Category: Sophia

Have I maybe mentioned one or two (hundred) times that I LOOOOVE the Olympics? Well, I do. And the Sochi games are no exception. I am loving watching them every night, and for once in my life, I wish I had cable so I could watch the NBC Sports Network during the day (because apparently I am REALLY missing out on the Johnny Weir and Tara Lipinksi commentary. DANGIT!) But anyhoo. The Sochi games are now far better than any other games I’ve experienced, because I have this fellow Olympics-lover at my side:

And her fresh, un-filtered, 7-year-old commentary is better by far than than Johnny or Tara on their most faaaaaabulous day. She’s so funny that I’ve started a hashtag for her on FB and Twitter – #sophieonsochi. (I mostly put her hilarious comments on FB, but I do throw a couple over to Twitter when I get the chance.) She’s SO funny, that I am considering letting her stay up late this week on school nights because prime time coverage starts at her bedtime and I don’t think the internetz can SURVIVE without her hilarious commentary! Take this gem, for example (sorry American figure skater Jason Brown!):

“Are you sure that’s a boy? Then why is he wearing a ponytail?”– Sophie on Jason Brown #sophieonsochi

Or this one:

“Good thing he’s not on Team USA. We don’t have to worry about it.” #sophieonsochi (After Patrick Chan’s long program – sorry Canadian friends!)

She got really animated during the skiing last night. She LOVES her some Bode Miller. She also loved the copious shots/profiles/etc. of his wife, Morgan. Here’s some of her best Bode-related commentary:

“Oh come on! Bode Miller has to go next! This is ridiculous!” #sophieonsochi

“Bode has a wife. If he gets 12th that’s ok. Man, skiing is hard! I am not doing skiing! No way Jose!” #sophieonsochi

“I wonder when they’re gonna have kids…oh wait, I guess they do have children.” #sophieonsochi #sophieonbodemillerbackgroundpiece

(I’m thankful that the fact that another woman was pregnant with his child at the time that Morgan and he got married went RIGHT over Sophie’s head. Jeepers!)

“Man, his wife is happy! He’s one of the funnest players to watch. That’s why I love him so much.” #sophieonsochi #sophieonbode

“NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!! At least he still gets a silver medal. Wait, hopefully he will get to go AGAIN and beat him.” #sophieonsochi #sophieonbode

(*Mom’s note: He eventually got bronze, not silver. And Sophie was thought it was super-unfair that he was not allowed to give it another go & try to improve his time.)

Her final two gems of last night were more overall comments – observations of a very astute 7-year-old:

“When you’re watching them slide on snow on TV it doesn’t really look like snow it just looks like white stuff.” #sophieonsochi

“If you snowboard down a big hill with no tricks, it’s pretty easy.” #sophieonsochi

What brilliance will Sophie bless us with next? I can’t wait to hear! She’s teaching me so much everyday…and her disdain for other countries is pretty hilarious too. (“RUSSIA RUSSIA RUSSIA! Whatever!!” #sophieonsochi At least she’s patriotic…)

Don’t forget to follow the hashtag #sophieonsochi for more brilliant live commentary this week! It’s better than cable!

Last weekend I did one of the most nerve-wracking things I have ever done as a parent. I took Sophie to the regional spelling bee, where, as the winner from her 1st grade class, she would compete against 13 other first-graders.

We had about 5 or 6 weeks to study, but there were hundreds of words in the easy, hard, and medium categories. We studied hard but it was definitely not possible to review them all multiple times. Which section should we spend the most time on? I wasn’t sure.

Sophie, for her part, wasn’t nervous at all – she was excited! She really wanted to win, though, and knew that another girl from her school was the “one to beat”. So we talked about being a good sport, about doing the VERY best you can, and about the importance of hard work in studying.

When they began the bee, my pulse quickened every time it was Sophie’s turn to spell. I gripped the sides of  my chair tightly and I think I held my breath until the word was announced. If it was one I knew that she knew, I relaxed. If it was one I wasn’t sure of, I gripped my seat tighter. Round after round, she hung in there, even spelling tough words like “quite” and “cent” (which they used in a sentence) and pleasantly surprising me. After round 9, only three tiny spellers remained – all girls. I was absolutely thrilled that Sophie had made it so far – I honestly did not know what to expect.

Round ten commenced. The first speller (the one Sophie was nervous about competing against) got the word “dizzy”. The next speller got the word “harm”. Then, it was Sophie’s turn, and I held my breath as the Spellmaster announced: “The word is ‘claim'”. My heart dropped. Not as easy as dizzy or harm, and I was not at all sure she knew it.

“Claim.” Sophie began confidently. “C-l-a-…m-e”. Claim.

I cringed inwardly and put a huge smile on my face as the Spellmaster said, “I’m sorry, that’s not correct.” The smile was because Sophie immediately turned around to look at me. I gave her two thumbs up and mouthed “third place!” as she made her way to sit with me in the audience. I gave her a big hug and whispered how proud I was and she hugged  me back and seemed pretty happy.

And she was. As the bee finished up, and the other two girls battled it out (which did not take long at all) she went back up to get her certificate and claim her third place ribbon. She was absolutely beaming with excitement.

 

And I was of course, beaming with pride.

I was also holding something back. Something I couldn’t let out on at our celebratory McDonald’s breakfast or our congratulatory trip to the Target dollar spot. Something I had to hold onto until I could get some time alone.

The thing is, you guys. The thing is.

Just a short three years ago (and doesn’t time fly? Three years ago I had a newborn and I was a mess!) my little four-year-old Sophie could not walk into a crowded room – not even a family party – without freaking out. Every time a stranger would try and talk to her she’d scream and give them the evil eye. She hated to be the center of attention, and was even afraid of corporate singing, from songs at church to the Happy Birthday song. Her developmental delays were rather severe  on the social end of things.

And then. Three short years later. She wins her class spelling bee. No problem being up in front of her peers. And then she exuberantly pursues going to the regional spelling bee, confidently performing in front of her peers and a bunch of strangers through ten rounds of head-to-head competition. She happily accepts applause and stands in the limelight when she’s given her ribbon. She bears defeat with grace.

If you didn’t know Sophie when, you might not understand how overwhelmed I was when all of this hit me in the face. If you’d told me three short years ago that this would happen I don’t think I would have believed you. Even though I always believed Sophie would overcome her delays, I didn’t realize – I didn’t know – I didn’t know that the real Sophie, the one buried beneath her delays, was so outgoing, confident, and capable.

And I came to understand it by and by, so that I wasn’t really surprised to see her do so well up there at the spelling bee.

And when it hit me that I wasn’t really surprised, because this is who Sophie is, that’s when I lost it.

God has done amazing things in my daughter’s life. I couldn’t be more thankful or more proud to be her mother. I couldn’t be more thankful to taste and see that the Lord is good!

 

I’m a few days late with this post because Sophie’s birthday was on a Saturday and it was a crazy busy day. As I mentioned in an earlier post, Sophie is going to be a flower girl in a wedding in December. Of course, the bridal shower for the bride happened to fall on her birthday! Since Sophie’s birthday is so close to the holidays, I really felt that we needed to just get her parties overwith on that day anyway. SO, our schedule was:

11:30 Bridal shower

2:00 Friends party where Sophie takes gymnastics

5:30 Family party at our house

9:00 Mom passes out

Despite the busy-ness, we had a WONDERFUL day celebrating our girl!

Krisha’s mom is my best friend Luanne, and we met their family when I was about six months pregnant with Sophie. Krisha came to the hospital and held Sophie on the day she was born, so I thought it was very fitting that we’d celebrate her wedding shower on Sophie’s birthday!

Next, Sophie and I beat it over to the gym where she takes gymnastics, Jack n Jill’s Hill, for a super-fun friends party. Bobby met us there and my mom watched the boys at our house. This party was a blast! Since it wasn’t at our home, she could invite more friends than usual and the girls had a GREAT time.  The party coordinator did an awesome job, involving the girls in several fun relay games and then guiding them through a circuit of jumping, cartwheeling, and other gymnastics fun. They played HARD!

And then it was time for cake and presents!

The party was awesome. Sophie has some really sweet friends! After it was over we headed back home to celebrate with our family.

I must say I enjoyed every minute of celebrating my Sophie. She is truly the daughter of my dreams. The night before her birthday, when I was tucking her in to bed for the last time as a 6-year-old, I said, “I’m so proud to be your mommy.” And she said, “I love being your daughter.” and then she burst into song: “I love you mommy, oh yes I do, I don’t love anyone as much as you…” It was so sweet and made me a little misty-eyed.

Sophie has definitely proven to me in her seven years that she can accomplish just about anything she wants to if she works hard. Her sweetness to others brings me so much joy. I love the way she loves and cares for her friends, and I am so proud of the young lady she is becoming.

Happy birthday, Sophie Diane! I love you with all my heart!