Abby and the Planet Tatooine

Last summer Abby was only 2-1/2 years old. After a typical weekend visit it was time for her to go home. For some lucky reason, I had become a player in one of her standard rituals; I was appointed to carry her out to the car and put her in her toddler car seat.

It was nearly dark when we got outside. There was just a bit of light from the sunset, but the sky above was almost black, and it was unusually devoid of clouds. Out of habit, whenever I see a clear night sky and a grandchild is present, I scanned quickly for the Moon. It was completely absent, but there was an extremely bright star-like object in the West.

“Look at that bright star.” I said to Abby, “Isn’t it pretty?”

Then, feeling guilty about the inaccuracy of my statement, I corrected it by saying, “Actually, it’s not really a star. It’s a planet named Venus.”

Abby considered the facts as she knew them, and then replied, “you mean like Tatooine?”

“What?” I thought. The name “Tatooine” was vaguely familiar but for some reason I couldn’t place it with any astronomical facts. Then I remembered the Star Wars movie, where Luke Skywalker, the main character, was raised on the planet Tatooine.

“Yes Abby,” I replied, “Venus is a planet…just like Tatooine.”

Abby Says, Listen to Me!

The other day when Abby brought her parents over here to visit, I found myself in the position of entertaining her by myself (while the adults visited at the dining room table).

We went through the drawer in the cabinet next to my easy chair, and finding only the same boring toys that were there last time, we gave up and began looking for something fun to do.

Since the guitar is old news too, I decided to show Abby something I'm sure she hadn't seen before: the mandolin. She liked it and had fun hearing the strange sounds it made as she battered the antique metal strings. I noticed that several of the pairs of strings were out of pitch, so I began tuning it.

Now, I have to explain that I think Abby has some kind of hearing disorder. She reacts to my playing of stringed instruments in the same way as our cat (Pompi-doodle) reacts to my whistling. In short, I believe both of these small females are annoyed by my attempts to make music.

So before I was able to even begin adjusting the horribly flat string, Abby gripped the whole bunch of strings right over the sounding hole, pinched them down until it was not possible to get a single note out of any of them, looked me right square in the eyes and said, "Stop that!"

I waited calmly for her to go back to whatever she had been doing a moment earlier. It didn't take long because whatever it was had been a lot more interesting than the mandolin. So the instant she let go of the strings, I began checking their pitch again. I hadn't quite figured out which one was flat before she gripped them as before and re-issued the command, "Stop that!"

You may think I should have abandoned the effort, and I will agree, but at the time it didn't occur to me to put the mandolin down because there were at least two strings off pitch, and I really needed to fix that before I could do anything else.

So this time, when she gripped the strings, I continued to pick at the string I was tuning, in hopes that as soon as she let go I would be able to hear how far off-pitch it was, and might be able to adjust it between scoldings. It didn't work.

This time, she continued to hold the strings, and I continued to pluck at them, although she was repeating, "Stop that! Stop that!"

Suddenly, she changed tactics by saying, "Look at me! LOOK AT ME!"

Of course, I had to look into those serious little blue eyes, and then she sternly said, "STOP THAT!"

OK, so that was enough. I put down the mandolin and picked her up and gave her a big hug. I realized that the expression "look at me" is how her Aunt Pam gets her mis-behaving cousin's attention, so she simply applied the technique to her mis-behaving grandfather.

Dorothy dress, ready for the birthday party 

Abby in her Dorothy dress, complete with ruby slippers. 

Here's how she looked on Halloween 2003. A little wobbly, but standing. Compare that to the graceful princess below. 

Sleeping Beauty smiles 

Sleeping Beauty came to visit us.