Making a movie about Catherine the Great, Mae West in her no-nonsense way called it Catherine Was Great. It is that same spirit I want to emulate in writing about the great Mabel Watson Payne, for whom I had the great pleasure of babysitting tonight. She has learned to play with her own toes! And demonstrated this new skill for many generous minutes while we were changing her into pajamas – before the bedtime bottle and the storybooks. After I had read Caps for Sale aloud all the way through, Mabel Watson Payne gave me to understand that she would be pleased if I would read it again. And she followed the pictures even more carefully on the second time through than she had on the first.
I was, alas, too enthralled and too occupied by my duties to take any photos of these individually great moments, but earlier – when we were sitting on the sofa playing with toys right after the parents left for their dinner & movie date – I did contrive to snap the peculiar (but vivid) one-handed playtime pictures below.
