Paloma is treating a five-year-old patient who says to her, "If I look at you cross-eyed, you're really skinny."
Paloma bursts into laughter as does the parent of the little boy.
"Not sure if this is a jab or not," she tells me later.
I assure her that it's not a jab at all. "He is just a little boy with a curious mind."
I would have to keep this response just a little boy with a curious mind, at the forefront of my mind in the next few days, for in the early morning, I would receive a phone call. It was a FaceTime call from two-year-old Leo, just a little boy with a curious mind--who was a little unsettled on this morning. So...I took his little face to the window, to show him the new snow. And I took him to see the Christmas tree... then I turned on the chandelier lights and put the phone directly in front of the glittery snow-globe. And then he had a request..."Sink!"
When his mother translated that he wanted to see the sink stopper, I complied like a teenager offered free french fries. I reversed the camera, picked up the stopper and demonstrated its dimensions. I placed it into the drain, turned on the water, let it fill a few inches, floated the sponge, zoomed in the camera on the trickling water.
"Out out!" he yelled, so I pulled out the stopper, let him watch the drain and started all over again.
The next morning, having had such a fun sink-drain encounter, he asked for it again. My time was shorter so we filled the sink and drained it only twice.
That evening, he insisted on doing it again. It was close to his bedtime, so it was the finale act before tuck-in.
This morning his mother took him to the zoo.
She broke the pattern.
Next week, the little guy will be joining us for the Christmas holidays. I see a lot of sink time in my crystal ball---for a little boy with a curious mind.
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