Boo Boos, "I Okay Now"

As I walked up to the front of our home, my family was coming out to feed the neighbor's cat while they were away for the weekend. Right away I noticed that one side of our baby's face was darker than the other. As I came closer I realized that one half of her face had been scraped up. I was told she didn't cry very much, and it probably isn't that big of a deal. The problem is that I have an automatic response to seeing my kids' injuries. My heart immediately breaks, and it did this time too, despite that fact that she was smiling at me from ear to ear. In fact, her cute smile may have made me feel even more sympathetic.

Much harder to deal with are the boo boos that face my four-year old son in social situations. Three is not a charm! When one of the three children that age has a strong personality and has not learned how to be kind to others, she often picks a sidekick and the two torment the third by telling him to go away, etc. I am very bothered by that kind of bullying among four- and five-year old kids, but grateful that my son doesn't fall into that trap too often though he's been known to do the same thing--to a much lesser degree of unkindness--with his little sisters sometimes. As much as my heart breaks for my baby with the scraped-up face, it always breaks much more for the little boy who is treated unkindly by other kids his age for no good reason. The tricky part is that, whereas all my baby needs when she gets hurt is extra love from us, my son needs something different. He is at the age where he needs some good friends as well.

On the other hand, I'm starting to figure out how to help our toddler through her difficulties. Tonight she wanted something that she had to wait for, but she didn't want to wait. The disappointment was apparently overpowering and she threw a fit. We just let it happen. To our surprise, after a minute or so, she suddenly said in a peaceful little voice, "I okay now."