When I think of Sophie, I think of a crazy, adorable little girl. Who is afraid of nothing. Who takes risks that no normal 33 month-old would ever consider.

Who goes to the playground and hangs from the monkey bars and swings upside down from the parallel bars. Who is doing somersaults and attempts headstands like Chloe. Who runs faster than her 7-year old sister. Who jumps gleefully from the bed over and over and over again.

When she performs her silly Sophie tricks, I often wonder where her silly tricks will take her when she’s older. To the moon, perhaps? Maybe not that far. I was watching the US Gymnastics Olympic Trials last night and as I saw the young girls jump over the vault and nail their floor routines, I briefly thought of Sophie. Perhaps I should enroll her for toddler gymnastics – except as we all know, she doesn’t follow direction.

Maybe she’ll become a champion skier (I have no idea if she has any skill in that area – perhaps we’ll find out next winter), or a skydiver. As I uploaded this photo, a light went off in my little head. The perfect job for Sophie: stuntwoman. Yep, I can she her name in lights now. The most famous stuntwoman who ever made it onto film. She’ll be able to stand in for all of those curly-haired actresses out there. All two of them.

I’m going to start looking into college programs now. One can never plan too early for these things.

Every year-the week of July 4-my mom takes Chloe on a road trip to see my aunt and uncle in upstate New York. They have a lot of fun, and Chloe loves all the nature.

We were talking about next year’s trip (I know, we haven’t even hit July 4, 2008 yet), giving our daughter advance notice that in 2009, my husband and I would be going away to celebrate our 40th birthdays and 15th wedding anniversary – without the two girls.

When I told Chloe that she might stay on an extra week next year to go to camp, she asked if she’d be alone. I responded that she’d be staying with her great aunt and uncle, but that yes, she’d be alone with them.

In the few seconds before she reacted, I could see the wheels turning in her little head. “Grammy won’t be with me?” “No,” I answered. To which she replied, “but if I’m by myself, I won’t be able to get angry at anyone!” “All the more reason for you to spend the week with them,” I said. Chloe laughed. And so did we.

By the way, Chloe received her last report card as a 1st grader today. It was just about perfect. And I was extremely impressed. And proud.

It’s been a constant challenge to get Sophie to look into the camera. Whenever we ask her to smile, she coyly turns away and avoids the lens.

But when she was playing in the attic this evening, I had an epiphany. What if I turned the camera into a game?

“Sophie,” I coaxed, “Can you make a happy face?” She readily complied – witness the funny-looking grin in the top photo. A little forced, perhaps, but this is one of the first head-on photos I’ve taken of her in a long time. Cause for celebration.

“Sophie,” I cooed, “Can you make an angry face?” She was having too much fun to get angry, but she gave it her best effort – witness the silly face in the second photo.

I have a few more funny shots, which I’ll roll out over the next couple of days. Enjoy.

We spent a couple of hours at the swim club again today. I’ve noticed another difference between Chloe and Sophie. When Chloe was Sophie’s age, Chloe loved going into the big pool with us. And she never complained about wearing floaties.

Sophie, however, is quite another story. She likes the big pool a little, but not very much. And she refuses to wear any kind floating aid. After a few minutes of bathing in my arms, she was ready to go back to the kiddie pool. And she’s not all that interested in the water in the kiddie pool, either. What interests her is borrowing other kids’ toys. And playing with them, and occasionally sharing the toys with their owners. The nice is thing is that when we forget to bring her toys, which happens fairly frequently, she can always mooch off other kids.

After she’s done with the toys (and she’s very focused when she plays, and spends a lot of time playing, even by herself), she usually goes to the playground. Today, she ventured there without Chloe. She’s pretty much mastered all of the climbing apparatus, and isn’t scared to play when the bigger kids are there.

Today, however, she came running back to our table to announce that “the boys called me baby.” To which we responded, “You’re not a baby.” Before we knew it, she was scampering back to the playset. After two more minutes, she came running back to assert, “Not a baby.” And off she scampered again.

Sophie may be a lot of things, but she withstood her first official, non-Chloe insult like a champ. Go, Sophie, go.