Sophie

"When is Sophie growing up?"
"Soon..." said her mother.
"Soon..." said her father.

These are (slightly altered) lines from one of my favorite children's books, A Weekend with Wendell. They seem to fit. This girl has evolved so much from a year ago, when I first moved to San Diego. It hasn't even been that long since I last saw her. But when someone grows & changes like she does, you have to sneak visits in often, or you'll get left in the dust, baffled & sifting through memories in your mind of the young girl you thought she was & trying to reconcile them to the young woman in front of you at the airport. You know you weren't eye level with her before, & when did she grow into her formerly coltish arms & legs?

But her mother & father so kindly did let her come visit (thanks C & B!) & we had such a lovely time with my former California charge. We didn't do too many touristy, extra-exciting excursions. Simply hanging out with the locals was fine by her. She got in on one of the many harvest festivals (where & when else would she have gotten to experience a corn maze & zipline engineered from a traveling irrigator?!). There were leaf fights & mule rides & lots of "riley" (oops, did I misspell that? :) ) friendly bantering. 

 It was so nice to catch up, especially since her days as a young girl are swiftly coming to a close I fear. She's on the brink of growing up, that one. I'm glad we got to keep her for a few days while she's still grossed out by a little spousal affection & can play in the leaves. Come back soon, Sophie. And don't grow up too fast.