Never too late

The weather outside is simply beautiful.  Every time it starts to get warm and sunny outside, I imagine moving to Southern California and raising our family in sunshiny warmth, enjoying playdates on the beach and flip-flops at Christmas.  I think I'd love it - if only we could get our families to all travel with us...

Today was one of those sunny, dreamy afternoons - except that we had a dentist appointment and Hannah's tummy didn't react too well to the flouride treatment and the extra warm temperatures in our car.  Enough said about that...

So by the time we got home, Hannah was determined to lay low and Jack just wanted to relax.  Soon enough, one of his classmates came over to play, and they went in and out for a bit while Hannah watched a show in the basement.  Eventually, they settled on a game of Guess Who? and then before we knew it, it was time for Katie to go home for dinner.  Poor Hannah Bear came trudging upstairs to complain that Jack and Katie had played a game that she never gets to play with Jack without ever coming to ask if she wanted to play...and they didn't even tell her that Katie was over.

With sad, pouty eyes, Hannah explained that Jack said that Katie told him not to get her because she always screams at her.

I took a deep breath and slowly wandered into what I knew to be dangerous territory:

"Well, sometimes Jack says that Katie thinks you scream at her, so she might not want to always play if she feels like you aren't very nice to her."

Hannah just looked at me and didn't say a word.

"Do you sometimes scream at Katie when she comes over to play?" I asked.

"Well, I was going to start stopping today, but they never came to get me!" she shouted.

I tried to suppress a bit of laughter over the fact that she was going to start stopping today and asked why she yells at Katie sometimes.  Hannah explained that one time Katie got yogurt on the couch in the basement so I tried to reiterate the fact that everyone makes mistakes, and it's okay if Katie makes a mess sometimes, but I could tell that it is not okay with Hannah.

I also tried to gently explain that if Hannah is always bossing Katie around, Katie probably isn't going to want to play with her and so maybe she could try using her words instead of making Katie feel bad.

I could tell she wanted to mull that one over, so we'll see what happens the next time Jack's playmate knocks at our door.