Ibrahima and Aminata are a young Senegalese couple raising two small children inside Trott Bailey Family Civilization.

Ibrahima is medium height with an ordinary lean build, deep brown skin, short tightly coiled hair, a slightly long face and a broad natural nose. His face is not perfectly symmetrical. One side of his smile lifts a little more than the other, which becomes especially noticeable when Awa says something ridiculous.

Aminata has rich deep brown skin, an oval-to-long face, strong cheekbones, deep brown eyes and short natural hair that she sometimes wears in small twists. She still looks very young because she is very young. She has the ordinary softness of a mother who has carried two children, and nothing about her needs polishing into a fashion image.

Awa is four years old and looks four. She has a small round belly, skinny knees, big serious eyes and little puffs or twists that rarely sit exactly the same way on both sides of her head. She can look deeply concerned about something one minute and be laughing hard enough to fall over the next.

Malick is eleven months old, round-cheeked and busy. He has a soft baby belly, chunky thighs, sparse curls, a few little teeth and one ear that sticks out slightly more than the other. He is still at the stage where almost anything can become important if it makes an interesting sound, feels strange under his fingers or can be put near his mouth.

The family resemblance is easy to see. Awa takes more after Aminata around the eyes and cheeks. Malick has more of Ibrahima’s forehead and mouth. All four have the same calm, thoughtful look when they are watching something closely.

For today, Ibrahima and Aminata are wearing their Indigo Stem-Current Companion garments, the paired husband-and-wife clothing species they chose for the outing. Their clothes belong together without being identical.

Awa is dressed in a Voice-Dock child garment, built for moving, noticing, talking, recording and getting involved in whatever catches her attention.

Malick is wearing an Early Childhood Voice Smock adapted for wet and messy sensory play, because nobody expects an eleven-month-old to spend a day at Ele-Boo-Boo and remain clean.

Today the Ndiayes are going to spend the day at Ele-Boo-Boo Baby Sensory Orchard Grounds.

And Malick has absolutely no idea what is waiting for him.

Arriving at Ele-Boo-Boo

The first thing Awa saw was the elephant.

It rose through the orchard ahead of them as a real built play body, with a great curved trunk, openings children could crawl through, little routes around its sides and discovery spaces tucked beneath and within it.

Awa stopped walking.

Malick looked where she was pointing.

Then he looked at her.

Then back at the elephant.

He did not know what an elephant was supposed to mean yet, but his sister’s excitement was apparently enough evidence that something important was happening.

Ele-Boo-Boo was arranged so families did not have to follow one fixed route. Shallow water paths ran through parts of the grounds. Texture routes moved through smooth river stones, wood rounds, sand, leaf mulch and softer planted areas. Sensory gardens brought flowers, herbs, leaves, bark and scent down to child height. There were insect discovery stations, baby crawling grounds, shaded family verandahs and little pockets where families could stop without feeling that they were blocking anybody else.

Ibrahima laughed.

They had barely entered.

Awa had already chosen a direction.

Malick had already chosen the water.

Malick Finds the Water

There are some decisions eleven-month-old babies make without consulting their parents.

Malick’s first decision at Ele-Boo-Boo was that the shallow water route belonged to him.

Aminata sat beside the stream and lowered him onto one of the broad flat stones where the water moved gently around his legs.

He stared.

He touched it with one hand.

The water moved away.

He slapped it.

That changed everything.

He blinked.

Awa laughed.

So Malick did it again.

His Early Childhood Voice Smock had been chosen for exactly this kind of day. The wet sections did not become heavy around him, and Aminata did not spend the morning trying to keep him dry.

There was no point.

This was water.

He had found it.

Awa began crossing the route using the wood rounds and stones set into the stream. At four, this was serious business. She stretched both arms out and carefully placed one foot in front of the other.

Ibrahima held her hand for the first few.

So he loosened his grip and walked beside her.

She made it across three stones by herself, slipped one foot into the water on the fourth and immediately looked back to see whether anybody had noticed.

Everybody had noticed.

Nobody said anything.

Awa continued as though the event had never happened.

The Ground Changes Under Their Feet

Farther along, the water route widened into the texture paths.

Children could move from smooth stone to wood, from wood to sand, then into patches of soft ground materials and planted surfaces.

For babies, much of this happened much closer to the ground.

Malick crawled.

That was the point.

Nobody kept lifting him away from every strange surface.

Aminata remained close enough to intervene when needed, but Malick was allowed to put his palms down, stop, inspect, pat, squeeze and crawl again.

He liked the smooth stones.

He was suspicious of the sand.

He sat in it and looked at his hand after the grains stuck to his fingers.

Then he tried the other hand.

The same thing happened.

He looked at Aminata as though she might be responsible.

She laughed.

Awa, meanwhile, had found leaf mulch.

She marched through it several times because she liked the sound.

Crunch.

Crunch.

Crunch.

Then she made Ibrahima walk through it.

His steps were heavier.

Awa listened carefully.

Ibrahima accepted the defeat.

The Insect Discovery Grounds

The family reached the insect area before lunch.

This was where Awa’s Voice-Dock garment suddenly became far more interesting to her.

A steward showed her how she could bring one of the small discovery companions close to the dock on her clothing, record what she noticed and return to it later.

Awa found a butterfly first.

She watched it for perhaps six seconds.

Then another insect moved.

That was more interesting.

Then she found a seed pod.

That was apparently also part of insect learning now.

At four, categories are flexible.

She recorded three things in quick succession, none of which Ibrahima could understand because Awa whispered into the Voice-Dock as though the butterfly might steal the information.

Malick was nearby at a baby-level insect discovery circle.

He could touch large safe forms showing wings, beetle shells, caterpillar shapes and different textures without anybody expecting him to understand what species he was studying.

He simply touched.

One smooth.

One bumpy.

One ridged.

One soft.

One made a noise when he hit it.

Naturally, that one won.

Ibrahima had arrived thinking Malick might enjoy looking around for a while.

By lunchtime, he had watched his son spend nearly an hour intensely investigating water, stones, sand, leaves, insect shapes and one wooden cup.

The wooden cup had become especially important.

Malick carried it everywhere.

Lunch, Rest and Doing Absolutely Nothing for a While

By midday, both children had slowed down.

The Ndiayes moved to one of the family rest verandahs.

The verandah looked back across part of the sensory grounds, so Awa could still watch other children moving through the water while she ate.

Malick ate, drank and then began rubbing his eyes.

That was the end of Malick.

Aminata settled with him until he fell asleep against her.

Nobody tried to keep the day moving because there were things left to complete.

The grounds would still be there when he woke up.

Awa stretched across the seating beside Ibrahima.

For a while, the family did very little.

Ibrahima and Aminata talked.

Awa ate slowly.

Malick slept.

The orchard moved around them.

Water continued through the little channels below.

Other families came and went.

A steward carried fresh materials toward one of the discovery stations.

Somewhere farther away, several children were making a tremendous amount of noise near the elephant body.

Awa eventually sat upright.

Of course she did.

Inside the Elephant

Malick woke before they reached it.

The elephant discovery body was much larger from underneath.

Routes passed around, through and beneath it. Some openings were for walking children. Others were low enough for crawling babies. Parts of the exterior could be touched, pushed, turned or listened to. There were protected climbing sections for older children and quieter little chambers below.

Awa disappeared into one opening with Ibrahima following.

Aminata stayed lower with Malick.

He found a rounded opening in the elephant body and crawled inside.

For several seconds, Aminata could see only his feet.

Then he reversed.

His head appeared again.

He smiled.

Back inside.

Out again.

Inside.

Out.

Apparently they had travelled to Ele-Boo-Boo so Malick could discover a hole.

Aminata sat there and let him.

Awa eventually came down from somewhere above with Ibrahima behind her.

Awa considered that distinction unnecessary.

Awa Takes Over the Day

By late afternoon, the family was no longer moving according to any plan.

Awa was choosing.

She wanted to show Malick the flowers.

Then the water again.

Then the butterfly station again because she had something she needed to record.

Then she wanted to find the crunchy ground for Dad.

Ibrahima asked what the crunchy ground was called.

Reasonable enough.

Malick had reached the stage where he was alternating between intense concentration and random laughter.

He crawled toward a patch of low fragrant leaves, touched one, smelled his hand and immediately tasted his fingers.

Aminata redirected the fingers.

He tried again.

She redirected them again.

This disagreement continued quietly for a while.

Eventually Malick found something else to do.

What Ibrahima Had Been Wrong About

Earlier that morning, Ibrahima had told Aminata that Malick was probably still too little to understand much of Ele-Boo-Boo.

He did not mean the baby would get nothing from it.

He simply thought most of the day would really be for Awa, while Malick came along.

By the afternoon, he had stopped saying that.

Malick had spent the day making choices.

Nobody had needed him to explain what he learned.

At eleven months old, his whole body was doing the learning.

Ibrahima watched him sitting in the shallow water near the end of the day, repeatedly letting a little stream run through his fingers.

No.

He did not.

Going Home

By the time the Ndiayes were ready to leave, Awa’s clothing had collected evidence of almost every part of Ele-Boo-Boo.

A little dirt.

A little water.

A leaf she had deliberately put into one pocket.

Three Voice-Dock recordings.

Something she insisted was an important stick.

Malick was cleaner only because somebody had rinsed him.

He was tired enough to rest his head against Ibrahima without protesting.

Aminata looked back across the grounds before they left.

The elephant body was still busy.

Babies were still crawling through the sensory gardens.

Children were still moving over the texture paths.

Parents were sitting under verandahs, feeding babies, talking, resting or following children who had found one more thing they absolutely had to see before leaving.

The Ndiayes had come to spend a day at a baby sensory orchard.

Awa had explored almost everything she could reach.

Malick had eaten, slept, splashed, crawled, touched, listened, stared, laughed and spent an unreasonable amount of time carrying a wooden cup.

And Ibrahima had learned something too.

The baby had not been tagging along on everyone else’s day.

It had been Malick’s day all along.