The Little Adventures of Sofie: Book 1

Chapter 9

Throughout the next few months, Sofie and Joe worked on wedding plans. They both agreed not to go too big or fancy, but still it had taken a bit of a toll on them. So far, they had managed to find a venue for it, order a sizable cake, and plan out the catering for the event. They had planned for the wedding to be sometime in mid-Fall and Summer was coming to an end. Sofie still needed a dress and to send out the invitations as well as come up with the gift registry. Sofie had asked for the weekend off from work. Her mother was coming up to help her go dress shopping. Joe, in the mean time, said he'd work on the invitations, and together they would tackle the registry.

Sofie was pacing the living room, waiting on a call from her mother so she could meet her at the dress store. Meanwhile, Joe sat in the kitchen, putting invitations inside envelopes and getting them ready to mail out.

"Baby girl, are you alright," Joe asked worriedly.

"I'm just stressed out Daddy."

"I'm sure you'll find a perfect dress pumpkin," Joe said encouragingly.

"It's not just the dress. It's everything. The whole thing has me stressed out." Sofie collapsed in a chair, she looked on the verge of tears. Joe came up behind her and gave her a hug and then played with her hair, which he knew she found soothing.

"How about tomorrow," Joe began, "we do the registry first thing in the morning and then you can have time for little space."

Sofie started crying. "Daddy, I'm too stressed out. I can't get into little space."

Uh oh thought Joe. This was a problem. Sofie had always been able to enter little space. in some way or another. If she couldn't access it at all then she was truly stressed to the max. He needed to find a way to fix this.

"Tomorrow," he started, "we'll do the registry first thing. That'll be the last of it. Everything will have been taken care of and we can have a littles play date. How about it?"

Sofie sighed. She had her doubts but she trusted her Daddy and decided to give it a try.

Suddenly Sofie's phone rang. Her mother was nearing the store. Sofie kissed Joe goodbye and left to go find her dress. Joe sat back down and kept doing the invitations but his mind was now focused elsewhere. He was busy daydreaming up the perfect littles day for Sofie.

The next day, Joe and Sofie awoke early to get started on the registry. They already had a few stores in mind to set it up. They picked the first one on the list and headed out. It took longer than anticipated but by 11:30am they were finally done.

"All done," Joe said triumphantly.

"Oh Daddy, we have to get flowers too." Sofie stopped and looked distressed. "You see? There's always something else."

"I'll order the flowers tomorrow," Joe said. He was determined that the rest of this day be spent helping Sofie get into little space. "But for now, it's time to have some fun. You ready?"

Sofie gave a weak nod and Joe took her hand and led her into the mall. The first stop was Build-A-Bear. Sofie's eyes lit up, but Joe could tell that she hadn't quite hit little space yet. Nonetheless, he helped her pick out a cute rainbow, patchwork teddy bear to adopt. Sofie bought some cute little clothes to go with it and thirty minutes later Princess Kalee, short for kaleidoscope, was tucked away in Sofie's arms.

"We're not done yet," Joe said, taking Sofie's hand once more. He led her further into the mall till at last they came to Watson's Candy Emporium. Sofie giggled at the prospect of getting candy. She hurried inside. Wall to wall was nothing but candies and chocolates from all over the world. Sofie didn't know where to look first. She walked up and down aisle after aisle. Her eyes feasting on all the goodies she could potentially get. She finally decided on four lollipops, a bar of chocolate from Germany, a box of Bean Boozled jelly beans that she could share with Daddy, a box of the Best Assortment of Taffy, and some rainbow striped sour candy belts.

"Thank you Daddy," Sofie said once they were outside. "This has been a fun day. I needed this."
"Oh but baby girl, we're still not done." Joe still had at least one more stop planned that he felt was sure to get her into little space. They got in the car and curiosity took over.

"Where are we going Daddy," Sofie asked.

"You'll see. I want it to be a surprise."

Fifteen minutes later, Joe turned into a parking lot.

"Wait. Daddy. This is the zoo! Are we going to the zoo?!"

Joe grinned and nodded. Sofie squealed with excitement. Once they got out of the car, Sofie practically dragged Joe to the gate. Joe laughed the entire way up to the entrance. He knew that Sofie was genuinely happy right now as she hurried towards the gate, Princess Kalee in one hand and her Daddy in the other and a purse full of candy. Joe paid for them and they got their hand stamped. Now that they were inside, the problem was where to start. He knew Sofie would want to see the elephants, the giraffes, the pandas, the tigers, and the dolphins. Joe walked up to a map of the zoo and scouted out each of the areas he knew Sofie would want to visit. After about 5 minutes of staring at this map, Joe figured out a plan of action. First would be the pandas, then the elephants and giraffes, then the tigers, and finally, the grand finale, dolphins. Meanwhile Sofie had been dancing around him ooh-ing and ah-ing at the animals and scenery around them. Joe explained the plan to Sofie, who readily agreed and began marching off in the direction of the pandas. Joe could tell that she was starting to slip into little space already.

A few hours later, and Joe and Sofie were heading towards the dolphins. They had gotten there a little early for the next show but Joe was glad. He and Sofie were able to get seats right up front. Sofie had picked up a couple souvenirs along the way and was playing with those and Princes Kalee when people started piling in for the next show. She quickly tucked everything away in her purse and sat there bouncy in her seat, giddy with anticipation.

At last the show was starting. They sat there and watched the dolphins perform all sorts of tricks but the finale promised to be the best part. At last they came to it. The dolphins jumped high in the air and did a spin around a bunch of hoops before splashing back down and soaking the first two rows of spectators. Sofie and Joe were drenched. Sofie had a bundle of soaked shirt in her hand and was trying to squirt the water from it onto Joe. Joe held out part of his shirt over Sofie and wrung it out. They sat there playing in the water and didn't even see that the dolphins had lined up to do it again. Splash! Sofie started laughing and Joe sat there shaking his hands trying to get some part of him dry again.

"Daddy, Daddy look it! I'm all wet." Sofie twisted her shirt to get the water out and flung it at Joe who immediately returned the favor. This time the show was done, so they got up and plopped out of the stadium, leaving wet footprints everywhere they went. Sofie was running circles around Joe and tackling him with wet hugs. Joe decided that a nice slow walk back in the afternoon sun would be a good way to dry out and so they headed back towards the front.

By the time they got up front they were merely damp. A vast improvement Joe thought. Joe decided on one last stop before they left. The gift shop. Here Sofie bought a poster of a giraffe with an eye patch, holding a sword, riding a shark, and yelling "Onward." She also bought a figurine of a tiger and a tie dye dolphin shirt. By the time they were leaving, Sofie was already in the backseat changing her shirt and buckling her stuffie in. On the way home, they stopped and ate dinner. Once back at the apartment, Sofie took her new toys to her room to introduce them to each other and hang up her poster. Joe poked his head in to see how she was doing.

"Oh Daddy," cried Sofie. "This has been the best day ever. Thank you so much." She gave Joe a big kiss then turned and looked at her pile of stuffies, which now included Princess Kalee. "I think Princess Kalee is going to fit in just fine here Daddy."

"I'm glad pumpkin, and I'm thrilled you had a great day." Joe let out a tiny yawn and Sofie followed right behind him.

"Come on," said Joe. "Lets get you into bed."

Sofie didn't want the day to end but she was actually pretty exhausted. So she climbed into bed, not fully convinced that she could fall asleep after such an exciting day. Joe tucked her in and read her a bedtime story. He wasn't even half way through it before Sofie passed out. He snuggled Doodles and Princess Kalee in bed with Sofie and turned out the lights. Today had been a good day and even more important, Sofie had reached little space again.