Another cute stuffed animal photo. It’s Monday, back to work after an extra-long weekend. Back to the old routine – except that my husband took today off as well.

This was a bonus for Sophie, who got to spend some quality time with her Papa while Chloe was at camp. Apparently, she’s super monkey at the playground – taking risks and needing extreme supervision so that she doesn’t get herself into trouble.

We never had that problem with Chloe – she was always very prudent. Sophie takes care, but she’s not afraid. She grabs onto the rings and swings from them – although she can’t yet go from one to the other, she’s perfectly content to HANG and SWAY. Until she falls. And that’s where it gets a little crazy. Because if you’re not there to catch her, she’ll still fall. And it’s a pretty long drop to the ground.

Chloe, that is. Made a grand entrance earlier this afternoon, accompanied by two boxes of books and a bag of junk to add to her much smaller collection of existing junk. Aside from the books, she did bring home one cool thing, though. A glass jar that she decorated using a special stenciling process.

She noticed the change to the sunroom right away – “Where’s all my stuff?” After reassuring her that we kept most everything, but just organized it, she seemed a little skeptical. Because we were out and about this evening, however, she hasn’t yet had time to take full measure of what’s missing.

If tomorrow’s blog subject is entitled “Howls Heard Across the Universe,” you’ll know that it’s because our big Chloe discovered the extent of her parents’ heavy-handed treachery. The good part is that I actually did very little of the purging, so when she does realize how much of her stuff is actually gone, I’ll be able to blame her papa.

When I see photos like this one, I’m happy. Simply happy. And full of love. The corkscrew curls are just too much to bear. Boing, boing.

Sophie is enjoying her status as the only child this week. She misses Chloe, and asks for her on a daily basis. But having those few extra minutes with her every morning and every evening – where all of our attention is focused on her…not a bad deal.

At the same time, I think she’s also a little bored. She seems to be searching for ways to keep herself entertained – because she’s used to having Chloe around to occupy her time. It’s nice to have a companion and a partner in crime, and as much as I’d like to think otherwise, I simply don’t cut it as a playmate. Neither does her Papa.

Chloe apparently went fishing for the first time today. She’d been looking forward to it since last summer, and we never got around to it, on purpose. She managed to master the art of casting the line, but then got frustrated because the line got tangled. And then she realized, rather quickly according to my mother, that catching fish was not a two-minute proposition. Not surprisingly, she quickly lost patience. So much for fishing. But really, is that surprising? Chloe is about as far from fishing as anyone I know. The upside is that she won’t be asking me to take her fishing now. Thanks, Mom.

My husband wasted no time yesterday. Barely minutes after Chloe left with my mom on their week-long adventure, he was in the sunroom (aka the daughters’ junkyard) with a large moving carton. And he started going through every last piece of junk in that room, tossing old stuff, putting questionable stuff aside for Chloe to sift through, and organizing the rest.

I, of course, had no patience for the project. It seems that whenever I enter that room, I have an overwhelming need to scream, kick and stomp (and vomit) on everything in sight. So while Sophie and her papa were working on the room, I visited a friend who just moved to the neighboring town. By the time I returned, the space was almost (but not quite) transformed.

A few more hours of work while our biggest threat is away in the country and the room might actually qualify for a photo on this blog. To be continued…