A Life in the Arts

practicing xylophone


playing records with Daddy


painting with watercolors



and, uh, fashion? yes, this is three pairs of panties at once, a diaper and my hat. Sody's idea of an outfit.

This is My Latest Butter Tree

Isota's speech has been coming at us like a freight train these past few weeks. Everyone says when it happens it happens fast and that has been true for us so far. Honestly, for a while there, I was a little...not "worried" per se, but definitely wondering exactly where all her words were. She has had plenty of individual words for a while, but I keep meeting kids around the same age or younger who seem to be a little more advanced in that department. Of course, it's not fair to compare kids and everyone has their own little language timetable and blah blah blah...but at the same time it does make you step back a little and go, "What is going on here?"

But man, the last few weeks have been crazy. Repeating all sorts of things we say, busting out two word phrases all over the place, sometimes three words, and even a couple of full-on sentences: "I love you Mama" was the first one. Sure, it wasn't spontaneous and she was merely repeating what Joe said, but the point is that she said it! Those little words came out of her little mouth! In her sweet little voice! It's enough to melt your little black heart, eh? Another sentence I caught her saying the other day was "Happy Birthday To Me" which cracked me up because that is pretty much her favorite song right now. She insists on me singing it every night before bed. She is a weirdo.

Last week she was going on and on about a "butter tree." And I was like, WTF? Butter tree? Half the fun of this new found speech stuff is the figuring out what exactly she is talking about. The butter tree threw me for a bit. And then she was playing with her little kiddie laptop toy (oh yes, they have those) and she pushed a particular button on it and it spoke: "Blog Entry!" And then Sody said, "Butter Tree!" AH HA! So not only have we gone from single words to simple phrases in a very short time, we have also made the leap into computer speak. Be sure to look for Sody's own blog soon. She is going to surpass me in smarts and talents way sooner than I would like, I can already tell.

Finlaw Family Fun

The East Coast Finlaws left last week, and we have finally gotten our house all put back together. (Kidding! You guys are great guests! The living room looks downright empty without an air mattress in the middle of the floor...) We had lots of adventures, lots of quality hanging out, and lots of yummy food. Let's just say Sody really mastered the term "french fry" in the last couple of weeks. We miss you guys!!

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!