The Green Fig Tree

Monday, September 26th, 2011

Sophia’s 3rd Year in Pictures

Is on its own page!

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Monday, September 26th, 2011

Sophia at 3 1/3

I recently read an article online about “strong-willed” children, and it called them “intense.”  That is a perfect description of our little girl.  Though at times this can contribute to power struggles between her and us, it generally leaves me in amazement over how capable and knowledgable she is.

Sophia is a technology bug, just like her dad.  She loves to use our phones to play games, including Angry Birds, Tiny Wings, Train Conductor, Coin Dozer and other “adult” games, along with the games we have that are geared at kids.  She also uses the phone to watch movies and TV shows, and can load up Netflix and scroll to her shows faster than I can.  She loves to play on the computer, and we have acquired an old iMac that plays some kid games.  However, she is also happy just typing her name into a word document, over and over.  She has mostly mastered using a mouse to click and drag, and has been questioned by on-lookers at the Apple store as to whether she is actually aware of what she is doing.  She has also discovered using the phone to text messages to people, and will “text” whomever happens to be open in the messages window.  She precedes all of her messages with her name, and then texts a jumble of letters (though with auto-correct, sometimes she sends words).

Speaking of letters, she can visual recognize most of the alphabet, though does get hung up on M, W and T.  She spells out words, and undersands that they stand for the whole word, but she has yet to start sounding things out.  Honestly, when we attempt to work with her, she won’t sit still long enough get get much done.  She also can recognize the numbers 1-9, and understands the basics of a digital clock (that there is a time represented by the numbers, and it relates to when we do things).  She has memorized Andy’s phone number and Grandma’s phone number.

We still watch a lot of TV and movies, though it has been taken by Sophia to the next level.  She now has most of the movies we watch memorized, and quotes them at the oddest times.  I have been told, while shopping at Target, “you can never use my hair again, Mother!” (Tangled).  It has gotten so frequent that she now finalizes each quote with “that was from ________,” because I generally ask.  Andy, of course, the movie-quote king, is thrilled.  She will also explain the entire movie to you if she thinks you haven’t seen it, so that you understand the plot.  Her favorite movies at the moment are Rio and The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe, both which have led to some interesting discussions about naughty words, selfish behavior, and violence/fighting.  However, she is still obsessed with princesses and routinely watches Sleeping Beauty, Snow White, Tangled, Cinderella and Beauty and the Beast.

This past year we continued with swim lessons, and spent many days this summer at Grandma’s pool.  Sophia can hold her breath across the width of the 25-foot pool at swim lessons, and she still loves to play in the water.  We took a trip in March to California and got to stay right on Seal Beach in a rental house.  I told Andy afterward that I’m pretty sure Sophia will move away from us to California as soon as she graduates high school.  She and I both cried that we had to leave the beach.  She constantly asks when we can go back.

This past summer was one of firsts, including dance lessons and an attempt at ice skating lessons.  Sophia is always willing to try something new, and after watching hockey on television, decided she wanted to play hockey.  Andy and I took her to a public skate session and she loved it, so we signed her up for skating lessons.  Unfortunately, after about 5 or 6 falls on the ice during the lesson, she wasn’t as keen on playing hockey as before.  We couldn’t even get her out onto the ice for the second lesson, and decided we will wait until she is a bit older.  She also started dance lessons, which we are excited is offered through her preschool by the local dance company.  Sophia is so exhausted by the end of the day, I dreaded taking her to a dance class in the evening.  This is the best option, as the dance teacher comes from the studio once a week to teach the class during the day at the preschool, and it is still considered part of the studio’s classes (which means she will have a recital at the end of the year, just like the other classes).  Sophia likes to show off her moves and practices daily, dancing to whatever music is on in the background.

Sophia’s other new hobby is singing, and it is super cute.  She not only sings the songs she learns in school, but sings along to the music in the car or that we play at home.  On the way home from preschool last week, I heard her singing along to Adele’s “Rolling in the Deep.”  I shouldn’t have been surprised she knew so many of the words, what with her mad memorization skills.  Sophia has two groups of music she likes, and has named them “Phia’s Girls” and “Phia’s Boys.”  Phia’s Girls consists of alternative/indie musicians like Adele, Norah Jones, Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings, A Fine Frenzy, Sarah Jaffe, Neko Case and others.  Phia’s Boys are similar style musicians, but generally less requested.  Occasionally she likes to listen to “hot 100″ type music.  Usually when we listen to the radio she requests KXT 97.1, the public music radio station in the area, because they play the music she likes most of the time.

Sophia still loves to eat, and her favorite foods are still cheese-based (like grilled cheese, mac ‘n’ cheese, or cheese quesadillas).  However, as a family we have taken steps to cut out most grains from our diet (check out this or this or this), she has the option of eating these much less.  However, she is slowly taking to actually eating meat (if you don’t call it meat – it has to be beef, chicken, fish, or even more specific steak, hamburger, lemon chicken, tilapia, etc), and she still loves vegetables and fruits.  She also loves to eat eggs for breakfast, though won’t try bacon or sausage.  She still does really well stopping when she is full, even if it is a dessert item, but I think we have just finally gotten over the obsession with candy that started last Halloween.  I think we are going to have to be those parents who throw out their child’s candy the next day, because we tried hiding it and keeping it to one piece a day, and she figured out where it was.

Sophia went to her first football games last year, though they were high school.  She is very interested in sports, but doesn’t understand why she can’t go out onto the field and play with them.  She understands it is a competition, and that the teams have names, and that our family is generally cheering for one team over the other.  When she sees a sport on tv or in person she will ask “what does the blue team say,” which means what are they called.  She goes through all the various jersey colors she sees on the field, including whatever ref/umpire is out there.  We did take her to see her first professional baseball game (the Rangers) a few weeks ago and she loved it.  She has already decided she wants to be one of the girls who runs around with the flags every time the Rangers score.  She also ate an entire tub (about 8 cups) of popcorn, half a bag of peanuts (which she flagged down for herself, much to Andy’s chagrin), and a cup of ice cream.  With all that food, she made it through about seven innings before needing Andy’s phone to keep her busy.  After the game there was a fireworks display, and she proceded to literally run circles around us as she watched, shouting “I’m not afraid of fireworks.”  This was at around 11pm.  We hope to take her down to Austin for a UT football game this year, but aren’t sure how she will do there.

I will add pics in the next post (sorry!) but they don’t want to upload at the moment.

Monday, September 26th, 2011

Where I’ve Been Hiding for the Past Year

Many of you know (and some of you may not) that for the 2010-2011 school year, I taught high school English at a local Christian school.  This was after spending the 2009-2010 school year taking alternative certification classes, spending hours job searching online and attending multiple job fairs in which I was one of thousands searching for a teaching job.  HCA was the only school to call me for an interview, and upon walking in the doors, I knew I would get the job.  I was very aware at that moment that God wanted me to teach at HCA.  I was really excited to be a teacher.

However, as the past year drew to a close and I looked back on it, I was really struggling with what God wanted me to do next.  I was miserable teaching.  I felt like I gave 110% of myself, but was only getting about 85% return.  I worked constantly, from 6:30 or 7:00am until 5:30 or 6:00pm at the school, and then went home and worked more until I was too tired to stay awake.  Even with all the working, I could not stay caught up with lesson plans for four separate classes, and grading all of the assignments that were turned in.  The biggest problem, though, was the fact that I, for the most part, had to completely ignore both Sophia and Andy in order to get things done.  Our house started to look like a war zone because I was focused on work and could not keep up with the housework.  I rarely made dinner, and we ate out at restaurants or fast food almost every night.  I was both physically and mentally exhausted, and I didn’t know how to make up the time I was losing.

Finally, when I talked to my principal about my struggles, she told me that sometimes a person has to make sacrifices in order to fulfill a dream.  It was then that it dawned on me that teaching was never really my dream, and that when I started the journey toward teaching almost two years ago, it was just a means toward my real dream, to be a librarian.  However, in the course of those two years, I had so effectively thrown myself into teaching, I had forgotten the whole purpose of doing it in the first place.  In the State of Texas, in order to become a public school librarian, one must teach as a certified teacher for two years.  Though I wasn’t sure whether I wanted to be a school librarian or a public librarian, or some other sort of librarian, it seemed that going the public school route would open the most doors.  So, I chose that option, and because of that decision, set myself on the path to teach for (at least) two years.  My real dream, and the one I have always felt that God was leading me to, is to be a librarian.  I hate to say that I wasted my time or sacrificed for nothing, because I believe that God puts people in every situation for a purpose, and I had been at HCA for a reason, but it wasn’t to further the goal of librarian.  I had told God “thanks for the directions” and then wrested the map out of His hands, attempting to navigate on my own, though I can’t read the language it is written in.

So, starting this fall, I am again a stay-at-home-mom and full time Library Science student in the master’s program at UNT.  I am loving it so far, and though I don’t know where my MS will lead me, I am comfortable now not having a final plan.  That is something I have had to come to terms with, acknowledging that God knows where this will lead, but I don’t and that’s okay.  If you know anything about me, you know I don’t do “wait and see” very well.  Proverbs 16:9 says “The mind of man plans his way, But the LORD directs his steps.”  Well, I have always been heavy on the first half, and light on the second.  I have always had a five-year-plan, even if it is changing because I have changed my mind.  As I look back on all the changes and the bouncing from one idea to the next, I have realized it has always been because God has given me the signs on which direction to take, and from those small signs I plan out the rest of my life, assuming the road will be straight.  Then I realize I missed the next sign and my next turn is miles behind me.  Finally, I think I understand what it means to really let God lead, and to give Him total control.

Friday, July 9th, 2010

Sophia Renée is two (plus some)

Sophia turned two years old at the end of May, but things have been a little busy around here so I have not had time to update the blog.  She is no longer a helpless infant, and has turned into a little person with her own mind, ideas about things, and plans of action.

She talks all the time, and there are a few quirks about her language that are uniquely her.  She uses possessive and plural correctly, most of the time, though when the rule isn’t to add “s” she gets confused.  For example, she will say “it’s mine’s.”  She loves to talk on the phone, and has been known to call people on my cell phone without my knowledge.  She is allowed to look at pictures or play games on the phone, so it is not unusual to see her holding it, but every now and then she will mention “call Grammie,” and when we check she has been talking for a few minutes.  Luckily it is usually Grammie who gets called, and she doesn’t mind too much.

Other “Phiaisms” are:
“hold this” – when she does not want to have to pay attention to her snack, but doesn’t want the dog to get it
“charge batteries” – when her iPod isn’t working, or any other electronic device isn’t on or she has been told she cannot use it
“broken” – attached to the end of whatever she has been told she cannot do (I was told “mama broken” a few weeks ago when I responded negatively toward a “hold this” demand)
“mama/daddy fix it” – when she notices something isn’t right/actually is broken
“I jump in” – every time she sees/hears/thinks about the swimming pool
“no ice” – when offered ice in her glass, usually after saying yes twice, then realizing she does not, in fact, wish to have ice; generally spoken in a wail
“go Target” – when she realizes we don’t have at home something she wants

She loves to give directions while driving, to the point that she cries if we turn the wrong direction.  We have had to issue a moratorium on directions from her in the car, else we are constantly hearing “this way” from the backseat, followed by a wailing of “this way” (and pointing) or “left, left, left” or “right, right, right” depending on which direction she thought we should go, but did not.

She is a great helper, especially when I am cooking.  Her favorite spice is cinnamon, and we have caught her standing on a chair in the pantry a number of times, covered in cinnamon.  When she sees me beginning to make dinner or bake, she drags the kitchen chair over to “her spot,” climbs up and sticks her hands right into whatever I am doing.  She also likes to help “clean up” if there is a mess, and she will go grab a tissue from the box and wipe the floor or table.  Unfortunately this desire rarely extends to picking up her toys.

Her favorite food, cheese, has not waned.  However, she has also developed a love of fruit.  She could eat a pound of green grapes in one sitting if allowed, and she also loves blueberries, blackberries, kiwi, apples, oranges and bananas.  She still doesn’t like meat very much, other than breaded chicken nuggets, and to Andy’s eternal dismay, beef jerky.  She likes pasta depending on the sauce, various breads and crackers, and desserts sometimes.  She is partial to ice cream and anything with icing, though only wants the icing and not the cake or cookie.  She does like vegetables, usually cooked carrots, peas, zucchini, green beans sometimes, and cold celery, cucumber, and tomatoes.  She loves to eat, but usually she is begging for something healthy.  She also does a good job stopping when she is full, or has had enough, and is the only child I have seen who puts down a dessert halfway through.  The exception to this rule is gummy candy, her favorite.  Her favorite drink is still, of course, sweet tea.

She loves to watch movies and tv, though we recently canceled our satellite for an antenna, so we watch less actual tv than we have before.  Her favorite movie lately is Toy Story 2, though the old favorites of Mama Mia, The Wizard of OZ, Hairspray, and Enchanted still get adequate playing time.  She also likes to watch VeggieTales videos.  Her favorite tv shows are still The Wonder Pets and Yo Gabba Gabba, which she generally watches on her iPod touch.  She knows the names of some of the characters in each movie, but has taken to calling the rest of the characters by the title of the film itself.  For example, she knows Woody, Jesse, Bullseye, Dinosaur, Buzz from the Toy Story movie, but then calls the rest of the characters “Toy Story.”  As in, “oh no, Toy Story fall down.”

Sophia loves music, and it is never loud enough.  She is constantly asking for us to “tee up” (turn it up), and can tell when we haven’t.  She also likes to dance, and has some awesome booty-shaking moves.

Sophia also loves to read, and her favorite books these days are Biscuit, The Hungry Caterpillar, No No, Yes Yes, and Barnyard Dance.  She recently got a LeapFrog Tag and likes to read a Toy Story book with that.

Sophia still takes a 2 – 3 hour nap every afternoon, but since her birthday has been in a “big girl” bed.  We moved my old full-size bed frame and mattress in, and her old toddler bed/crib out.  We also painted the room a rich lavender, and added some “big girl” art.  She has a hand-pulled Dr. Seuss serigraph, which we purchased when we were in California in January.  She still sleeps with a pacifier, and generally has to have an extra one in her hand as well.  We are planning on taking them away and sending them to a baby who might need them (she generally suggests “baby Cyers,” her friend Bella’s younger brother), but we want to wait until she is through transitioning to her new school in August.  Not that she sleeps with a pacifier at school now, but it would be one less thing to cause drama for her.

Sophia is also a big girl in another way:  she is about 95% potty trained!  Following the path of our friends the Lehmans, who have a little girl a month older than Sophia, we started introducing her to going on the potty at around Christmas time.  We were not very consistent, and we did not get upset when she had accidents, but we made sure she sat on it before naptime, bathtime, bedtime, and other various times during the day.  We also had her spend a lot of time in just thin, cotton panties.  We discovered that the pull-ups are too thick for her to realize she had an accident, and the same was happening when we tried the “training panties” that Gerber makes.  Sophia was followed around constantly, so if she had an accident we could tell her, then take her straight to the bathroom.  She actually did really well when we were out in public, because we took her as soon as we got somewhere, and then again before we left.  She loves seeing different bathrooms, and has to say “hi drain” every time she sees a drain in a public bathroom.  At the very beginning of May, the light switched on and she started going into the bathroom and climbing onto the toilet on her own.  Now she will go days with minimal accidents (unless she wants out of the stroller or shopping cart), or none at all.  We have recently decided to try and potty train her completely, so she does not use a pull-up or diaper even when sleeping.  Most of the time she wakes up with a dry diaper, so we think she is capable.  We have bought some pads to go over her sheets, for easy removal in case of an accident, and will give it a try.

I am so thankful that God has tasked us with raising this beautiful little girl.  As she grows up and we try to teach her about life and what it means to be His child, it is blatantly apparent that she was given to us so that Andy and I can grow more in our relationship with Him and learn the things that we had yet to understand.  I imagine that He spends a lot of time chuckling as we try to teach Sophia something that He has been attempting to get through our own heads.

Well, here is the reason you read all my typing, the latest pictures:

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Friday, April 30th, 2010

Rodeo Day

Yesterday was Rodeo Day at Sophia’s school.  Here are some pics:

Friday, April 30th, 2010

Austin, Here We Come!

Last weekend, Sophia and I took a trip to Austin to visit our friend Erica Green.  It was mine and Sophia’s first trip together without Andy, and we had a good time.  We drove down Sunday afternoon, and stopped at Dairy Queen just North of Waco for lunch and ice cream.  Sophia helped give their basset hound, Flash, a bath, and then decided she needed to go for a swim in the kiddie pool he was bathed in.  Then she got upset that Flash had to stay inside to dry off.  She LOVED Flash.  We had delicious eggplant and zucchini lasagna rolls for dinner, and then Sophia went to bed.  She wasn’t too keen on the fact that I wasn’t going to bed with her and informed me “Mama, NAP” while pointing at the bed.  I told her I had to go potty and I would be right back, and that seemed to calm her down and she let me leave until Erica and I had chatted into the night.  The next morning we leisurely had breakfast, packed up and then went to the botanical gardens at Zilker Park.  Sophia loved looking at all the plants, though she thought it was fun to run away toward the parking lot when it was in view.  Erica chased after her and carried her back to the path.  Erica is going to be a great mama one day!  After the park we all met up with another friend, Kelly Morris, who lives in Austin, for lunch at Kirbey Lane.  I was introduced to the deliciousness of Kirbey Queso, and Sophia got a giant grilled cheese sandwich.  After lunch we drove back home, and Sophia slept the entire three hour trip!  We will definitely have to do this again, because we had a great time.  Here are some pictures:

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Monday, April 19th, 2010

Vegetable Garden Update

So the vegetable garden has so far been surprisingly successful.  I have had “baby” lettuces to make salads out of for about two weeks, as well as “baby” spinach.  Today I noticed bean pods coming out on my green bean plants.  I am super excited.

We did have a few setbacks last week, including the discovery of caterpillars in my mint, which I was able to eradicate with the use of the spray nozzle on the hose on high, plus an organic insecticide spray called Spinosad.  The caterpillars in the mint are gone, but there is still a bit of evidence of caterpillars in my other plants.  However, I am honestly not sure if the evidence (the hole that have been eaten in the leaves) is growing larger in my imagination as the plant grows larger, or if there are still caterpillars eating the plants.  The damage, nonetheless, is miniscule compared to what I found in the mint (and what it could be), and I have yet to find a completely obliterated plant, so something is working.

Another setback was the discovery (though not so surprising) of aphids among my plants as I was laying down natural cedar mulch once the plants had gotten large enough that I did not worry they would be crushed by the mulch and never reach the surface.  However, this was a quick (and fun) fix, because I was able to simply purchase some lady bugs at the local garden store and release them into the garden.  The package held 1500, and promised that after eating their fill of aphids, they would lay eggs on my leaves and those that hatch would then continue the cycle.  Sophia loved helping put the lady bugs on the plants, and even decided to taste one.  She was not pleased that it moved around on her tongue on its own, and quickly removed it from her mouth.  I had read that once the lady bugs eat all the aphids they will quickly move on, so after releasing them Friday evening, I was rather shocked to go out this morning and see hundreds of lady bugs on our plants.  I am thinking that though they enjoyed the wonderful shower God sent down, they must not like to fly in it, and have set up a temporary home in my garden (which is okay by me!).

Finally, we had a setback with regard to my attempt to plant tomatoes, peppers and broccoli inside, as well as the cucumbers and eggplant  I planted outside.  After a few weeks the seedlings inside simply stopped growing, and many withered to nothing in a matter of hours.  Those that were left I attempted to harden-off outside, and then plant into the ground, but after a few days, those too disappeared back into the soil.  I decided to simply buy some transplants from the local organic garden store, and will be looking for a company for next year that sells organic transplants via mail order.  Of the cucumbers I planted outside, only one has actually survived.  Three weeks after I planted them we had a late freeze and snow, and it effectively killed all but one of my fragile cucumbers.  I replaced those, too, with transplants from the organic garden store, but will definitely be attempting to plant seeds again next year since one did make it.  The eggplant has simply failed to materialize at all, and I am not sure if I had a batch of bad seeds, but the plan is to do some research and see if I could possibly plant another round this late in the spring or wait until fall for a fall/winter harvest.  Luckily, we don’t eat tons of eggplant like we do other things.

Here are the pictures, first taken April 6, after the first good rain of the season, and then taken this afternoon, April 19, after two days of solid drizzle..

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Saturday, March 6th, 2010

Vegetable Garden

So last year I set out with a plan to create a large vegetable garden in our backyard, with four raised boxes that were 8 ft x 4 ft.  We bought all the wood, and I even bought seeds to plant from Irish Eyes Garden Seeds.  However, the project got started too late (end of April) and required too much work in too short a period of time, and it was just too much altogether for us to get done.  This year, especially after reading books like In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan, and seeing the Oscar-nominated documentary Food, Inc., I was really motivated to do something about creating a vegetable garden in our yard.  Andy and I discussed it, and it was decided that we would scale down the project to two 8 ft x 4 ft boxes, plus various stand-alone pots for things like mint that might take over the garden.

I called the seed company and they told me that most of the seeds I had purchases last year, due to keeping them in the house (cool and dry), should be useable, and I purchased a few more seeds to plant things I have used in cooking this year that I had never used at this time last year (like eggplant and zucchini).  So, two weeks ago I went to Green Mama’s Organic Gardening Center and learned about what I needed to do to make my nasty clay soil productive, and purchased a lot of compost, lava sand and organic fertilizers, as well as some herb plants that are more difficult to grow from seeds.  I started planting indoors (with Sophia’s help, of course) tomatoes, some herbs, jalapenos and bell peppers.  Last weekend Andy built the boxes to go into the yard, and we worked together to till up the clay soil, add all the Green Mama purchases and mix it together well.

Finally, today, we were able to start planting outside in the boxes.  My dad came and helped, which made it go real fast.  We tied off the boxes into 1 ft x 1 ft sections, to keep everything organized (sort-of like square-foot gardening, but not as strict), and started planting.  The list includes green beans, eggplant, cucumber, zucchini, onions, romaine lettuce, spinach, a gourmet lettuce mix, carrots, as well as the herb plants that were bought.  The tomatoes and basil and other plants that were started indoors will go out in two or three weeks, once they have reached the proper height, and I still have sugar snap peas to plant, which can’t go into the ground for a few weeks.  However, I am super excited that this grand scheme is finally coming to be a reality.  It is so thrilling to see the tiny basil leaves poking up, or the teeny stem that will eventually become a tomato plant.  I have posted pics of the journey, and I will post more pics as things start to grow.

Saturday, March 6th, 2010

Craigslist Backyard Playset

So, last weekend Andy and I were attempting to work outside in the backyard to get the boxes built for our vegetable garden, and we realized that Sophia is now too old to be stuck into the pack-n-play with a toy or two to occupy her while we do things.  In fact, not only does she not sit still for very long, but she wants to help.  The plan is to build her her own box to put dirt in that she can “plant” things and “garden” while I do my stuff, but that was not at the top of the priority list when we were getting our stuff together so we can plant this weekend.  We attempted to give Sophia a paintbrush and a bucket of water for her to “paint” the fence, which was fun for a while, but then she was back to helping us or messing with things on the patio.  We realized Sophia needs something to play with in the backyard.  We started looking at small playground-style swingsets and climbers with slides, but even the small ones were hundreds of dollars.  We scaled down and started looking into simple plastic slides, and thought maybe we would get a slide with some other things, like a big-wheel tricycle or something, but the slides were almost $100 and the tricycles were at least $40.  Andy got the idea to look on Craigslist, and we found an awesome smallish climber with slide from someone in our city for only $150.  When we went to look at it, the guy told us that they had only had it a year, and were getting rid of it because they were upgrading to something larger.  It looked in great shape.  We decided it was going to be an early birthday present, and Friday after Andy got home, he put it together and Sophia tried it out.  She is so thrilled, and now all she wants to do is play outside.  She is so grown up!  Check out the pics, some from Friday, some from this afternoon.

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Saturday, March 6th, 2010

Zoo with Friends

Last Wednesday, Sophia and I went to the Fort Worth Zoo for the second time ever, and met our friends Kathleen and Andrew, and Kathleen’s dad.  Unfortunately there were too many kids from school trips there for Sophia and Andrew to run around the whole time, but they both did great in the stroller, and were still able to see quite a bit and have a good time.  Here are some pics:

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