a dose of Soph

For those of you who have been missing the Soph updates, here's some new news:



Soph has suddenly morphed into a 'big kid'. It has to do with her haircut, for sure, but she started taking swimming lessons, wanting to skip rope and write the letters of the alphabet. She went to swimming with Wade and they were both so excited about it. We all went to the pool this week and her confidence level has suddenly jumped WAY up, she's splashing and jumping all over. It was Eleanor's first swim! She was not so jazzed, apparently nursing pool-side in a warm towel is more her speed. I, apparently had nasty, fuzzy, Mum pony-tail hair...I wasn't looking at me :)



Sophia has taken to cheering for the Vancouver Canucks (our local hockey team - in the playoffs now) with Uncle Matt, my brother who lives with us. They put Canucks tattoos every game and have a good time. We take great delight in the fact that when she tries to cheer "Go Canucks Go!" she actually says "Coconuts go! Coconuts go!" She stopped a guy on the street today who was wearing a jersey to show him her Canucks tattoo like his shirt. Slightly bemused twenty-something...very funny.



Soph loves language and sounds. She has now taken to making up words all the time,especially when she wants to express something she doesn't have the vocab for. "This is just my peema pumba bounce." "Did you see that toota teeena?"



Today I wished I had my camera for Audrey. I couldn't find it, and Soph had put my cowboy hat on and was walking around with her dolly named Audrey wrapped up in a tea towel. She came up and said "This is my baby Audrey." (Like we'd never met before) and I just thought how much Audge would have loved to see her right then...keep on bringing Jesus to Japan, Auntie Audy - someone is going to show up for English class one day, for sure!



I would love continued prayer that Soph grows out of the phase of hurting Eleanor. Most of the time she is just over-enthusiastically loving on her, but boredom, fatigue, and jealousy all still lead to a good smack or a scratch for Ella Bella. I do realize this "phase" may last until they are in their twenties, but I choose to be optimistic.



Tomorrow we are having a dedication for Eleanor and I am really excited - all my family but my Hawaii sister are coming...but as I write about Audge and my mind turns to all of you in blog-land I am really, really sad that so many of you I love who were here for Soph's dedication are gone now...I know your love is with us - we miss you! I'll post pictures when I can.

Wade

My girlfriend Heather is mother to twins, and has found great companionship in the online community of Mums of multiples. Her latest post tells of an online friend, Snickollet, who lost her husband to cancer two days ago. He was diagnosed a month after they were married. They are parents to nine month old twins, who will now never know their Dad.

This blog is about my girls and my experiences as a Mum, but I realized that as I looked at my blog today there is not much mention of Wade, without whom I would not be a Mum, nor would I be who I am.

So, in honour of a woman who wakes today without her husband, I offer you a tribute to my own:

My husband Wade is the finest man I have ever known, and I know a lot of fine men, including the one who raised me. Wade is an original. There is no one like him. He is fiercely loyal, loving, creative, hilarious, intense, encouraging, adoring and wise.

The way he loves me has changed me. When we fell in love he spoke the truth of God about who I was over me and changed my perception of forgiveness, redemption and who I was in the eyes of God. He is my greatest champion. He has drawn out of me my talents and gifts, and gives me inspiration to try new things. His ability to find an interest, research it, learn it, then dominate it and make it his own (beermaking, spinning fire, laptop techno, making luxury soap, fusion cooking & BBQ) still leaves me in awe and aware of my own tendency to give up, or not even try - yet never leaves me felling inadequate.

Wade gave me my daughters. In a world where so many women do not know their worth, their possibilities, their opportunities and their value in the eyes of God, I REJOICE that just by knowing their Father, my daughters will know these things.

Wade still thinks I'm hot, even though I know I'm seriously changed from 10 years ago, especially after two kids. He still enthusiastically and unashamedly introduces me as "my foxy wife Joanna" in front of the most conservative audiences. The way he loves me and what he brings out in me teaches others about the way a man should love a woman. There is more than one female friend of ours that has proclaimed him the gold standard of men, and I agree.

Wade has no patience for fools, especially fools when it comes to love. My first inclination is to say I pity the men who try to court Kelsi, Sarah, JoJo, Zoe, Micah, Grace, Jaime, Sophia and Eleanor, but really if distance and time enabled it, they would be blessed men if Wade was able to school them in how to love his nieces, goddaughters and daughters.

I do not deserve my husband Wade, just as none of us really "deserves" any great love. I am who I am because of him, and I am aware of the mercy of God on me because of the gift He gave me in Wade.

I love you Wade, I adore you. Besides following Jesus, marrying you was the very best thing I ever did. May my life be worthy of the love you give me.

photograph courtesy of Sandra Vander Schaaf Photography.
copyright 2007 not to be used without permission

come on...

okay, i can't believe there is not even one comment about how cute my kids are...
(see photo below)
eleanor is so awake!soph is funny!
(i'll just write my own comments...)

kid(S) - in the plural

i have 2, count 'em, TWO girls. it's still sinking in....

it's not me, it's you

I've had a revelation lately which has been helpful to me. It has come with the fact that Eleanor sleeps through the night. She has done it enough times now that I actually believe it. She'll sleep for 6 hours at a go, and the last two nights she slept from 10:30 pm - 6:30 am. It is unbelievable, absolutely. Now the thing is, Sophia did not sleep through the night when she was a baby. Maybe she did once or twice, but what I remember is that she woke up every 2-3 hours regularly until she was at least a year old. The thing is this - we don't do anything differently with Eleanor than we did with Sophia, she's just a different kid.

Now the reason why this is so massive to me is that I was convinced that Sophia sleeping (or not) was something to do with what we did or didn't do. As a first time Mum, I was pretty sure I knew what I wanted to do for my baby, but I felt so much insecurity in so many ways, especially around whether or not I should let Sophia 'cry it out'. There are tonnes and tonnes of books written, Mum's discussion groups around this, and theories abound - and honestly, the dialogue IS helpful when you just don't know what to do with your kid. I know so many people who swear that "c.i.o." was good and fine for their kids, and we did eventually do a a limited form of 'cry it out' with Soph, but I also know people whose children did not respond to c.i.o. and who were actually really, really traumatized by it.

Yet there remains a thought (and I think it is actually pretty symptomatic of our whole society) that WE have control and that we can do something (about everything to do with our kids, pretty much). Which as a new Mum, I found really hard...surely my baby didn't sleep because it was MY fault. Then, when I decided to co-sleep with her and just nurse forever, I still felt insecure about that choice at times b/c it wasn't always the norm, and I like everyone to think I do things exactly the right way all the time. But it worked well for us, and we got more sleep that way and all was well, it was just not the norm.

SO Eleanor sleeps, and we haven't done anything differently than we did with Soph, and I realize she is JUST A DIFFERENT KID! This simplistic statement releases me from guilt and worry in many ways - sometimes, it's not me, it's not what I do, it's not a magic formula I figure out, it's just them.

Now, don't get me wrong, I know obviously who I am as a mother is immeasurably important to my kids and who they are, that they are being shaped by me every day. But I think that's the point. Sophia and Eleanor are much more affected by me being kind, merciful and understanding (or not) than they are by whether I rocked them to sleep, or if they started eating solids on time. Yet the latter are the things I think it is easiest to obsess over if I don't watch out. Then I become seriously the opposite of kind, merciful and understanding. Especially if I don't sleep well...hey, sleep deprivation, incessant screaming, nipple twisting, these things all describe torture practices as well as mothering.

You think I would have learned this so may years ago in YWAM, where you can pour your heart out to a student or other staff member, and sometimes they change and grow and become the butterflies you envision they will be and sometimes...they don't. And while it has A LOT to do with you as a leader, on the other had, it's really just them. You think I would have figured that out by now, but when it's your own kids it's even more personal. Which is terrible, in the most awful and the most holy senses of the word.

So...hurray! I am sleeping more now than I have in years, and celebrating the fact. I am not holding my breath about it, if Eleanor stops sleeping through the night, I know I'll miss it, but other than checking my diet and her diaper, I won't wear myself worrying about whether or not it was something I did.

Easter Sunday

He Is Risen! He is Risen Indeed!

GOOD friday

I cut Sophia's hair yesterday. We had a really fabulous day at Mark & Karen's place and Karen had hairdressing scissors there, and I'd been thinking about it for a while and then...I cried. really...it almost feels too big a deal to blog about (almost). One minute she was my baby with her baby curls that had never been cut (we'd only ever cut her bangs) and then the next minute she looked like she was ready for her first day of school. (Which will never come, because we're going to homeschool, and besides, I would cry some more.)
I feel better today, seeing her excited about looking like a big girl, but still...yikes. Good thing we have another baby...but then she is going to grow up too, right? AARGH.

Before

After

\


Still, despite my tears we did have the most glorious, yummy, springy, Good Friday with our friends, and the day started off in a lovely way with both my girls. Now, Soph still hits Eleanor probably at least once a day. It feels less traumatic now because 1) I am not as hormonal, 2) you can kind of see when it's coming and often avert it (the randomness was frightening - this is better) 3)we now know Eleanor is made of rubber and she is the toughest baby who ever lived.

Even though this is the case, Sophia also adores Eleanor and wants to push her in the swing, talk to her, smother her with affection and play with her. So, I had Eleanor on the bed in Sophia's room and I needed to go out for a second. I said, "Soph, could you please talk to Eleanor awhile, and maybe show her a toy?" And when I came back, Eleanor looked like this:



All tucked in! Good, good Friday indeed. Thanks for EVERYTHING Jesus...

songs...

Eleanor snuggles up - a photo from our friend Laura.

Sophia writes songs. She composes them spontaneously, as she spends large parts of the day singing. Some of them however, have begun to stick upon repetition. Tonight's composition:

"Good night my little moon,
Good night my little moon,
The moon is shining and the stars are out,
Good night my little moon."

The other day she made me a 'crown' out of a belt and sang to me:

"You are a queen, you are a queen, you are the best queen,
You are a queen, you are a queen, you are a special queen.
Who is knocking at the door? Who is knocking at the door? It is a great big queen!"

And her jukebox hit:

"Up and down,
Up and down,
Up and down to Chinatown!"

don't know what the coloured squares mean

At the recommendation of my brother Ralph, I took this test.

I too, was impressed with the test, and they assessed me as an 'encouraging director'.


Neat.

P.S. I know that Soph's 'ear muffs' from yesterday's post are not really called 'ear muffs', but they are not headphones, and 'hearing protectors' seemed a bit long a name for a little girl's gear.... any suggestions?

ear muffins like apple martin

Since Sophia was a baby, she likes to be up at the front when she sees a good band. Before she could walk, when we would go see Wade, Ange and Leigh rock out at MA she would CRAWL up to front of the room and hang out on the speaker stands. At church, she likes to dance at the front, and frankly it's easier to have more room to let her roam. Lately though she's been covering her ears at the loud music, and I noticed one of our local children's stores had begun to stock ear muffs, so yesterday we ventured out to get some.

When we were in the store, she wasn't so jazzed about the idea, so I was showing her the picture they had on display of Apple, Chris Martin and Gwyneth Paltrow's little girl wearing a pair. (I have always thought when I saw Chris or Gwyneth interviewed anywhere that we would get along really well with them, and we both have 2 kids near the same age, it'd be fun, I think.) I explained that the ear muffs were for when she watched Daddy play music and that this little girl in the picture was watching her Daddy play music too. (Tho' Wade did dryly add Apple's Daddy made more money than he did.)

After she got the ear muffs and showed them to Uncle Matt and Auntie and Leigh she thought they were cooler and this morning she was excitedly trying them on in the mirror before church. She then said, "I can put my thumb in my mouth." And started to suck her thumb. I didn't get any connection, and then she said, "I have my thumb like the little girl with the pink ear muffins." I registered recognition, "Oh. yes!" Then Soph said. "She watch her Mummy and Daddy play music too!" Then she said, "Maybe we see her at church one day!" So I said, "I would love to see her at church one day, let's pray about that."

So that is why this morning Soph and I were praying for Apple and Gwyneth and Chris Martin, that they'd get to church and get to know Jesus better. You just never know.

speaking sophia

a layman's guide to speaking soph:

sticklip: lipstick
asserbater: aspirator
T.V. vision: television
zoom zooms : simpsons
chloclate: choclate
granny's cereal: weetabix
nana's cereal: shredded wheat
papa's fav'rite sauce: HP sauce
ABC sauce: indonesian sweet sauce
the big sister seat: the front seat on the buggy
Bill: Uncle Matt
Buzz: Hannah
Rev: Wade
Tractor Tom: Me

(Though we are a rotating cast of characters and you have to pay attention to know what your name is and what Soph's current persona is. If you get Sophia's "name" wrong, she corrects you. For example if you say ."Sophia" and she is currently being Thomas, she says, "You mean, Thomas?" And you then say,"Oh sorry, Thomas.")

momentum....

Thank you for visting my schmoopie blog. Despite my husband's shameless grandstanding the schmoopieness is still in the lead...

For your grand support I shall reward you with some schmoopie stories.

My Mum is a teacher and was commenting that she was very impressed that Sophia was so interested in watching the Berenstain Bears, as the vocabulary and subject level is quite high for a 2 year old. She was even more impressed when Soph said to her later, "Keep up the momentum, Granny!" (yep, momentum is a Bears vocab word!)

Earler today I came upstairs to find Sophia 'reading Eleanor a story'. The "book" was a mini hinged picture frame. Eleanor was pretty into it. Must be all those books Uncle Ralph read to Soph, she knows how it goes down.

P.S. who on earth is reading from Papua New Guinea?

smarties, tongues and the 'no

It's been a full week this week. My Dad came to visit on Sunday night and my Mum joined us on Wednesday. It was really, really great to have them here, they are so generous and great for all of us, especially Sophia. It poured with rain the whole time and it was over way too soon. Today they went to store to pick up a few things and Mum said she and Dad were saying, "Oh they're out of milk", or, "we need to get more butter." and Sophia said, "Granny, we're all out of Smarties." So she came home with a new box of candy, smart girl.

One of the highlights (is this sad?) in my week was discovering that my blog's visitor count was finally HIGHER than Wade's!!! And as of one minute ago we were still leading by two, count 'em two visitors!!!! Go faithful readers, go!

Eleanor is doing well. She is starting to look more like a chubby baby and less new born-ish. The bummer is that in last two weeks our digital camera broke, so i can't post any new photos of her today. She haas started smiling and it makes me want to skywrite or something, she is so gorgeous. She is really bright eyed and hold her head up very well for her age, so she always looks like she's thinking something and it makes my want to narrate for her. She is growing eyelashes, fighting baby acne, and starting to coo and stick out her tongue.

Did you know that when babies are really small (like Eleanor, only 6 weeks) you can stick out your tongue at them slowly and repeatedly, or open your mouth in the same style, and they can copy you? I saw it on a video once, and it is the coolest when they do it. Nori was doing it this week and I was sticking out my tongue and making a little noise, like "Mwaa, mwaa" and she started making noises back...it was so funny and satisfying.

Yesterday Sophia was walking past Wade and I in the hall. She was wearing a yellow and orange sunflower jacket, a brown and blue scarf my friend Janelle made me (where are you, Janelle?), flowered panties and black and white checkered skate shoes on the wrong feet. She was "on her way out to the 'no". Wade said, "Where did that hilarious cute kid come from?" That's how I feel about both of them...

eleanor is...

Yesterday we had a photo shoot with our friend Sandra to get
photos for the Jah Jireh website. They're not there yet, but here is a sneak preview of the amazing magic that happens when Sandra is at work.



Copyright 2007 Sandra Vander Schaaf Photography.
Not to be used without permission.

"You ain't no empty shell,
You are the brightest gem, the loudest yell
A heavenly belle, I said, Nell you know...
You were plucked from the sky like diamonds
Plucked from the sky like spring's new leaf,
Whether it's God's will or my wish,
It happened, thank God you were
Plucked from the sky like dragonflies...
Almost an angel, Eleanor is,
Almost an angel, Eleanor is,
Almost an angel, Eleanor is,
Almost an angel...."

- from the song, "Eleanor" by Shawn Colvin and The Dave Matthews Band

does whatever a tired mummy can....

this is ridiculous. i should be brushing my teeth, as any minute now Eleanor is going to really lose it...but I have taken a quick minute as this is really the only minute of the day I have had without someone needing me, and now she is really crying...
i took two minutes to look at some blogs i like to read and one had this:

Your results:
You are Spider-Man

Spider-Man 80% Wonder Woman 68% Superman 65% Supergirl 48% Robin 45% The Flash 45% Green Lantern 40% Iron Man 40% Hulk 35% Batman 25% Catwoman 10%

You are intelligent, witty, a bit geeky and have great power and responsibility.

Click here to take the Superhero Personality Quiz


I do not feel super at all. today it seemed like everyone was peeing on everything all day and there was no time for anything but kids. the dishes are not done, the laundry is not put away, and the baby is really crying now. but i am spiderman so i shall swing off to bed and conquer my evil enemies in the morning....
(and secondly, i am wonderwoman)

the things we say

My sister Caroline, who has five lovely, lively kids, told me once that you say things as a parent that you never, ever thought you would say. She once sent me a hilarious email with a list of all the things she had said that week to her boys. (She has four boys, and now one little girl, the princess Sarah.) I wish I could remember them all, my favourite one was:
"No, you cannot have my sandwich, you puked on yours."

I thought of this this morning, when I heard Wade say to Sophia, "Stop Sophia! Stop! You cannot walk down the stairs with a mask on!" She had found Wade's sleep mask and was making her way down our (hard wood! rail-less!) stairs.

I am pretty sure before I had kids I also never said things like:
"Don't stick that bread up your nose."
"Stop hitting the cat with your hammer."
"Dora, please take off your backpack and sit in your eating chair for bunny noodles."
"We don't throw trains at the baby in our house."

If you've said a great sentence lately, let me know.

P.S. I will do a post about Eleanor soon!

fairies and the 'no

Yesterday we participated in an event called 'birthfest'
with our soap company. Wade worked his butt off setting it all up and then Eleanor and I went and manned (or womanned)the table. It was so fun to just be out,talking to people and showing off Eleanor, and I do like selling our soap. We shared a table with Sandra and we had a blast talking up each other's fabulous wares. It seemed like an awesome time of connection with people too, and there were some good leads for how we can do more with our soap and build relationships too (which is the point of why we're doing the soap thing as YWAMers anyway.)

At the end of the day I found out that I had won one of the door prizes -
well the coolest door prize, actually! It was a basket of gifts from a
company called natural pod. It had some beautiful little wooden toys and a gorgeous pair of sheepskin slippers from NZ for Eleanor, and a felted ball, a little silk I gave to Sophia. But the best thing was the DOLL.



That's right, that is a handmade, organic $110.00 doll, and yes, she does have rainbow dreads! Her hair is made of silk remnants woven by people in Nepal! Ours is like the one above, but her wings are prettier, our has even better, more colourful,
beautiful hair, and ours is wearing a fabulous tutu made of purple tulle! I have hidden it, along with a little blanket that came with it too, and I think we will give it Sophia for Easter - grand prize in the Easter egg hunt n'est pas?.... If she is half as excited as I am about it, we will be having fun for sure.

When we came home from birthfest, this is the conversation I had with Sophia:
(she greeted me at the top of the stairs wearing my scarf)
S: "Hi Mum, you want to come out in the 'no with me?"
J: "Ooh, you're going out in the snow?"
S: "Yeah, get your 'carf on." (we got scarves and got them on.)
J: "Sophia, I think I'm going to have a cup of tea, would you like one?"
S: "Yes, thank you so much!"
J: "How did you get to be so polite?"
S: "Because I am so 'pecial!"
laughing and hugging ensued....

(not every moment of the day is like this, for sure - but these are the ones I like writing about)

safe

Sophia saved me yesterday. I was going to lose it several times and she just saved me. I can't remember what she said or even did specifically, but just that she brought me back from the edge of diving into annoyance, frustration, despair. At one point I was so mad I just yelled a huge yell to the air and the traffic and my stupid stroller... It made her cry (oh! it was awful!)and just seeing her face...then I realized she was crying because she dropped her stickers too...but it brought me back, back to who I want to be as a mum, back to what was really important about the day. She is such a gift.
Lately all that has been so tempered with all her angst, and just defending Eleanor from her that I forgot how potent it was, her sweetness, her joy in the basic, her absolute delight in riding the sky train, pushing the buttons on the elevator, getting four chocolate buttons...reading stories. She is my joy. And now I have 2 daughters...what will Eleanor be like? What a gift....

Today a friend sent an email with quotes of what children said when they were asked to describe what love is. This one is my favourite:
"When someone loves you, the way they say your name is different.
You just know that your name is safe in their mouth."
Billy - age 4

May your name be safe in someone's mouth today.

they never teach this in bible school, i'm sure

One of the things that Sophia has picked up on is that when we are sore or injured or even sad, we pray for one another. This has proven to be a source of some really lovely moments over the last few months, as all we need to do is even mention we have some kind of ache or pain and Soph will pray.

Last Wednesday my dear brother was in a pretty serious car accident. He was driving the van for the theatre company he tours with and they hit black ice. Despite Mat's best efforts, the van went off the road and flipped, and it was declared miraculous by the attending police officers that a) they all walked out of the van, and b) that Matthew didn't (literally) lose his head. When Mat came home and told Soph about the crash and his subsequent sore back, he was immediately blessed by a small hand laid upon him and faithful prayers for his sore back...lovely indeed.

Night before last Soph inquired as to how I was doing, as in the weeks after Eleanor's birth I was really uncomfortable with engorgement. Those of you who are faithful readers of this blog know Soph still nurses at bedtime and of her love for the same. Due to the amused response I got last time, I will take the risk of posting two 'spiritual boobie' stories in the same month...

"Mum, your boobies still hurt?"
"No, they don't. Thank you very much for praying for me. I think God heard your prayers."
"Mum, did Jesus check out your boobies?"
(Insert Mum recovering her I'm-not-going-to-laugh-because-I-want-to-catch-this-teachable moment-face)
"Yes, sweetheart, I think Jesus did check out my boobies and helped them feel all better."
Some kind of nod of affirmative response from Soph...

Hooray for two year olds and for simple faith.

By the way...
i am digging my new 'neo flags' counter on the blog, and i'm curious to know who is reading. I'm pretty sure i know who is reading from switzerland and japan, but not sure who is reading from the UK, germany and croatia! I also just would love to hear from you, canada and the USA, so leave me a comment when you can.

good eats

We went out for supper last night to celebrate Wade's birthday. He posted about it today, complete with cel phone pics. check it out at www.diygourmet.ca

At one point in the meal Soph stopped and said, "Those ladies are watching me eat." We turned around and sure enough, three lovely malaysian waitresses were all standing in a row watching Soph party down on her supper. We all did the laugh, smile and nod to each other. Maybe they don't get many 2 1/2 year old white kids eating the spicy soup, sucking back the squid, mastering the chopsticks and smearing the roti canai sauce all over their happy faces. (Tho' she still asked to go to McDonald's today...sigh.) It was fun - Eleanor's first restaurant too!