I dug this picture out of the archives (May 2006) to illustrate a point about Abby and her propensity to gesticulate. Anyone who knows her knows that when Abby talks, her hands move as if she was conducting an orchestra - moving along with the rhythm of her story. She has a large arsenal of hand gestures...some involve intricate movements of those little fingers of hers, while others would be categorized as large and sweeping. Regardless of the gesture, the hands and sometimes lots of other body parts, are moving.

During our Thanksgiving vacation to visit Grandmama and Grandpapa in Texas, we had a fun visit from Grandma Linda and Grandpa Jim (Grandpapa's mom & stepdad). GL and GJ have never met Abby in person - but straightaway become buds.

Grandpa Jim made a very estute observation about the little moon pretty early on. "I bet if you tied her hands behind her back, she wouldn't be able to talk".


Interesting thought.....

Which needed to be put to the test.

And it was.....by me.

One day, Abby was telling me a fabulous story about something that happened at school that day. As I listened and watched, my head was quickly becoming dizzy by the flurry of gesticular activity.....and I heard Grandpa Jim's comment in my mind. So I gently reached out to my sweet little story teller and held her hands in mine.....making sure to not really draw attention to what it was that I was doing. She strained to get her next word out - then was silent....then immediately pulled her hands out from underneath mine.....talk about zero to 60 in a nanosecond....she didn't miss a beat and went right back to talking. Those hands of course went double-time in order to catch up with the story. I grabbed her hands lovingly, smiled, and said, "finish your story, love." She tied to pull away but this time I held onto her hands like a prison warden.....she started laughing hysterically and so did I. She could NOT finish her story without her hands.

So, Grandpa Jim was right!!