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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Why Can’t I Crawl Through that Shiny Window?

Mama takes me all around the house with her everywhere that she goes. She goes all over the place, picking up things that I throw on the floor, using the little stick thing with a brush at the bottom to get pieces of things that are put in a little bin she calls a “dustpan,” and even the big people room where I sometimes get to take naps that she calls her and Daddy’s bedroom.

I wish I had a big bed like that with giant pillows, but instead I have a little bed with bars all around it that keeps me so I can’t get out. She calls this a crib, but I think it is kind of like that place called “Alcatraz” that we went to a long time ago. She says this is to keep me safe, but I can’t wait until I can speak better so that I can tell her and Daddy to get me a giant bed instead with huge pillows like theirs.

One of the places in our house that I like best she calls the “bathroom.” This is where I get to kick my feet in the water in my little whale bathtub and play with my little yellow ducky that floats no matter how much I try to push him down.

There is a shiny little window that Mama calls a “mirror” in there too, and inside the window is a room just like the room that we’re in. She said that it is only a “reflection,” but I don’t know what that is… all that I know is that there are suddenly two Mamas, one in there and one out here. Both of them smile, but I can only touch the one Mama that is holding me. I look back and forth and back and forth trying to figure out why Mama is kept in a little shiny thing that can’t get out. Poor other Mama, I know how she feels because my bed is like that.

There is also a little person that is always there that is about my size. The other Mama is always holding her, too. Maybe that other Mama has a house just like ours and a world just like ours and doesn’t want to get out after all. Since the room looks the same, I think the rest of the house must be the same too in that other world.

The tiny person in there always looks confused, and when I move she moves the same exact way. I don’t know how she knows what I am going to do every time when I do it, but she always seems to. I can’t touch her, but I look at her and she looks at me, and I can touch the shiny window and her hand looks like it’s touching mine but I can’t feel her, I just feel cold, shiny glass instead.

I wonder if the shiny other world is just as good as ours. Mama says that one day I’ll understand when I get to what she called the “mirror stage,” but she says that is not yet. Right now, I just want to figure out a way in there so that I can play with that other little girl. I’m the only one my size around here, and it gets lonely being the only one that crawls instead of runs and can’t reach the top of the counters.