Life had been pretty much confusing for Cyril Sneer for awhile. His son, Cedric, had gotten married to his girlfriend, Sophia, and they were both living in the Sneer mansion. And as if that weren't enough, Sophia had a baby that she and Cedric named Forest, so now Cyril was a grandfather.

After awhile, Cyril got used to Sophia and Forest, but there had been a lot of changes. Cyril was used to smoking about ten cigars a day, but Cedric and Sophia managed to persuade him from doing so whenever the baby was in the room with him. So now Cyril was reduced to smoking his cigars whenever Forest wasn't around. And, for reasons nobody can understand, Forest adored his grandfather, but he had a funny way of showing it. Whenever he was near Cyril, Forest would try to pull on his nose. Cedric had the exact same nose as Cyril, and yet Forest never tried to pull Cedric's. He'd swat at it from time to time, but he'd only pull on Cyril's. Nobody quite understood Forest's methods of showing affection.

In any case, Cyril was sitting in his office going over something with a contractor. He was also keeping an eye on Forest, at the same time. Forest was sitting on the floor, playing with a set of building blocks as Cyril was closing his deal.

"I don't care what it takes," he said. "As long as it makes me money!"

Cyril laughed maniacally and hung up the phone. He leaned back in his chair, and propped his feet up on his desk.

"That, Forest, my boy, is how you handle big business," he said. Then he stood up, and went to his model of the Evergreen Forest. "The more money you can make, the better, I always say."

Cyril laughed, and knocked a couple of trees off his model. Forest had built a tower out of his blocks, babbled some baby talk, and knocked it down with one swipe. Then he giggled and clapped his hands. Cyril walked over and picked up his grandson.

"Ah, that's the ol' Sneer spirit, Forest!" he shouted.

Cyril began to laughing over his latest plan, when the door opened. Sophia walked into the office.

"Don't you know how to knock?!" Cyril shouted at her.

"Sorry," Sophia said, as she took Forest. "So how was he?"

"Give him a couple of building blocks, and he'll sit still for awhile," Cyril replied, taking a cigar out of his desk drawer.

"You're not going to light that now, are you?" Sophia asked.

"You're taking Forest out of the room, aren't you?" Cyril replied.

"Well, yes."

"I agreed not to smoke my cigars when Forest was in the room. I did not say I was going to give up smoking all together! Now get out of my office, Sofa Girl. I have business to attend to!"

Sophia rolled her eyes, and took her baby out of Cyril's office. Driven by his grandfather's example, Forest was ready to start knocking things over. And he did when Sophia brought him into the Sneer mansion's library, where Cedric was. Cedric was reading a book, and he had a big stack of them on the desk. No sooner than Forest was in arm's reach, he smacked the stack, and all the books crashed to the floor.

"Forest!" both Cedric and Sophia shouted in unison.

Forest just laughed and clapped his hands. Sophia sighed, and set the baby down while she helped Cedric restack the books.

"Don't you wander off while Mommy and Daddy clean up, Forest," she said, although she knew that wouldn't do any good. Forest was probably just going to crawl off and get into mischief anyway.

And he did start to crawl off while Sophia and Cedric had their attention diverted. He crawled out of the room, and looked around. Cyril's dog, Snag, was coming around the corner. Forest smiled, and decided to follow him around for awhile. But his decision was short lived when Cedric came out of the room, and picked him up.

"Oh no you don't," he said. "You're going straight into your playpen."

And with that, Cedric plopped Forest into the playpen, and sat down to finish reading. This was a good way to keep Forest in one place for a long period of time. Good for Cedric, Sophia, and Forest's baby-sitters, but not good for Forest. He didn't like to be cooped up for long. He liked to move. And he was about to show his disatisfication to his daddy. He grabbed a rattle that was laying in the playpen, and threw it. It hit Cedric in the back of the head.

"Forest," Cedric said, turning around. "Did you do that on purpose?"

Forest stuck his thumb in his mouth, and started sucking on it. His expression said, "Who me?" Cedric sighed, and put the rattle back into the playpen.

"I wonder if Pop ever had these troubles when I was a baby?" he said. "Look, Forest, I know you don't like the playpen, but it's for your own good."

Forest just giggled, and took a few swats at Cedric's nose. Cedric sighed, and went back to reading his book. Forest began to babble again, while banging his rattle on the floor of the playpen. Cedric managed to tune him out while he continued reading.

As he was in the middle of the book, Cyril walked into the library carrying the phone.

"Cedric, you've got a phone call," he said. "And don't take all day with it. This is my business line, and I don't need it to be tied up all day!"

"Okay, Pop," Cedric said, as he took the phone.

There was a long pause. Forest looked up at Cedric, wondering what was going on. Finally, Cedric nodded.

"Okay," he said. "Sure, I'll be there."

With that, Cedric hung up the phone, stood up, and left the library. Cyril and Forest stared after him.

"What was that all about?" Cyril asked, as he picked up Forest out of the playpen, and followed Cedric.

"Cedric!" he called. "What's going on?"

"I just got invited to this hockey symposium," Cedric said.

"What is it with you and hockey, Cedric? And baseball for that matter."

Cedric just shrugged, and went up to his room to pack his things. He found Sophia in there, looking for her figure skates. She was going to go out on the lake and practice her skating.

"I've got big news," Cedric said to her. "I just got invited to a hockey symposium."

"Great," Sophia said. "When is it?"

"In a few days," Cedric replied. "It's in California."

"All the way in California, huh?"

"Yeah, in Anaheim. I'll probably be gone for a couple of weeks."

"Well, if you get a chance, have some fun and check out Disneyland."

Cedric nodded, although he would probably be thinking more about hockey than about Mickey Mouse. He called his best friend, Bert Raccoon, and told him all about it.

"Lucky you," Bert said. "How'd you manage to swing an invite to this thing?"

"I don't know," Cedric replied. "I guess it has to do with one of Pop's connections. Maybe someone he does business with knows I'm a hockey fan or something."

"I'm a bigger fan than you are, and I didn't get an invitation to this hockey symposium."

"You want to come with me?"

"Is that allowed?"

"Yeah, they said I could bring a guest. And Sophia isn't much for hockey, Pop can't stay away from the office for too long, and Forest is too young for this."

"I knew there was a reason you were my best friend, Cedric!"

Cedric laughed over that one and hung up. Over dinner that night, Cedric was telling Sophia and Cyril his plans.

"I still don't understand what it is with you and hockey," Cyril said. "But if it gets you and Sofa Girl out of the house . . . ."

"Sophia's staying here, Pop," Cedric said.

"She is?" Cyril asked.

"Yeah," Cedric said.

"I wouldn't know what to do at this symposium, so Cedric invited Bert to go with him," Sophia replied. "That way, you can still run your business, and I can take care of Forest and make sure he doesn't get in your way."

"Although I am perfectly capable to run my business and watch the baby at the same time," Cyril said. "I've done it before, and I can do it again! Isn't that right, Forest?"

Cyril lifted Forest out of his highchair, and immediately, Forest grabbed onto Cyril's nose and pulled on it.

"See?" Cyril asked, somewhat nasally. "No problem."

Cedric and Sophia glanced at each other, but they didn't say anything. Cedric was still going to the symposium with Bert, and that was that.