Art's (younger) friend.

The other night Art and Tsundi, our neighbor's little boy - who was born in the same hospital one day after I gave birth to Art - played together for the first time. Tsundi was living with his grandparents in India for a year and then it was winter so we never saw them. I actually was wondering if they still lived there! So when the boys were both outside in their respective yards at the same time Tsundi's uncle and mom and I got them together.

Art was actually playing in his sandbox when Tsundi came outside and was playing with a bat and ball. I asked Art if he would like Tsundi to come and play and Art said yes. Tsundi's uncle asked Tsundi and Tsundi made a goofy face and kept playing with the bat and ball. But his uncle plopped him in our yard anyway. Ha! Then Art tried to convince Tsundi to play in the sandbox. He must have noticed that Tsundi was not using the same words as us (he only speaks Tibetan) and Art held out a spade and said, "Shovel." He showed Tsundi the toys and said, "You can sit on a seat! See? I have a seat and you can have a seat!" I was really impressed with Art's salemenship. Once Tsundi was playing in the sandbox Art said, "I want he to come in my house!"

So Tsundi's mom and I went inside with the boys. They played trepidatiously for a while at the door and eventually went upstairs. After Art showed Tsundi his room and Tsundi had seen everything upstairs one of them started running and doing laps through the hallway and our bedroom. Eventually they were both running and screaming at top levels. Tsundi would say something in Tibetan and Art would sometimes mimic it. And when Tsundi took a break from running Art said, "Come on! Let's run! Zhhhmmm zzhhhmmm zzhhhmmm!" just like Tsundi had been saying and then they ran some more.