Four-and-a-half-year-old Mandy calls Uncle Tom in New York. Taken from an email Tom wrote to Linda.

Feb 6, 1999 — Yes, she called me—for the first time. And it was the first time I heard her talk much. She’s quite a different person than Ashley. I don’t think I recall as many details as you did from your conversation with her—her phone call got me out of bed on a Saturday morning—but let’s see what I can dredge up.

 Mandy: When are you coming to my house?

 Tom: I’m not sure. Maybe this summer.

 Mandy: I guess I’m gonna have to keep on crying.

Tom: Why would you be crying?

 Mandy: Grandma Wilson died.

 Tom: Oh! When was that?

 Mandy: I don’t know. I’m just a little kid.

 She says, “I don’t know” a lot, rather than trying to make something up or getting shy.

 Mandy: Do you sleep on the ground?

 Tom: No! I sleep on a bed! Why would you think I sleep on the ground?

 Mandy: Aunt Kathy said you sleep...I don’t know...I think something about the ground.

 Tom: Did she say my apartment is underground?

 Mandy: I think.

 Tom: Did she say my apartment is in a basement.

 Mandy: Yeah!

 Tom: Yeah. I live in a basement.

 Mandy: Oh.

 Tom: But I don’t sleep on the ground. I’m not a worm.

 Mandy (laughing): What about a caterpillar?

 Tom: Caterpillars sleep on a leaf. I don’t sleep on a leaf. I sleep in a bed.

 Later she mentioned her bedroom.

 Tom: So, in your bedroom, do you have a—

 Mandy: Don’t say it!

 Tom: Do you sleep on a—

 Mandy: Don’t say it!

 Tom: Are you a—

 Mandy: Don’t say it!

Sometimes she would start babbling and I had no idea what she was talking about. Some of her words were hard to understand. 

I yawned once and she immediately said, “I heard you yawn.”

 And when I was ready to wrap up the call—

 Tom: Well, anyway—

 Mandy: Don’t say it! Don’t hang up!

 Tom: How did you know what I was going to say?

 Mandy: I didn’t know.

 Tom: You knew I was gonna say, “Well, I better be going now.”

 Mandy: I don’t want you to hang up.

 Tom: Well, sweetie, I do have to do some things. I have to type my story.

 Mandy: No!

 We played tug of war like that for about five minutes before she let me hang up.