Sophie is becoming quite the strong willed child and quite good at communicating her desires. Today, several times, she let it be known that she wanted OUT. It reminds me of how Bella used to run to the back door chanting, “Go, go!”
After breakfast Bella decided to go out to play and as she stepped out Sophie threw herself into a fit. I had no choice but to bundle her up, put on my own boots and head to the back yard. I pushed Sophie in the swing and kicked a ball around with Bella, who delighted in being my own personal gym coach: “Run, Mama, run! Jump, jump! Stomp, Mama. Kick the ball. Run, run!”
When Dom came home it was this morning all over again. As soon as I opened the front door to greet him Sophie came crawling from the back bedroom at full tilt. She was glad to see Daddy; but soon made it clear that she was not content to be picked up and played with in the living room. She crawled over to the closet and picked up one of Bella’s sneakers and brought it to me. When that wasn’t clear enough she went back and pointed at her hat and coat. Fortunately for me, Dom took pity on her and after I’d bundled her up took her outside for another stint in the swing. He snapped a couple of pictures with his phone:
Sophie is also very, very clear that she wants to eat whatever is on my plate. She doesn’t care how spicy. Last night Dom made some killer Rogan Josh. Oh so good but it required a huge glass of water, a bunch of rice and bread, and a wad of tissues for me to get through a bowl. (And I’ve got a pretty high tolerance for heat!) I managed to get away with just feeding Sophie rice from a separate bowl last night. But I had leftovers for lunch today and she was desperate for some.
I didn’t learn my lesson with the Thai curry so I decided again to give her a taste, figuring it would result in immediate spitting out of the offensive food, a desperate grab for water, and a lesson learned about begging for mama’s food. No such luck. Oh she definitely felt the sting and attacked her water but then she came back for more. And more. And more.
And then she had enough heat and began to cry. And cry and cry. I tried to force feed her some yogurt, some rice cake, some milk, some cheese. Anything. But she was too upset. Finally I declared that it was nap time, nursed her for five excruciating minutes while she attacked me frantically. Until finally she collapsed into sleep. Poor baby.
Tonight I gave her a bit of leftover gumbo and rice for dinner and she’d learned her lesson. She still attacked the gumbo but had several spoonfuls of yogurt between each bite. My intrepid baby.
