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Befriending the Moon
A perfect life moment with my one-year-old
My 13-month-old daughter has just made friends with the Moon.
These past two nights, the ethereal hanging crescent has been visible in the sky, curved belly down, coinciding with dusk. We happened to be out in the yard yesterday evening to bid ‘good night’ to the fading day and spotted the Moon — seemingly closer and easier to point out to her than when it’s high in the sky. She got so excited! Pumping her legs and pointing with her little hand as I held her exuberant body with both my arms, her straddling my front. She made her assortment of whispered exclamatory sounds, as I said and signed “moon” to her and pointed with her, too. We lingered in the deepening dusk, admiring and appreciating the beauty (me) and this newly identified exciting addition to her realm of awareness.
She was not content, going inside, but there is a high, narrow window that spans the width of a small alcove off our bedroom — which doubles as my ‘office’ and her nursery — her crib rubs elbows with my desk chair — and we could see the moon through the window, amongst the still-naked tree branches. We spent another ten minutes communing with the Moon — she was still very exclamatory about it — and with ten more minutes of repeating and exposure, she was saying and signing ‘moon’ herself. It is remarkable — proof…
