Unsharing Fun

Cal and Ella play really well together.  There are times that one doesn’t share well with the other and need Dan’s or my intervention to resolve; but those are few and far between, certainly rarer than I would have expected.

A couple of those rare instances found their way to our day Sunday.  In the moment and still today, I found them more amusing than annoying or troubling.

Elmo

Instance #1: Elmo

Cal has MANY stuffed animals, and MOST of them were recently taken away for a month because he made the choice to not pick them up after throwing them all over his bedroom floor even after given the threat of having them taken away.  “I don’t know how” he claimed, which had only one response from me, “yes, you do.”

The ones that survived Cal’s poor choice and were not taken away include Puppy (he was hiding in a corner of Cal’s room) and a handful of stuffed animals shared by the kids. These “live” in a toy box downstairs, and among them is Elmo, for whom Ella has developed an affinity.  “Melmo,” she calls him.

Limited to these stuffed animals, Cal chose to play with Puppy and this big-eyed purple bunny (who hasn’t officially gotten a name as Dan’s plug for “Hoppyjon Jones” isn’t catching on).  And Ella, of course, chose Elmo.  Everyone was happy until Ella dropped Elmo on the floor for what toy, I don’t recall. As quickly as Elmo hit the floor, Cal snatched him up.  Ella saw this and immediately started screaming for Elmo. And then it happened.  Ella threw herself belly-side down on the ground, screaming louder and coming just short of thumping her hands and kicking her feet against the ground. She had entered her tantrum.

I probably shouldn’t do this, but I laughed out loud.  I think this is hilarious.  It is so over-the-top, so melodramatic, so completely not in line with the issue she’s dealing with.  What’s funnier is Cal’s expression as he takes in the scene – call it smug, call it mean, he’s certainly entertained by this, staring and smiling at her ridiculousness.  I don’t remember if we said something like, “Cal, please give Elmo back to Ella,” but he let the tantrum go on for a good minute or two after which he made the decent choice to give Elmo back to Ella.  Ella pulled Elmo close to her, giving him a good hug as she continued to lay belly-down on the ground and slowly recovered from her tantrum.

Instance #2: Trains

I didn’t actually visually witness this one – I heard it all from the kitchen.  Cal must’ve been playing with the “Thomas” trains we are borrowing from my sister's kids.  There are several of them, and they magnetically cling to each other to form, well, a multi-car train.

Lady

Ella likes to play with the trains, too.  Though she’s generally content playing with “Lady” (clearly the “girl” train), it sounded like she wanted in on the trains with which Cal was playing; and Cal wasn’t giving her any.  Ella started to make some noise about it.  No tantrum-throwing scene erupted, but it was getting intense enough that Dan needed to step in before it evolved to that.  Here’s how I heard it:

Dan: “Cal, you have 7 trains… you don’t need 7.

1-2-3-4-5 Trains

Cal: “I don’t have 7.”

Dan: “6 or 7… let Ella have one.”

Cal: “I don’t have 7. 1-2-3-4-5… I have 5.”

Dan: “Okay, 5. Let Ella have one.”

I don’t remember if Cal did give Ella a train or not.  Clearly, he was missing the point; but he was dead on with his counting!