Our 16-month-old grandson, Shor, slept over at our house last weekend, and
gave us the nicest present that was within his power to give.
He said his first full sentence.

After awakening in the crib that we keep in his away-from-home room, and
being brought to our bedroom, he spotted a box on a nightstand.
Pulling it down, he said, clearly, audibly and with absolutely perfect
inflection: "Wow! What's this?"

In that his father is from Israel and his mother is from here, Shor is being
raised bilingually. He might have said
Wow! Mah Zeh? -- "Wow" being an exclamation used by Hebrew speakers too.
Possibly, he decided to use English out of consideration for his
English-speaking grandparents.

I told Shor what was in the box, as my mind happily played with the portent
of those first words.

Obviously, I thought, it meant my grandson is intellectually curious.
Evidently, he wants to know about the world around him. Perhaps he will be
an explorer. A discoverer. A researcher. A pathfinder. A trailblazer. A
scientist. A talmudic scholar.

Maybe even a journalist?
My wife Nancy had been in the other room when the fateful first words were
said. She was as excited as I was. "Call the kids!" she commanded.
I quickly dialed my daughter, Sandi, on her Balloon Utopia business line.
Though it was a lazy weekend morning, she and her husband, Shahar, were
already hard at work making the balloon sculptures for a big party that a
client was throwing in honor of a beloved pet. When their cell phone rang,
they were putting the finishing touches on a balloon parrot that measured
more than eight feet tall.

"Shor said his first sentence!" I told daughter Sandi.
"Really!" My daughter wanted to know. She laughed in delight. ³Give him a
hug and a kiss for me," she instructed.

"Your mommy is very proud," I told Shor.

Soon, Shahar, who had been in a different part of the room, putting up
balloon palm trees, phoned back.

"Tell me what happened."

I did.

Shahar said he thought this was indeed a good first sentence.
Later, my son David telephoned and I shared the news with him. I told my
partner Norman Greene. I told practically everyone who happened to
telephone. 

Then Nancy¹s parents, Sam and Sydel Zeiden, came over, and I bragged to them
about their great-grandson.

"Wow!" said Great Grandpa Sam.

"I've had children and I've had grandchildren, but this one -- he takes the
cake," added Great Grandma Sydel. She says that often about her only
great-grandchild. 

I know what you are wondering.
What was in the box?
Facial tissues -- the kind when you pull one out, another one pops up.
Take it from Shor, that¹s very interesting when you¹re 16 months old.