April 2nd, 2010

My niece Elizabeth is deadly afraid of me and I don't know why. You'd think that being her godmother would automatically put me on her good side, but apparently not. I never saw her cling to Caroline with more fear for her life- she was looking death in the face. I finally managed to carry her down into the basement where the Wiggles were dancing across the TV screen. Caroline plopped down in the little Cabbage Patch Kid's bean bag chair I gave Emma for Christmas a few years ago and Elizabeth managed to curl up in her older sister's lap, afraid to take her eyes off of me in case I made a sudden move. She fell asleep as the Australian quartet danced a waltz and I attempted to pick her up and carry her upstairs. I failed; she woke up and screamed her lungs out. She fell asleep a second time and woke up screaming when I touched her again. Finally, when they both fell asleep, I managed to carry the youngest up both flights of stairs, careful not to breathe too heavily. She woke up briefly when I lowered her body onto the mattress, but she fell back to sleep after I wound up her snow globe/ music player a couple of times. Caroline was much easier to handle, limp as a sack of flour as I carried her up the steps and lowered her onto her bed. I went on Facebook for a bit before I heard Elizabeth squeaking. I tried the snow globe technique again, but she wouldn't have it. She climbed out of bed and walked to the top of the stairs, where she stood transfixed although she continued to wail away. I tried talking to her and noticed that her hair was askew. Since you can always count on Marnee to have things lying around her house, I found a pack of hair clips on the top steps and selected a blue one to put in Elizabeth's hair. She actually let me touch her head, which was the big turning-point of the night. I kept putting those clips in her hair until I ran out, and, being a year old with only so much hair on her head, she looked kind of ridiculous. I started to pull some out, but she kept pointing to them. I put them back in her hair and when she started crying again, I found more. They were everywhere. I carried her downstairs and she started to cry again, but we couldn't stay up there forever. I found at least three more clips or barrettes to put in her hair and they seemed to magically materialize whenever she started to bawl. When Marnee walked in, I had to explain her daughter's new do.