Our Baby Steps: My hard working WORKMAN and his overaccessorized sister, Soapie!

If you ask Sophia her name, she refers to herself as "Soapie." However, if you ask her if she prefers being called Sophie or Sophia, she always responds with Sophia. As Jack overheard this discussion, he told us that he would like his name changed from "Jack" to "Workman."

We thoroughly enjoyed Valentine's day this year. Jack and Sophie attended parties at school and received cards from all of their friends. They had a great morning opening up some presents from us. Mostly chocolates, Superman goodies, and Mickey mouse books.

Sophia on Valentine's day morning

Putting away old clothes and finding fun halloween costumes

Jack loved his chocolate tool kit which came with saws, wrenches and hammers that were the size of actual tools!

Valentine's day night Mimi and Papa arrived. Jack and Sophie got to enjoy a nice dinner with them, and then the adults went out for a special dinner and a night of salsa dancing. The next day, the weather was beautiful and we took the kids to the zoo.

Dad and Sophie at the gorilla display

Papa and Jack

Sophie and Papa looking at snakes, monkeys and blue frogs

Fun with the sea otters

Carl does all oft these crazy stunts with Sophie. He lets her walk up his legs and chest and holds her high in the air. She always screams at me to watch. She is so proud of how high up she is.

Jack LOVED the winter olympics. We basically replaced all of our normal shows with the olympics. He was initially excited about the ski jumping but then became obsessed with the skiing and snow boarders. Jack turned his Mickey glasses into "snow goggles" and put them on the top of his head. He really did look like a snowboarder out of Colorado in this outfit.

Jack exploring his new look.

He had to have his hair up like this

Mimi and Jack looking at the fish and turtles

I gave Jack money to throw into the pond so he could make a wish. He thought it was so fun. He kept asking everyone for their change. Sophia wanted to follow suit.

Sophia has her own style. More and more, she is starting to remind me of a blonde Punky Brewster. She loves things that kind of match with lots of colors. She totally overaccessorizes.

Jack and Sophia get along really well (85% of the time). Jack is a very caring and sweet big brother. When we went shopping for a birthday present for Sophia's friend, he found that she loved this little toy at Target. We ended up buying it for her friend. When we brought it home to wrap, Sophie got upset that we were giving it away. Jack told Sophie he would get her one for her birthday. Later that week, he still remembered and when we talked about her birthday he told her that he was going to buy her that pony purse! He is extremely thoughtful and is always looking out for her.

My snow bum running around on a 85 degree February day!

Jack using the poles from his castle tent as ski poles as he tries to mimic the skiiers on TV

Totally mesmorized by the Olympics

My guys eating some grapefruit together. The Bravo fam has a whole tree of grapefruit so we have been trading lemons and grapefruits. Jack and Sophie LOVE it!

With the weather getting better, we are in the backyard a lot. The kids love exploring and they are finally able to chase each other.

Sophia follows Jack everywhere. She is constantly asking "Where's Jack?" As soon as you point, she is off running to find him. She normally wakes up before him after a nap. She will play with me for a little while but then makes off to the guest room to wake him up.

Pure glee from being chased by her big brother

They are at such great ages. Trying at times but really fun. Jack is starting to make real jokes and gets our humor. Sophia is able to engage a little bit of conversation and basically understand everything we are talking about. She is finallly able to sit through books which make it a lot more fun to read at night.

One fun thing we have instituted is TV night. We get a pizza and eat it on the couch in the green room. The kids get sooooo excited! Sophie still doesn't have the patience to watch TV for very long but Jack loves it. While Carl was gone in New Orleans, Jack and I watched Cinderella. He kept telling me about the beautiful princess and would hide his head and peak out while he watched the cat chase the mice.

Sophia loves to give hugs. Her brother enjoys receiving them!

Sophia loves to put her arms out like this and that means she is ready to give a big hug

Love my little lady. We didn't try to match. Daddy dressed Sophie downstairs and when I came from upstairs we were matching

Loves tickles on her belly

Fortunately, my mom saved some of my baby dolls. My first American doll, the britt baby, is Sophia's favorite baby. She has a ton of babies but always calls for that one. She now even carries around the diaper bag that goes with it and stuffs baby stuff in it. I never showed her how to do it. She just has this nurturing mamma instinct.

Sophia has amazing facial expressions. She kind of dances with her face. She loves to be chased and I can never get her in the car in the mornings without a full chase five times around my car as she giggles with delight:)

Happy as clams! On the topic, Jack has been eating steamed clams with us and loving them. He also started eating sushi. He eats the real deal sashimi and rainbow rolls. He has his kid chopsticks and loves eating the tuna and salmon with just a little soy sauce. He still loves all of his crazy favorites like capers (on anything or alone), whitefish, olives, exotic cheese and now both kids love dates.

One of the things I treasure the most with my noodle is my time where we work on his letters and numbers. He gets so excited when he gets something right and jumps into my arms. He is so proud of himself and I am so proud of him. At his teacher conference, the teacher was so impressed with his letter recognition. He was actually able to figure out how to spell ball last week by sounding out the sounds of the letters. Carl told him there was a second L but otherwise we were super impressed.

They still love their pop-pops! At music class each week, Ms. Rhea asks Jack and Sophie to tell her what we need at the grocery store. Jack always responds with pop-pops and Sophie says cookies.

Sophie loves playing peek a boo. She thinks she is so funny and loves to laugh.

Sophie adores her babies. She is really into her stroller now and carrying around multiple babies.

Sophie and her favorite doll, my little doll when I was a child

Jack loves helping Sophie feed the babies

Sophie holding one baby and feeding the other

Her two baby girls

Taking the concept of rocking a baby to sleep to a whole new level

Jack is still wearing Superman all the time. It is hard to pry it off of him

Sophia loves purses!!! The more the merrier

She takes this stool everywhere. If I won't give her something on the counter, she doesnt' fuss. She simply grabs her stool and takes what she wants regardless of whether I want her to have it. She has to have juice at all times. She constantly asks for it. She also has her favorite baby and ALL of her purses. You don't realize how much she can carry until you look at the next picture.