With a screech louder than a train horn blasting beside your head my daughter announced to the world that she was awake. The time was 5:25am and Bec and I were not ready to get up just yet. I prayed that Sophie would lie back down and give us another hour, hell I would even take just 10mins and as I started to doze and the screech sounded again this time much louder.
Sophie was ready and whether we liked it or not we were ready too. We opened Sophies door and she said up, up, up with her hands aloft. Get me out of this cot now was her direction to us. I lift her out and she gives me the most wonderful cuddle. I simply adore her cuddles, she just rests her head and gently pats my shoulder. A quick change and we head downstairs, we are not even half way down the stairs when she is asking about Santas milk and carrots, excitedly pointing to the spot we had left them, totally ignoring the abundance of presents Santa had left overnight.
She rushes to the milk glass and with such glee and excitement tells us how happy she is that Santa drank the milk and his reindeers ate the carrot, then out of the corner of her eye she spots the presents and lets out a gasp followed by the words 'oh wow'.
It never ceases to amaze me how quickly this little girl picks things up, we literally tell her things once and she soaks it up and then reminds us of it the next time the situation arises. Like all parents we think our children are the smartest... I am putting it out there but I think I have a little genius in the making. She is not even two and knows her ABC's, can associate multiple animals to each letter, can count to 10 (she often skips number 7) and much more. Anyway I digress but I guess you can tell how proud I am of her.
We proceeded to open presents with Sophie. Her eyes were wide with excitement as she ripped open the paper to discover what was wrapped within parcel. As I watched her I couldn't help but wonder what she was truly thinking about each gift, about Christmas, about Santa and generally about the excitement before her. I mean she got the association of presents from Santa but does it go deeper for her but she just cannot articulate it yet. Does she look at each gift and immediately go into thought about how it could be used in her play or is it less complicated than that and she is just excited or perhaps not as much as we think.
In the few days since Santa visited Sophie has been enjoying her new toys and involving us in her role play of building things, pretend babycinos for mummy and daddy and even insisting her older siblings are involved.
I have truly loved how involved she is this year compared to last year and hope that next year is even better after another year of growth and development. I know for sure I will be embracing this wild ride she has me on and I simply cannot wait to see where it leads.
Genius or not I couldn't be prouder of her.
