***Warning*** Long post follows --
We have an interesting problem in the Shaw household....we have to shield Amya from anything "Humpty Dumpty"!
It all started when she decided Humpty Dumpty was her new favorite book (a little board book that is part of a nursery rhyme series). We had to read it to her over and over and over..... Eventually, she started understanding that Humpty Dumpty gets a boo-boo and then the story ends! She would get very sad and start sniffling every time we got to that part of the story. So, Dan and I changed the end of the rhyme with a simple "but the butterflies could!" after the ominous ending, "All the king's horses and all the king's men, couldn't put Humpty together again!"
**note** In the last picture of the book, two butterflies are wrapping gauze around Humpty's cracked egg head.
Sometime later, Amya was watching some PBS cartoon where the characters get to change the ending of nursery rhymes with their powers of spelling and reading. Their challenge was to get a crying Humpty Dumpty off the wall without falling. Amya couldn't handle the suspense and drama. She started crying, then sobbing. I sat with her and explained that Humpty's friends were helping him, and he would be ok. She clapped at the end of the story like you do in the theater at the end of a great movie.
I began thinking that Amya was developing an unhealthy relationship with this nursery rhyme. But in an attempt not to be overprotective, I allowed her to watch the Sesame Street skit where they use Humpty Dumpty's clumsiness as a way to inspire kids to wear bike helmets. There was Humpty Dumpty, sitting on the wall. I could feel Amya's body tense up as she watched with baited breath. I whispered to her that when he falls, he will be ok because he is wearing his helmet. Then it happened. Humpty fell backwards off the wall. The shriek that came from my 19 month old's mouth could be heard at the end of the block! Amya screamed, with her arms stretched out as if attempting to catch Mr. Dumpty, until the end of the skit!
So, that's it! No more Humpty Dumpty allowed in this house!
3 comments:
Its so funny how they get attached to certain things isn't it?. I think its cute that Amya was so concerned for Humpty.
I just love kids and their thought process.
love your stories and all your pictures...have been popping in now and then and its great to feel so close..you don't relize all who are keeping up with your lives...Amya has grown so much and her feelings sound very deep...love you all...keep adventuringlllove from aunt judy and uncle matt
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