Sophie & her friend Lucca at the park!

SMOOCH!

Sophie Lu & her Letter Sounds!

Sophie Lu has become obsessed with the alphabet and her letter sounds! She is always pointing out letters on signs and in books and then making the corresponding letter sound; but what she did the other day took the cake... She was trying on a bumble bee Halloween costume, so I asked her, "What sound does a bee make?" I was expecting, "bzzzz"- but what I got was, "/b/, Mommy, the "B" says /b/!"

These days, it's hard to get her on video doing things with the vigor she normally does them; but here she is showing off her letter sounds!



* I should explain that for "W", Sophie Lu said, "W W W, What's happenin' dude?" This is thanks to her sassy big sis Becca who also taught her to say, "Awesome!" and "Peace!" :)

She's our California Girl (Officially!)

Today we went to court to re-adopt Sophie Lu in the State of California! This is only a formality, since Sophie was officially and legally our daughter on June 28, 2005 (while we were still in China), but Sophie will now receive a California birth certificate with Michael and I listed as her Mommy and Daddy! Here we are with the Judge after the ceremony. Sophie Lu looked so beautiful in one of the dresses we bought for her in Chengdu, but she was very tired as it was ner naptime. The bailiff was kind enough to take this photo for us. I looked at it on my digital camera in the elevator on the way down and without thinking, I exclaimed, "Wow! The judge's head got cut off!" (Probably not the best thing to say in a courthouse- no wonder I got such strange looks!) In any case, this was a very special day for us as a family!
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Michael and I were asked to raise our right hands to take an oath. Of course, Sophie Lu had to join in! The rest of the time, however, she spent trying to wrangle some lip gloss out of my purse! But at the end, she sweetly said, "Thankoo Honor!" :)

Sophie, Taylor, Jamie (Jim) & Emily!

Taylor, Jamie (Sophie calls her "Jim"), Emily, & Sophie Lu! This photo was taken right before one of the funniest things I've ever experienced happened while we played "Mr. Fox". I was the fox, and I chased the girls accross the entire yard (they are fast). Okay, Sophie isn't so fast- but she's easy bait so I passed her up... Anyway, at the very end of the stretch, I grabbed onto sweet Emily's shirt (and ponytail- oops!). We were running so fast that neither of us could stop in time, and we face planted straight into the bushes... ouch! Luckily, we were laughing too hard to feel the pain- Sorry, Emily!
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Enjoying some snacks at Sophie's Dora Table (Jamie, Taylor, Sophie, & Emily).

Sophie Lu had such a wonderful time playing with her good friends- 3 of the sweetest, most patient (& I must say beautiful) girls in the world~ Thank you all so much for being so kind and gentle with Sophie Lu- she just adores you!

p.s. Hi Marla!