About this time a year ago, when the girls had just turned a year old, we were getting them ready for bed. We noticed a fly in the bedroom, and my husband stood up on the bed to swat it down from the ceiling.
Baby B came unglued. She screamed and screamed, those high-pitched, scared-to-death screams. It took me rocking her to sleep (a very rare occurrence) for her to finally settle.
Fast-forward a month or so, when the batteries in the girls’ beloved Glow Worm began to wane. Daddy dutifully opened the Velcro on his back to address the problem. Cue Baby B’s screams…very reminiscent of the screams we heard during the Fly Incident.
Hubby and I looked at each other, and quickly began to console Baby B and the Glow Worm. “He’s fine, Sweetie! Look, he loves you! Give him a big hug!” as we quietly refastened the Velcro, good as new.
Later that evening, we talked about what a tender heart our sweet Baby B has. She’s quite convincing in the delivery of her arguments, and – based on how we’ve seen her react – we think she could be a pretty hard-hitting lawyer for the ASPCA one day.
On a seemingly unrelated note, Baby A has quite the Velcro fetish. There must be something about the sound of it…she loves to open-and-close-and-rrrrrrip-open again.
Not long after the Glow Worm Incident, Baby A discovered the Velcro closures on a couple of their stuffed animals’ backs. I quickly recognized the emotional trauma that could easily ensue…Baby A opening and closing ‘til her heart’s content, Baby B scarred forever at the animal cruelty inflicted by her own sister.
I promptly removed all such stuffed animals from the girls’ toy bin.
A few weeks ago, I decided to try the girls again with some of their beloved toys. They were beyond thrilled to see some of their long, lost friends. As we welcomed everyone back to the den, I cautioned the girls, “Be very careful with Violet’s back."
So far, so good. The girls are enjoying playing with their plush pals, and they remind me every few days to “be careful, back!”
Particularly seeing A’s tenderness in these reminders, her seriousness in making sure her stuffed animals are all well-fed and well-cared for, warms my heart.
It gives me hope that one can put aside even the strongest of Velcro fetishes when a higher calling is at stake…like one's sister’s emotional well-being.
Ticker
5 comments:
My kids hate flies! Really, screaming and thrashing...it makes the summer interesting.
I keep forgetting to say something about this shabby blogs message that pops up on your blog - why???
Anyway, our kids LOVE velcro too - they take their shoes on and off because of this - it is annoying as anything to keep putting shoes on!
poor baby b - i wonder why she doesn't like the sound of velcro - it is rather satisfying :)
Aren't kids funny? There are some things that some kids are really sensitive about and then others aren't. My boys get freaked out over a certain song they hear on Sesame street and one of my boys starts crying when we start cheering and saying "yeah!"
So funny how different kids are. Lboy doesn't like loud noises. Or if I cry, he cries too. It makes my heart melt when he gets upset just because I am.
I remember the first time I killed a spider in front of Matt...I thought he was going to have a nervous breakdown!
I feel bad for the sister tortured with velcro!
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