We're Back

Sorry this blog has been MIA so long.

Sofia is 3 and a half, growing like a weed and learning at an astonishing rate.

She can:

- Make up stories and songs
- Draw stick figures and copy simple drawings
- Write her name legibly (which is more than I can do!)
- Remember the spellings of her friends’ names
- Distinguish what letter many words start with
- Do a somersault and/or cartwheel, with assistance
- Eat with “grownup” table implements
- Use inverse reasoning. Told the pancakes she helped make were delicious, she said “The pancakes weren’t as good when I didn’t help make them.”
- Walk up stairs with alternating feet
- Recite her phone number and address
- Pedal a tricycle under her own power

That’s an amazing list. But still trying to teach Sofia some of the more important things lately. Like:

- Eating veggies? Well we’re making some strides. She knows why she needs to eat veggies. But that’s not usually reason enough. Chocolate pudding? Now there’s motivation to eat veggies. Sometimes. They say you’re not to use dessert as a bribe for eating right. But they obviously never tried to get a 3-year-old to eat spinach.
- Also exposed the girl for the first time to Otis Redding and Aretha Franklin records. Sat here at the computer and she stood on my lap, dancing as I held her enough that she would not fall. Girl’s got moves, and she liked Otis’s “I Can’t Turn You Loose,” “Think” and “See-Saw” best.
“This song’s about a see-saw,” she said, giggling. Well, it sort of is, kid. She liked it when I pointed out that the guitar sounds like a chicken. (That’s no domestic poultry! That’s Steve Cropper!)
- She also asked me about the words to “Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head.” “What’s that song about, daddy?” Well, it’s about a rainy day … but it’s also about trying to stay happy even when things are going wrong, I told her. She seemed to get that. She likes that song. I like the fact my girl likes well-crafted music.
- Yesterday we raked up the copious leaves in the yard. At one point I brought around the leaf blower to the front yard, where she was helping her mom, and she grinned and waved at me .. totally daddy's girl. And then, after each load of leaves from the back to the front curb, she ran back with this intent little 3-year-old girl running stride I can't really describe, other than to say what it lacks in classic running form, it makes up for in determination.