Our new next-door neighbors have a 2-year old girl.  So as not to infringe on their privacy, let’s call her Amelia, as in Amelia Earhart, because she is an adventurer.  She frequently comes to our house to visit.  By herself.  She’s even wandered into our house on occasion.  She’s very cute.  The first time she came to visit us, I thought it was because she coveted the play set in our backyard.

A few days later, however, Amelia was watching Sophie ride her bicycle and she came bounding towards the street, a huge grin on her face.  I was scared she wouldn’t stop at the curb.  Her mom grabbed her just in time as Sophie zoomed past us on two wheels.

Since then, our new friend has come to say hello almost every day.  But it’s Sophie who lights up her life.  And Sophie loves the attention.  She’s always been a little bit jealous of Chloe’s mother’s helper gig – she doesn’t quite understand why she can’t be a mother’s helper too.

But with our next-door neighbor, Sophie can practice for a future mother’s helper gig.  She’s very good at entertaining Amelia, until Amelia tries playing with Sophie’s stuff.  That makes my little one a little nervous.

Yesterday, Amelia’s esteem for Sophie manifested itself with an offering of an ice pop.  Sophie came running in the house tell me about the gift and was obviously extremely flattered by it.  She exclaimed how “delicious” the pop was, finishing almost all of it.  “Mom, it’s really good.  I just don’t want the rest because I need to go back outside to play with Amelia.”