Chicka Chicka Boom Boom

Grandpa and Zed write on the porch by candlelight.

Tuesday night we had one of our usual dance parties in the office.  Probably twenty kids crammed into the tiny room and it was instantly a sweat box.  As darkness fell no one was ready to stop so I brought out the flashlight and set it on its end on the window ledge.  By 8:00 only Grandpa and Zed remained.

Cold was coming so I locked the office and we sat by the coal pot.  “I wan’ write my name!” Zed said.  I brought him a sheet.  “Nooo!  I na able!” he said.  I asked if he could spell it and he just stared at me, “Darius Gbah.”  I wrote it for him, “Can you copy it?”  He bit his lip and got to work.  “I wan’ write ABC!” Grandpa announced, never one to be left out.  I brought a sheet and he scrawled a giant A, B, C, D then stopped.  “I na able.  Bring Chicka Chicka Boom Boom!”

The entire back cover is a colorful alphabet and he loves it.  I propped it up and he got to work, singing and shaking his butt to the music while carefully writing out the entire alphabet for the first time ever.  “RB!  I can write!  I can WRITE!”  I gave him a high five and he jumped up into a spontaneous dance.  “Marry me!  Marry me!”  They know this is my favorite song so they’ve started signing it to me all the time.

Love it.