Just Kidding

Grace sometimes goes on crying too long. You can always tell when this happens becuase her tears dry up and her sobs become long, dry wails. It reminds me of Jean Arthur's fake wailing at the end of "The More the Merrier." You should really all see that movie. Anyway, at the point that Grace starts acting, I tell her she can keep crying in her bedroom, or she can stop crying by the count of three. Then I start counting. At the count of three, she always looks up at me with a smile and says, "Just Kidding!" It's remarkable. She's invented her own device to snap out of a bad mood. Can adults do that? I don't.

Today Grace and I were counting quarters. (Only up to fwerteen, of course.) We were sitting up on our brand-new, very tall couches, and I was having her count quarters, take quarters away, count again, add quarters back, count again, and... well, she was doing a great job. At every successful count, I tickeled her and shouted "YAY!!!!" She loved it. Too much. Her over-excited, celebratory couch jumping launched her backward, over the arm of the couch, into a head-first crash onto the brick hearth. Poor child. Her tears cascaded down her face and as I held her to comfort her and kiss it better, she rubbed her head, and between sobs made a hearty attempt to cheer herself up, "Just kidding..." And then she broke into genuine tears again. Well, that was enough to break my grinchy little heart in two.