Wophie Dog.

Poor Murphy.  Two little girl granddaughters (and little girls are his absolute favorite form of human) and neither of them are as crazy about him as he is about them.  

At first I thought Delaney favored Murphy. When she was smaller, she seemed to enjoy him more.  I thought "Yay! Murphy deserves a little girl of his own, who will adore him as much as Supergirl adores Sophie!"  Yeah, well, that was just a phase. She's now 18 months and it's all about the "Wophiedog."

That's her name for Sophie.  My daughter brought Miss D over for a visit today, and it was all Wophiedog, all the time.  She called her, threw toys for her, kissed her, petted her. She was polite to Murphy, she petted him too, and let him kiss her, but it was condescension.  She didn't want to be rude to him, but Wophiedog is her true love.

Miss D is talking up a storm, sharp as a tack, full of energy.  She's definitely a totally different creature from her cousin Supergirl.  Miss D is all physical, all motion, all DOING.  I added HBO to my cable as a splurge after getting this job (cable is part of my condo dues, so it was only a modest splurge) and HBO Kids had the movie Rio, so we turned it on.  Miss D loves children's tv shows now, and the movie had color and music and action. 

Her mom watched it  - in fact, her mom couldn't leave until it was over. Miss D glanced at it now and then, but was obsessed with climbing on the big cocktail ottoman, shutting herself in the dog crate for fun, and playing with Wophiedog.  Sophie's tongue was hanging out and her eyes were bugging with exhaustion, but she gamely kept up.  Murphy is older and calmer now, not nearly as wildly persistent as he was with Supergirl.  He's still annoying as hell for the first 20 minutes of the visit, but he tires more easily and calms down.  Even when he's being calm and not all up in her face, she isn't into him.  She's pleasant to him, doesn't recoil from him, but she never calls for him when she throws a toy. 

He doesn't seem to mind; any attention from his beloved little girls thrills him.  But it's both funny and a little sad that he's not the love of their lives, because they are his.

After they went home, my daughter texted me to let me know that Miss D went to the front door to call for Wophiedog, and wanted to go get her.  Dudley was confused.  She has a perfectly good Boston who loves her, what is it about that stubby little bumblebee of a Boston that makes little girls adore her?