So yesterday, Leah took the kids to the local library, which has an excellent children’s book section, and unlike the Minneapolis city libraries, has not yet been forced to shut down lots of branches and close most days thanks to budget cuts (of course, we have enough money in this state to constantly bail out companies like Northwest Airlines). They were on the verge of getting into the elevator, when Arun asked Leah a question about something.

Leah started to explain, and then, just as the elevator doors were starting to close, Arun dashed in. Apparently the elevator wasn’t equipped with a sensor, so the doors shut right behind him, with Mom and Nahanni on the outside of the elevator.

At first he did really well. The elevator started to go down to the floor below. Then, inevitably, he started to wail. Poor kid. He couldn’t hack being in the ding-dong (his word for elevators) all by himself, far from mommy.

Then, because it’s only one floor down, the door opens, and Leah can hear an older woman say to him, “Hello! Where’s your mommy?” Arun answered, “Upstais! I push da buttnun, it go down!” “Well, I bet your mommy is waiting for you upstairs.”

And, indeed she was.