On the ninth day of Christmas...

...we have a few more of EJ's photos. I wish I would have had Sophie's done on the black background, as I like it better than the ones with the fireplace.

K and EJ are at the movies today - "The Tale of Desperaux", which EJ is really looking forward to since she read the book about two years ago (thanks to the recommendation from our children's librarian!). Sophie is napping. She woke up yesterday with a really bad cold and it's still making her miserable. Her poor little nose won't stop running!

On other Sophie matters, she loves some new puzzles from Santa. It's a box with 16 puzzle pieces, making four 4-piece puzzles of Eric Carle (the author/illustrator) bug characters - the Very Hungry Caterpillar, Very Grouchy Ladybug, Very Busy Spider, and Honeybee. I was amazed at how quickly she can do these since they are standard (but large) puzzle piece shapes, and there is no "tray" to help hold the pieces. The first time we opened it was last night, and she immediately was able to figure out which four pieces went together to make each picture. There's just one funny catch - she refuses to put together the ladybug puzzle. She does all the others and then says "Mommy do it". Just before her nap, we did them again and she pointed to the ladybug pieces and said "I don't like", but I don't know why...we've never even read the Very Grouchy Ladybug, but maybe they have it at daycare?

Finally, we believe Sophie is simply going to potty train herself. Every time we change her diaper, she says she'll go to the potty and she does - sometimes three times a day! But that doesn't keep her from using her diaper too. The funniest thing is that we make a REALLY big deal out of going to the potty...when she's done we all hug her and kiss her and tell her how proud we are and she gets a sticker. Then, K tells her to do the potty dance and she wiggles around and says "Oh yeah, uh huh..." We need to get to work on this quickly. A world without diapers sounds lovely right now.