The Heathen Housewife

Today Sophie is Four. Four! 4?!? My baby, my sweet child, my cuddly little puppy. (“Don’t Call Me Puppy!”)

I started calling Sophie “Puppy” sometimes when she gives me the sad, pouty hangdog look that she is so good at when she doesn’t get what she wants. She hates it, of course, but loves it when I call her “Baby”. Sophie loves hanging out in her fuzzy footie pajamas and being cuddled like a baby. Such is the fate of the last child – she has the luxury of clinging to babyhood a bit longer.

Of course, there have been some arguments lately about four-year-olds being big enough to walk on their own two feet as we head to the from pre-school after a tiring two hours. Sophie has ever been my mostly laid-back and smiling child, but she’s developed the other side of that coin over the last year as well, and can be a little stinker when she likes. She was much slower to talk than Julie, and still has the accent of  a toddler, gradually disappearing as she learns to combine consonants. I believe Sophie’s going to be a smart little cookie in her own right.

Sophie chose to have her birthday party at the bowling alley again this year, and it was a fine time. I made her pink strawberry cupcakes with pink frosting and sprinkles because that was exactly what she wanted. (Of course, I made a pile of yummy chocolate cakes as well, because I needed them!)

She seemed so happy and grown-up blowing out her four candles, eating her strawberry ice cream, and hardly touching her cupcake – she ate one bite of it when I offered to help her fork it up before clearing it away from the table after she’d had her fill and it was time for presents.

Watching small children bowl is always entertaining. I didn’t bowl at all because I was busy arranging things, welcoming guests, taking photos and playing hostess. Fine by me. Look at my two girls -

hanging out together. This hugging scene is not an uncommon one. They truly love each other, and play well together about 90% of the time. Sophie’s learning to assert herself, so of course there are disagreements, but that’s to be expected.

Julie seems to have outgrown the little-kid bowling ramp. See what I mean about small children bowling?

And she did this victorious hands-up gesture every time the ball went down the alley, whether it knocked a pin down or not. You can see Joe getting ready to bowl in the background here.

Most of the kids from Sophie’s pre-school class were at the party, plus our family and all the parents. It was a good-sized crowd. There were no tears, as far as I saw and lots of happy.

Sophie wanted one thing for her birthday, and she got it in full – her first Barbie doll so she could play on an even field with big sister.

Later that afternoon, Barbie loaded up her convertible with lots of her stuff and a dog, and they went for a ride around the living room.

I love you, my sweet girl. Every moment.

This entry was posted on Monday, February 8th, 2010 at 8:13 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.