Rocky

Wading in the stream:

Happy to feel the sunshine:

Snow Much Fun!

Last Friday, we woke up to this:

Sophie and Pascal built a snowman:

Sophie gave him a kiss:

Our angel made a snow angel (that is Pascal's angel below her):

And then Pascal pulled out his childhood sled and pulled us around the village.  Unlucky for you and lucky for me, THERE ARE NO PICTURES :)

P.S.  We have since purchased bona fide snow boots for Sophie and I located a coordinating scarf to avoid the explosion of patterns and colors that she has going on . . .

19 Months

Here she is, in her static-haired glory, playing on her car seat:

She is a hoot, as we watch her personality emerge.  She loves to say "no, no, no", even when she doesn't mean it!  Her vocabulary is exploding, and she can follow directions, putting something in the garbage, looking for something, etc.  She can also ignore directions :)

Ladderback

Like most toddlers, Sophie loves to climb.  Our kitchen chairs have rungs on them so she is able to easily and quickly scramble onto the seat before easily and quickly scrambling onto the table.

This is why it's hard for me to cook dinner.

Before we left, as we were eating lunch, Pascal felt Sophie's fingers and thought she was tickling him.  He turned around to find that she had climbed up the back of the chair, just like a ladder:

 What a little monkey!

Operation Christmas Card Photo: Take Two

This morning, I put the red dress back on Sophie, determined to get a decent Christmas card photo.

Here are a few that I got to choose from: 

Well, huh.  Since it wasn't raining this morning, we (Kellie, Isabel, Sophie and I) headed outside.  Kellie's job was to distract Sophie and encourage sweet faces.  Let's face it, though, at 18 months old, Sophie is interested in anything BUT the camera.

Operation Santa Photo: FAIL

Last year, it was so easy. 

This year, we stopped by a few days ago to say hi and Sophie was fine.

Today, I gussied her up (sans black hair bow, which she kept pulling out) and we got in line.  I truly didn't think she would have a problem, but hey!  Guess what!

She didn't even want to be near His Royal Jolliness.  Santa suggested perching her on my left knee, so he could read the story to her.  She twisted her body to the right, grabbed my right shoulder and would.not.let.go.

At one point, she was ready to burst into tears.  AWESOME.

So here it is, in all its glory, because this photo will NOT be our Christmas card this year (and I love the way my glasses slid down, partially obscuring my eyes. MORE AWESOME.):

Spoon Fun (Taken November 15. Note jaunty ponytail to keep hair out of eyes!)