At the Seams

Two weeks have gone by and there is far too much to say in a single post. I will do my best.

On the way out to Holden, you were a champion traveler. You took a few more steps at the bus station in Wenatchee (before ceasing to take steps altogether once we arrived at Holden) and you tolerated heroically the sketchy Pack N' Play at the Apple Inn in Chelan which featured holes in the side netting which looked (I kid you not) like cigarette burns. During the course of the trip, you developed the ability to kind of say "kitty." Mostly, you developed the ability to imitate Grandma's intonation of the word "kitty." "It-ee!" you said to the kitty in the "Dick and Jane" book. "It-ee!" you said to the photo of the bear on the ferry boat. "It-ee!" you said to the man stumbling down the road in too short running shorts. Later in the week, you said something that sounded a remarkable amount like "cougar." Your aunt Martha will swear by this verbal development. The rest of us remain doubtful.

Though most of your sounds have come and gone and the jury is still out on whether we consider any of them your official "first word," you certainly saw, heard, smelled, tasted, and felt a variety of things at Holden, including, to name a few:

1. Lentil soup, smoothed to paste in the Cuisinart.
2. Deer.
3. Hummingbirds.
4. Swallows.
5. Martha and Sam singing "1952 Vincent Black Lightning."
6. Candles lit and glowing in a box of sand.
7. The coil of a baseboard heater--which left blisters across your palm.
8. Grace and Sonia, who taught you where a nose is located.
9. Warm, fresh bread, broken into fingernail-sized pieces.
10. Grandma Dot and Grandpa Mark, who showed you Ginny's corner.
11. Uncle John's face, contorting into silliness to distract you during Vespers.
12. Buckskin, Copper, Dumbell.
13. Cool mountain water in a black plastic sled.
14. Grandma Ricki trudging up Chalet hill with a pile of clean cloth diapers slung over her arm.
15. Auntie Anna kneading bread on the other side of the silver counter.
16. Gin and wine stained voices drifting down the hall.
17. The metal edge of a school bus window.
18. The soft knit of a Grandma Dot lavender sweater.
19. Chippys (chipmunks) eating leftovers from a white ceramic bowl in the grass.
20. Railroad Creek, rushing always behind every word we said.

We are both glad and deeply disappointed to be home. Today, you were bursting with energy, wanting to crawl everywhere, touch everything. You took five steps in a row. You attempted many more. It's as though everything you absorbed at Holden has become pure energy, pure growth inside you. You are bursting at the seams.