It's a Finlaw Party

Look who's visiting? And look who's loving it?

Ain't No Party Like a Sody Lou Party

...cuz a Sody Lou party don't stoooooop...

Witness Sody's birthday party. There was a strawberry theme, can you tell? Joe and I had been a little worried pre-party about having enough space for everyone, but it worked out. I learned that no matter the size of the space, kids will always figure out a way to run around and have fun. And no one cares about sitting on the ground. Thanks, friends! I also learned that I never need to cook for a party because really all anyone wants to eat are frozen mini pizzas. Thanks, Trader Joe's! Friends and little ones and sugar and toys and mayhem and a little frosting mashed into the carpet = successful birthday.

Portrait of the Procrastinator as a Young Girl

SCENE:
Last night, Sody's room, dim lights, cozy in the rocking chair together, just finished reading stories and ready for bed.

SODY: (leaning back in my arms) "Raw. Saw." (translation: "Rock me, please. And sing a song while you are at.")

MOMMY: "What song?"

SODY: "Happy boo-hee" ("Happy Birthday" - a current favorite because she has been hearing it a lot lately)

Mommy sings "Happy Birthday." Even the second verse where it asks "How old are you now?" a bunch of times and each time Sody diligently answers "Two."

SODY: (makes funny little moves with her fingers) "Di? Di?" (translation: "Can we sing 'Itsy Bitsy Spider' now?")

Mommy sings Itsy Bitsy Spider.

SODY: "Star?" (Twinkle Twinkle Little Star)

Mommy sings Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.

SODY: "Doe?"

Mommy sings Do-Re-Mi from Sound of Music.

SODY: "Happy Boohee?" (she ran out of song titles she knows so we start at the beginning again)

Mommy sings Happy Birthday. Again. And then finally tells Sody that it's lights out time.

END SCENE.

Yep, I can be a pushover at nighttime, but tell me how you would resist this face:

The One Where We Have a Two Year Old

It was Miss Isota's 2nd birthday yesterday! I feel like she has already been two for a while, oddly enough...when people ask me how old she is, I have been saying "She's almost two" for so long now. And she has been practicing her answer on that same question for a long time - she says "Two" and can gets her little peace sign out to show people how many fingers "two" looks like. But yesterday was her actual birthday, the day where two very short years ago everything changed and we met this crazy little nugget. Who knew she was going to grow into such a hilarious toddler? Who knew she was going to be so cute and smart and so dang sweet? Who knew that after we put her to bed every night we would end up on the couch talking about how stinkin' lucky we are to have such an amazing girl? We didn't know any of that then but we do know. Happy Birthday, Sody Boo. We love you so much it's kind of ridiculous.

The One With Christmas

The last three weeks of December are always kind of cuckoo-pants around here: there is my birthday and then my mom's birthday and then the biggies of Christmas and New Year's. So we have had a whole lot of merriment and wrapping paper and ripping open of gifts lately. Check out Christmas:


Before we left for Sacramento to celebrate Xmas with Grandma and Grandpa, we gave Sody her big gift from us: a kitchen. Joe put it together and hid it under a blanket in the living room for a couple days and miraculously she never discovered it. This is her first peek under the blanket and realizing what it was. She sort of got crazy eyes about it.


Burners that light up! Hooks to hang utensils! Oh my!


Miraculously, we are all facing the camera and smiling. This *never* happens.



New piggy bank from Dada. She is in love.


Shopping cart from Grandma and Grandpa! She got a ton of food to go in it, too.


Hi Grandma and Grandpa


Ready for New Years in her swanky robe

Fort Building Lessons With Dad

I went into the kitchen to make dinner and when I came out I found this:

Sody vs. Hot Chocolate

Hot chocolate, loads of whipped cream, white chocolate shavings, served with a chocolate stick. This may have been the greatest day of Sody's life.

Our Seattle Times

Oh, bloggy blog, I have been neglecting you. I have a good reason this time though, even better than your run-of-the-mill holiday crunch time busy stuff that happens every December, and that reason is this: Sody and I went on a trip to Seattle! And it was awesome! And my girl is a rad traveler! It was interesting, to say the least, trying to navigate the airport and flights with a carseat and two carry-ons and a toddler all by myself, but all things considered it went pretty darn smoothly. Seattle is where I went to college so it was super fun to take Isota around to some of my favorite spots and show off the city to her. Or rather, show her off - I still have a lot of friends up there, some of whom haven't met Sody yet, so it was great to be able to finally introduce her. She was such a trooper the whole time, too...a messed up schedule, napping only in the car for 45 minutes instead of her normal couple of hours, being dragged around all over town in an attempt to fit in as much as possible...she totally went with it. It probably helped that we plied her with Christmas treats wherever we went. People of the Northwest are very generous with their Christmas cookies and lollipops and sugary goods.

We did a lot of Christmas-y things and a lot of eating and a lot of running around to my favorite restaurants. It was definitely a different kind of Seattle trip than I am used to taking: more kid-centered activities (natch) and less bars (zero, thank you very much). But the best thing - really, the whole point of the trip - was that I finally got to spend a good chunk of time with my best friend Beth, also known as She Who Started This Whole Blog (really! she has the very first entry here, go look it up!). She met Sody once before when she came out to visit us in Sacto when Sody was a teeny little four month old. But now was their chance to really bond, and bond they did. Sody fully fell in love and it just melted me. Watching them playing and reading together, me getting a break while Beth took over entertaining duties - you went above and beyond in that regard, Beth! - and the fact that "Beth" was the first word Sody uttered to me each morning because that is who she wanted to see...all amazing. Just knowing that my kid was so loved and that she was loving someone I love and trust so completely...can I say "love" any more in this sentence?? You get my point. There was a lot of love going around on this trip. We are both so grateful.

We love you and we miss you and I promise we won't always live so far apart!!


at Pike Place Market


my favorite pho place on earth, in part because they serve cream puffs before you have your meal. oddly enough, Sody didn't care about the cream puff but she absolutely DEVOURED the noodles. you don't even know how much it warms the cockles of my heart to watch my kid dig into a giant plate of vietnamese food. I just could not be prouder of her.



We met a giant dancing penguin. Can you tell Sody was not amused?



Late night hanging out with Beth. It's hard to tell in this shot but Sody was leaning on Beth for a long time, looking at pictures on her computer and the whole thing was very sweet.



Her favorite snack on earth, strawberries. Juicy and delicious and a great deal at Pike Place Market.


About to head home. Sody was completely and totally asleep here. So out that she stayed asleep while I took the carseat out of the car *with her in it*, strapped her all up to the carry-on, checked in at the airport, and rolled her all the way to the security checkpoint before she finally woke up. The sad part was she woke up crying out for Beth because she slept through the dropoff and didn't get a chance to say goodbye. Sleepyhead!

Thanksgiving Lite

A couple of weeks ago we did a big Thanksgiving feast with my parents and friends because my parents left on a cruise and would be gone on the actual date. So for the real Thanksgiving, we kept it super low key here with just Joe and me and Sody, and it was pretty perfect. Football on tv, a leisurely family walk around the block (Sody pushed her penguin Fatty in a stroller), and an easy semi-Thanksgiving meal where the potatoes and stuffing came out of a box (soooooo not like me) and I didn't even feel bad about it. Sometimes, you just gotta let some things slide. I am slowly but surely learning that. All in all, it was a lovely and relaxing family day and that is pretty much all we could ask for.

As far as the food went, Sody ate one bite of brussels sprouts, one bite of potatoes, and about a barrel full of cranberry sauce, the nut.






the aftermath - thanksgiving leftover sandwich the next day!!

We Have a Winner

Well, the "Got Ketchup?" bib has been occupying the #1 spot in our hearts for a while now, but I have found the new official Best Bib Ever:



Kiss Me I am Swedish!
Brilliant!

A Few Pieces of Evidence as to Why Sody Rules

Because I don't talk about that enough, right?

1. She looooooves Thai food, especially green papaya salad and pad thai noodles ("noonles"). She is warming up to Indian food too, so I have an excellent lunch buddy.

2. When she got her flu shot last week, she not only didn't cry - she didn't even flinch one single bit. It was like the nurse high fived her instead of sticking her with a sharp needle.

3. She played in her crib so quietly the other morning that Joe and I slept in until 9:30. NINE THIRTY, PEOPLE! That is totally insane. (of course, in case you are getting too jealous of our kid, I should temper this by saying that the morning after that she was awake in our bed from 3:30 to 5:30, refusing to go back in her crib and refusing to fall asleep with us. Although this is really rare for her, it was plenty annoying, believe you me.)

4. I brought home a donut for a special treat the other night and she willingly broke it in half and handed it over to save for the next day. Also, she made this face:



See, she rules. Case closed.

Super Awesome Fall Tradition #3

Since carving pumpkins (tradition #1) and spiking the hot apple cider with whiskey (tradition #2) have been crossed off the list, it was time to tackle the next one: eating pumpkin pie for breakfast. And this was the year Sody got to participate in this one. I think she was more excited about the idea of pie more than actually eating the pie.

Sometimes, I Still Can't Believe She is Real

I always wanted a little girl. When you are pregnant you do the "healthy baby, who cares what it is" song-and-dance, but let's face it, most people lean towards one or the other. I definitely leaned towards girl. So way back when in 2008 when the ultrasound tech told us that Isota was, in fact, Isota, we were pretty darn thrilled. Like, Best Day EVER thrilled. Like, immediately rush to Old Navy and start picking out girl's clothes thrilled. On that day my mind's eye conjured up a picture of what this little girl was going to look like. And what my mind's eye saw was pretty much exactly this:



Leggings and boots, pigtails and smiles, healthy and happy and so gregarious. This is exactly what I saw when I dreamt about having a girl.

What We Made On Halloween

We made roasted pumpkins seeds, even though none of us really like them.


We made a vegan cookie tray for a party (rice krispie treats, gingerbread biscotti, caramels, macaroons, peanut butter cookies).



We made jack-o-lanterns.



We made a mess while making our jack-o-lanterns.



And we made ourselves exhausted from trick-or-treating.

It was a truly great Halloween, mainly because you could tell Isota was starting to get it this year. We took her to a neighborhood parade on Saturday, and then to a party at her friend Remy's house on Sunday. She very quickly got the hang of trick-or-treating. Candy for no reason? For saying "Trick or Treat"? Sign this girl up! The best part was that she was so serious about putting each piece of candy into her treat bag herself. Up to the house, get the loot, then immediately crouch down and wrestle with her bag to get the candy in. If someone made the mistake of dropping it straight into the bag, she would hold her hand out for more so they would hand it right to her. Putting things into other things is a huge deal right now.

As for costumes, I was candy corn, Joe was a retired hockey player, and Sody was a chicken. Yes, I recycled her costume from last year because she doesn't know any better yet! She had so, so much fun. We let her run a little wild with the candy that night (because we are awesome parents, natch) and her favorite type of candy seems to be lollipops so far. Which of course leaves the chocolates for Joe and me to steal when Sody goes to bed. Don't tell her.








She went to bed at 10 pm that night(!), probably with lots of sugary dreams. And she woke up the next morning still trying to say "trick-or-treat!"