Sophie is talking more and more, so she's able to give us the tiniest peek into her busy little mind. I was amazed at the park the other day by her active imagination. We were sitting on a bench that looped around a tree trunk. The bench was in poor repair (maintenance of public areas is not a strong point here), and there were several missing planks. Where the planks were missing, you could see the double metal rails that supported the wooden slats of the bench. Sophie was apparently reminded of train tracks, because she started saying "Choo choo!" and scooting around the "tracks" on her butt. Being able to see the world through a child's eyes is priceless.
A less inspiring game that has taken hold today involves Sophie's favorite sidekick, Alex the dress-me monkey. Today Alex was doing all sorts of things he wasn't supposed to do, such as sitting on the shelf beneath the TV (Sophie is, coincidentally, also not supposed to sit there) and climbing on Sophie's easel (Sophie is, coincidentally, also not supposed to climb there). Every time Alex winds up in one of these forbidden places, Sophie says "No no Alex sit shelf!" "No no Alex climb board!" Then she looks at me expectantly so that I will also scold Alex and then thank him for getting down. Nice to know that she's internalizing the things we tell her not to do. Not so nice to spend most of the morning reprimanding a stuffed monkey.
Sophie also scolds Pepper frequently for climbing places he shouldn't and shushes him when he mews. Keegan says it's a classic case of %*@& running downhill. Now I've got to go scold Keegan for his potty mouth.
