It's So Hard to Say Goodbye

Gabrielle is my sensitive child. She is strong-willed and dramatic, but she does have a heart of gold. When the combination of these three characteristics combine, it is the perfect storm - perfectly horrible. 

Today, I'll just focus on one of the three - her sensitivity (and the fact that she is literal, as are all toddlers). When Gabrielle moved into a big-girl bed, which was when she was only 27 months old, because she had learned to get out of her crib, she cried saying, "I lost my bed". I get it; that was part of her young life since as far back as she could remember, and as exciting as I tried to make the transition from crib to big-girl bed, she missed her crib. Every time I strip her sheets to throw them in the wash she says, "Mommy, where are you taking my bed? Oh no, I lost it." When Martin sold our Trooper, she cried as the college student drove it away from our house. "I lost my truck." When we replaced our front door, you can guess..."I lost my door." Every Friday when the garbage man picks up the trash, she stands at the window and cries, "Where are you taking my trash? Oh no, my trash went away." And every Friday Martin explains that he pays the city, so that nice man will come take the poop away, which is a reasonable explanation because we have a cat and an infant, so there's A LOT of poop.

We have had a laugh or two over Gabrielle's literal sensitivity at the loss of certain things, but boy did we have a good laugh this morning. Let's back up a little bit. When I was pregnant, Gabrielle thought that Martin had a baby in his belly too. Since I've had Anthony, which was three months ago, she continues to rub my belly - "Mommy, you have another baby in your belly." Okay, so it's time to get back onto the exercise wagon. So, this morning I went to the post office, and picked up the workout videos that I ordered (more to come on that). When I brought them home, I gestured to the attractive fitness models on the front of the videos and I said to Gabrielle, "This is what Daddy is going to look like, and this is what Mommy is going to look like. Kiss our bellies goodbye!" Well, she started crying because she was so upset that our bellies were going away. "I don't want to say goodbye to your bellies. I don't want you to look like them." Eventually, I'll remember that I need to be careful with what I say to Gabrielle, remembering that she is sensitive...and literal.