"Ice on Meadow's Tummy"

Poor Meadow. Our much loved, slightly ignored older daughter had a tummy bug yesterday. It happens once or twice a year, she gets us up in the middle of the night to go out. She was kind enough to wait until 6:30 am yesterday and you can guess which one of us gets up with her. Our division of labor for our children became pretty clear after Katie was born and I had boobs and Peter had none. Hence, Meadow knows to wake Daddy.

I was very clear to Katie that she could not feed Mead any of her food. "Why can't I feed Meadow?" Katie entered the "WHY?" stage 2 weeks ago. I explained that Meadow's tummy hurt and that we want her to feel better. So this morning Katie says to me, "I want to put ice on Meadow's tummy." I was impressed with her empathy, especially when Katie is otherwise driving us a little crazy. Our pretty easy "terrible 2s" have become more difficult the last few days. We're hoping it's a phase. Katie has been really persistent in trying to test the limits and we're trying to be persistent in maintaining them. This afternoon she became hysterical because I wouldn't let her hold the face cream when we were going out to walk Meadow. I had good reasons, Katie likes to taste face cream a little too much. The hysteria continued at the elevator when she bolted from the stroller and ran down the hall. I brought her back (still walking Meadow) and strapped her in the stroller. Katie stood up in the stroller and screamed and cried for our entire 6 block walk "Unbuckle me. I want to get out. Unbuckle me." I'm sure half of the UWS probably thought I was torturing my daughter and the other half probably laughed, having been there themselves. And poor Meadow (do I sense a theme?) just had to walk along and try to go about her business.

Meadow is such a sweetheart and I hope she, in her own doggy way, knows that she is appreciated. Katie had 2 friends over today and Meadow just laid there. She's good at that, as you can see. When I took this picture, Katie said to me, "Why are you taking a picture of Meadow and not me?"