You can't play with the baby

Saturday we went to a graduation party for a friend of mine. All four of us went. The boys were shy, but got over it when they saw the huge back yard that Jay and Lori have. Off they went to play.

Resident in that house are three children, including an almost four year old girl and her six year old sister. The younger one decided that Owyn was a baby who, clearly, could not get around without her help. Everywhere Owyn went, she would hunt him down and nab him. She would then pick him up and carry him, until he was too heavy. She couldn't get very far, but she was relentless.

Once she got bored with him, Rhys clearly needing some direction, Owyn would make for the swing set. He would be playing happily, when she would see him, unattended, and make a bee line for him. He caught on quickly. When he saw her coming he would run for the deck. Being only two, there was no way he could out run her, and she would snatch him up again.

After the fourth time this happened, Tracy went down to the yard. She was just in time to hear the girls tell Rhys, "You can't play with the baby". While Rhys looked confused about why he wasn't allowed to play with his brother, and doubtful of the authority of these strange girls, Owyn tried desperately to escape the clutches of is "protector".

Eventually I had to step in and explain to her that he really was OK to walk on his own and that he really didn't like her carrying him, which was why he was crying. She looked a little doubtful that I knew what I was talking about. She turned and left with a posture that said, as clearly as words, "You're crazy, that kid is doomed, but you're the adult so YOU live with the consequences. I wash my hands of the lot of you."

Owyn and Rhys spent most of the rest of the party running up and down a steep sidewalk and climbing down a retaining wall, all on the side of the house where the girls couldn't find them.