Feelings

Yesterday Dutch saw a guy making balloon animals (at the farmers market) and decided that she HAD TO HAVE ONE, even if that meant that she couldn't have a food treat. She also decided that she HAD TO HAVE a snake balloon. The balloon guy actually managed to produce a reasonably snakey balloon creation, and she was really pleased. She made the snake bite me and Cook many times, which she thought was completely hilarious. She was having a wonderful time with it, and then, while running down a path with her snake, she fell. She scraped her knees, the snake popped, a guy behind us said sympathetically "ooooooooohh..." and she started to wail. It was such a hurricane of emotions - shock, pain, confusion, humiliation, and loss, all bundled up in one terrible experience. She bawled for a good five minutes, and then we convinced her that it had been an exciting adventure (part of the "mistakes and failures and disappointments are an interesting and educational element of life" program we've instituted to help her grow up to be less like us) and that was that. On to the next emotion.