cat named pig

On the front steps just now, Siena and Elliot were waiting for Matt to take them to the “Splash Pad.” The snippet of their conversation that I overheard was not particularly funny or remarkable in any way, except that it was so exactly them, so typical of their interactions and roles in the family lately.

Siena: “Sit down by me, Bud.”

Elliot carefully inches his way across the step, then sits down on the step below the one Siena is on.

Siena: “No, Bud, you have to sit on this one. Because this is the one I’m sitting on, see?”

Elliot [whining slightly]: “Why-eee?”

But he complies with her request order, moves up a step and settles himself right next to her. He spots their goggles near the top of the beach bag and reaches for them. Siena, anxious to protect her property from his grubby, destructive hands, jumps in before he can grab them:

“Do you want your BLUE GOGGLES, Bud? Do you want to hold YOUR BLUE GOGGLES?”

I can hear the tension in her voice, her concern that he will grab both pairs, yet she is not yanking them away from him. She is diverting him, directing his attention away from her goggles and encouraging him to focus on his own BLUE GOGGLES. The emphasis in her voice, and even the slightly strained note (please let this not turn into a fight) is an exact imitation of mine. She is parenting.

Elliot [enthusiastically]: “YEAH!”

Siena: “Should Sister hold her PURPLE goggles?”

Elliot: “YEAH!”

She has succeeded. Her goggles are safe in her hands, and with his support even. There will not be a squabble, this time.

I do this a thousand times a day, this sort of delicate intervention before tempers flare, but it catches me by surprise to hear it from her. Makes me realize how much she is absorbing; she is really listening to me even though some days you wouldn’t believe it. I wonder what else she is picking up.