You know how it is when you’re sitting there, nursing the baby and talking to the three-year-old at the same time, and then suddenly you can’t find the three-year-old any more? She was right there a second ago, and then you looked over at the ceiling a minute, I don’t know why, you just did, a momentary zoning out, and she’s gone.

So you have to yell: Sadie? Sadie? Because where did she get to so quickly? And does it ever bode well, when a three-year-old up and disappears?

But she was still right there, just out of sight. “I’m lying on the carpet,” she said.

You know I had to ask. (What? Why?)

“I’m just practicing.”

You know I had to ask. (Practicing what?)

“Practicing lying on the carpet.”

Because we all have to practice something.

I have to practice a lot of things, and all the time. Right now I am practicing putting Eli to sleep over and over again, as he is practicing waking up when he ought to be asleep.

Write a sentence, nurse the baby, write a sentence, back to the baby: communication practice.