At the park

I put Ledge in the swing at the park and Violet was playing the sand about 15 feet away. A little boy came over to Violet and began playing with her sand toys right next to her. This happens a lot and Violet always shares her toys. I was talking to Ledge as he was swinging (he loved it) and I turned around to look at Violet just in time to see sand flying. The kid had thrown a shovelful of sand right at Violet. I ran over there and shouted at him, "Did you do that on purpose?" I knew he had done it on purpose when he starting scooping up more to throw. She had sand in hair, her face was dusty, sand on her shoulders, sand on her skirt. I told him he was not a nice boy and grabbed Violet's shovel and sand pail from him and told him he could not play with Violet and he could not play with Violet's toys. Then, I checked his face to see if I had hurt his feelings, but that was negative. Just then, his mom appears from somewhere and asks what happened. I think she already knew because I was trying to get the sand out of Violet's hair and clothes. I told her that he had just thrown a shovelful of sand at Violet. She told him to say he was sorry. He did. Then she apologized, too, and took him away while talking to him in a sweet voice saying, "We don't behave like that." Violet's feelings were hurt. She just sat there stunned, not saying a word. I went to work making her feel better. Hugging her, explaining about some children, and then trying to be funny about it. She laughed at my jokes (she always does, even if it's just to make me feel good sometimes).

Shortly after that incident, a little girl and her brothers came over to play with Violet's sand toys. The girl asked if she could play with Violet's shovel. I told her to ask Violet. Violet didn't answer. I'm not sure if she was feeling shy or really didn't want to share at that moment. But, the little girl (about 5 or 6) said to me in a haughty tone, "What? Do I have to beg her?" I'm thinking What A Brat! I answered her by saying, "Maybe!" Then the little girl asked again and got the same response from Violet, then told on Violet by telling me, "She's not sharing." I said, "Well, they are Violet's toys and she doesn't have to share if she doesn't want to." I certainly wasn't going to make her share when the sharing experience had just gone wrong a few minutes before.

Soon Ledge fell asleep in the stroller and Violet and I played and played and played. Everything was back to normal.