Two Short Stories

The girls have been on this kick lately about who's first versus who's second, who gets the red cup versus who gets the blue cup, and who gets to do something and who doesn't get to do it. Yesterday, they fought over who could say the blessing on lunch first. (We usually have two prayers at mealtimes now--not because my cooking needs it (though maybe it does???) but because the girls both want to pray.) I said Claire could say the prayer after Summer, and Summer said no, that it was just her turn this time. Then she proceeded with "Heavenly Father. Thanks for Claire not say the prayer after me and for me to just say the prayer and for Claire to not say the prayer. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen."

Claire still got a turn.

* * * *

Today, Claire walked up to me with her hands cupped together. "My baby, mom. It's my baby." I was surprised that she was actually playing with something invisible. I'd never seen her do this before. I asked if I could hold the baby, and she passed her over to me. I held the baby doll for a minute, then passed her back. Claire asked for me to unbuckle her stroller so she could put her baby in it. I did. Then we buckled her baby in. A few minutes later, I was picking things up and I tossed something into the stroller. Claire came running over, "My baby, mom! My baby!" So I hurried and removed the item, then checked to see if the baby was okay.

But it got really bad when Summer actually took Claire's imaginary baby. There Summer stood, with her hand in a fist saying she'd taken Claire's baby doll. Claire was in tears. I told Summer to give her baby back. She refused, so I moved her fist forward as if passing off this imaginary doll back to Claire. (This was quite a difficult situation because how could Claire actually know if Summer gave the baby back or not?) I don't know how Claire knew, but she did. And then Summer dropped the imaginary doll and kicked it across the room.

Claire burst into tears again.