Simple Gifts

Your language development continues to astound me. In the space of a few weeks, you've gone from the occasional two-word phrase (most commonly, "Guys, shhhhh!" for squabbling cats...) to regularly stringing words together to try them out. "Daddy home back soon" and "bye see bit" are common, along with little phrases like, "Flop puddle" (from a pig in a story) and "Fluffy tail," but this evening, just before bath time, a big storm moved through. The sky got dark, thunder was rattling the windows, and the front door was open when the rain finally started pouring down in that wonderful white noise rush that a hard rain brings. I took you over to the door and was talking to you about the rain, explaining that it came from the clouds (you know roughly what they are) and that it's the way that the grass and the trees and the flowers get a drink. You worked all these words over in your mouth like marbles, rolling them around and trying to fit them together in various ways, "Trees water drink rain, grass drink water flowers," and just on and on, trying out all the ways they could go together. You were just fascinated, by the downpour and the noise and the idea that the earth was getting a drink. I pulled a box over for you to sit on so you could see out the door, and you just perched there, peeking over the kick panel of the door, watching the rain and talking to it. After awhile, you slipped down, rooted around for a book, came back, scrambled up on your box, and sat, just listening and reading to yourself, like you wanted to be near the rain. Your peacefulness is a beautiful thing to behold and such a gift to all of us....