Sophia vs. Nature . . .

These pictures clearly were not taken within the past week, as it seems that Spring has itself taken a Spring Break in order to give us one last (I hope) dose of Winter weather. Regardless, I am determined to stay optimistic and post about the wonders Sophia has found in Spring regardless of the fact that it actually snowed a little yesterday.

So, Spring is the season of new life. I have enjoyed watching both kids spend their time outside exploring their blooming, growing, changing environment. We have had a lot of rain in the past few weeks. A lot of rain has led to a lot of worms on the sidewalk. Grant and Sophia have enjoyed finding and watching, and yes, even touching, the worms that have sought refuge from the soggy ground on the sidewalks outside Melrose Hall. The kids come by their fascination with worms naturally. While I cringe when I see the kids touch the nasty little things now, when I was a kid I had a few "pet" worms of my own that I kept in jars in my room.(What a good sport my mother was . . .) Don't worry, we do a lot of hand washing after visiting our worm friends . . . who most definitely stay outside.

Having the natural tendencies of a two year old both to take things apart and to squeeze tightly the things she values most, Sophia has offered some challenges to the season of new life. Sophia's approach to the new life growing around her has been the following: if it is colorful, pick it; if it wiggles, squish it. This tendency first surfaced several weeks ago when my mom stayed with the kids while Travis and I visited Milwaukee. My mom had the kids playing outside when Sophia found a ladybug. Both kids enjoyed looking at the ladybug for some time. Their wonderful Grandma took pictures of the Grant and Sophia with their new friend, after which, so the story goes, my dear Sophia announced that she was going to "pet" the lady bug and then proceeded to pound that poor bug into our porch. A week or two later, this incident was followed by the stomping of a unfortunate worm friend on the way to Grant's bus stop. I was hurrying Grant to the bus when I turned around to see Sophia stomping enthusiastically on a worm while saying in the sweetest voice, "Hi my little worm. How are you today?" I have realized lately that I often show my affection for my kids by patting them . . . perhaps the stomping was Sophia's version of patting. Finally, you can see in the pictures above, that we may be challenged this Spring and Summer to keep Sophia from undoing the Jewell gardners' work. Sophia loves the flowers that are beginning to bloom all over campus and is compelled to pick each one she sees so she can show it to Mommy. To keep the peace with those who work very hard to develop and maintain the flower gardens around campus, we'll be working with Sophia in the coming weeks on learning to admire flowers without touching.