Play Date

Today Sophia had the Telford twins over for a play date. Being a full three years younger than her friends, Sophia mostly chased them while they played games. All three enjoyed the sunshine and water in our backyard. Sophia was wiped when they left -- this was evident by the fit throwing. Hopefully a nice long nap will remedy the situation.

Raised Toddler Alert Level

Sophia is becoming a bit of a terror around the house. It isn't malicious at all, but her increasing abilities paired with her desire for independence have caused us to start baby proofing in new ways.

For a few weeks I had been letting Sophia get into the pantry and retrieve her snacks. Usually she's grab a Tupperware full of cereal and bring it to me. After putting a handful in her bowl, I'd have her put it away and close the door. Such a helpful girl! Then she began getting into her shelf at all times of the day, even if she wasn't hungry. Not so helpful. It became distressing when she grabbed out a bag of rice one day and a bag of flour the next. I could begin to imagine the messes I would be cleaning if we didn't do something soon. Now there is a lock on the pantry door. Franco also installed one on the front door for good measure.

I've also had to stop putting things on the kitchen table. Sophia had been able to climb up onto the chairs for a while now, but she usually got up to sit down. The other day I looked over to see her up on top of the table on her hands and knees reaching for crayons. The immediate time-out made an impression, but I'm still keeping that table clean. She tried it again when she was alone with Daddy.

If there are any other toddler stunts that you foresee in my near future, please send your baby proofing tips. We would be eternally grateful.

Prank Caller Update

Some of you already know, some of you may not. I honestly can't remember who I told. We were getting a lot of weird phone calls for about a month (starting in early May) and on the caller ID it said "private number." These calls were during the afternoons and evenings and frequently at eleven or twelve at night. The person didn't say a word and sat with the line open until we hung up. It began to get creepy when Franco was at work. I thought I could hear breathing.

The first solution would be to block private numbers. Unfortunately, calls from the gate come up as a private number and we don't want to block them.

Next we talked to Comcast. The people who work at Comcast were extremely nice and told us all kinds of useless information. Apparently none of them actually knew how to help us and had different interpretations of the handy-dandy notes they have on the subject. Basically, they couldn't tell us who the caller was and could not do anything helpful. They said we needed to call the police.

The local police didn't want to take my report until I logged ten calls. Once I had my ten calls, they took a report (never asking for the log) and then I didn't hear back. I called again. Two days later a very nice officer called and told me that they couldn't do much for me. If someone threatened to harm us, then that would be a felony under a FCC "terrorist threat" law of some sort. Then they would subpoena the phone records and prosecute. Since the person was quiet it is considered a misdemeanor and the D.A. isn't prosecuting those. Yep, go ahead and commit misdemeanors right now because the law doesn't have time for them.

Anyways, since we didn't want to change our phone number, we started working with the HOA to see if they couldn't get that gate to come up as something besides a private number. Our contact there is a nice woman who said she encountered a problem like ours before... !!!Someone's gate code (say #1003) was similar to the code you type in to call our house (100). She changed our code and we haven't had another call. Apparently our prank caller was the gate. Well, it was some idiot neighbor that doesn't know how to type in their gate code correctly and is too rude to apologize when we answer. The breathing I heard was likely the wind blowing over the call box.

I'm happy to say that it seems that our problem has been solved! Woo-hoo.

Our Little Turtle

Yesterday Sophia started swim lessons. Her group is called the turtles and they range in age from 6 months to 3 years. I don't know that we are really learning much, but it is fun to take Sophia to the pool and have a play date with other kids her age.

Here she is checking out the pool before class on the first day:


The pool is heated, so Mommy took her to the first class:


Then Daddy took a turn on the second day:


Sophia has three swimsuits, so the fashion show will continue tomorrow.

Eye Tooth Confirmed

This evening I finally found one. Sophia's upper left eye tooth is poking through her gums. She still has white bumps for the upper and lower right sides, so I'm sure they are on the way sooner than later. However, I am relieved to know that the extra whiny version of Sophia was actually caused by the emerging tooth, rather than terrible-two's come early.

Happy Birthday Nadia!

Saturday we went to my niece's first birthday party. Nadia has just started walking. She's getting to be such a big girl! Here she is sticking her tongue out at me while she had some cake:


Sophia had a great time at the party. There were a lot of babies and toddlers there, along with some bigger kids. Sophia enjoyed sampling some of my cupcake, running around, and playing with toys that were different from her own. She crashed in the car.

Here's Sophia enjoying some imaginary cake with a beloved fork:

Happy Anniversary to Us!

Has it really been four years since we got married? I'm so lucky, because it doesn't feel like it was that long ago. We're still having too much fun. Yeah for us!

Bike Riding

I had been planning to walk around our community garage sale the other day because I wanted to look for a second-hand bike trailer. Fortune was smiling on me because my neighbor mentioned (before the sale) that she had one that her husband wanted her to sell, but she wasn't ready to get rid of it. She offered for us to borrow it indefinitely and threw in a helmet for Sophia.

Not only did I score a great trailer, but I didn't have to go to any garage sales! Woo-hoo!!

Sophia has really enjoyed the four rides she has been on so far. I've enjoyed them for the most part, but it made me realize that I'm out of shape. The cart also like a sail when the wind hits it the wrong way and tries to pull me backwards. A windy day is quite the workout.

Thanks Trader Joe!

Today we got some free cookies for shopping at Trader Joe's. I discovered a shopping game -- if your purchase makes an even dollar amount, you get free stuff. Last time I discovered it on accident, but today I did it on purpose. I love math games! Almost everything at Joe's ends with a nine, but meat is one of the exceptions. Their meat is excellent quality, so no loss there.

First you spin the wheel of freebies to determine your prize (we landed on kettle corn, but they were nice enough to let us have cookies anyways). For more of a challenge, they will let you shoot a small ball into a hoop for a chance to get two freebies. Franco was with me and he got it on the first try (you get two). So, thanks Trader Joe. Franco and I will enjoy your vanilla cookies!

Yard Sale

This morning I had a new experience. We had a yard sale. Though I've visited them before, I've never actually had one in my own yard. It involved a lot of things that I don't really enjoy... cleaning out closets (ok, I kinda like that), strangers at my house, getting up early, and bargaining. I really hate that last one. That's why I shop at stores with price tags. People will haggle over a quarter! If I asked a dime, they'd probably offer me a nickel.

Some very serious yard sale people were waiting at the gate of our subdivision when it opened at seven. Franco said it was interesting to watch a big line of cars pour through the gates and divide into directions. I guess it was a bit frantic -- I was in getting Sophia dressed. Two minutes into the sale he sold the old lawn mower that we found on the side of the house when we bought it. He got it running yesterday -- it only took 10 minutes, some tie-wraps and a gallon of gasoline. We also managed to get rid of the big floral armchair that was left with the house, a couple light fixtures, and a couple small ceiling fans that we switched out. People also bought all kinds of little things that I was surprised they wanted.

In the end, we were successful at getting rid of most of our unnecessary junk. Sophia got some extra dough in her piggy bank. Now we just need to take a quick trip to donate the leftovers and post a couple of things on Craigslist.

Sophia had a good time. She ran around the yard, played with our sale items, and crawled in this box during our adventure this morning: