A Birth day

"Good heavens," Angus laughed. "So have you, Cassidy. My apologies. I didn't recognize you. If you're here later, maybe you'll get to meet my kids--all five of them." He said. "None of them are here at the moment, though. Tell Steven I said hi." When she walked away, Angus sat back down.

"Yeah. Cassidy lived here with her partner, Steven, but they've become part of the Colorado operation. They're both fighters. I'm sure Steven is probably part of the training program there, but, to be quite honest, I sort of lost track of them with all that's been going on here," Angus said.

"Unchi, ale cui jucării?" Cris asked Angus.

"Ai tăi, dacă le vrei," Angus told him. He continued to look at Cris but he spoke to Jessie. "He just asked me who's toys those were." Cris nodded excitedly at Angus. "And I told him they were his if he wanted them. Well, that should take care of that energy problem." Cris got up and looked through the toys and came across a plastic bucket with a lid on it. He opened the bucket and found an almost brand new set of sidewalk chalks in all sorts of colors. That excited him, and then he saw some beach toys--buckets and shovels and sand molds."

"Unde le pot folosi?"

"Lângă piscină," Angus replied. "He wanted to know where he could use the chalks, and I told him over by the pool."

"Există o cutie de nisip?"Cris asked.

"Nu, dar ai vrea unul?" Angus asked. Cris nodded.

"Okay," Angus said, and Cris grinned broadly. Angus looked at Jessie. "I have a project for you. If I do you a sketch, would you and Yulong build Cris a sandbox? He'd like a sandbox in your backyard. I can order the sand, or Jack can. He's got plenty of beach toys here to use, but he'd really like a sandbox to play in outside."

"Îți vom face o cutie de nisip," Angus said to Jessie so Jessie could say it to Cris. "Jessie, stop a second. Jeesh! You and Ruby--give either of you half an idea and you race right off before you have a plan. Slow down a second. Are you going to just launch yourself, or are you going to give me a minute to sketch something for a cool sandbox?"

Angus accio'd his sketchbook and his tin of sketching pencils and set to work.

"Creioane de desen!" Cris piped up suddenly. "Creioane!" Angus looked at him, surprised that the boy knew he had sketching pencils.

"Tu desenezi?" Angus asked. Cris nodded excitedly. "Desenați cutia de nisip pe care doriți să o construim." He passed the sketchbook and the pencils to Cris, and the boy opened the tin, carefully selected a sketching pencil, opened the book, and began to sketch with confidence.

"Am văzut asta într-un parc," Cris said. He sketched quickly and then showed it to Angus. Angus was stunned. The boy was an artist. He sketched better than a lot of adults Angus knew.

"He's drawn you a picture of the sandbox he'd like," Angus said. "He said he saw one like it in a park. The boy's an artist."

Angus repeated the question to Cris, and Cris spoke to Angus at almost lightning speed. Angus hung onto every word, and he made a short list.

"This is a list I can handle," Angus looked at them and smiled. "He wants drawing supplies crayons, colored pencils, markers, coloring books--that sort of thing, and I have some drawing supplies, and what I don't have, Kate will definitely have. She will be over the moon to see a kid so young with this much talent. I have an idea. That room you have for him is pretty big. How about I design an art table for him so he can have a place that is just his where he can keep all his supplies right at his fingertips and sketch and color to his heart's content? You could build it into his room design. Maybe you could put a big corkboard in the upstairs hallway where he could hang up any of his pictures for anyone to see."

"Well, I'm betting Kate will take him to her studio and give him a little spot of his own, and she'll be happy to teach him anything he wants to know," Angus said, watching Cris continue to draw.

"How about I help you guys take some of the outside toys to your place so you can find a spot for him in your backyard?" Marcus asked. "It looks like he's busy for the moment."

"I'll clean up lunch while he's happy," Angus said.

"Just sit. I'll clean that up when I get finished with the toys," Marcus said. Cris was chattering to Angus, asking him about his house, did he have kids, was he married, did he have a pet. He wanted to know everything.

Cris laughed. "Cuvant?" Cris looked at the frog and then at Angus.

"Frog," Angus said slowly. Cris looked puzzled. "Frog," Angus repeated it slowly so that Cris could really focus in and hear it.

"Frrrog?" Cris asked. Angus nodded and smiled. Cris looked at Jessie. "Frrrog---broască. Broască."

"Got that?" Angus asked Jessie. "Broască means frog. and cuvant means word. I'm trying to teach him that if he needs a word for something he can ask one of us either for the word or the cuvant, and we'll know he's looking for a word.

"Cuvant--word," Angus said, wanting to teach him. "Word. "

"Cuvântul înseamnă cuvant?" he asked. Angus nodded.

"Cuvant. Worrrd," Cris said, working at it. Angus nodded.

"He understands it. He's a sharp kid. He'll get it. And I found some kids books in Romanian on learning English as a second language. Some of us that know the language can help, and if you use the same books, I think you'll pick it up too. I also got you guys a Romanian language kit so you can do your own studying."

"He went to Bucharest to get it," Marcus told them. Angus didn't think they needed to know he had gone all the way back to Romania to get it and the books for Cris, but it was out now.