We have had 
lots of fun over the past few weeks. Labor Day weekend we went to Roseburg to see our very good friends who live there. Sophia had a grand time playing with Alex and Gabe now 
that she's just about big enough to keep up with their adventures. We took a lovely hike, and Sophia even walked some of it, and had fun in the 
wading pool in the back yard. We'll have to get one of those for Sophia next year.
We've had a couple of recent trips to the carousel, one with Grannie and Papa and another with some friends from out of town. One of these groups 
of friends has a baby a few months old. Sophia wasn't sure she approved of her Mommy and Daddy paying attention to another baby (despite the picture, she actually didn't grab the baby's 
face). We also went to the zoo with Peter, Christiana and Miriam. Sophia wanted to copy what Miriam did and we had fun seeing Paul's and Miriam's heights relative to
the bears.Since school time has started, Sophia has been getting some preschool activities at day care.
Since all the big kids get to participate she thinks she should too, so she's coming home with art projects and other papers. She was especially proud of this crown she brought home recently. Other new skills include somersaults, which 
she's very happy to practice, even from the bed or couch (but we discourage those) and a growing sense of sharing. Recently she was 'sharing' her milk with her stuffed lamb, a project that required the lamb be thrown in
the laundry fairly soon afterwards. She likes to hold out her food to share with us. She gets quite offended if we don't take it.
She's also practicing other new skills. Tuesday she grabbed the broom and started sweeping. She isn't doing much more than moving around the 
dirt, but I'm impressed with how well she's able to maneuver the very long broom handle. We also recently got out this drum and she's really enjoying playing with it. She mostly wants Mommy or Daddy to help, but I'm wondering if she's going to take after Papa and be a drummer.
