Mass Appeal

This weekend at mass, we sat behind a mom holding her 3 year old daughter. The little girl had fat ponytails and deep brown eyes. She and Paul kept trading smiles. She showed off her stuffed duck.  Paul reached over and gave her a kiss on the lips.  They both grinned.

Paul put out his hand and she touched it.  She said, "Hi." and pointed to her mother, "Mama." and her dad, "Papa."

Paul nodded, and tapped me and said, "Mom" and then "Dad" and started introducing the family. Pointing and stretching to indicate "John, Faith, Anna, Regina, Rita..."  He made sure she saw all of them. It was clear, he was saying, "Meet the family."

She smiled.  He smiled.  We kept a hold on him to prevent any future kissing, but she waved to him when they left the church.

Meanwhile, Anna sulked the rest of the mass.  I don't think she approves of the match.

The Great Communicator

Paul has an i-Pad programmed to help him talk.  He can ask for all sorts of things using it, and is very fluid.  Mostly, he asks for chocolate milk, chips and to watch television.  

This morning, his sisters were trying to use his machine to sing Christmas carols.  He came over, shooed them away and pushed the following buttons:

People, I want to eat cereal.

We all scrambled to give the man his fruit loops.