Last week Paul attended a conference, so Sophia and I spent Tuesday-Saturday in Portland at Grannie and Papa's house. Sophia more commonly identified it as "Papa's house" and when asked who else lived there, would reply "Bob" (my father's cat). Only with urging would she say "Grannie." When we got there Tuesday, Grannie was the one she ran to first, so Grannie shouldn't feel too left out. She opened her special Advent box with Grannie each day, which they both seemed to enjoy.
We had a good time with them. Papa gave Sophia her bath on Wednesday, well-supervised by Grannie. Sophia was quite delighted with Bob and wanted to play with her (yes, Bob is a female cat, all questions on this point should be directed to my father). Bob, however, felt that the small, running, shrieking creature should go away and would hiss every time Sophia got close. So now, when you ask Sophia what Bob says, she will hiss in response.Friday our cousins Kathy, Theresa and Elizabeth came to town to visit, 
and my father went to the beach for the weekend. These cousins come up every year and help my mother decorate for Christmas. They seem to enjoy it, and my father and I are grateful that we don't have to! Sophia tried to help with the decorating, but as Grannie's ornaments are more fragile than ours, didn't get to do too much. 
Sophia seemed to like the company, and took to Kathy particularly well. Saturday afternoon, Paul came and got us, and I don't think Sophia had been as happy all week as she was when daddy got there.
and my father went to the beach for the weekend. These cousins come up every year and help my mother decorate for Christmas. They seem to enjoy it, and my father and I are grateful that we don't have to! Sophia tried to help with the decorating, but as Grannie's ornaments are more fragile than ours, didn't get to do too much. 
Sophia seemed to like the company, and took to Kathy particularly well. Saturday afternoon, Paul came and got us, and I don't think Sophia had been as happy all week as she was when daddy got there.Last week she finally began to be able to participate in a conversation on the phone. Several times she said "call my daddy please?" so we called Daddy. She couldn't initiate conversation, but would respond to questions. This is the first she's been able to do that, so it's a good step. 
Generally she would yank the phone out of my hand and press buttons while talking, so she hung up on Daddy several times. Saturday she asked to call Papa so she did that with Grannie. I think she hung up on him too. She's got a ways to go with phone etiquette.
Generally she would yank the phone out of my hand and press buttons while talking, so she hung up on Daddy several times. Saturday she asked to call Papa so she did that with Grannie. I think she hung up on him too. She's got a ways to go with phone etiquette. Friday we went to Lloyd Center with a friend of my mom's. It is too difficult to take Mom and Sophia out with just me; we tried by going to the grocery story on Thursday and it was exhausting, even though they were both quite well behaved. At the mall we took Sophia to see Santa. She was quite interested in doing this, but flatly refused to sit on his lap. "No lap!" she kept announcing. Pictures with Santa have gotten expensive, or perhaps we were at the wrong place. They only let you take pictures with your own camera if you buy some of theirs. Sophia insisted that sit with her for the photo, so I didn't get any digital pictures of the event. Maybe next year it will go better.
Now that we're all home we're back to our routine. Last night Sophia stole Paul's hat and spent
some time playing with it. Then she asked for her picture to be taken. She's doing this quite a bit, and you never know what kind of expression we're going to get out of her when we do. 
