During the weeks when my laptop was in repair, I wasn't able to transfer photos from my camera very easily.  So, when I finally did, I had hundreds.  It was like having the last half of the summer right at my fingertips.  I spent a long time sorting through the images, matching them up with entries, and adding them here.  When I was done, I was left with a pile of photos that all featured Sophie.  Each photo captured a different side of her.  Going through the photos was like watching her grow and change right before my eyes.

Sophie plans her own outfits, sometimes based on which accessories she wants to use that day.  I don't have this same kind of fashion sense.  But it is much like how I choose entrées based on which side dishes accompany the main course.  That's sort of the same thing, isn't it?  Except not as cute?


Both of the kids love listening to my iPod shuffle and have each begged to become its next owner.  For now, I keep it tucked into my purse and give it to them when they need a little entertainment.  Sophie likes to listen to Cha Cha Slide over and over and over again.


I found this dress on clearance and had to talk her into waiting until we got home for her to wear it.  She loves it - any dress really.  Since she wears dresses so often, we've had a lot of discussions about how to sit and play "like a lady" when wearing a dress, which is code for "keep your underwear covered". 


She has a big laugh, this one.  Honestly, I don't know where she gets it.  Honestly, that's a complete lie because gets it from me.  And I think it's maybe one of the best things she inherited from me.  There's nothing like a good loud laugh to attract other good loud laughers.  And in my experience, loud laughers make some of the best friends.


Sophie has a hard time staying in her own bed all night long.  She likes to get up during the night and crawl in next to me and snuggle up close.  So close that I usually sleep on a strip of the bed the width of a saltine cracker.  After many years of little or interrupted sleep, I'm tired now.  So we came up with a bribe plan - if Sophie stays in her own bed all night long for seven nights in a row, we'll buy her a "big girl bed".  She has great visions of purple sheets with a new lamp and a clock shaped like a flower, but so far, it's not been enough to get her to meet the requirements of our deal.  Three times she has made it to six nights in a row, only to cave on the seventh night.  In the meantime, she has decided to turn her toddler bed into a fort.  I think she must feel more grown up that way.


Sophie found this frog at my parents house and was thrilled to hold him.  I was relieved that she didn't ask if we could keep him as a pet, because I'm pretty sure he'd croak.  Get it?  Of course you do.


It's a rare day when Sophie lets me do her hair.  And by doing her hair I mean anything more than brushing it while we're running down the hallway.  On this day, she let me put little looped pigtails in her hair and I took about 20 pictures.  Which pretty much guarantees that I'll never get to do it again.


This was the last picture in that series.  It was the last one because two seconds later she ripped out the pig tails and shook her head like she'd finally felt freedom and wasn't letting it go.  See that look on her face - that's DETERMINATION.


I don't know how many photos I have of the kids on this very swing.  Probably hundreds.  When they're on it, I just can't help myself from taking pictures.  They look so happy and breezy.  Also, it gives my arms a brief reprieve from all the pushing.  Which can go on FOREVER.


Sophie carries a pen and a notebook with her everywhere she goes.  She fills the lines with tiny circles, draws entire pages of bugs, and just recently has taken to writing "ham and cheese" over and over again.  Except that it's not the actual words "ham and cheese", it's a symbol that looks a bit like a capital E with extra horizontal lines.  Maybe it's shorthand and she's been going to night school without my knowledge.


And just a few weeks ago, on the same morning that Martin started Kindergarten, Sophie started preschool.  She walked up to the door filled with confidence.  She was only shy for a few moments before settling in with the other girls to play.


The end of summer, and the start of a whole new age.