Words can't describe how adorable she is.
Pictures can't capture how edible she is.
Alas, a video can attempt to do what I cannot.
She had just awakened from her slumber when I first met her. Shy and not yet ready to meet new people, she quickly smuggled her face towards her daddy's legs when introduced to me. Her shyness slowly melted away as she got excited for her bath and spoke in broken fragments of the things she needed such as her towel, her bath toys and squealed with joy about her princess shampoo.
Of all the many moments I spent with Sophie, the lessons I learned from her were mostly from the moments in her toy filled-easy-bake-kitchen complete-garage transformed playroom.
We didn't start out alone. I joined her and her Uncle Andy as she was having a sip of milk with him. Uncle Andy asked if I could also have some milk and she eagerly went about finding another cup. She politely confirmed with me if I wanted a drink (but in fewer words and more hand gestures) and after acknowledging I did, she meticulously rinsed the cup I would use with water (again, just the motions - no real water in this kitchen) before pouring (or the actions of pouring) me some milk. She had something in her microwave, sandwich particles on the side that she was scrambling to put together, and as her mum walked in to also join the party, she quickly grabbed another cup so she could get her mum some milk as well. A lil hostess in the making, Sophie took care of her mom and then continued on her way to prepare more food. Her mom and Uncle Andy left the room and it was just Sophie and I in her kitchen so what else was there to do but make some pizza!!!
The pizza toys were little wood slices with Velcro toppings we could arrange. She had mushroom, pepperoni and vegetable toppings available so we worked together to find all the pieces to top onto our wood slices. In a frenzy of gathering the right pieces to prepare our pizza, Sophie was going through all her supplies and kept bouncing up to grab something then back down to the floor where I was. In the middle of all this cooking madness, Sophie stopped what she was doing, grabbed her Dalmatian puppy dog (stuffed animal) and held it close to her chest, caressing it and softly speaking to it. I couldn't quite hear what she was saying but the moment was captured in my heart. For that split second, among the many tasks she had on hand, she stopped to let her puppy know she cared... something we adults too often forget to do with our loved ones. It looked kind of like this ...
I'm unsure if she was mimicking her own mother or if it was instinctive, but it was precious. After she was done with the puppy, she set him down and went about her cooking again. Knowing that Uncle Andy despises mushrooms, claiming they are fungus and why would he ever eat such a thing, I informed Sophie that a mushroom pizza should be made for Uncle Andy. I told her what the mushrooms looked like and when we found them, we placed them atop a slice for Uncle Andy. The rest of the slices were filled with pepperoni and vegetables and once finalized, she was ready to serve everyone her masterpiece!
Sophie carefully carried the tray of pizza we had made into the living room where her parents were. She served her parents but as she got ready to serve piggy and her baby, she stopped me and told me the mushroom slice was for Uncle Andy, picked it up and quickly shuffled her way to the bathroom where she knew Uncle Andy was. She shouted Andy's name on her way there and once there, softly knocked on the door and whispered Andyyyyy. As he opened the door, she lengthened her lil arms to extend the pizza she had proudly made for him. He smiled and reached out for the pizza, saying "gross" in a happy tone that could have been mistaken for "yum!" and she quickly closed the door, not letting him say anything more. She cut him off and shuffled back to the living room where she had to serve everyone else. So... maybe I shouldn't feed her lies about her Uncle Andy's food preference or once she learns how to cook, she may be making him mushroom swiss burgers, portabello sandwiches and mushroom pizza. *grin And from that I learned... lil white lies.. even if intended to be funny... are no bueno!
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