Hood to Coast!!

I did it! I ran from Mt. Hood...

...and with an amazing team, I made it to the Coast (Seaside, OR)!



Please read my sister-in-law's blog post on our running adventures HERE

(I've returned to school and now "regular" life begins again...I'm going to convince Doug to do a blog update later this week to detail the Daddy-Sophie fun that happened while Mommy was away running!)

Our Girl

Look at this attitude!! Our girl's facial expressions have amused us since Day 1. They're adorable, and yet, they still incite anxiety as we imagine that same face sneering at us during the teenage years. Sophie hasn't felt well for several days, so we've been laying low, spending extra time reading, cuddling, and playing indoors.

Sophie is an amazing, dynamic little girl, and I don't feel like I've done justice to her personality on this blog. She is sweet, caring, and shy. Her family sees her wild, sassy and vocal side, but often around others, Sophie is thoughtful, reserved, and observant. Sophie is perceptive, empathetic, creative, opinionated, and smart. She loves to read books, play with animals and dolls, drive trucks and trains, sing songs, dance, and run laps around the house! She does summersaults, unlocks iphones, prefers to look at photographs of herself, laughs at funny videos on YouTube, tackles our cat, and thinks it's hysterical to see my sweaty face after a run.

She remembers the funniest sentences and tidbits of knowledge. "Orange cones mean 'struction" (construction). Often in public, she will tell me what she observes: "Sophie hear fire truck" or the most embarrassing, "That lady crying. Why that lady crying?" As I was looking for the string cheese in the refridgerator today, I said "Where is that cheese?" and Sophie replied "Pobably hiding, mommy." I can't believe that she is old enough to carry on a real conversation with me!

The explosion of Sophie's language over the past month has been staggering. She speaks in complete sentences, makes demands, asks questions, and creates mock conversations between her animals and babies.

Sophie loves to sing songs. "Baa Baa Black Sheep, how are you? yes, yes, tree bags full" and "tinkle tinkle little stah, how wonder what you ah" and "happy buthday to you, happy buthday to you"... she sings the alphabet very well, too, and after she gets to the letter "z", she says "Now I now my abc, nexttime sing wit me!"

My mom created a simple song when I was a baby that she has sung to me for 31 years. I remember having a bad day in 7th grade (who didn't?!) and my mom rocked me and sang me this song. Her version of the song: "I love Elizabeth, I love Elizabeth, I love Elizabeth, today, today" (repeat). Please take a moment to all sing that song out loud to publicize your love for me.... haha.

I've been singing that song to Sophie since she came home from the hospital. Sophie especially loves it when her grandma sings the song. We've adjusted the lyrics to fill in the blank of any family member who loves Sophie: "Auntie Pippy loves Sophie....Papa loves Sophie...Louie loves Sophie..." For months now, Sophie will shout out the name of the person (or object) and we add that person to the lyrics as we rock night-night. As of this week, Sophie now sings that song herself. Last night, she couldn't fall asleep, and I heard her singing in her crib. She sang the name of the family member or friend three times and then added "today, today" at the end. After she went through some names, she began improvising "Books love Sophie....umbrella love Sophie...window love Sophie...photograph love Sophie, today, today." It was adorable.

I am fascinated by Sophie's language acquisition. She has picked up on space fillers "I want, um, peanut butter" and "So, um, where's baby?" I have a tendency to use the word "huh" as in "You love your baby bear, huh?" or "It's hot, huh?" Sophie misuses the word in sentences like "Here's my juice, huh" or "Hi, Daddy, huh."

We are slowly transitioning from third person "Sophie wants macawoni, mommy" to "I see a digger over dare". Her favorite pasttime is to ask "What's dis?" I'll respond by telling her that's a _(wall)_____. She will then point 1 inch from where she pointed the last time and ask "What's dis, mommy?" And so it goes...

Her other question of the month is "What Daddy (or fill in the name of anybody or anything) doing?"

What mommy doing? What book doing? What grass doing? What milk doing? What baby doing? What Uncle Chris doing? What Daddy wadda boddle (water bottle) doing?

The greatest is when she asks us "What Sophie doing?" We always laugh and say "What IS Sophie doing?" and she responds "talking".

Love this age :)

A Fortnight Away

Much has happened in the last 2 weeks... although we pulled into the driveway this afternoon exhausted, I am eager to document these first 2 weeks of August.

Our vacation started with just one short day with my parents at Priest Lake; our time with them was cut short because of the sudden death of my grandmother, "Buffie", an amazing woman whom I'll miss very much. She called us the day before she died, and Sophie said "Hi, Buffie!" into the phone. I will cherish that memory and remind Sophie of this special moment.

(PS. My mom looks so beautiful! She's not your average grandmother!!!)

Sophie and Papa looked for owls, deer, and woodpecker holes.

We had our 3rd annual Priest Lake trip with the Minahans. This time, there were three children under the age of 2.5! Sophie adores Owen and his new baby sister, Emmarie, and we adore their parents. (Al and Jenn took most of the cute photos, but here are some of ours.)

Sophie loved to run barefoot down the path. Although she tempted fate, it was poor, shoe-wearing Owen who ended up getting the painful splinter!

To add to the fun, I even got to spend a few hours with my oldest and dearest friend, Meredith!!

Sweet Emmarie didn't make it into any of my photos. Perhaps I was too obsessed taking photos of Sophie and her first love, Owen. Can these two get any cuter?! This wasn't staged at all...

After our long weekend with our friends, Doug returned to work, and Sophie and I remained in Spokane to spend some time with my parents. After a few days swimming with Grandma and driving Papa's "tractor", we headed down to Walla Walla to join family and friends (and reunite with Doug) to lay my grandmother to rest.

Although I have no photos from our time in Walla Walla, it was a perfect celebration with many who loved my grandmother. She was independent, tenacious, and strong. I will be forever grateful to her because she instilled these traits in my mother whom I admire and respect more than anybody. My mother has modeled grace, integrity, compassion, and wisdom during this most difficult time as she grieves the loss of her own mother. The best parts of my mom came from Buffie. And I will work hard to model these qualities for my own daughter, too. We will miss you, Buffie.

Much has happened this summer, some documented on this public blog and some kept private. As I reflect on our experiences and as I gear up for the start of another school year, I am reminded of 4 lines of an Edna St. Vincent Millay sonnet:

But what a shining animal is man,

Who knows, when pain subsides, that is not that,

For worse than that must follow--yet can write

Music; can laugh, play tennis; even plan.