Oh, the injustice!

Leah is learning that life is not fair.

Case Number 1
The other day she got a pretty big owie--tying to climb onto a bigger kid's bike, she made it topple over on top of herself and cut her lip up. At dinner a few hours later, she realized that it hurt to eat when the food came in contact with her owie in her mouth. She asked me to kiss it better. I did. A few seconds later she tried another bite, only to burst into tears because it still hurt. "Kiss it better!" she demanded again, this time through a veil of tears. I had to feel bad that we've perpetuated the myth that kisses make things better, and that all of the sudden she must learn with brutal honesty that we've been lying to her. Her world is crashing down all around her: she must deal with an owie! Her parents can't make it better! We have been dishonest with her! Oh, the pain and the cruelty! How will this affect our Superhero status?

Case Number 2
Today I offered her graham crackers as an afternoon snack. I presented her crackers in a little pink bowl and handed it to her in her booster seat. All of the sudden, she got up and indecipherably told me something very important and hurried upstairs to her bedroom. She returned with a yellow bowl, which yesterday had popcorn in it. Then she very politely presented me with the empty bowl and said "Some popcorn please." I said, "I'm sorry, we don't have any popcorn" which was the truth, but even if I did have popcorn, I would have said "not right now." She has learned that a "no" is usually followed by the words "maybe later" (even though she probably doesn't understand the concept of either maybe or later) and when I said "no" to the popcorn, she again burst into a tearful and pitiful "maybe later."

Oh, it is so hard to be two years old and 36 inches tall!