter), Autumn and myself made and decorated sugar cookies. Sophia had to taste test every single frosting and multiple times too - good thing it's family!

Sophia did great playing with her cousin "Aubum" except when they were "sharing" the same toy which consequently led to her nap earlier that day. Matthew was amazing. He slept all during brunch and present opening which allowed me to enjoy breakfast and watch Sophia open her presents.

It was so great to have Uncle Keith, Aunt Murry and cousin Stephanie here for Christmas!!

Uncle Keith and Dad making breakfast

11 is a little early for Uncle Clarkie

Autumn checking on breakfast

Bacon Stealer!!

Uncle Keith, Cantie (cousin - aunt) Stephanie, Uncle Clarkie and Sophia

Clarkie with two set of Kings tickets

My dad in his normal happy state

Cookie decorating and tasting. Thank you Aunt Jess for overseeing the process!

Ma-ma-ma and Sophia

Christmas Festivities 2009: Christmas Lights

2009-12-20T12:59:00.000-08:00

What is the best way to kill a half hour before the bedtime routine? Christmas lights! About once a week, starting in mid-November, we pack the kids in the car, with chocolate juice (hot chocolate), and look at Christmas lights. Before Thanksgiving, it was more about looking for Christmas light than actually looking at the lights, but it was still fun. One night, we brought Sophia's homework assignment with us. (Homework for a two year old - it starts early!) Her homework was to do something her "golden" bear and then have mommy or daddy write what she did. We finished this season with a grand finale of walking Dovewood Court. See the pics below of Dovewood Court. It is absolutely amazing.

Oh! That's what they are there for.

2009-12-15T10:01:00.000-08:00

In the past couple weeks, Matthew has found his hands. He likes to grab on to his first love, the giraffe. He also like tasting his fingers except they never stick around too long. He doesn't have total control yet of where his hands move.

Christmas Festivites 2009: Christmas school pageant and Santa Claus

2009-12-14T21:01:00.000-08:00

Sophia's school put on a Christmas program. Sophia who likes to come home everyday after school and change clothes into something cozy, did not want to get back into her Christmas dress again. The church service was Sunday night and the school program was the very next night. It took some coaxing but she finally put on her Christmas dress. She did great singing with the other kids in her class. The three year old class was hilarious during their songs. There was a girl in front, covering her face the whole time, one little boy, sobbing, during the songs, and one little boy doing the robot/vogue dance.

She also got to meet Santa. She did not want to meet him, so while we waiting in line, I kept her back to Santa the whole time. When we got to the front, she saw that kids were getting candy canes after they saw Santa, so she was okay with it after that. Matthew was great and slept the whole time.

One of Sophia's songs:

Christmas Festivities 2009: Christmas church service

2009-12-13T20:54:00.000-08:00

Our church put on an amazing Christmas service. It was so fun to see Sophia singing with the other kids on the stage. She had a great time singing and making crafts after wards.

Poor Matthew, way past his bedtime.

Christmas Festivities 2009: Polar Express

2009-12-11T12:46:00.000-08:00

This was our second annual Brandt family train ride. The key players are my family, my dad, step-mom, sister, sister's husband, their daughter, my niece, my cousin, her husband and their two boys, my Aunt and Uncle and their daughter, my cousin, and of course Rob, Sophia, and Matthew. We had so much fun on the Polar Express drinking hot chocolate and eating cookies. Santa came on the train and gave us jingle bells too.

Matthew did great - I was so surprised. Up until this point, Matthew was a very fussy infant, we were quite afraid of him. He was happy and even took a nap in the carrier while we were eating dinner. Sophia told me on the way to there, she did not want to meet Santa. I was a little nervous when Santa started handing out the bells, but she did great. We had a mini crisis at the end of the train ride, when Sophia had to go potty and there was no bathroom on the train. She had to hold it and we were the first ones off the train and she made it! Phew!!

Uncle Keith, Aunt Murry and Sophia

Matthew looking not to sure about this train ride

"Cantie" Stephanie, Uncle Tony, Ryan, and Randy

All of the kids

After the polar express, we all had dinner at Round Table and exchanged presents. It was a very fun evening with family with the Brandt family.

Sophia and Autumn enjoying pizza

Aunt Jess meeting Matthew for the first time

My cousin Nikki and her son, Brandt

Christmas Festivites 2009: The Christmas Tree

2009-11-27T11:39:00.000-08:00

Everyone usually has a tradition built around the Christmas tree. Our household is no different. We drive out to the Silveyville Christmas tree farm and cut down or pick out a fresh cut tree, every year. This year we were feeling crazy and sprung for the dollar sleigh ride with Santa.

Potty training

2009-11-15T17:46:00.000-08:00

A few things I did not think I would say during this whole venture which I feel the need to explain:

"We do not put treats up our nose!"

At one point Sophia's bribe was blueberry jelly beans. She tried them at Matthew's baby shower and loved them. I was in the kitchen and I hear this "help, help Mommy". I walk into the leaving and see Sophia pointing to her nose and a trail of blue leading up to her nose.

"Do not flush the toilet so we can see your poop and give you two treats!"

My darling sweet girl can be mischievous at times. She is very motivated by the treats to use the potty, sometimes too motivated. One time, I found her filling up her potty with water from the toilet so that she could say she went potty and get a treat. So with two treats on the line, she needs a bit of accountability.

"Where is your underwear?"

Since we have been potty training, Sophia rarely wears pants/shorts while we are at home. I don't mind this at all since the main focus is getting to the potty on time. I do love her justification of "It's hot" and then she promptly takes off her pants, meanwhile I am wearing pants and a sweatshirt and still think its cold. However, once in a while she will come out of her room without her underwear on. This is wear I draw the line. Sometimes, it is because she wants new underwear or "it's hot". Today it was because she wanted to put her underwear on Elmo.

A few things Sophia has said during this time:

In a whisper, "potty, potty, potty, potty".
She was trying to go potty to get a treat but this was the fourth time in a half an hour.

After putting her baby doll on the potty, "focus, baby focus".
Sometimes, I will say this to her if she is not doing what she is supposed to.

Of course, after she goes, in a big smile, "Treat!".

"Mommy, go potty with me."
I knew all of us girls like to go to the bathroom together, but I didn't know it started this early! Sheesh.

I am proud to say that Sophia is day and night potty trained and she no longer asks for treats too. Thank you Lord for small miracles!!

Natural Prozac

2009-11-02T17:17:00.000-08:00

I think my daughter is made out of prozac. She finds joy in everything.
Kaiser bathroom - toilet flushing was hilarious to Sophia (only my child)
Leaves swirling around by the wind - "Look mommy, leaves, ha-ha-ha"
Eating strawberries at church - "Strawberries, ha-ha-ha"
Sophia smiles wherever she goes.
I feel so grateful that Christ has given me this little girl to remind me to find joy in all that I do and see.

October's school work

2009-11-01T22:19:00.000-08:00

Sophia does at least one art project a day at her daycare/preschool. I know she works really hard on her art projects and I wanted to show her some way that we could acknowledge her work. I cannot display them on the fridge since there are so many art projects and Sophia likes to destroy her art as much as she likes to make it including taste testing the plastic eyes.
We invested in a bulletin board to display all of Sophia's work. Check out some of October's work.

Happy Halloween!

2009-11-01T20:56:00.000-08:00

This is Sophia's first year celebrating Halloween. It started off with a harvest carnival at her school the day before. All the children dressed up in the their costumes and had a costume parade around the playground. The school provided a choo-choo train which Sophia loved! In fact, when I went to see her at school and help her get ready, she told me to go away because of the choo-choo train. Inside the school, they had games, crafts and a spooky maze.
The day of Halloween, I was explaining to Sophia how the trick or treating process works. I told her that we would knock on doors and say "trick or treat" and then they would give you candy. I asked a little while later, what do you say when someone answers the door when we go trick or treating. She replied with "candy please".

We started trick or treating by going over to Noni and Papa's house. We visited with them for a little bit but Sophia was very anxious to get started. I thought that was funny since this was all new.

Post Halloween:
Most little kids would not think of their candy unless they saw it in plain view. I put her candy in the pantry, so that she would follow suit, however Sophia, who remembers everything, continually asks for her pumpkin so that she can have some candy. When she does get her pumpkin, the routine is to say "1, 2, 3" and then dump out the bucket so she can pick one to eat.

This is her first piece of hard earned Halloween candy.

Cut it up froggy!

2009-10-20T09:39:00.000-07:00

Occasionally, Sophia likes to put her animals to bed. She will rock them and sing "I love you Lord" to them and then put them in her bed. Lately Sophia has given us trouble going to bed. She will give us at least a few excuses why she can't go to bed right away. I could not help myself, when she put froggy to bed. I had to give her a few excuses for Froggy. "Froggy doesn't want to go to bed, froggy wants to watch Elmo, froggy is not sleepy", etc. Sophia told Froggy repeatedly , "cut it up Froggy, cut it up", which she meant cut it out. So cute!

I never thought it would happen...

2009-10-15T18:49:00.000-07:00

I did not think it would happen. I was not prepared, I should of been preparing, reaching out and talking to people. It's happened before to friends I have known and myself but I just did not think it would happen this soon. That's right, Matthew has grown out of his newborn clothes and into 0-3 months. So sad. :)