Sophie Rose is two! A few Sophie stats...
She weighs 29 lbs and is 34 1/2 inches tall. She wears a size 5 diaper although I don't think she'll be in them too much longer, as she asks to sit on the potty multiple times a day. She is usually a size 24 months - 2t in clothes, but because she has so many of Rylie's hand me downs I find that she can wear a very wide range of sizes. I love having two girls. I get to see Rylie's cutest clothes reborn in Sophie's wardrobe.
Most people think Sophie is very quiet. I suppose she is, but only because Rylie is such a talker. Sophie is a good, observant listener and prefers to scope a place out rather than shoot the breeze with idle chit chat. She is not a bit shy, but doesn't speak much in public. When she does decide to talk she is pretty concise and her conversation skills are more sophisticated, all benefits of having an older sibling. She asks a lot of questions right now that I don't recall Rylie asking at this age.
While Rylie excels in language arts, Sophie will corner the market in math and science. Her fine motor skills are amazing. She is able to screw the knobs off of our cabinet doors AND screw them back on. Months ago, she discovered the trick to opening the cabinet doors with child safety locks in place. Rylie is still clueless. Sophie studies the mechanics of an object and is determined to figure it out, especially if it means tearing it up to do so. She is insatiably curious about machines and electronics. Her Noni bought her a toddler work bench with plastic tools and screws and nails for her birthday. Hopefully she will give my cabinets a break.
We have noticed that she has an ear for music. She retains the melody and lyrics of a song more easily than her older sister does. The two of us have a special bedtime routine that includes singing a wide range of songs, all of which she knows by heart. She will not pander to an audience, but sometimes she sings by herself and her pitch is nearly perfect. I pray that she will develop this gift and not be shy to share it with the world.
Sophie knows her shapes and colors. She can sing her ABCs and count to 10. Goodnight Moon is one of her favorite books, as well as My Pretty Pink Purse and Mr. Brown Can Moo, Can You? She is not one for cartoons, but has just started to pay attention to Dora and Thomas the Train. She likes to play dress up, preferring exceptionally gaudy necklaces. She is a great lover of cuddly, soft things. She now has three different "lovies" (we call them her babies) and one increasingly ragged blanket, all of which serve to soothe and comfort her. She has one of these with her at all times. Soph is still attached to her paci, but this is one of those small things I don't sweat. I will begin the process of weaning her from daytime use soon in hopes that she will be off of it by Christmas, but I make no promises.
My little Soph has always been a good sleeper, and I am so thankful for this, as Rylie quit taking naps at age two. I know that God knew I could not handle two sleep resistant babies at one time, so he made Soph extra sleepy. She still takes a good nap in the afternoon and sleeps pretty well at night. We have struggled with nights since putting both girls in twin beds in one room, but that is on the mend. She usually crawls into bed with us at some point in the night.
God can be funny. He likes to surprise us, and He did just that when I found at I was pregnant again eight months after Rylie's birth. We were unprepared for another child so soon. But I think we just didn't know that we needed her until she was here. When I held her the first time I remember thinking, "Oh, there you are. We have been waiting for you." As though I already knew her. It was more like a reunion than an introduction. It seems like we were never without her.
Sophie teaches me to relax. I think she may be capable of imparting this wisdom to everyone she meets, as she is a very laid back little chick. She rolls with the punches...provided her baby and paci are within sight.
I am continually amazed by how different she is from her big sister, and how differently I parent them. I firmly believe that having two babies so close together is the cure for over anxious parenting. It is trial by fire for mothers. I obsessed over Rylie's every move and every milestone until Sophie was born. It would have been impossible to continue that intense mothering of both of them at the same time. I am a pretty mellowed out mother at this point in the game. I prefer it and heartily endorse it. Sometimes I think I was a better mother before, certainly I was less stressed and harried. But I also focused so much on silly, inconsequential things that I believed were important. Like how long to breastfeed and when to transition to sippy cup. It turns out that having two kids is the best way to take the pressure off being the perfect mother. Who knew?
Sophie came with this wonderful blessing called perspective. I think it is a special characteristic of second time mothers and like love, it multiplies with each additional child. It is knowing which phase will pass quickly and which will stay awhile. It is defining that subtle difference between strong willed and stubborn. It is the realization that many of the hopes and dreams you heaped upon your firstborn were actually ridiculously trivial and demanding, if not selfish. It is the heartbreak of knowing exactly how brief is the cuddly, pre-mobile stage. And it's the immeasurable relief of understanding that love covers a multitude of parental faults. Perspective is the ability to be lenient with our second child because we now know that we were too tough on our first.
Sometimes I hear first time moms agonize over the daily minutia of life with baby; whether or not he is breast or bottle fed, when he slept through the night, when he adapted to a sippy cup, or potty trained, etc. I remember being consumed with these issues, too. Feeling either the guilt or the victory of each decision. I want so badly to tell them what I now know. That babyhood is brief and transient and that what you think is important now is ultimately so very futile when you look backward. That parenting really is not a competition and sometimes waiting just a week or two longer to make a transition can mean such a difference. That babies reach toddler-hood with or without your constant monitoring, hovering and prodding, so let them be babies as long as they can be babies, I want to say. But I keep silent, as I was once a first timer too, struggling to be the perfect Mommy, to have the perfect baby. To do everything the right way. They will learn, as I did, that there is no one right way. And that there is much to be gained in imperfection.
Sophie taught me that.
