Aden, on Marriage and Handedness

Apparently, the two go "hand in hand." I'm not sure if Aden heard the phrase "giving your hand in marriage," or where he developed his concept of marriage, but over the last week, when we go for a walk, he asks Wiley to hold his hand and then explains, "so that we can be married." And as Wiley reaches for Aden's outstretched hand, he repeats, "Marriage." It is a little hard to explain where this may have come from, since handholding is not culturally accepted in PNG by married couples, so Aden does not see his parents, or anyone married really, holding hands.

Today as we walked, he gave a bit of insight on the question of handedness. He took Wiley's hand and pronounced themselves married, and then said, "Now I'm going to hold Wiley's left hand." (Amazingly, he had identified correctly.) He then declared, "I'm left-handed." Incidentally, this has been hard for us to distinguish, as Aden appears to be ambidextrous, often switching between hands for just about everything he does. We haven't wondered too much about Wiley yet, but are guessing he'll be righthanded since he tends to use his right hand for just about everything. But Aden cleared up any doubts we may have, as he stated confidently, "And Wiley is front-handed." . . . Then again, just as we thought Aden had cleared things up, he changed his mind again later this afternoon when he said, "I'm backhanded."