A Brief Moment of Time

How can I possibly catch up on all the time that has passed since I last posted? Point of fact: I cannot. So I will, instead, offer up two comments from a five-year-old and let you imagine the many joyful, funny, and poignant moments that I have carelessly let slide.

After chatting with a friend last night who mentioned how her daughter loved compound words, I decided to play a compound word game in the car with Ben today. I'm actually kind of surprised that we've never done it before---he's such a word-meister. But, there is no time like the present to begin.

Turns out they already do this in school, so it didn't take him long to catch on. He came up with "moon" + "light"="moonlight." He came up with "tree" + "house"= "treehouse." After a few more, he started struggling a little. I knew we were getting dicey when he offered up "pump" + "kin" = "pumpkin," but I couldn't really explain to him why that was actually wrong.

Then he came up with the real prize: "don" + "zer" = "donzer."

What? What's a donzer? I asked.

"You know, Mommy---the donzerly light," he answered.

Donzerly light? What's a donzerly light?

"Oh, say can you see by the donzerly light."

It took a few moments before I could recover enough to speak without choking on my laughter. Even though "donzerly" is not technically a compound word, I declared him the winner of that round.

****

Ben started piano lessons at the beginning of the school year. He loves his teacher and enjoys playing the piano (so far. May that continue for a long time. Amen.) We spend time each day during our practice sessions familiarizing him with musical symbols and terminology. I know he is "getting it" because of the ways he re-purposes some of those terms in regular conversations. This evening, just before I tucked him in for the night, he told me he wanted me to lean very close to him. He wanted to put his mouth very close to my ear, because he had to tell me something in "pianissimo."

Which he then rendered so excellently pianissimo that I couldn't even understand what that whisper said. When he repeated it, this time "piano," I caught it: "I love you."

I love him too.