Giant Lego Blocks and Rows of Books Longer Than I Can See. The Boston Public Library

On our first full day in Boston, we went walking around all over the place, just looking at all of the beautiful buildings in the city. We took the big train and then went and went and went. I was so excited that I hardly took a nap all day long—I was too busy to be bothered with sleep.

We mostly stayed outside, but when we got to a big building that had a large entranceway we stopped. I heard Mama say that she had wanted to go to that building, the Boston Public Library, for a long time. Mama explained that libraries in the middle of really big cities hold a lot of history and that they were made to be peaceful and beautiful places just to be. She explained that they are usually places for quiet “reflection” and for work, and that is not really what I am good at yet.

First, though, Mama and Daddy sat in front of a big fountain with their coffee and my juice. I looked around at all of the people working and at the buildings all around me. Mama told me that this was called a courtyard and that it was a one of those beautiful places just to be. I love water, so what I really wanted to do was to swim, but Mama said some places with water are for looking and not swimming. I don’t understand—they should all be places to splash I think.

Then Mama wandered off. She does that a lot because she gets her mind really into things (Daddy calls that being spacey, but Mama tells me that her mind just goes to a lot of places at the same time, and I understand, because sometimes I am thinking about my juice, my noodles, and my veggie dogs all at the same time, and I can’t seem to fit them all into my mouth together).

Daddy told Mama that he was going to take me to the children’s department. I’ve been to the little children’s section of the library down the street from where we live, but this was much different. It was open and huge, and there were so, so many books. I love to be read to, but I have been having a hard time lately wanting to hold the books away from the person reading, so Mama and Daddy have to read me really, really short books with only a few words on a page at a time right now.

The library had toys along with the books, too. They even had those little ball things on the twisty lines that you can move around to different places over and over again. Daddy and I played, and a wonderful lady came by and spoke to me and gave me and the other little people big Lego blocks to play with. I even learned to share a little with a kid bigger than me. I handed him blocks and he made bridges out of the blocks that I gave to him.

Before I knew it, though, I was so worn out from playing that Mama and Daddy knew it was time to go. I crawled out all by myself following Daddy, and then I shouted goodbye all the way with the giant echo voice that I had in that big, big building. Then I fell asleep, dreaming happily in my little stroller about the giant place that holds so, so many words in rows and rows and rows of books.

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Dirt Baths… Nature Can be Wondrous.

I love outside. Everyone in my family does. I love it in a way that the rest of my family doesn’t understand, though. I love listening to the birds and seeing them fly way overhead. I love the breeze that hits my cheeks when the fall time is beginning. I love the way that the grass tickles my toes before I work to pull it out and crush it. I love the squirrels that come near me until I scream for them to come closer (they run away then, and I don’t know why… I just want to pat their fuzzy heads). What I love more than all of those things, though, is playing in the little herb plants that Daddy planted. I love the feel of the Earth in between my fingers. It’s squishy and soft and moist. I would try to eat it, but it crumbles in my fingers before I can, and then I have to go and pick more up over and over again.

My Mama is quite silly, and she doesn’t enjoy seeing me really dirty. Some of the people in my life like Daddy and Granny let me get food all over the place when I am eating, but Mama feeds me carefully. Daddy’s right, though, that is how I am going to learn one day to not be messy– I have to practice.

Playing in the dirt is like that. My Mama watches me and laughs, but she always looks a bit worried that the plants will suffer from my death grip hands or that I will take all of the dirt out of the pots and put it all over my clothes. I take some, it is nature’s Play-Doh after all. I can’t take all of it, though, and I leave plenty for my little friends the plants. I do like to rub it into my clothes and skin. It is like a dirt bath. Mama is not the biggest fan of dirt baths.

What she doesn’t understand, and what no one else in my family does really, is that dirt is meant to be felt. Everything (except for I guess the squirrels) is meant to be felt. It is a way to be close to outside. My Mama and Daddy sit in the sun and enjoys the breeze too, and they love outside. My big sister Addie and my big, big sister Lilli and my giant brother Jonah all like to be outside to run and play. They ride on those wheel things that they call bikes that I have but my legs aren’t ready for yet. They don’t stop though, to feel and to experience and to love the Earth as much as I do. Mama says that soon I’ll be so busy running and playing to remember, even before I am a giant person like her, but I hope that I don’t. Nature, at its finest, is still, and you can even feel God if you breathe the air in just the right way.