sophia saves the day

Yesterday night I sat down to sort out some bills from the last month. It was one of those times where I thought we were doing great, better than great with money, and then I managed to forget a few key things and all of sudden there was a heck of a lot less than I thought. Even though we're just fine, the initial realization was such a disaappointment (in myself, mostly) I started to cry. I was trying to cover my eyes and reign it in, when Sophia said "Mum what are you doing?" I told her, "I feel sad and frustrated, because I made a mistake."
Earlier in the day I had given her a little fizzy drink made with a vitamin/homeopathic mix to help her kick a cough she has. She still had some left in her little tin mug and she went and got it off of her high chair tray. She brought it to me and said. "Here, this will feel all better." It was such a lovely thing to do, that it did indeed make me stop crying and I said, "Thank you, I do feel better." She then yelled "Hooray! I saved the day!"
As I feel asleep last night, it was my happy thought.

christmas charm and cheer

last night we had a really great night. my mum and dad have been here visiting from victoria over christmas, and we all went down to stanley park to ride on the christmas train. it was so fun to see sophia take it all in. during the train ride, she randomly pronounced that when she grows up, she is going to be a fireman. then she said she would also like to grow up to be a snowman. she liked the lights and the dancing cowboy (yes, we don't know why there was one either.)

we went out to dinner afterwards and the coolest thing happened. we went to the keg because wade and i had been given some gifts cards to go there. we had been in the restaurant for a while when the men at the next table began to talk to wade and sophia. she was pretty tired by then, but she was still being really good. one of the men asked wade if he could give her a gift, and with wade's permission then handed sophia a little envelope and said "here you go, sophia, you take your mummy and daddy out to dinner sometime." it turned out that he was the OWNER of the keg and his 'little gift' to sophia was a $100.00 gift card! so for a really nice dinner for all 5 of us, we had enough gift cards to cover the whole thing, with $1.04 left over! wade also had a really cool exchange with the man and his brother and both wade and soph were their usual charming selves. we just felt so, so blessed, like it was just a big kiss from God through this super-kind man.

we've had a wonderful christmas. here are some photos from our time over the last few days. check our wade's step-by-step guide as to how he coooked our turducken by clicking on the "Daddy" link to the right. happy christmas!

squid and signs

this is sophia eating a big piece of squid.

her dad took the photo with his phone to show me her chowing down...wade and uncle mat took soph for chinese food and apparently squid and veggies were a hit to the point they were saying, "if you don't eat some more beef, you can't have any more squid."
they were both pretty impressed with her... uncle mat had her chowing down on big pieces of raw fish at the sushi bar the other day too.. go sophia!

the other hilarious thing that happened today was this: we were eating lunch and sophia wanted to get down from the table and made the sign for "all done" with her hands when her mouth was full. the sign is waving both hands in the air. i said, to her, "sign language is something you can show the new baby." wade chimed in and said, "sophia, will you show the baby sign language?" and so sophia leaned over towards my belly and waved her hands in the air at my belly! needless to say we cracked up!

advent

the past 2 weeks have been fun getting ready for Christmas, Soph is registering everything for the first time and it is such fun to explain everything. here we are filling the advent calendar with chocolate. this has now become a high point in every day and a good exercise in sharing...though usually it works that sophia 'helps to share' whoever's chocolate it is that day.

while it was a bit of a coincidence, our aussie shirts are a shout out today to Ben - Happy Birthday Benny!!!!! we miss you so much...
speaking of aussie shirts, Leigh's Mum sent Sophia this Australia world cup jersey. she calls it her 'team shirt' and it is her favourite shirt. she likes to put it on to play soccer in the hallway with her beach ball. someone showed her the holding the soccer ball under the arm stance and she is a pro. sometimes when no one is there she will pretend her uncles are here and play soccer with them.
she also had braids (aka plaits) in her hair for the first time this week. i'm pretty sure this is one more official big kid thing to do.

we've been painting up a storm getting sophia's 'big sister' room ready with the babe only 2 months away. we got soph her own purple paint brush and here she is with her dad working hard.


decorating the tree was a big highlight this weeek. she did the bottom, which you can see in the back ground. being that she is all about imaginary games, and apparently mixing her seasons, in this photo she is pretending this ornament is an easter egg, which she puts in the little snoopy bag she has over her arm and does easter egg hunts with. she then pretends to give us them to eat. one of my favourite moments recently was when she gave me a pretend easter egg recently and i "bit" into it and she scolded, "mum, don't eat the wrapper!"

goodbye uncle ralph

tonight we said goodbye to ralph. i know i posted one of the first posts on here about how much he and soph have meant to each other. my heart is broken he is going, he is my brother, our brother and having him live with us for the last year was so amazing, such a surprise how much we all needed each other. we've travelled the continent together and he was one of the few who really listened to me talk about how much i wanted a baby before we had soph, and now here it is, time to go.

he is going to england to do the next thing he's supposed to do, and that's good and right, but we won't be the same without him, christmas won't be the same without him. in the photo above soph is wearing our buddy ben's hat. when ben left last year to go back to oz, it felt like this too, but i am consoled in that even after a year soph knows who uncle ben is, and she knows he flies planes in australia where the wiggles live, so i'm trusting she'll still know ralph in her way too.



ralph and soph have had a thing about reading stories ever since she really started noticing books. when she started to talk she would make the sign for 'book' and say, 'aa-boo, a-boo'. sunday night ralph came by for a last supper-for-a-while, beer and stories. here's a shot from then below.


we love you ralphie. mawa!

hallowe'en

so even though it's a bit late, we had such a good time getting dressed up for hallowe'en i thought i would post these anyway. sophia was a leopard and was really good at roaring and also saying 'trick or treat!'. she thought the bit about the candy was amazing. we stumbled into a pro who painted her face earlier in the day. if it had been up to me, it would have been eyeliner on the nose, and that's it...good fun in the end, though she found the grown ups dressing up a bit too scary - next year we may just hit the mall...we loved the candy too!

summer update

sorry it's been so long since i posted - since we moved july 1 we haven't had net access at home so the internet activity has been super basic...thought all you sophia fans could use a fix and and overview of our summer. i'll try and post more soon.

sophia has discovered tattoos (temporary, that is - here she is showing off her latest)

this is what sophia got with her birthday money from auntie jenny and uncle mike. she LOVES it and puts it on almost daily to help cook. the over turned rocking chair beside her is her 'stove' where she cooks with her new pots and pans. yes, she is only 25 months old. i know.


lots of talk about babies at our house lately with my tummy growing and mega excitement ruled when jessi and mike and baby kael came to visit. sophia prefers to call him 'kael asher'. i did crop her filthy socks out of the photo. please note both the band aid (decorative) and the taattoo on the hand.


with the lovely caroline parsons at caroline and ben's canadian wedding. sept 2.

having a tubby at the sink at pine grove camp at papa don's 60th this past july. we had such a good time with all our friends. daddy did lots of dishes in this kitchen in his early ywam days, this was way more fun!


our last day with auntie rachel before she went to england..with one of sophia's faves - gelato!
(we miss you rach!) sophia actually refused the average vanilla cheapo ice cream that was her free kid's meal dessert just minutes before we came here - she had heard us talking about gelato...yes, she is being raised in little italy with GREAT taste!


reading with uncle mat. both classic a clssic sophia pose (she is an avid book lover) and a classic uncle mat pose too. august, our new house.


new vans skate shoes from auntie hannah and uncle nick, new clothes from auntie zippy (heather) and uncle super dave, new play dough from uncle mat... having a birthday rocks!


aunite jesssi left her glasses at the house so sophia thought she would wear then while taking a call. (on the calculator).

jamie and craig get married!

the last two days we have been happily up to our ears in wedding bliss.

our dear friends jamie and craig got married yesterday and we were all involved.
wade dj'ed, i helped do the flowers, and sophia was a flower girl.
here are some of our friend emily's beautiful photos of the day. we love you all!

sophia and ari

this is sophia and her buddy ari. ari comes to play with us most saturdays and he and sophia really love each other.

sophia got to go to ari's house to play the other day.
here they are wearing mr. potato head's glasses.

the crazy thing is that when ari comes to our house he is the more subdued one (see top photo) and sophia hugs and kisses him and won't leave him alone, and all the pictures from their play date at ari's house show ari smothering soph...pretty funny...

beautiful babe blowing bubbles by the sea

This is one of my favourite recent photos of Sophia. She was blowing bubbles with Wade when we were on the island. The black rubber boots are a favourite of hers, as is the hat, which came from Auntie Kelly and was an immediate hit because it looks like Uncle Ralph's winter hat. She knocks me out, she's so great.

pallisters first e-letter

Here is our first attempt at an e-newsletter, a snapshot of the last year, a brief overview of life and ministry and the scoop on our financials too.

Wade did a great job of designing it, but I cannot figure out how to send this in a small enough way to email it out. I really want to get this out in a timely manner, so I beseech you to take the time to download and read this update of ours.

For the front of the newsletter, click here.
For the back, click here.

If you would be so kind as to post a comment here, or email us and let us know you've read our news, we'd be most grateful. Lots of love to you all....

away...

sophia and i are away visiting my mum and dad on the island for the first week wade is in cambodia. we miss him very much and we are so, so happy for him.
we just went for a walk in the sun and the wind. it was an exploring walk with no purpose, yet in one walk i showed sophia about crossing the street to look for cars, how the wind blows your hair and how you can make your shadow dance. she discovered on her own the noise metal manhole covers make when you step on them. it is amazing to get to be the first person who tells someone all the stuff everyone just knows.

wade and sophia

Here are a few pictures of Wade and Sophia on our vacation that we took with Wade's family at the beginning of the month.
The last year has been a hard one for Wade, and one of the first times I really saw the strain was in a picture - his expression has just changed.
On this vacation we dug out a few old favourites - when Wade and I were first together we flew our kites a lot, and after years of them laying dormant, they came out of retirement. The expression on Wade's face in the kite flying photo says how much better things are going these days.



One of Wade's favourite things about Soph is that she is a speed demon. She is addicted to swinging on swings higher and faster. She has a remarkably high pain tolerance and she loves to stand on rocking chairs and all sorts of crazy stuff. Wade has plans to get her skateboarding as soon as possible. In this photo he is winging his legs up and down super fast and she thinks it rules. If he stops, he signs the sign language for 'more' and says "moh, moh, moh."



The other fave we dusted off on this trip was the giant bubble maker, a key tool in winning the hearts of my niece, nephew and godddaughter when Wade was courting me.

This being Soph's first bubble blowing experience, Wade commented, "I don't think Sophia knows that most kids don't have bubbles the size of their own bodies." I replied, "Yes, and she may also never know that some people consider Mc Donald's food." Heh. I'm funny. (And a downright hypocrite when it comes to their cheesburgers, too.)

uncle ralph

This is Sophia and her Uncle Ralph. Ralph lives with us and he and Soph have a pretty special thing goin' on. Sophia was the first baby Ralph ever held and he was pretty green in the whole baby dept. before her. He is now the uber-Uncle and has graduated through various bouts of diaper changes, nose wiping and baby sitting. He's the only other person besides us who has ever put her to bed. This may not seem a big deal, but those of us who knew Ralph BS (Before Soph) have to really reign in our desire to make all kinds of noises at how great he is with her. (Said noises would probably please and annoy Ralph simultaneously)

Tonight Uncle Ralph reached a new plateau of childcare. Ralph introduced Sophia to miso soup, and she seriously takes after her father in her love of asian soups. (The above photo is of her eating Hot and Sour Soup last Monday. Yep. I couldn't believe it. What 20 month old eats Hot and sour soup?) So, tonight Sophia got to have her first big bowl of miso soup all to herself, then Wade and I went out. I guess Soph and Uncle Ralph were running around and Soph gets sick...which is odd as she hardly ever pukes, even as a tiny baby...but really it was just one more thing for Super Uncle to add to his resume, puke-cleaner-upper and he then taught her how to say "Ralph Rocks!", though aapparently before bed it sounded like "Rocks! Alph! Yeah!". I couldn't agree more.

for all you fans out there....

This photo makes Soph laugh. She calls herself "Soo" and points to it and says her name.
I took this when we were out int eh garden playing with her buddy Ari. The best part is that she totally did this pose all on her own. Love that...