Adelaide - in her summer explosion of words - has just started stringing words together. Mostly they're of the two-word variety,such as "Mama do", or more likely, "ME do!" (with a foot stomp or two for emphasis). But last week we heard her first sentence of sorts, and it couldn't have brought a bigger smile to all of us. We had just arrived home, tired and happily spent from a long day at the beach. Everyone was scattered about the house and busy with their 'work' - we were each alone, but together - a rare, quiet and blissful moment of peaceful transition for all of us. Calvin was on the sunporch making an elaborate set-up of surfers and sea creatures with Playmobil. Ezra was digging through the recycling bin for some cardboard to make yet another cardboard fiddle to add to his collection. And I had just sat down on the couch with some embroidery in hand. I watched as Adelaide walked up to Calvin, watched him for a minute (hands clutched behind her back, and rocking on her heels), and then asked him, 'chamakin?'. When Calvin answered her with the plans for his surf set up, I realized she had said, "Whatcha Makin?" - What are you making? She then moved onto Ezra, who gave his answer without pause from his work, and then to me with the same. She sat with me for a few minutes, lending a hand pulling the embroidery floss as she loves to do, and then she crawled down off the couch and marched (yes, marched) to the art cabinet. A minute later, she was at the drawing table with a piece of paper, some markers and a glue stick, about to embark on something. I gave her a moment to get settled and asked, "What are you doing, Adelaide?" She answered, 'Makin'".
"Chamakin?" Love that.
