Rightly So

After weeks – O.K., months – of watching mommy and daddy play her xylophone hopefully, baby took matters into her own hands tonight and let loose with several improvisations of a joyful kind. We had moved the bulk of her toys from one area of the house to another, and, suddenly, if it was if they had all been polished and spotlighted to the point of being irresistible. A puzzle, for one thing, that was briefly interesting back in Rhode Island was captivating, and easily defeated. But the xylophone was the center of baby’s world for a surprisingly long time, and it turned out that the months of disinterest were a perfect prelude to her bursts of genius. She took turns striking the rainbow array of bars with her fingers, with the batons on strings, and with keys mounted beneath them. She was excited, and rightly so.