I had – all too obviously – hardly any chance at all to take pictures while spending Saturday evening with Mabel Watson Payne while her parents went out. She had suddenly leaped into the "Why?" stage. She wanted explanations on top of explanations on top of explanations. Which I gladly supplied, as well as I could.
Mabel's own dinner was all prepared ahead of time and waiting in the refrigerator, but for mine we needed to heat up one of the cans of high-quality-type soup from the pantry. It was Mabel's great pride to know exactly where the can opener was and to decide which size pan we would need for heating the soup and what size bowl we would need for serving the soup and which utensil would be the best to stir it with.
After dinner we made a little town with blocks, and then posed stuffed animals in front of it. Bath time was still full of many "Why?"s – but as we went through the bedtime rituals, the questions tapered off and a quieter, younger self returned temporarily (with tiredness).
