Preschooler!

Sophia started preschool.  She's a preschooler!  She's not even 3 yet!  But she has been doing great.  We were really worried about how she would adjust since she's always been with a caretaker who was someone from our family.  To our surprise, she has done great so far and hasn't even cried once during drop off.  Her teacher was also Matthew's preschool teacher so maybe it is a little more comforting that she's already somewhat familiar with the teacher/school.  When we ask her what she did in school, she usually answers with either "I dunno" or "played kitchen".  When we ask her who her friends are, she'll usually answer "John Paul" (cool thing is that he's the little brother of one of matthew's classmates from preschool!)  But we know she does more than that at school because I know her teacher didn't make up the answers to her "all about me" page!

Overall, I think she's doing well in class.  She doesn't really tell us what she does all day in school, but I'll hear her singing songs that I've never heard her sing before.  Songs about heads, shoulders, knees and toes,  how to line up, how to sit down, how to clean up, how the wheels on the bus go round and round.  She doesn't quite know all the words, but enough for me to know what song she is singing.

Speaking of words, here are some words that are in her vocabulary:
duffen duffen = doc mcstuffin (watch video below this list of words)
faywerk = firework
berella = umbrella
gweeze = squeeze
pocanut = polka dot
barkoly = sparkly
bahasmas = bahamas
oomdo = uno (card game.  she'll yell out "OOMDO!" when she's down to one card)

She probably says these words with more clarity now, but over the summer, these were words that I heard often.  She's still doing okay with Chinese and English but I can tell that now she's in school, Chinese is kind of her second choice language now.  She'll speak to Matthew in mostly English - but she's also picking up the Mandarin that he's learning.

Before starting school in September, she had a busy summer! 

 She attended a toddler gymnastics class for about 6 weeks.  I don't think she really liked it that much since she didn't really participate much according to grandma.  But when daddy took her to gymnastics, she did everything the teacher instructed them to do!  

She had fun going bowling once a week with gong gong.

She enjoyed Lego Land...for the most part.  As you can see, she wasn't too fond of the super slide!

She also enjoyed some birthday parties, weddings, time at the park and her new toddler seat on the back of momma's bike!

Words out of her mouth today: I wanna be a princess when I grow up!

Video Updates

Sophia is a girly girl.  None of these videos show it, but she's definitely a girly girl.  She changes her outfits several times a day when we're at home.  Put a dress on her and she'll twirl herself around and say "I so pretty!"  Put an article of clothing on her that she doesn't like and she'll say "yee gaw mm match!" (this doesn't match).  If her hands get dirty, she'll make a fuss about it until you tell her we can wash it off later.  She's a high maintenance one, but she's a fun, sassy, bright little girl.  She's doing really well with speaking both English and Chinese.  If she says something in English (which she picked up quickly from her brother), I'll ask her what it means in Chinese and she can usually immediately translate it (if she feels like it).  I play a game with her and Matthew where I'll say the English word or phrase of something and they race to say the Chinese version of it.  I would say that 7 out of 10 times, Sophia ends up winning!  We'll see how long this lasts once she starts school when she turns 3 though.  If she's anything like her brother, she'll stop speaking Chinese and use all English - hopefully not!

Dancing like Santa

Playing a card game of following instructions with gaw-gaw and daddy

Her own medley of random songs

Eating Mozzarella Cheese

Doing her version of the robot
(reference https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fGaxbH2t9Ik at 1:15 - this is what she does everytime we get to hearing this part of the song)

We'll end this post with a bedtime story from our very own Sophia! :)

Fee Fa!

There was a period of time where Sophia couldn't say her name correctly.  I would ask "What's your name?"  and she would answer "Fee-fa!".  Then I would slowly sound out her name with her and she would follow my lead.
me: So
S: So
me: fee
S: fee
me: ah
S: ah
me: Sophia!
S: Feefa!
This video is the closest that I have to this conversation.

She's speaking a lot more English these days!  She picks up everything her brother says and just loves to copy him.  In this video, you'll see her look up at her brother multiple times to check out what he's doing and then modifies her own actions.

She's can also be a very girly girl.  If you put a dress/skirt on her, she'll stand there and twirl around and she has strong opinions about fashion.   She'll insist on wearing her socks that have pink on them if you try to put any other colored pair of socks.  She'll insist on clipping her hair back when i'm trying to put it up in a ponytail.  She'll insist on wearing her boots if you try to put sneakers on her.  She'll insist on wearing any pants other than her jeans.

She's also very much so a tomboy!  She has no problems running around the house and climbing up and down furniture to keep up with her brother.  She loves trying to put together puzzles and making her own Lego creations and she loves pretending to be a monster to scare us.  I think we have the cutest little monster ever! :)

Videos

Random videos that I wanted to post.

Someone doesn't like having the windows open 

That same someone has monkey-toes

2 Years Old!

Happy 2nd Birthday!!

 

Height: 34in (59th %tile)
Weight: 26lb 13.5oz (55th %tile)

Mui Did It!

A little behind in the monthly Buddy pictures so here are the installments for months 19 - 23!
(row1 is 19 months, row2 is 20, 21 and 22 months, row3 is 23 months)

Sophia's picking up a lot more words now - pretty much repeats any exclamatory two word phrases that her brother uses.  Her favorite for the time being is "Mui (that's how she refers to herself) didit!!"  She'll say that when she buckles herself into her booster seat, when she builds some duplo block creation that she deems worthy of a "mui didit!!", when she draws something on a sheet a paper, etc....basically anytime that Matthew shows me something that he did, she'll try to do what he did and then tell me "mui didit!!"  In the picture below, she is telling me "mui didit!" after she put a puzzle together on the iPad. (and yes, that is her beloved blankie that she has wrapped around her neck!)



Other words in her vocabulary now:
Me-don-o (McDonalds)
Yeah! (also from Matthew)
Noe (nose - she also knows the chinese word for this)
A-pane (airplane)
Ba (bus)
aw done (all done)
dohng (cold in chinese)
yeet-yeet (hot in chinese)
hewo (hello)
diddy (kitty...as in hello kitty)
oh no!
han (hand - also knows the chinese word for this)
mut-mut (socks in chinese)
hem-it (helmet)
yee-doe (here in chinese)
daw-doe (there in chinese)
Muibee (also another way she refers to herself.  this is actually a nickname that Matthew came up with one day when he was being silly and trying to make up rhyming words.  maffew-daffew, mommy-dommy, and then out of nowhere came muibee-duibee...and that is how muibee came to life)
and there's a lot more other words that I just can't think of at this moment...

She's also started semi-potty training.  I don't force her to go use the potty, but sometimes when I ask her if she has to go, she'll say Yeah! and then we run up the stairs to go to the elmo potty seat.  After she goes, she'll start clapping and say "mui didit!!" and then motions to get wiped so that she can go ahead and flush the toilet.  

Sophia can definitely be a girly girl.  She's very particular about what clothes she wears - if given the choice, she'd wear her polka dotted purple leggings (see picture below where she is sitting on the other girls) every. single. day.  Oh, and she'd pair it with her leopard print hoodie if she was cold (as shown in her "mui didit" picture from above).  She also "fixes her hair" (my cousin captured this in a video of hers: hope this link works!) and doesn't mind putting a clip in her hair now.  She also likes to carry around bags like it's her purse as well as accessorize with sunglasses and necklaces.  She's also partial to pink stuff and loves Hello Kitty.

On the flip side, she possesses tomboy qualities as well.  She loves to run around and play with her brother (i even caught them wrestling each other down to the ground the other night!), play with balls, ride bikes and play with duplo blocks (toddler version of lego blocks).  She really just loves copying whatever her big brother is doing and is usually a bit more daring/adventurous than he was at her age.  Here's a picture of her after she climbed up onto a chair to get some french fries while none of us were watching her!

I can't believe this little baby girl is turning 2 in a month!  And for the record, the terrible twos already made multiple appearances starting a few months ago! =P