Silent partner

Samson had a bowling birthday party to attend on Sunday, which left sweet Jane and I with a few hours to kill. She spent a good portion of our time together napping, which was fine by me --- I actually read the Sunday paper on Sunday --- and then we headed to the mall on our never-ending search for hair clips that will stay in her hair and won't get lost.

OK, I guess we can't expect the clips to cover that second order of business, but it was 90 degrees outside, and we needed something to do. Plus, the mall on Sunday morning is a nice, relatively empty place for Jane to practice walking. Which she resolutely refused to do. Jane is a girl of few words, but "no" is a contender for her favorite. That and "happy," which she pronounces kind of like a native French speaker: app-EEE.

About a half-hour into our little field trip, it occurred to me that Jane is a really quiet child. I mean, I knew this already. And some of this is probably a function of her not being able to get a word in edgewise with her chatterbox brother around. But as we were wandering around, and I was pointing things out to her and telling her what this or that sign meant, I realized she was probably wondering when I'd stop talking [the source of Sam's chattiness is not a mystery].

So I did. We walked along for a few minutes saying nothing, and I watched her big blue eyes just taking in the sights. Occasionally she'd crane her neck around to see something of particular interest, like the line of people at the Apple store waiting for iPhones. But mostly she was just content to be held and observe life as it happened.

I'm sure there's a Zen parable in this story or something, but I expect that once she gets a critical mass of words, she won't be nearly as quiet.

Indeed, by the time we got home (minus the sought-after clips, just fyi), Samson and Vicki had returned with tales of bowling and video games, and Jane was pretty adamant that Sam's goody bag be shared. As in, she grabbed for it and insisted: "Me. MEEEE." Then she did a kind of spin move and yanked the bag away in one swift motion.

Maybe her quietude is less about observation and reflection and more about her secret plan to become a ninja?