Seeing and doing

I had just cleared the mouth of the driveway down to the ice that has been there for weeks. Dietrich was taking powdery snow and "salting" along the sidwalk when the plow came down the street. Always one to take note of large trucks, he perked up from his task to watch. I knew what was coming -- more snow in the driveway to shovel out. They are impressive machines. We've been woken more than a few times by the blade slamming on the road. But they move a lot of snow around, for which we are thankful. It was just about to our driveway when the driver turned the blade away from the edge of the road and pushed the snow back into the road for a few feet. I waved and smiled as the truck rumbled by. Later, Dietrich took the swiffer and put it along the floor. He angled the "plow" and then quickly switched it, just as he has seen that morning. It is a process we watch every day -- he sees something happen, then makes it happen in a new setting with whatever he can. It has been going on for years, now, and we have grown used to it. Yet something about how he found the swiffer (it is kept in a closet) and the time he chose to play with it (during dinner after an afternoon of sledding -- shouldn't he be hungry?) made me appreciate it in a new way. This is his world, too. He is going to figure it out one way or another -- hungry or not.