Monday 8 Feb.

I drove back from Jacksonville yesterday. We got home about 4:30 and I unloaded the car and did laundry while I watched the Super Bowl.
Penny and I got to spend 4 days watching Sophie. She couldn’t go to day care with her broken arm.

Here are the activities that Sophie likes:

Play dough-- Currently she likes to make food, celery, steak, spaghetti and especially corn dogs. Either she or I make the food then it goes into the pan and on top of the play oven. Next it comes out of the pan and into her “plate” which actually is a small square plastic cookie sheet for the oven. Of course the next step is to put it in the oven. When she removes it from the oven she says, “it’s hot, feel it” at which point I must touch the food and rapidly remove my hand crying “ouch”, thus confirming the food is hot. Then she announces that it has cooled down and we must pretend to eat it. Her other game is to simply cut up the play dough into slices with her plastic knife.

Reading--A big activity is reading with her. She has had some books read to her so frequently that she has them memorized and she will literally take the book and accurately “read’ it to you

Blocks—She is in the build-it –up and knock-it-down phase. We build a tower. She knocks it down enthusiastically. We rebuild.

Little people—She has a set of little people that she uses to play various games. I put them in a circle and asked her what they were doing in the circle. She said they were singing (that’s what she does at music class in a circle) and broke into song. I got a rendition of “The Wheels on the Bus” followed by “Jesus Loves the Little Children” Then it came to the knock it down time and little people were scattered all over.

As a diversion to keep her from getting upset, I made as if it was amazing that when she blew into a flute she could make a noise. For the rest of the week she would periodically pick up the flute and say, “watch this” and blow into it. Of course, I had to make a fuss over the fact she made a noise.

Sophie required attention 100% of her waking hours. That’s normal. Both Penny and I were worn out by her—but it was worth it. She will never be exactly like this again and our prolonged exclusive period left many pleasant memories.

The trip to Jacksonville interrupted my river run “training” so right now I am on the treadmill. I finished the laundry this morning and then worked on the table top for the kitchen island. It is ready to go on top of the cabinet.

Kitty Update—2 cats showed up our first night back—Buzz and Meredith. The feeder worked fine and wasn’t cleaned out by raccoons while we were gone.