A Lovely Man

It was getting close to the time of Nanny's arrival. Aud helped me pick the blocks up off the carpet and, yes, even mop the floor - at least, she did a marvelous job sloshing water around as if this were the most important thing in the world. I was carrying a stack of clean towels downstairs when I found her sitting on the bottom step, stacking magnets. "Audrey," I said, "will you go ask Da to carry the vacuum down?" "Sure," she said, and scampered up the steps two at a time. "DA," I heard her call, "Mommy wants to know if you can carry the vacuum downstairs to Nanny's room!" Dutch said he would and Audrey threw up an enthusiastic yip. "Oh, Hessel," she said, in as grown up a voice as I've heard her affect, "you're such a lovely man!"