"Nicki did it!"

I love toddlers, I love toddlers, I love toddlers . . . really, I do!  But sometimes I wonder why!

This morning, between trips to the bathroom with the boys, one of my girls, we'll just call her Peaches, decided that she wanted to beat up one of the boys.  I told her to stop and in typical defiant two year fashion, she looked right at me as she continued to hit him up side the head.  It was now obvious that I was going to have to move her away from him, so I start to walk towards her.  Knowing that she was in trouble, Peaches threw herself on the floor right in front of me, causing me to step on her arm.

Now, of course, I instantly felt HORRIBLE about this as I picked her off the floor, screaming like she was being tortured, to survey the damage.  Fortunately, the scream was MUCH worse than the injury.  One could say that Peaches is a little bit of a drama queen . . . and by little bit, I really mean that she should win an Oscar for some of her performances.  Her arm was red and there were some small scratches form the sole of my shoe, but it could have been a lot worse.  If my full weight (and don't even think about asking what that is!) had gone on to her little arm, I am sure that it would have broken bones.

However, regardless of how minor the actual injury was, the Oscar performance lasted for about an hour after I stepped on her, with Peaches sulking around and holding on to her arm like it was going to fall off.  Perhaps she was trying to convince me that she was suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.  Whatever it was, as soon as lunch arrived, the bo-bo was forgotten for a little while.  Funny how it was remembered again as soon as the food was gone and it was nap time!

After nap, Peaches continued to take great pleasure in making me feel guilty.  On numerous occasions (and by numerous, I mean so many times I that I couldn't begin to count!) she came up to me clutching her arm, saying "bo-bo, bo-bo, Nicki did it."  Or she would hold it out to me, give me a sad look and say "Kiss it."  And she quite delighted showing everyone her bo-bo and announcing "Nicki did it!" while grinning from ear to ear.

As the day went on it was a toss up between feeling horribly guilty for hurting one of my darlings and laughing at her showing everyone and telling them that I did it.  The conversation would go a little like this:

Peaches:  "Bo-bo." (holding her arm out like it was about to fall off)
Teacher:  "What happened?" (looking at her arm)
Peaches:  "Nicki did it." (grinning from ear to ear)
Teacher:  "What did Nicki do?"
Peaches:  "Give me bo-bos."
Teacher:  "No, Nicki didn't give you bo-bos.  What happened to your arm?"
Peaches:  "Nicki did it."
Teacher:  "I don't think Nicki did that.  You're being silly."
Peaches:  "Nicki did it.  Nicki give me bo-bos"
At this point I would interject with a nod to indicate that, yes, I did indeed do it.
Peaches:  "Nicki did it."
Teacher:  "How did Nicki give you bo-bos?"
Peaches:  "Nicki step on it."
Then she would run off to play and wait until the next opportunity to tell her story.

Seriously, how could I not laugh at this??  I am just glad that her parents are very understanding about things like this!  And I can hope that none of the other parents heard her saying that Nicki gave her bo-bos without hearing the whole story!

I tell you, there is never a dull moment with these kids . . . but I love them!  I really do!