I.

Sofia is obsessed with the newborn baby across the street. His name is Cole. She calls him "Baby Coley", except that her "C"s sound like "T"s, so it comes out "Baby Toley". (Now we've started calling him Baby Toley.) Every day when we see their house, we talk about Baby Coley. The other day we had this conversation:

"Baby Toley!"
"Yes, that's Baby Cole's house. What do you think Baby Cole is doing right now?"
"Eating soup!"

Frankly, I was happy for her to keep saying that forever, because it was so cute, but I felt like I needed to help her learn a litle about babies. We talked about how little babies don't usually eat soup and how they usually drink milk from bottle. Then we dropped the subject. The next day, we had this exchange:

"Baby Toley!"
"Yes, that's Baby Cole's house. What do you think Baby Cole is doing right now?"
"Eating milk!"

It's an improvement...


II.

Sofia and I had our first honest-to-God conversation the other day. She had a scratch on her face when I picked her up from day care on Tuesday. They usually fill out a little form when a kid gets hurt, but no one gave me one.

"How did you get that cut on your face?" I asked, not expecting a reply.
"John-John do dat. Book," she replied.
"OK..."

The next day when I dropped her off, the teacher gave me the injury form. Here is the exact report. (Please note that the teacher does not speak English as her first language.)

"When she read book and her friend tried to take away, then the book scratched her face."

I asked the teacher, "Was it John-John?" and I told her what Sofia said. She started laughing - yep, it was John-John.

So Sofia was exactly right! She becomes more of a fully-featured person every day.



III.

Another of Sofia's favorite songs is "The Itsy Bitsy Spider" (pronounced "IhBiSiDa", which sounds a lot like "Opposite Day" if you don't know what she is saying. That one took a while to decipher.)

We sang it on the way home yesterday in response to several bleating requests. ("IhBiSiDa! IH BI SI DA!" "What do you say when you want something?" "PEEEEEEASE!") After three rounds I was a little hoarse, so I stopped singing. Then Sofia started singing softly to herself:

"IhBiSiDa...down came RAIN wash sipida OUT...ah come SUN dry dry RAIN...IhBiSiDa...spout GAIN!"

It was just about the cutest thing ever. She didn't even seem to know that I was listening until I started laughing and congratulating her. Then she did it a couple more times, which seemed almost entirely for my benefit.

She has started to sing along with me when we sing "Old MacDonald", too. ("Ah MahDanald hm hm FARM! E-I-E-I...E-I-O!") I don't know why, but that really gets me, even moreso than when we have good conversations. It makes her seem so grown up for some reason.

  Sofia did not win an Oscar, but she had a couple of equally important milestones this weekend. First, she said her own name. She has been saying "Me!" for almost a year, and in the last few months she's moved up to "Fia!" and then "Tofia!", and finally this morning she said "Sofia!" Nicole and I made such a big deal about it that she knew she was onto something. Later in the car she was just sitting there trying it out like a new toy: "Sofia...Sofia!...Sofia..." She can also say "Dierdorf" if you ask her. "Sofia...Deedorf!" It's pretty great.

Second, we played our first game of catch yesterday. She's been talking about football ever since the Super Bowl. When we drive past the football stadium on our way home every day she says "Football player!" So I bought her a little Nerf football at the store and taught her how to play catch.

To call it "Catch" is perhaps being somewhat generous. A more apt name might be "Toss 'n Cringe". When I throw the ball she puts her arms straight down at her sides and steels herself as she waits for the ball to hit her in the stomach, at which point she laughs like a maniac, picks up the ball, and then walks over and hands it to me.

After a few rounds I was able to get her to throw it back to me, however, and I have to say that I was extremely impressed. She brought the ball back, stepped into the throw, and followed through, just like you're supposed to. I'd like to credit my incredible coaching, but she pretty much did it on her own. She hit me right in the numbers with a couple of throws.

It sounds silly, but I was pretty proud of her, partially because it's fun to see my little girl growing up, but mostly because this early athletic promise gives me license to become one of those maniac sports parents you always read about in the newspaper. It starts tomorrow when we head to Miami for Dan Marino's Pre-Preschool Quarterback Camp for Girls. We're making the Pre-Preschool All-America team if it kills her. I mean, us.

  I had just about given up on the whole idea of justice...and then they said "Martin Scorsese". Thank you, The Academy, for finally getting it right.