I picked up Elliot at day care yesterday. I peered into the classroom window to watch him without his knowledge. The teachers saw me but knew what I was doing, so they did not tell Elliot.
All the children were sitting in a circle around Erin. Erin was reading to them.
Elliot stood up and went to the other side of the room. He was the only child who left the circle.
He pulled a book from a shelf, put it on a toddler table, and sat in a little toddler chair at the toddler table. He opened the book and turned the pages slowly, one by one, looking at the pictures.
I entered the room. He didn’t see or hear me until I was just a couple feet away. Then he was all smiles and started to come around the table to me. I reached out and picked him up over the table, hugging him. He layed his head on my shoulder.
Then I took the book he’d been looking at, flipped it around and we looked at it together. On one page there was an elephant going down a playground slide. Elliot got very excited, pointing and talking baby talk. It was clear he recognized the slide. Then he started laughing, maybe realizing how silly it is for an animal to go down a slide?
It was a beautiful moment for me!
