Martha and the Sneaky Weasel

Princess hit the ground kicking this morning.
But so did I.
(Mwa ha ha ha haaaaa.)

We had play therapy right away in the morning. In light of this new Not Getting Enough Attention revelation, I chose some books, excellent books, thought-provoking books, erm, appropriate books to read to Princess while Peanut had her session.






















and















And read them, we did. I alternated stoking her hair, cuddling her like a baby, and rubbing her arms and fingers with reading. I read each book three times. Here are some of my favorite lines:

From Sneaky Weasel
"Nobody came to your party because you're mean and nasty and a bad friend. And you never ever say sorry!" (Princess said, "that sounds like me!" in a disturbingly chipper voice.)

"'I must find a way to be a good friend,' he thought desperately, 'but how?'"

I liked that Ms. Shew did not tiptoe around the concept that no one will play with you if you are mean. And bonus, she pointed out that it is hard work to be friendly, that you may not actually "want" to, but despite those two things, you can push ahead and acheive the results you want, namely, having people at your party. Because these are things I harp on constantly. In a pleasant voice, of course.

From Martha:
"There are many things Martha does, but apologizing isn't one of them."

"Martha doesn't say sorry. Martha does, however, want a cookie! But Martha's mother doesn't give cookies to people who don't say sorry."

I loved that Martha does all the same good and not-so-good things that Princess does. I loved that she tried saying sorry by mumbling unintelligibly, and her family pretended they could not understand her until she said it appropriately. I loved that Ms. Berger pointed out that Martha wanted in her heart to make things right.

Good stuff.

We went to the beach after therapy, and all was well until Princess thought she couldn't touch (she could), got scared, and attempted to drown Peanut in her floatie fish to save herself. She wouldn't let go, or come out, so I went in to get her. She was mad that I made her get out of the water. But worse, she was embarrassed because as soon as I grabbed her, she realized if she put her feet down the water only went up to her stomach.

There is nothing worse than an embarrassed RADling.

The good news is that, if you keep a pleasant look on your face, it is possible to restrain a RADlet in a way that looks like you're having a nice snuggle with your daughter who is inexplicably trying to kick sand in your face from an impossible position. I know because someone smiled at us while walking past.

On the way home, the other three started to play a guessing game, and formed a "team" of them and a "team" of Princess. Princess was ticked. I wondered out loud why siblings might not want to be on Princess's team, and mused about how it reminded me of Sneaky Weasel. What did Sneaky Weasel do? Hmmmm. I could not remember for the life of me.

Fortunately, Buddy, Peanut, and the Cuddle Bear did, and they were happy to fill me in. He made things right by helping the people he hurt? Hmmmmm... He apologized? Hmmmmmm.... How interesting.

We got home and changed, with Princess stomping around a grousing a bit, but nothing that called for intervention. Then, suddenly she stopped what she was doing and went to the table. Fifteen minutes later, with a gigantic smile, she gave me (and Peanut) this:

("I'm sorry for being mean to you guys. What do you need? Can I do something for you?")


I'm still in a bit of shock.
The shock wore off a little when she asked for the dessert she knew she couldn't have. But it's still mostly there.