It's been just over a week of being a stay-at-home dad and things are going great.
The most impressive thing of late is how much Sophia mimics us: tying to put on a watch, vacuuming, cleaning, hugging, dressing herself, eating, using the telephone. She's also learned to snap.
More elaboration at a later time.

The (Not-So) Safety Dance
This is mid-spin. She loves to put on the stereo and dance to "her" music. Sometimes it doesn't matter what the music is, though most often the best dancing is to "her" tunes.

She's speaking and signing a lot of late. She has the signs for Ball, Table, Chair, Cup and will say Baby, Mamma, Pappa, Shoe, Ball, Titta (look in Swedish) and Head. The word Head came thanks to a Baby Einstein video that has the Head and Shoulders, Knees and Toes. She know her Head and Toes but tends to miss the Shoulders and Knees.

Basically, we have ourselves a wild child right now. Thankfully it is often beautiful summer weather and we can be out and playing in the parks, but inside she is too smart for her own good. Without faults, she can change the DVD disc in the DVD player and set it going. This is also thanks in part to Baby Einstein.

Go Oilers!!
(if the pic isn't visible, click on the "x" and it should appear)
The Edmonton Oilers are making a miraculous run for the Stanley Cup in the NHL and Sophia is right into it. This face was her reaction after learning the Oilers were down 2-0 in the best of 7 series against the San Jose Sharks (they are now leading the series 3-2 with game 6 tonight). Ok... this face just so happened to be the face I got on film when I took the picture while wearing her Oilers outfit. Grandma sent this to Sophia for her first birthday and it is still a bit too big. I do my best to get Sophia hooked on the Oilers. Each morning after a game, I have her on my knee as we watch the game highlights on the web. She is interested for the first 15seconds. That's a positive, isn't it?

Recently, Sophia learned to wash her own hair while in the tub. Unfortunately, this has crossed over into other aspects of her daily life. She now insists on washing her hair with anything and everything. Here we see the results of using Tagliatelle pasta with vegetables as shampoo.

When it comes to other developments, she is becoming quite the singer. She tends to carry the tune too. She does a mean "Eee, Ei, Eee, Ei, Oh" from Ol' MacDonald's Farm.

Most interesting to me from the development standpoint is how she is analysing things in world. She treats her little doll just like we treat her. She put her doll on her shoulder recently and bounced a bit and then kissed her head. This is just an example, but it is almost as if one can see the little wheels in her brain turning as she is taking on new talents.

Grandma and Grandpa were here for a week and Sophia had lots of fun with them. This picture is from Nicki's Playcentre where Sophia climbed, slided, bounced, balanced and most certainly laughed with joy. 

Sophia Visits Pre-SchoolToday Sophia visited Aunty Charlotte's work and got a chance to be with the big kids (3-5 year olds) at preschool.
She had a fabulous time and seemed to enjoy every minute. This hopefully bodes well towards when she herself begins pre-school this fall.
In child-related news, I found the below story on the CBC website today.
http://www.cbc.ca/story/science/national/2006/03/02/altruism060302.html
In summary, the article talks about a German study which shows infants naturally want to help and be contributors without ever being asked. Cecilia had been speaking about such a subject since Sophia's birth and I think we both believe that it is only our discouraging them (thinking they'll break things, get it wrong or just be too slow/in the way) that breaks their altruistic behaviours.

Today is Sophia's first birthday and my what a year it has been. We celebrated yesterday with Cecilia's parents and sister Charlotte, as well as a brief visit by webcam with grandma and grandpa Montgomery in Canada. Sophia was as animated and talkative as ever and was especially happy to get as a gift the little doggy four-wheeler that is pictured at left.