I love these photos of Sophie jumping. As you can imagine, they’re extremely hard to come by, considering she’s almost impossible to decently capture on film.

Chloe and my mom left for their annual trip to Upstate New York today, to visit my aunt and uncle for the next week. The relative calm is remarkable, and it’s only been about four hours since they left.

That’s not to say I don’t miss my big Chloe – actually, I don’t really miss her yet (I’m giving it at least a couple of days) – but it’s nice to be in a house where Sophie is taking a nap and we can relax, too. Chloe never takes naps – and so one of us always has to be available to entertain her, as much as we might like to sleep as well.

Chloe took enough activities with her to last a month – between her books (“Bunnicula” (about a vampire bunny) and “The Black Stallion”), her Game Boy, her word search books, her card games…she’s going to keep her companions extremely busy.

We don’t call Chloe “Little Miss Chatterbox” for nothing. She really doesn’t shut up. I’m realizing it even more now that she’s gone. It gives me great joy to know that Chloe’s going to have an entire week to talk our relatives’ ears off, while we bask in the sounds of silence.