ça change les choses

Lately, I've been thinking a lot about the minds of my children.  

It was explained to me that the princess did not turn out right.
There were more tries, but that princess was subpar to the end.

About the things we put in...and the effect those things have or are supposed to have.  For Aoife, there is a new flood of French, as well as spoonfuls of what we hope is wisdom, awkward responses to her (more and more) pointed questions, games (a life altering discovery of the thrills of Uno), boundaries, exceptions, pleasesandthankyous, what we model with intention, what we model without intention.  For Jude, silly songs with accompanied motions, labeling, so much labeling of everything under (and including) the sun, yes, no, pleasesandthankyous, blocks, wheeled objects galore.

I've been thinking about that period of limbo - sometimes brief, sometimes looooong - between the input and some sort of output, about the trust we have while waiting for the next understanding, about how we should remind each other to enjoy the limbo, too.  

And I've been thinking about the things that happen on their own, suddenly, 

a connection made, 

just like that, 

in the living room

when it's quiet 

and there is finally some light filtering through the window.  

This happened today.