March 12

Last week when I went to pick up Jayna, there was a Barbie (the one on the right) in her cubbie.  I, of course, questioned who it belonged to and why it was in her cubbie.

"Jolie gave it to me...to keep forever."  I was okay with that response up to the point that Jolie is a nice kid.  But I DID want to make sure Jolie's mom knew that Jolie was giving her toys away.

I told Jayna that we could take it home, but I'd have to ask Jolie's mom if it was really okay for us to keep it.  Jayna cried.  She thought I was going to make her give it back.  She very carefully put the doll on top of her dresser and left it there.  And even after I found that it was okay for Jayna to keep it, she plays with the Barbie and then it goes RIGHT BACK ON TOP of the dresser.  Does it get thrown into the drawer with all of her other ordinary Barbies?  Hell to the no!!!  This one is special!!  It's from Jolie!!  It gets a special place on the dresser.

After I got the go-ahead to keep the doll, Jayna decided that the proper thing to do was to choose one of her Barbies to give to Jolie..."to keep forever."  She went through all of her Barbies, found that she has not one, not two, but THREE Sleeping Beauty Barbies.  She picked one, got it dressed and sat it next to her doll from Jolie.  She then took it to school and gave it away.

I resisted all of this at first.  I thought Jayna was too young to understand the "when you give something to someone, it's for keeps" idea.  Turns out she isn't.  She totally understands that she'll never see that doll again.  And she's ABSOLUTELY okay with it.  It's never too young to teach a lesson like that.