Opposite Ends of the Spectrum

Hello everyone, as you can tell by the somewhat unorthodox syntax, this is not Alex. It’s Sydmil. Alex has asked me to appear as a guest blogger, due to the great Sofia stories I have to share. I don’t get to spend as much time with Sofia during the week, but on the weekends I get to experience some “Sofiaisms” ifI’m lucky.

Sofia is on the verge of speaking a human language (Dutch or English), and I find it to be very exciting. I my opinion there are three major developments a baby goes through. First they start walking, and then they start talking, and then they use a toilet instead of using a diaper. Sofia learning how to walk was very exciting. I wonder if the parents who read this agree with me, when I say that I cannot even imagine her making full sentences. Just like I could not imagine her walking. To me Sofia is always going to be the way she is. I guess that is why parents are always so afraid in the beginning, when their kids start driving. To them, they are still those little babies that can’t really do anything.

Although I say I can’t imagine Sofia talking, I definitely am noticing progress in her speech, and her understanding of words. Her favorite word is “no”. Her second favorite word is “mama”. She sometimes says the word mama for no apparent reason. This makes the sporadic mentions of the word papa all the more sweet though.

I would now like to share some stories involving my little Sofia. Saturday July 5^th, Alex woke up before Sofia and I, and went to “Latin Fusion” (go to www.Lifetimefitness.com for a detailed explanation). When I entered Sofia’s room, the smell of poop welcomed me with a bang. This was not uncommon. Sofia was laying on her pillow singing one of her songs. I greeted her by shouting her name with glorious joy. “Sofia!!!” Sofia jumped up to greet me and said “wetty”, as she pointed to the floor. Wetty is the word for diaper. My heart stopped. I feared she had pooped after she took the diaper off, and started flinging feces across the room like a rogue monkey. I took a look around and let out a sigh of relief when I realized she had spared me the horror. As I proceed to put a fresh diaper on her I notice something on her forehead. Something brown. Then I see some on her hands and a ton of it in her hair. Sofia did poop after all, and she smeared it all over her head. She must have done it quite some time before I came to wake her, because it was nice and dry. I took off all her bedding and washed it, because some of the poop missed her head and landed in the bed. Not much though, Sofia is very precise and thorough. I spent the next thirty minutes washing her hair.

My second story happened the day after the poop incident. Alex had gone to the grocery store, so Sofia and I had the house to our selves. After some dancing to the Blackeyed Peas,and some Coldplay, Sofia and I were relaxing, watching the gentleman’s Wimbledon final between Nadal and Federer. Best tennis match I have ever seen by the way. Sofia and I were at the edge of our seats. During the rain intermission, Sofia gets up from her chair and walks towards me holding up her shirt exposing her belly. Yes babies have a belly, when you’re older it becomes a stomach. She was saying the word peepee. This of course means pee, she just like to say things twice.I remember thinking to myself; “Does she want, what I think she wants?” Needless to say I was very excited, and I rushed to take her pants and diaper off and put her on the toilet. She started peeing almost immediately. She even tried to wipe herself when she was done, but her arms were too short.She did flush the toilet herself though. When i asked her if this was going to be the end of the wetty, she said: "bye bye wetty" I remember thinking how ironic it was for her to one day take her diaper off and rub poop into her hair, and the next day she asks me to use the toilet. Talk about opposite ends of the spectrum… for those of you who are wondering, no, sofia did not get potty trained in a day. She still wears diapers.

Hope you enjoyed it, don’t get used to it. Be well, do good work, and keep in touch.

Sofia’s vader.