As usual, Sophie has been keeping us busy with all the things a not-quite-one-year-old goes through. Our schedule has changed so many times that I can’t even remember all of the iterations. The most difficult change happened last weekend at 1 am:

Sophie was nestled all snug in her bed,
While visions of Cheerios danced in her head;
With Kelly in her ‘kerchief, and I in my cap,
Had just settled down for a long night’s nap.

When out of Sophie’s room there arose such a clatter,
We sprang from the bed to see what was the matter.
Were her diapers all soiled; did a rash need some gel?
Nope, nothing was wrong, she’d just learned how to yell.

We also installed a new storm door last Saturday giving our front door the equivalent sealing power of a zip-loc double zipper bag. (Designed with you in mind.) Honestly, attempting to close the two doors with any force feels as if you will shatter the glass. Personally, I like to think of it as an airlock like you see in sci-fi movies. Unfortunately, I won’t be able to relive any dramatic decontamination scenes due to my body greatly exceeding the two inch space between the doors. But adding that to our door and window improvements helps to keep out the road noise.

In other thoughts, I have been working to become more creative. Having a job doing creative work is very taxing and easily sucks away all of my creative juices. Taking the time to recharge is a must and I’m taking my time management a lot more seriously because of it. As many of you know, I have started a webcomic called “Bots” that I update weekly. www.tarobot.com/botsThis takes up a tremendous amount of energy but I don’t think I’ve enjoyed something this much since college. In order to keep myself going, I’ve had to make some resolutions about how I spend my time. So far, I only have 2 big time-sucks but I’m sure many more are lurking. Just thought I’d share:

I will no longer join Facebook apps that are not real games.
I don’t care how you spend your time online but I have wasted far too much of my own clicking boxes surrounded by advertising in order to make a number change. “Congratulations! You are now a level 2.”
I believe slot machines to be the lowest form of “entertainment” mankind has ever created. They require no skill, discourage interaction with other humans and turn people into greedy zombies pulling levers to see more sparkly things. I am finding the vast majority of Facebook apps are pretty much empty slot machines with ads all over them. I’m sure your favorite app isn’t like this but the ones I’m deleting are.

Once the Olympics are concluded, I will not make time to watch TV.
Having to repeatedly watch the same 20 ads during the Olympics made me realize how little I’ve been missing on TV. I also realized that I want to see Alltel’s wizard use a +5 Magic Fire spell on that “Chad” guy so I never have to see him again.
I love good TV and I wish I had more time to enjoy the shows my friends tell me about but there just isn’t time. I’m not boycotting TV, just refusing to spend time on it when I can be creating things or spending time with actual people who care about me.

Speaking of recording, Kelly caught Sophie having a good giggle and caught it on camera. Take a look:

Sorry about the squished video picture, our camera shoots in widescreen and YouTube only supports standard TV size.

The other new happening from the Wonderful World of Sophie™ is naps. For some reason, in her third month, the girl wonder stopped sleeping during the day thereby dashing all hopes of mom and dad accomplishing anything beyond doing the hokey-pokey. (Because really, that’s what it’s all about.) Thankfully, that all changed this month as she is now open to the idea of taking naps in the morning and afternoon. I say “open to the idea” because sometimes we puts her down but… she no sleepy. I’m sure you parental veterans have some great advice on napping. Please feel free to share.

Sophie Laughing

Sophie Talking