The Natural

Today we had our regular Wednesday playgroup with a group of moms and kids that we enjoy hanging out with. This week, for whatever reason, the Hatchling was the only girl for the first half of the group – it was just her and four other little boys. At this age, the whole gender thing doesn’t make much of a difference when they’re playing (thank goodness) but today all the little boys seemed to have spring fever or something and there was a lot of bickering and fighting going on. When we went into the dining room for snack time, there was only enough room at the little kid’s table for three; the three oldest boys took those seats, the baby sat with his mother, and the Hatchling chose to sit at the big table with the Mamas. It wasn’t long before a major quarrel erupted at the kids’ table (someone’s plate was touching someone else’s, if you can believe it) and the recriminations started to get a little deafening. The relevant moms wearily moved to intervene, but before any of them could reach the table, the Hatchling got down from her chair, went over to the boys and in a loud, authoritative voice said “HEY! Hey, guys! What’s goin’ on?” She put her hand on the back of one of the boys and started to babble something that we couldn’t totally understand, but was clearly intended to mediate between the squabblers. (It sounded kind of like “ashabba boogaba dashalso FOOD baggabagaa YOU PLAY.”) The boys sort of stopped, and the Hatchling calmly returned to her seat and resumed snacking. We parental units were having a fit of the giggles. She did it again when another fight broke out, and then sat back down at the table with a distinctly smug look on her face. I have never seen her do anything like that before, but I tell you what, she handled it like a pro. Her future sister is screwed.