growing pains

We've got a Johnny Jump Up, a seat that hangs in the doorway that the baby can jump in. It was one of F's greatest joys. She was still using it before we left NC though I'm sure she was past the weight limit. I'd put her in and she'd jump like a crazy person. At the end she learned how to twirl, one foot on the floor as a pivot, and once twirled with such vigor that she tossed her cookies.

Yesterday while F was napping I put up the seat for the baby. He thought it was a good time. When F woke up, first thing, she saw the seat in the doorway and wanted in. Though it was just a couple of months ago that she was playing in it still, I worried that the smaller door moulding here wouldn't hold her and, besides, she really is too big. So I told her she couldn't get it, that she was a big girl now and it was a toy for a baby. Oh my goodness did she cry. She cried and cried and cried, not because she couldn't have her way, but because she loved that seat so very very much and wanted to be in it so very very badly. I took it down from the doorway but that didn't help. I explained again about how she used to be little like the baby but now she's gotten so big though sometimes it's hard to tell when you grow. Because she's a big girl, she has a rocking horse on springs that she bounces on instead. I sat on the floor and comforted her, let her put her blanket on my shoulder and cry. When I explained about growing up she'd stop crying and listen to me, thinking about things, then she'd remember and start up again, a wail that revved up like a siren. Once she pointed to my eye and said, "Green," the first time she's noticed my eye color. We discussed her blue eyes and C's blue eyes and dad's grey-blue eyes and how some people have brown eyes. She asked for more, and then she remembered her grief again and oh the sorrow. We finally had to go for retail therapy. It's amazing what some new ponytail holders and some bubbles will do for angst.