Halloween

[08:46] brett_douville: This was you and Sofi, right? http://www.gloob.tv/games/2_dad_reenacts_bioshock_girl
[11:16] jdfristrom: Now how'd that get on the internet
[11:16] brett_douville: I figure it was Cathy. Who was probably a slicer.
[11:19] jdfristrom: Sofi had her first halloween candy last night
[11:19] jdfristrom: About 100 calories worth
[11:20] jdfristrom: She threw up on her pillow around 11
[11:20] brett_douville: Oh man
[11:20] jdfristrom: I said, "I hope this doesn't put you off candy." Think my reverse psychology will work, there?
[11:21] brett_douville: LOL
[11:21] brett_douville: Good luck with that

Favorite Color?

Sofi: Is this your favorite color, dada?
Dada: Which one? The green? Ok.
Mama: If that's not your favorite color, tell her.
Sofi: Is this your favorite color, dada?
Dada: No, my favorite color is black or silver or something.
Sofi: No, your favorite color is green.

Bedroom Door

Sofi just learned how to open the bedroom door, repeatedly and consistently.

Her bedroom-door-opening kung fu is strong.

So we enter into a new era of parenting. Will she come into mama & dada's room while we're asleep now? I'm guessing not - she usually doesn't even get out of bed when she has a nightmare, she just wails. But we'll see.

Dinner Conversation

Mama: There's a famous skunk named Pepe Le Peu. Get it? Peeee yuuuu.
Sofi: Two letters.
Mama: That's right! It's two letters. P. U.
Dada: Another word that's two letters is OK.
Sofi: I clicked on it.

Geek Gene

Sofi: (Looking at clock.) Where's the O come from?
Dada: Um...Zanzibar.
Sofi: (No idea what association led to this.) I want to play Dungeons & Dragons with you.
Dada: Maybe when you're older.
Sofi: I'm two years old.
Dada: Maybe when you're ten years old.
Sofi: Okay.

Product Recalls

Looking into the possibility of doing some Hasbro games got me thinking about the Easy Bake Oven recall. Cathy still resents her parents for not getting her an Easy Bake Oven as a child, and has repeatedly said, "Sofi's going to have an Easy Bake Oven, damn it!" (Well, not in those words.) Up until the recall, anyway.
So I started browsing various toy recalls online and am just damn thankful that Sofi never seemed to have an oral phase. She hardly ever put things in her mouth. Which is great, because if she did, she might be dead by now. We were very negligent in making sure she stayed away from small objects. (Our big collection of not-for-children-under 3 legos, for example.) Of course, if she did put things in her mouth, we would have been less negligent, but still.
Makes me worry about having a second child. What if the second one isn't so easy? And it just doubles our chances of something going horribly wrong.
Imagine being the inventor of the Hasbro Play Workbench thing, which has killed two with its cute little toy "nails". Ugh.

Cathy Didn't Get It

That last post, by the way, was about something that Sofi does regularly -
I ask her, "Do you know such-and-such"
and she always says, "Yes"
and then I ask her, "Oh yeah? What is it?"
and then she makes something up.

I've got a new plan - instead of asking "Do you know?" I'm going to ask "Do you want to know?"

Roman Numerals

The Winnie The Pooh books use roman numerals for chapters.

Sofi: There's two I's!
Dada: That's right. That's roman for two. And look, there's three I's. That's roman for three. Do you know what roman for four is?
Sofi: Yes.
Dada: Oh, you do? What is it?
Sofi: Snuggle.

Lego Vikings

Lego Vikings
by Sofi

"There's a little guy and he has a stick for poking a hole."
"It's not a boat."
"It has a shield."
"It's not a boat yet."
"It's not a boat yet."
"It's a boat!"
"And they made a little dragon."
"And they're still making it."
"The End."

(That's the story Sofi says when she reads the instructions for building the little Lego Viking set.)

Useful Sims 2 Cheats For Toddlers

Just came across this - Sofi wanted to move our sim-family into a new house that we couldn't afford.
So: Ctrl-Shift-C opens up the cheat window, and then "Kaching" gets you $1000, "Motherlode" gets you $50000.
There's also the aging problem - although it was cute the first time sim-Sofi grew up and I asked her what she wanted her aspiration to be -
Dada: "Do you want to be...popular...or...rich...or...smart-"
Sofi: "Smart!"
(I told mama later and she wasn't impressed. "She doesn't know what popular or rich means." Still, I was impressed by the snappiness of her decision.)
But we don't want our sim-Sofi grown up, so I haven't been saving the game after we play, to prevent sim-Sofi from aging, but turns out there's a no-aging cheat: "aging off"

Time Telling

Seemed like a lost cause, even though all we really care about is that she not get up before 7 AM. I'd say to her, "It's not seven yet," and point to her digital clock, but then a seven would show up in the minute place and she'd say, "It's seven!" And I'd say, "It has to be a seven on the left side," but though she can tell her left hand from her right hand I don't think she can generalize.
But this morning, at seven-twenty-something, we heard her shout from her bedroom: "It's seven o'cwock! It's seven o'cwock!"
I suppose we might still get the false positives...

I want the ol back

Sofi (crying): I want the ol back!
Dada: You want the old back?
Sofi: I made one with my hand. (Holds up 'O' shape.)
Dada: Oh, you want the O back? Where'd you leave it? Does mama know where it is?
Sofi: There's an O! (Points to digital clock: it's now 9:10.)

English - Sofi Dictionary

Friend -> Sriend
Farm -> Sarm
Funny -> Sunny
Disco Ball -> Dikso Ball
Chocolate Souffle -> Yummy Pessert

The Sims 2

Sofi's really getting into the Sims 2, it's her favorite thing to do with me now.

We got the idea because we were playing with legos and trying to build our house but we didn't have enough pieces. Then I remembered The Sims. We've made our family, including our cats - Cathy, Nermil & myself are totally recognizable as us - Sofi & Zoe not so much. And then I play, getting direction from her. A couple days ago the social worker came to take sim-Sofi away because she was failing school - and the quit button was disabled - so I ended the process and managed to save her. We started doing her homework then - and then real-life Sofi wanted to do real-life homework. So we gave her a sheet of paper and crayons and she made her Best Art Yet - she's gotten pretty good at filling large areas with color. She can also color inside the lines, when we get crayons at restaurants.

This is pretty awesome: most play I do with Sofi is somewhat mind-numbing for me--stacking blocks, playing very simple games, hide-and-seek, etc--but The Sims is a pretty challenging game, so trying to keep the family going and entertain Sofi with it at the same time is totally engaging.

But one thing we haven't done yet is make our own house - the starting family couldn't quite afford it. We'll have to work our way up to that.

Diaper

Sofi sometimes insists that I be the one to change her diaper
"Ask mama", I said
"No, you"
"I don't want to"
"You have to"
"You have to" is a new one, today's the first day she said that

It takes a village...?

I hear it takes a village to raise a child.

Anybody know where we can find a village?

With our parents and friends scattered all over the continental US . . . you might as well tell me it takes a luxury yacht to raise a child.

Grr - any help?

Not sure how to look this up.

I feel like my tax accountant is overcharging me.

They screwed up, so they've already lost my business. So I can't exactly say something like, "If you want to keep my business, lower your bill."

I'd happily pay them, oh, 2/3 of what they're charging. Which isn't a big delta. It's the principle of the thing.

I never agreed to pay this much for their services...

What happens if I threaten not to pay them at all?

I gather they'd send it to "Collections", whatever that is. And then my credit rating would be impacted.

But how badly? I've owned a home, I've paid all my bills, although sometimes a month or two late, (except for one $20 bill to Blockbuster for a late video...)...would I have trouble getting a home loan because once in my life I stiffed somebody?

S-h-y?

Sofi always avoided people, who would then say, "Oh, is she shy?" (And we could at that point give a lecture about how we don't like to use the s-h-y word because we're afraid she'll get a complex about it but we never do.)

Today, when running into one of our neighbors at the mall, Sofi cowered behind me and said, "I don't like people! I don't like people!"

That's right, looks like Sofi's inherited our misanthropy. Maybe it's genetic.

(Although, with one of our neighbors who turned out to be a stealth bitch, I have to wonder if maybe Sofi's just a good judge of character.)

It Doesn't Work That Way

I just showed Cathy & Sofi the Microsoft keynote speech where Bill & I were talking. Sofi said, "Where's mama?" and then, when it was done, she said, "I want to see mama at the dentist!"

I guess the logic is since there's video footage of what happens when I go off and do my thing, there must be video footage of when mama went off to do her thing?

Another Notch Smarter

We were playing with dice today and she started dictating the rules of the game - I had rolled a two: "You take two dice," she said.
I did, rolled them and got two three's. She then counted "One, two, three, four, five, six" dice out for me. Her first addition!

And she's getting more clever in her machinations to avoid bedtime. (Of course, there's the not eating dinner and then when it's time to go to bed saying she's hungry - but she's been doing that for a while.) Tonight, when I employed my standard trick - "Do you want to turn the light off or do you want dada to do it?" A tough question to answer - for a while she was turning them out herself - probably because she at least felt empowered that way. Later she realized she could say, "I want mama to turn the light off," because then I have to go get mama and that'll give her a few-minute reprieve. But tonight she said, "I want nobody to turn the light off."