Albert Einstein

After boiling some pasta for the girls at lunch time, I was telling Pip that the pot was very hot and she shouldn’t go near it.  For some idiotic reason unbeknownst to me, I demonstrated [...]]]> “Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I’m not sure about the universe.”

Albert Einstein

After boiling some pasta for the girls at lunch time, I was telling Pip that the pot was very hot and she shouldn’t go near it.  For some idiotic reason unbeknownst to me, I demonstrated exactly how hot the pot was by touching the rim with my left pointer-finger, and promptly burning myself.

Who does that?

Author Unknown

Is there anything more sad than kids being sick for a holiday?  I remember having the mumps as a kid one Christmas, but I don’t think I was ever ill on Hallowe’en.

Luckily, [...]]]> “I’ll bet living in a nudist colony takes all the fun out of Halloween.”

Author Unknown

Is there anything more sad than kids being sick for a holiday?  I remember having the mumps as a kid one Christmas, but I don’t think I was ever ill on Hallowe’en.

Luckily, Pip and Fig didn’t really know what they were missing.  Neither of them remember last Hallowe’en, so when we told Pip about ‘trick-or-treaters’ coming to the door, she was incredibly excited.  It didn’t even occur to her that she might go around to other people’s homes.

Our Hallowe’en went down like this:

First, we decorated the house, carved the pumpkin, decorated our front landing and got into costume.  Next, we had a little photo shoot and Pip enacted various scenes from The Wizard of Oz.

It was only five o’clock, but the girls started to watch for trick-or-treaters.

They waited, and waited, and finally, their cousins were brave enough to approach the house of illness.  Thank you family.  That visit was the highlight of our night!  Dorothy, the Tin Man and the Wicked Witch of the West had a brief, but exciting visit in our front foyer.  They were each asked to utter a few lines from the play and our lovely little witch said, “I love you Dorothy!”  Not necessarily the best character study, but certainly a heart-warmer.

After about five minutes, the cousins left our home to continue with the Hallowe’en festivities, and Pip turned to me and said, “That sure was fun, Mama.”

Bless her little heart.

John Powell

Fig worships Pip.  Not only does she mimic everything Pip says and does, but she also likes to give Pip little gifts.  Especially gifts of food.  If Fig is given a piece of cheese, for [...]]]>

“Human beings, like plants, grow in the soil of acceptance, not in the atmosphere of rejection.”

John Powell

Fig worships Pip.  Not only does she mimic everything Pip says and does, but she also likes to give Pip little gifts.  Especially gifts of food.  If Fig is given a piece of cheese, for example, she’ll ask for two so that she can toddle off and present one piece to Pip.

When Pip involves Fig in her games, Fig is in heaven.  You can see it on her face; she practically glows when she looks at her big sister.

Alternately, when Pip is feeling suffocated by Fig’s love and admiration, she rejects her little sister.  There is nothing more heart-breaking that seeing Fig run toward Pip with open arms, only to have Pip say, “No, Fig, I don’t want to hug you right now.”  Ouch.  Fig doesn’t really know how to handle rejection.  She swings her empty arms back and forth and stares at her sister with her big baby blues.

Truth be told, I don’t really know how to handle this situation either.  I often try to help Pip empathize with Fig.  ”Honey, how would you feel if you wanted a hug from me and I pushed you away?”  Pip will often hug Fig at this point.

Sometimes I focus on Fig and say, “Come here, Sweetie, I’ll give you a hug!” but my arms aren’t quite the same as Pip’s.

I’ve also said to Pip, “We always have hugs for our loved ones,” because she sometimes withholds hugs for relatives and close friends.  I don’t like the idea of forcing affection though, and I never want it to turn into a negative experience.   I’m not about to establish a ‘hug-rule.’

My favourite strategy is simply to tell Pip how great she makes other people feel when she hugs them.  Maybe one day she’ll realize what a gift it is to have the power to fill someone else’s heart with joy.

The drawback of those great stainless-steel water-bottles for kids is the weight.  Today Fig was enjoying a nice sip of H2O in the kitchen, when she dropped her water-bottle on her middle toe.  The stainless=steel edge cut through skin, [...]]]> “The great gift of human beings is that we have the power of empathy.”

Meryl Streep

The drawback of those great stainless-steel water-bottles for kids is the weight.  Today Fig was enjoying a nice sip of H2O in the kitchen, when she dropped her water-bottle on her middle toe.  The stainless=steel edge cut through skin, bloodied her toe, and inspired a purplish bruise at the base of her nail.  The jury’s out as to whether she’ll lose the toe-nail altogether.   Poor Fig screamed ‘Toe-Toe,” for a good ten minutes.  I tried running the toe under cool water but Fig wouldn’t stand for it.  I felt helpless.  Cradling her in my arms seemed to soothe her somewhat, but she kept reaching for her toe.  ”I know it hurts, Honey,” were about the most comforting words I could come up with, and they weren’t helping.

After the ten minutes of solid crying, Fig alternated between an exhausted state of calm and heart-wrenching tears for another twenty minutes.  What astonished me most during Fig’s traumatic half-hour was Pip’s behaviour.  Oftentimes, when Fig needs my attention, Pip decides to vie for it too.  Not this time.  Pip realized that Fig was truly in pain.

When Fig dropped the bottle, Pip was in the living room reading, so she didn’t know how serious things were.  She heard Fig crying, but she was ready for a change of outfit, so she came walking into the kitchen with shorts and a t-shirt saying, “I’m hot Mama, can you help me change?”

I told her that I couldn’t help her at the moment because of Fig’s accident.  She examined Fig’s toe.  ”Oh, Fig, ” she began, “that blood is starting to dry up!  Good for you!”  She gave Fig an enthusiastic two thumbs-up.  Fig was oblivious to Pip’s efforts and continued to wail, “Toe!  Toe!”

Pip tried another tactic.  ”Fig, you know, when I got this scrape on my knee, it really hurt.”  Pip put a hand on my shoulder to help her balance so that she could lift her knee right up to Fig’s face.

Fig was paying attention to Pip now, but she was still crying.  I looked at Pip.  ”Sweetie, she’s still in a lot of pain.”  At this point, Pip did the most marvelous thing; she gently rubbed my shoulder.  Do many three-year-olds do that sort of thing?  Maybe they do.  It just seemed like a very mature gesture, and it felt really nice.

So there we were, Pip and I, looking down into the tear-stained face of sweet Fig.  She had stopped crying, but her quivering lower lip indicated that she might launch into another bout of tears at any second.   “Maybe Fig would like a little rub on the shoulder too, Pip.”  Pip started with Fig’s shoulder, then she caressed the side of Fig’s face and finally patted her head.  Fig eyed  her sister suspiciously at first, then a smile crept across her face.

“Look at that Pip, you’re making her smile!”

Both girls were now smiling at each other.  It was a sweet little moment in time.  And it got sweeter.

“Mama, isn’t it funny that Fig was saying, toe-toe, and I have a dog named, Toto?”  Ah, empathy and a sense of humour to boot.