I asked Sophia today if she wanted to go with me to vote. She said,"Are we going to go vote for Barack Obama?"

I told her that it was local elections, not presidential. On our way into the polling place a woman said she was one of the candidates and would appreciate our vote.

"Are we voting for her?" Sophia whispered.

"Yes, I believe we are," I whispered back.

She's been with me to the polling booth often, but this is the first time I recollect her being quite as tuned in to what's going on. It's delightful. She's for Hillary, of course, because Hillary is a girl.

Cribbed from (or inspired by) Naomi Kritzer's post on her daughter Molly.

Things Sophia can do:

• Spell the words beautiful, night and orange


• Read well above grade level


• Make up lyrics to existing tunes that match the rhyme and meter of the song (she also makes up songs with her own tunes, but I find that less impressive than working with the constraints of an existing tune)

Things Sophia either can't or won't do:

• Ride a bicycle


• Take a shower


• Delete things off of the DVR after she's watched them

Also, for the first year ever, she chose things for her own Amazon wishlist. She wants My Little Ponies. Lots of them. She has 23 My Little Ponies currently. We inventoried them a few weeks ago. Soon we will be discarding toys to make way for the new ones that are sure to arrive at Christmas.

This morning on the drive to school I feel disheveled. At a stoplight, I sit up and look at myself in the rearview mirror.

"What are you doing?" Sophia asks from the backseat.

"I'm looking in the mirror."

There are blemishes, and my skin doesn't look too great. I run my hand along my cheek.

"Why?"

"I'm checking out my face...what shape it's in."

"Your face is oval. It's always oval."

I grin.

"So you don't think my face changes shape when I'm not looking at it?"

She laughs. I don't think she's figured out how much joy she gives me.

Sophia's sense of humor is really developing. About a month ago, we bought her a knock-knock joke book, and she read to us out of it on the way to Michigan. Yesterday, at the dinner table, I handed her a slice of still-warm, fresh-baked bread and she said,"Mmmmm. This bread is delicious. There's a party in my tummy."

"Am I invited?" I asked her.

"Only if you're food," she replied.

I thought this was so hysterical I nearly bust a gut laughing. I don't know if she intended to be funny, but she seemed delighted that I laughed, so maybe she had. In fact (as often happens lately), she wanted to replay it, so I had to go through the whole dialog a second time, and then a third, when she varied it up to "Only if you're bread."

Lately Sophia has been telling people that she's "almost" a paleontologist. I think this is an extension of the "I know a lot about dinosaurs" proclamation she was making last year about this time. Perhaps it means she knows a lot, but acknowledges she's not a certified expert?

Sophia today has come up with an interesting theory. She posited that because the days are shorter in winter, that the "earth spins faster in winter and slower in summer". I find this fascinating (you know, that she's thinking about the spin of the earth and the length of the day and relating them to one another no matter how tenuously and then telling us about it). Kurt then pointed out that if the earth were spinning faster in winter, then both the night and the day would be shorter, but Sophia says the spin just slows down at night.

"Ahhhhhh," Kurt and I say in unison,"That's an interesting theory."

"It could even be a scientific fact," Sophia replies, with a smile.

We're eating dinner.

"Mama, do you know what Mac said?

"What did Mac say?

"He asked Moby if he wanted to race in the backcountry. It was really daddy playing Moby, so I guess he was asking daddy if he wanted to race in the backcountry."

A couple bites of noodles.

"Mama, you know what Mac didn't say?"

"What didn't Mac say?"

"He didn't say I want to get my butt kicked in the backcountry."

"I bet he got his butt kicked anyway."

"Yeah."

If you've never played SSX3, the above snapshot probably has no meaning to you.

Sophia just handed me her Hello Kitty magna-doodle and said,"You can't take your groceries home until you sign the bill."

I may have taken this child to Target once too often.

I took the magna-doodle and signed my name, as instructed. I want to be able to take my groceries home, after all.

Those that know Sophia, know she loves dinosaurs. Well, a late birthday present arrived recently in the form of a paleontology kit for kids. It's very cool. Essentially it's a big block of glued sand that comes with a real chisel, hammer and brush. The idea is to methodically hammer and chisel your way into the block and look for plastic dinosaur bones. After you excevate them, you get to put it together and paint it.

I took some video footage of her working on the dinosaur block and set it to some music. You can download the video (around 6M big) here.

Besides helping me create the video, Sophia also did some of her own art-work with a really neat drawing application called Tux Paint. It's very simple to use for small children. It's free, and it runs on a billion platforms. If you have young children, give it a shot.

You can see an example of her TuxPaint work here.

I'm driving Sophia home after swimming lessons. It's full-on summer, triple digit heat index. It's been a long day and it's not over yet. At home, my husband is supposed to be fixing dinner for us.

"So," I ask Sophia,"Do you think when we get home and see daddy, he'll say that it's hot?"

"Yeah. Daddy always talks about the weather. We know it's hot. Daddy always tells us stuff we already know."

I snort with laughter,"That is so true, Sophia."

This snapshot presented for the benefit of Aunt Kelly, who I thought would get the most chuckles out of it.