1 Mother 2 Another

I often look back at the end of the day
and wonder how, when both girls go through the exact same day
together, one can be in a cheerful, upbeat mood while the other is
crying and whining nonstop. I mean, they eat the same food, play
with the same toys, snuggle with the same mommy. How can it affect
them so differently?


Then I stopped and took a hard look at one day recently, and
realized what a difference perspective makes. And a couple extra
years’ experience to help you get through the difficult
parts. So I give you a side-by-side comparison of Maddie’s
day and Cora’s day. And unfortunately, this did indeed
happen, all in one day this week:

I sleep straight through the night after a
long cozy snuggle with Daddy. I wake up refreshed at 9:30 a.m.,
ready to hit the ground running. I wake up at 3 a.m. teething,
screaming in pain. Mommy, who is sick, spares me scant sympathy,
and I fall back asleep fitfully. I finally wake up for good –
unwillingly – at 6:45 a.m. and am blearily, grumpily awake
for the day.


My good friend Maxum comes over for an awesome playdate, and we try
out my new sidewalk paint and chalk, both to great success. I am an
artiste! I have a blast painting the cement and, let’s face
it, myself. I am ignored by the blond kid, take a stab at eating
the big stick of sidewalk chalk, and spend the next half-hour
coughing up tiny flakes of it. Very unsastisfying. And even more
frustrating, I’m not allowed anywhere near the paint stuff.
They think that just because I ate the chalk, I’d eat the
paint. Ok, they’ve got a point.


Happily messy from the sidewalk paint, we give my new sprinkler toy
a whirl. Mommy encourages me to run through it and “wash
off” – awesome! So I’m sitting on the grass
checking out this new Frisbee-looking thing when the $#@% thing
starts spraying water. In my face. Seeing as how I’m sitting
three inches from it, I think it’s safe to say I’ve got
a decent amount of water up my nose. Trust me, you'd scream too.
Did nobody think to look before turning it on, to see if an
overeager toddler had sneaked over near it in the split-second her
back was turned? When’s naptime??


To dry off from the sprinkler, Maxum and I hit several pop flies
from my new t-ball set in the back yard. I hit off several very
satisfying home runs. So there I am standing in the back yard,
minding my own business and admiring a lovely plastic totem-pole
type thing, when my big sister hauls off and wallops me upside the
head with her fat plastic bat. Sure, it was on the backswing and
she didn’t put a lot of muscle into it, but I still crumpled
to the ground like Wile E. Coyote under an ACME anvil. And no, it
didn’t hurt too much, but I still don’t think it was as
funny as some other people did. At all.


To work off my tasty snack, I ride my brand-new bicycle around the
cul-de-sac for a while. I can go very fast, and hardly ever have to
stop! I go like the wind! After an unsastisfying snack (why does
everyone else get pineapple but me??? Diaper rash, schmiper rash!)
I spend the next half-hour trying vainly to catch my big sister as
she rides around on her shiny new bike. She goes very fast, and she
NEVER stops. I don’t give up, though; I run after her a bit,
fall down and graze a knee, cry, get up, run after her some more,
fall, and so on. Would it kill her to stop a bit so I can touch the
shiny bell and pretty streamers on the handles? She doesn’t
even notice when I give up and sit on the ground, watching
forlornly.


And that was just before lunch.


The day unfortunately continues like this for Cora – as we
eat the leftover chocolate birthday cake for dinner, I can see
Cora’s frustration at life’s unfairness turn to a
white-hot fury, the thought bubble Why am I once again the ONLY
person not eating some of this brown stuff, for pete’s
sake??? practically shouting over her head – and
doesn’t seem to get much better. Which is probably why, a
full twenty minutes before bedtime, my baby finally puts her foot
down and screams bloody murder – Pay attention to me! I
will be first on your priority list now, even if it’s just to
get me to be quiet! If putting me to sleep is the only way
you’ll focus on me, then put me to sleep NOW!


So she went to sleep early, and I rocked and sang and snuggled and
soothed just a bit longer than was strictly necessary, even as
Maddie laughed and played with Daddy and watched her new Davy and
Goliath video.


And after I took a long hard look at the day from Cora’s
point of view, I vowed to try to make life a bit more fair for my
Li’l Bit.