keeping watch

The endless waiting for Daddy to come home. All 3 of them usually sit at the front door waiting but today Sophie and Max took spots at the window. The sweetness of Sophie leaning against the curtain was picture perfect. Too bad Thomas was stuck in traffic that day...

Flip flop fantastic

Today, we bought Sophie a new pair of shoes. And since we live in the tropics and Thomas and I live in flip flops, we only found it normal to purchase Sophie her first pair of floppies. It took a while for her to get use to having something between her toes but once she figured it out, she was off and running!

The first illness to hit the family...

Last week hand foot and mouth reached the Petersen family. Its basically just a viral infection that apparently only affects children (according to Sophie's ped. here). I think not (and yet another reason the doctors in Malaysia are a bit unreliable). After consulting webmd.com and close family friends (all doctors) we realized that 'YES, this does affect adults and YES, Thomas and I have it.'

It all started, I think, with a normal Wednesday class of Gymboree. Couple the 20+ children with teething and chewing on everything and saliva- we found the source to our misery. 'Our' I say lightly since this virus didn't seem to affect Sophie as much as it affected me and Thomas. S got a fever Sunday night to Monday afternoon then developed a rash on, you guessed it, hands and feet (they looked like chicken pox- she had a bout 10 on her body). Wednesday came along and Thomas and I were hit with really bad sore throats then I got a fever (Sophie was fine so sweet Thomas had to run after her while I hibernated). Then Thomas got a fever. Thursday arrived with yes, the little rashes. Thomas believed we stepped out of the 18th Century and was hit by the plague! It looked like it. Although the majority of my bumps were all in my throat (the source- a very wet kiss from Sophie.) Thomas's hands and feet looked as if he jumped up and down on a fire ant pile. PAINFUL and itchy. Very Itchy.

By Saturday, we were doing better- I could drink and eat much better and the bumps were starting to fade. I wanted to get a picture of Thomas' hands but he did NOT want to be reminded of "the plague" that hit our family!

It won't stop us from Gymboree classes, just stops us from visiting doctors here in Malaysia. what a fun week!

Strawberry Shortcake

Today was first day Sophie used a spoon on her own. Making that step of giving her control and knowing that you'll end up with not only a messy table, messy chair, messy floor (if you don't have dogs) but also a very messy child. But it had to be done.

We started with our afternoon snack of Greek yoghurt, strawberries and crushed graham crackers (delicious, I might say). So we got everything prepared - vinyl tablecloth (easy clean up) and de-clothed the child.

I was quite impressed with her ability to hold the spoon and get the food into her mouth. I would dip it in and give it to her since she hasn't quite gotten that figured out yet.... That is until she decided that using her hand was much, much faster.



It was a step in the right direction- letting go of the spoon and letting Sophie take control. I wish I could post her scent after snack because she smelled like a Strawberry Shortcake doll. (And looked like one too!)

Its beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

Chrismas in Malaysia.


Decorating the tree was so much easier this year than it was last year without the extra person inside of me!)

Playing with Molly

I've been teaching Sophie which toys are hers and which ones belong to the dogs. She's pretty good at giving them their toys and will even do so when we tell her to "give to Molly/Max."

Molly is a very interesting dog- quite protective and selfish- she wants her toys and she doesn't know how to share that well. So it was very surprising when I saw Sophie and Molly playing with the bone yesterday. S gave it to M, M dropped it, S picked up and gave to M, etc. then it was tug of war - Molly won, of course but it was sweet.

Floatie love

While we were in Melbourne, we bought Sophie two new floaties - an inner tube and some arm floaties. We keep the pool bag, packed and ready to go, by the front door- you never know when you'll get a chance to hit the pool in tropical weather.

She was playing up in the front room when she decided to use her floatation device as a seat. Since that day, she's been lounging in it as if she were floating down the river.