Sonya, Leena, and I looked out at the muddy park from our living room window. The early morning rain had stopped. We saw the mail truck drive up our street. Immediately, Sonya got excited. “Pack-kudge!” she said, her first use of that word, pointing as the mailman got out with a brown box.

“That’s right! Package” I said, as she excitedly jumped off the windowsill and headed for the front door.”But it’s not for us, Sonya,” I added, hoping she wouldn’t be overly disappointed when she realized that not every package in the mail was sent for us.

But, as you can see from Sonya’s smile, I was wrong. The pack-kudge was for us!

Turns out, Sonya knows all kinds of vocabulary surrounding packages. “Shurrs,” Sonya said as we brought the box into the living room. I went to the kitchen and got the scissors. “Cammer,” Sonya said. I got the camera and adjusted the settings. “Tep,” Sonya pointed as I cut into the tape. “O-pen!” she announced clearly as she started pulling tissue paper out of the box.

“Ball!” Sonya said, carefully inspecting it. “Vee!” she said proudly, pointing at the embroidered letter.

From the way she had the ball oriented, it wasn’t a bad guess, but I I told her it was actually a letter L for Leena.

“NeeNee,” Sonya said, nodding. Then she decided to see what else was in the box.

“Ess!” Sonya said when she unwrapped her special handmade ball. She knows that S is for Sonya.

These are lovely. One-of-a-kind. A beautiful surprise. Thank you, Lisa. They will be squeezed and thrown and kicked.