Happy Birthday Sophia!

Sophia is our little ball of fire. She was probably the best baby we had. She was happily plump and had so much curly hair right on top of her head she looked like one of those troll dolls that used to be so popular. Sophia started talking at about 10 months and hasn't stopped since. She was born in Alaska and because I didn't understand how the light and dark issues would so drastically affect her, I didn't supplement her with vitamin D. She ended up getting rickets. At 18 months she fell about a foot into soft mud and broke through both her bones in her left arm. Then her front teeth crumbled and fell out. She's been toothless until this past week. So all Sophia wanted for her 7th birthday was her two front teeth--and that's exactly what she got!

Sophia got $20 from Grandma Simons and $30 from me so she got to go on a little shopping spree for her birthday. Sophia and I had a wonderful time being alone and trying on clothes. She says that was the best part of her birthday celebrations, which spanned the course of two days.

The night before her birthday we took all the kids on a walk down a lonely country road in Kentucky. Mainly they were driving us crazy and we wanted to do something for them to get their energy out, but we also wanted them to see all of the amazing fireflies that glitter at dusk. They had a fantastic time catching fireflies and little tiny frogs that lined the road.

After our walk in 100 percent humidity, we returned for cake and ice cream. We each took turns going around the table sharing our favorite funny Sophia story. There are so many crazy stories about Sophia but my favorite was when Sophia was about 2 years old. She got a dryer box from our new dryer and put it in the hallway with a little dry erase board. She called it her office. She would wake up really early every morning and go into her office to work. One morning, Brian and I were up talking about our finances when we heard tiny little Sophia call out, "Dad, you make the money, I'll fix this box!" Sounds fair to me.

Diamond had a hard time with all the cute stories and kept saying, "What about me, what funny things do I do?" Then we talked about what all of their names mean. Sophia's name means Wisdom or intellect. While I was explaining this, Diamond moaned, "I want to be named Sophia." I think he is just bitter about the fact that Sophia is six weeks older than him and got to have her birthday party first.

The next day we all went to the post pool for swimming. It was fun for the most part. Brian tossed Sophia into the pool which ticked her off, so the rest of the time she gave Brian the cold shoulder. Anywhere he swam she would go to the exact opposite side of the pool and anytime he tried to talk to her, she gave him the silent treatment. Silly girl. Brian and I got a kick out of her obstinacy. She keeps us laughing, and pulling our hair out!