Monday, December 15, 2008

Let sisterly love continue

Frankie is having difficulty adjusting to sisterhood. Admittedly, it is belated, since Molly is almost ten months old. I was quite proud of how seamlessly Frankie had adjusted to Molly's arrival. I worried, in fact, that her life didn't seem to have been affected at all. She just blithely continued to monopolize our attention and treated Molly as you might a mediocre landscape painting- vaguely pleasant if it happens to catch your eye, but nothing you'd spend an inordinate amount of time gazing at.
Then Molly became interesting. Interesting to me, primarily, and that seems to be the problem. Now instead of occupying 99% of my attention, Frankie commands merely 92% of my attention, and this drastic plummet in her status is bringing out the inner serial killer in her. Lets not dwell on the particulars, but suffice it to say there was an incident involving fingers, teeth marks, and a look of betrayal on Molly's face that will forever be seared in my memory like the grill marks on Whopper Junior.
Frankie immediately knew she was headed for disaster and looked at me, stricken, and began chanting "I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Mommy, I'm sorry." After we had a very long heart to heart conversation, she really laid it on thick for the rest of the day. Once I caught her petting Molly's cheek gently and saying in a high-pitched sing song, "Oh, Mollsie Dollsie, I am going to love you forever and ever until I DIE."
Apparently, though, her own death isn't necessarily what is on her mind. This morning the three of us were playing on Frankie's bed and Molly wandered too close to the corner of the bed. I was far away, reading another interminable Thomas story about the nail-biting time he left the Refreshment Lady behind, and couldn't reach her in time. I told Frankie to grab her before she fell, and Frankie seized her by the pajamas and hurled her backwards onto the bed. Molly lay still for a moment, stunned by the sudden hurling, before she scrambled to a sitting position. Frankie looked up at me; "Oh," she said cheerfully, "I thought she was dead!"

1 comment:

Molly said...

somehow i missed this blog entry. so funny. i'm seeing my future with sly and juju...