Sweet Moments in the Midst of a Storm

A severe storm just blew through town. As the sun set, the cloud-covered sky became more grayish-green than usual. Suddenly, the wind blew through the trees and, before long, brilliant streaks of lightning lit up the sky. Crashing thunder and pelting raindrops disrupted Pamela's plans to watch DVDs in her room.

Rather than freaking out into meltdown city, Pamela walked into the office where we watch television (yes, lots of work gets done in the "office"--LOL). She sat down next to me and sadly told me she couldn't watch DVDs. I told her that we still have power and that her DVD player should work. She repeated that she couldn't watch DVDs. I asked why and she said, "It's the raindrops." I still didn't understand, and she said, "Too loud." I guess the storm was interrupting her viewing pleasure. Pamela did not ask me to fix anything or help her out; she was simply sharing her sadness.

Then, I told her about weather.com, and we checked the hour-by-hour weather report. We figured out that tomorrow morning will be the most storm-free time of the day. She stayed with me, and, as the storm began to let up, she started to cheer up, "It's almost over." I gave her my opinion as did David. I pointed out that we all agreed about the storm being almost over.

Pamela got up abruptly and left the room. She returned with a little toy of some cartoon duck unfamiliar to me. She came up to me, put it near my face, and asked, "What's this?" I said, "A duck. But, I don't know its name." She said, "It's a brown skating duck." I added, "How fun! It likes to skate."

She sat down on the floor and played with it. It was one of those windup toys that scoots along the floor. She got it going and, after it crashed, said, "Uh-oh, broken leg!" So, I played along, "Poor brown duck!" She did it again only this time she informed me that the duck scraped its knee.

I asked, "Can I kiss the duck?" Pamela stood up and kissed it. Then, I said, "I want to kiss the duck." She brought it over for me to kiss.

This whole interaction lasted about 10 minutes, much longer than her typical hit and run interactions!

P.S. Just now, Pamela returned to her spot next to me on the couch. She began channel surfing. She asked me about Independence Day, and I told her that it was a movie about spaceships and aliens. She shook her head and said, "No. The fourth." She chuckled when I explained, "I thought you were talking about the movie. You were talking about a holiday."

She tried to get me on the Pamela Express by saying, "Yo-yo!" I decided to misunderstand her intentionally and said, "That's what you call people who are being silly." She shook her head and I said, "If someone is silly, you can call them a yo-yo." She laughed.