Monday, July 21

Yesterday evening after dinner--with Tommy holding the diagrammed directions and saying "Mm-hm" when I placed the pieces correctly--I finished putting together the Lincoln Logs "frontier watchtower," a log kit with a tall tower that includes a burly plastic sheriff holding a lasso in one hand, and the sheriff's gray horse. After an entire day of no talking other than "Mm-hm" and "Mm-uh," Tommy said quite unexpectedly, "Put the man in the tower." I did, and then, after several minutes of staring at our creation, he said (and I quote), "I would like to jump up on that table." I asked, "What do you think the sheriff would do?" He said, "Jump down and beat the band." I asked him, "Do you see yourself as the sheriff?" and he said, "Yes." Today I'll have to ask him what the horse's name is.