Little Miss Independent

Let's start off with a typical conversation between Sophia Maria, Little Miss Independent, and her mamá.

Mamá: Sophia, ¿Eres una bebé? (Are you a baby?)
Sophia: Noooooo.
Mamá: ¿Eres una niña grande? (Are you a big girl?)
Sophia: Sí!



Our little princesa is now eighteen months old and up to all kinds of new tricks. Here are just a few:

• She lovingly refers to herself as 'ia. Yesterday she even tried her whole name, 'ia ma'ia (Sophia Maria)
• Her Spanish and English vocabularies continue to expand.
  
• In English: hot tea, coat, star, moon, gamma's car (Grandma's car), and mine
  
• In Spanish: agua, jugo (which she pronounces goo go), niño, tía, tío, and mio
• Notice how she's mastered the word mine in both languages.
• Sophia's language ability isn't the only thing that's off the charts. Sophia's been studying math as well. She can now correctly answer the following math equations:
  
• 1 + 1
• 3 - 1
• 19 - 17
• 16 ÷ 8
• √4
• In case you haven't guessed, her favorite number is two.

Sophia insists on doing most things on her own these days (hence the nickname). She pulls off some of them quite successfully: eating with all sizes and types of utensils, feeding Mocha, and taking care of her babies. She is usually very tender when playing "mampá". Sophia changes her baby's diaper, lays her down in her crib, covers her up, feeds her, gives her medicine, and showers her with hugs and kisses.

The tasks Sophia insists on doing by herself, but haven't quite mastered are putting on her shoes (though she does well with Papi's boots,) putting on lotion and chapstick (the lotion usually goes on her lips and the chapstick on her chin), and opening the back door with our house key.

While stubborn at times, Sophia is an absolute delight. She has become quite the little snuggler and her smiles are our greatest treasures.