A Day in the Life of Carly

I have been struggling lately about how to handle the fighting between Carly and Leo. Carly tends to start yelling for me the instant Leo walks into the room where she is playing. Not that it is for no reason, because most of the time Leo will make a bee line for whatever she is doing and often bully his way in, destroying (sometimes really, sometimes in her mind) whatever she has set up. Leo's wrecking it is a phrase I hear all too often. I try to intervene as little as possible because one, they need to figure out how to work it out on their own and two, I would spend my entire day intervening. But since Leo tends to bite, I need to be very nearby in case, okay- WHEN - the teeth come out. This morning the typical fighting was going on and Carly for the first time, had enough and gave Leo a shove. Hard. Leo fell back on his butt, looked at her in disbelief, looked at me, and then started crying. I was trying so hard not to laugh. Carly, the sensitive soul that she is, started crying, crawled up in my lap, and said Mommy, I just can't do that anymore.

Carly was playing in her make believe world this morning, and I was fortunate enough to play with her (or maybe I was just working at the table and would occasionally nod when she would Mommmeeee me). She pointed at Leo and said Is that your little boy? Nope, I told her, not mine. Then she told me, That's my husband. I own him. Smart girl.