Tim bought a fancy new rice cooker and showed Allie how to make rice with it. Allie LOVES rice. After the rice was made, Tim mixed black beans in with the rice.
Allie said, flatly: "You totally ruined it, Daddy. I don't even wanna look at that."
Then she turned herself entirely around on her stool.
5-27-22
Me, singing: “I hope they call me on a mission, when I have grown a foot or two…”
Nicole: “Mommy, how can you grow another foot or two?”
(Her joke was intentional.)
*******
Random quote from someone on the internet:
Quote from a lecture on YouTube entitled, “Let’s go Whaling!” about monetization of games, by Torluf Jernstrom, CEO of Tribeflame:
“Some of you will probably be slightly shocked by all the tricks I have listed here, but I’ll leave the morality of it out of the talk. We can discuss it if we have time later.”
*******
6-19-22 Father’s Day
Allison performed, “I Can Climb This Mountain,” while making Neil her subject of focus. Neil commented after:
“She was staring daggers at me the whole time! I thought she was going to stare a hole through my soul!”
7-1-22
Allison: “Okay, when I say, ‘Done,’ I’ll be done, but I’m not done yet.”
7-3-22
Allison objects to the careless way I am arranging her AirBnB bed pillows:
“I want it to be pretty, not nasty.”
7-5-22
Allison: “Mommy, there were stickers at the childcare [during the Shakespeare Festival play], and you didn’t have to ask for them. You could just pick one and pick a paper. The paper was out,” she said, eyes glowing with wonder.
7-6-22
Me: “Do you want to try the crackers?”
Nicole: “I already did. I don’t like them.”
Allison takes a nibble. “Interesting…flavor.”
Nicole: “I know, but I don’t like them.”
Allison: “‘Interesting’ in a bad way.”
7-17-22
After church, when Nicole and Allie came to my classroom, Allie told me excitedly that she felt the spirit in Primary. (It seemed she had just told Nicole as well.) She said it was when we were singing a song, and she was looking at the painting of Jesus surrounded by children, as well as another painting (a mother and her son, I believe). She said she cried for joy.
7-22-22
While driving.
Allie: “You’re just an ad. You’re trying to get me to go there.”
Me: “What are you doing, Allie?”
Allie: “The screen is like, ‘You should go here! You should go there! It’s really fun!!’”
8-31-22
Nicole: “To me, LOL is one of the most disgusting things in the entire universe.”
(LOL was some weird bratty teenager cartoons on the cover of a sticker and workbook at Costco.)
9-4-22
Allie to me: “Why did Daddy choose *you*?
Me: “Why do you think he chose me?”
Allison: “Because he thinks you’re the beautifulest woman?”
10-2-22
Allison: “Did Grandma give me a birthday present?”
Us: “Yes, Grandma’s present was the clothes that she bought you. It was like a special present where you got to pick it out with Grandma.”
Allison: “Was Grandpa’s present driving?”
Old quote from 2020 or 2021, when Allison was 2 or 3. Justin sat down at our kitchen table and started talking to her, and she said to him:
“You have a yucky thumb.”
10-3-22
Allison to me, when she was trying to tell me something: “Can you please put your phone down?”
It sounded like something an adult would say.
10-9-22
Random conversation with family:
"The mom was a King Charles cavelier and the dad was a toy poodle."
"The mom was 13 pounds!"
Dad: "That was one determined…"
*Laughter*
SF: "There are just some things I don’t need to see."
10-12-22
Allie: “Boring birthday. ‘Boring birthday’ is what I call grownup birthdays because they don’t get toys. Instead they get cooking stuff…or computers…or whatever grownups have.”
10-14-22
Allison: “What?! It says, ‘Go potty’ there.”
Pointing to the upside down handicap marking on the ground.
“Why does it have that potty sign? Why does it have that ‘Go potty’ sign?”
10-18-22
Nicole: "Can I eat next to Auntie Tana?"
Me: "Sure."
Nicole: "Good. ‘Cause it’s sort of been taking away my appetite."
Me: "What?"
Nicole: "Sitting next to Momo has sort of been taking away my appetite."
Me: "Why?"
Nicole: "It’s sort of disgusting."
10-20-22
I belt out the last note of the flag song.
Allie:
“Mama, you’re going to wake up a baby.”
10-20-22
Referring to the Bonni Bons
Allison: “It all happened on a Friday.”
10-23-22
After guest singer sings new Primary song:
Singing teacher: Do you guys feel that feeling in the room? What does that feel like in your heart?
Rebekah’s son: "I feel like my heart…loves it."
10-25-22
Allison: “Some kids in my class are not ready to be kind. I just say—not in a rude way—that they shouldn’t do it.”
11-9-22
Allie: "Do you think you’re going to have another baby?"
Me: "No, why?"
Allie: "Because, sometimes, when you’re sitting down, I think you’re going to have another baby. Because, when you’re sitting down, it shows this little bump."
Wow, brutally honest.
11-12-22
I was giving a lesson about the Spirit. I asked Allison about the time when she felt the Spirit in Primary, when she reported she “cried for joy.”
Me: “Why did you cry for joy?”
Allison, while curling up in her bed with shyness and excitement or happiness: “I was learning so much that I thought I was so close to Jesus.”
Me: “Did you feel lots of love for Jesus or did you feel His love for you?”
Allison, with a big, shy smile: “His love for me.”
Today, late in the evening, Nicole was outside biking. Allison and I went to look for her, since she was out later than she was supposed to be. We circled around where she was supposed to be, but she wasn't there. We returned a couple minutes later and saw her emerging from the dirt biking paths next to our condo community. When I got closer, I noticed that she was injured. Her knee had a bunch of blood dripping down, and her arms both had scrapes, as well as small scrapes on her hand. I asked her about how she got her injuries, and she started to cry. We came home, and I told her to show Daddy. She was having a hard time and didn't want to show herself, but Daddy came out and spoke positively and reassuringly to her. Eventually, Nicole was calm enough to be in the mindset to take a bath.
Throughout this time, Allison watched. I noticed her at one point cowering a little, appearing scared and empathetic for her sister.
After Daddy was done soothing Nicole, Allison acted like she want to say something to Nicole, which she seemed to think was very important. Standing on the chair that she uses to wash her hands, she was about level with Nicole, who was standing in the bathtub. She stood up tall and confidently, with her hands clasped together in front of her chest in earnest, looked reassuringly into Nicole's eyes, and said firmly and comfortingly, "Nicole, Jesus feels your pain." Then she lost her composure a bit and looked at me and Daddy, and said with a brave smile, "It's actually making my eyes water."
Nicole started her bath, and Allison and I went in the living room. She whispered to me that she was going to make a note for Nicole, and encouraged me to write one too. Later, while I was helping Nicole scrub the dirt out of her wounds, Allison returned with a yellow sock, which she called, "Quack Quack the Duck," and did her best to entertain Nicole with a silly voice. She also returned later to entertain her sister with another sock called, "Stompy Hippo." (She apparently also made "Meow Meow the Cat," but he didn't make it to the puppet show.)
Allison set aside her own fears and used her energy for the rest of the night to lift her sister's spirits. (I might add that Allison likely learned this from Nicole, who has done the same for her.) She was a ball of sunshine and happiness. In one of her declarative moments, Allison said, "I know it's fun to look at cuts, but what's most important is being nice, Jesus, and feeling good."
3-11-22
Nicole: “The new school chocolate milk tastes like chocolate that has been left on the sidewalk for a year.”
3-13-22
I’m teaching a lesson to Allie about Joseph from the Bible.
Me: “How would you feel if Nicole was the favorite child and we treated her special?”
Allie: “I’d be fine.”
3-14-22
After learning they could earn up to $100 to spend at Disney World
Allie, in a trance, whispers: “…One hundred dollars…”
3-14-22
Me: “What color food coloring do you want?”
Allie: “You can choose. But if you choose red, I’ll be proud of you.”
3-17-22
Nicole says most of the kids in her class don’t like sugary things except cookies and ice cream and doughnuts.
Nicole explaining when she tried a Twinkie at school:
“One time, at school, I tried one and the taste was horrible! And it stayed in my mouth! And I just had to live with it for the rest of the day. I couldn’t wash it out!…I tried washing it out…Everyone hated them. Everyone just ran to the sink.”
3-20-22
We found the notes written by Allie a few days ago that said, “sad,” “bad,” “mad,” “and it bracs mi hrat.” Another note in the same series that I had found yesterday read, “havabaddae,” and, “Nicol is so bad.”
Tonight, a few minutes after finding and laughing about the notes together, I was outside their room and heard this. It was so adorable, I scribbled it down immediately.
Allie: “Nicole, do you know what I feel in my heart?”
Nicole: “What.”
Allie: “Peace.”
She proceeds to sing a cheery song: “If you’re feeling mad or bad, just remember. If you’re feeling mad or bad, then you should come to me.” (I posted on YouTube)
3-23-22
Nicole: “Gun! Gun! Gun!”
Mom: “You should try that with boys in your class.”
Dad: “She would probably get in trouble.”
Mom: “Are you allowed to shoot other kids on your playground?”
Nicole bursts into uncontrollable laughter.
3-24-22
Allie: “I eat a lot and I pee a lot. Why does that happen?”
Mom: “Because you’re growing. Little people need to eat a lot, which means they pee and poop a lot.”
Allie: “I’m not little. I’m big.”
3-28-22
Allie, chatting away with her new friend:
“I like bright colors, except makeup because it’s too sparkly, and also, my mom won’t let me wear it.”
4-4-22
Nicole: “Tomorrow, I want to ask Daddy for some jobs.”
Me: “Why?”
Nicole: “Because…he has a voice like Grandpa.”
Me: “What do you mean?”
Nicole: “He has a kind and loving voice.”
4-17-22
Allie saying a prayer:
“Please bless people who are nice to me, like my parents…or sister…sometimes.”
4-22-22
While watching Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade:
Indiana Jones: "Oh rats."
Allie: "I love rats…uh-oh! Don’t step on the rats!"
Me: "Why not?"
Allie: "They [the rats] might die."
...(Defending them) "That’s just how they live!"
5-14-22
Allie: “Daddy shouldn’t have boughten flowers for you.”
Me: “Do you know why he bought them? To make me happy.”
Allie: “Well, flowers die, and that makes people sad. Because they don’t look pretty when they die.”
Funny story from Daddy's childhood:
He was about sixteen years old, and his grandma said to him, “You must be breaking all the girls’ hearts.”
He said, “Oh, I don’t think I’m allowed to date.”
And his grandma looked at his mom like she was so angry. And she said, “You should be out taking girls to get ice cream.”
5-20-22
Allie: “Did they put up a gate when they built our house?”
Me: “Probably, to keep people safe.”
Nicole reiterates what I said and gives a brief lecture in support of it.
Allie gives her own lecture: “That’s what they do! But it doesn't matter because they’re trying to keep people safe, you know.”
5/21/22
Allie: "Nicole, will you please read?"
Nicole: "No, not now."
Allie: "Nicole's being mean to me!"
Me: "That's not being mean. She just doesn't want to read."
Allie: "Nicole's being nice to me zero percent."
12/3/21
After I brushed Allie’s teeth.
Allie: “I don’t want to interrupt my dentist. I’m saying, I don’t want to move around while my dentist is working on my teeth. I want to be nice to my dentist.”
She can be very courteous to some people.
12/13/21
Nicole describing how her rash feels when she’s at school:
“Sometimes, it feels like someone is taking a needle and putting it in these red dots [on my arms] and putting it really really deep, like all the way through, and then leaving it in for five seconds, and then taking it out.”
“It feels like my arms are on fire, and then people are putting nails in the red dots on my arms.”
12/27/21
Allie: “I need someone to supervise me.”
1/9/22
Allison pulls up a photo on my phone of a frog dissection model.
Allison: “His small intestines are showing! How lovely, we get to eat his small intestines!”
Nicole bursts into tears. “The frog died!”
Me: “It’s just a model, Nicole. It’s not real.”
Allison lectures: “Models are not real.”
1/10/22
Discussing bacon around the dinner table, Nicole says, “I don’t like crunchy bacon. I like chewy bacon.”
Allison says, “I like crunchy bacon. I like to hear the crunchy crunch.”
1/11/22
Describing a picture she’s drawing, Allie:
“It rolls like a rolling bug, except it eats…bacon.”
1/11/22
Allie, randomly: “I don’t want people to die.”
Me: “Why do you say that?”
Allie: “Because then people will say, ‘Oh, Allie doesn’t care about people.’”
Reading her a book about the planets, it describes Venus as a dusty and dry place where it never rains.
I ask, “Would you like to live there?”
Allie: “Well, I like to play in the rain. I like to hear the ‘splish splash.’”
1/12/22
Allie, talking to Nicole’s friend:
“Make sure not to step on spiders, when I was little, I stepped on a spider and I felt bad.”
1/20/22
After overcoming constipation following a prayer, and Allie was delighted that it didn’t hurt when the poop came out:
Allie: “When I was a baby, I used to think, ‘Heavenly Father and Jesus, they’re not real!’ But now I think they’re real.”
1/24/22
Allison’s catchphrase: “I’m fine with everything.”
Also, from today:
Allie: “You’re a very nice mom, but you’re also, like…strict.”
1/27/22
Allison, describing how to do a head stand, which she learned at tumbling class:
“You gotta not let your head touch the ground. You gotta have straight elbows. But when they say, ‘No elbows!’ I think they’re going to cut off your elbows.’”
1/28/22
Reading to Allie from a science book about flowers.
Allie: “Mommy, some flowers, like Panahhma flowers, don’t exist.”
2/10/22
Allison:
“When I grow up, what I want to be is a taster.”
“Why do you want to be a taster?”
“Because I like meat.”
2/14/22
Me: “Let’s go!”
Allison, sifting through the hair ties, bows and headbands: “Hold on, I need to decorate myself first.”
2/20/22
Allison was trying to take off her shoe, and her face was bright red, and she yelled,
“Ku-BYE-uh-BYE-uh-BAH!”
3/4/22
Allison, with a Downton Abbey British accent: “Mommy, can you pleeease check Nicole’s wooork?”
Later
Nicole: “I think the reason why Ben goes to speech [therapy] is because he has a British accent.”
3/7/22
Nicole was upset because Allison was playing with her hair as Nicole was lounging on the couch. Then, we realized Allison was just trying to put Nicole's wet hair up on the couch so it wouldn't wet her back.
Me: “Oh, were you just trying to put her hair behind the couch?”
Allison: “Yeah.”
Me: “Were you trying to help out?”
Allison: “Yeah, because that's more comfortable to me.”
Below are all the quotes I wrote in one document on my phone. There may be repeats. If I go through them all to make sure they've never been posted here, they may never make it onto here.
1/31/21
Allie, singing Pirates of Penzance:
"How beautiful his tail, how rare his beauty
How beautiful his BUTT."
(The real lyrics are: "How pitiful his tale, how rare his beauty...")
2/3/21
Nicole after seeing My Fair Lady: “Wait, is that the end?? How did they solve the problem?!
Another time...
Allie: "Does alcohol change your bum like brown?"
Me: "No."
Allie: "What does it change? What does it change????"
3/5/21
Allie pauses while eating her soup: “I was actually not expecting this. I was expecting...peas.”
2/26/21
Nicole’s face all scrunched up and confused: “This doesn’t sound like music.” (Italics)
3/6/21
Nicole: “Wow, that’s a lot of poop!”
Allie looks up and smiles coyly, and says: “Indeed.”
3/29/21
Allie: “Mommy, all my dolls already ate fluoride, including the cheetah—it’s lost, but it already ate fluoride.”
4/8/21
(After I put lotion on Allie.)
Allie: “Trying to eat,” she whined. “Why did you disturb me??”
Another time...
Allie: “May I please have one a different of a blanket?”
4/9/21
Allie
did all the CVC flash cards Auntie sent her. After reading the word,
“pip,” she said, “That is not a very nice word. It’s weird.”
Sometime in March 2021:
Daddy says to Allie, “Can you elaborate please?”
Allie opens her eyes wide in concentration and gurgles.
4/11/21
Nicole, after presenting her Primary lesson to the bishop's wife and their children:
“You may now...escape.”
April 2021
Me: “You can have a little bit of cereal.”
Allie: “I’m scared of a little bit of cereal!”
Nice try.
4/23/21
Allie to Nicole: “I pip you. A ‘pip’ is another word for seed.”
5/14/21
Allie: “I wouldn’t say, ‘bald.’ That’s a weird word. ‘Bald’ means you have no hair.”
5/18/21
The
wind kept blowing Allie’s paper that she was trying to hold down with
rocks. Finally, an exasperated Allison yells, “Exhausting!”
5/20/21
What Nicole said about the chocolate milkshake that she didn’t like:
“It kind of tastes like a garden. A garden that has never been watered, or cared for, or loved.”
At
the RS activity tonight, we were painting and there was also some
chocolate in the middle of the table. I ate some and gave a piece to
Allie. She asked for some more but I said that was enough. I turn
around to socialize and when I turn back to our table, I see Allie has
painted with a Q-tip in purple paint, “choclit.” You know what her mind
was on.
Sensory details:
Nicole’s description of what it felt like to put lotion on her broken skin:
“It felt like it was on fire and someone was pinching it over and over again.”
6/5/21
At the track meet in the sun, Nicole:
“It feels like someone lit me on fire and put hot water all over me that is a thousand degrees.”
6/6/21
Conversations with Nicole:
Nicole: “I hope a girl wins.”
Me: “Why?”
Nicole: “Because, if a boy wins, he’ll probably be all selfish.”
“They’re gonna lose! Yay!”
“You want those girls to lose?”
“Yeah.”
“Why?”
“Well, those girls are ‘Barbie Babies,’ and Barbies are bad!”
“Do you know what Barbies are?”
“Yeah, they’re these little toys that other girls like to play with.”
6/17/21
Nicole: “The only cakes I like are Brazilian cakes. They’re spongy, I like the sponginess. Other cakes are like crackers.”
6/29/21
Allie, around sunset: “It’s a beautiful world. It’s a beautiful world…[I could] stay outside forever.” With a sigh, “It’s a lovely night.”
9-7-21
Nicole: “...and then I would have a
thousand dollars, and I would be rich, and I don’t want to be rich.
Plus, people would think I was cool, and I don’t want to be cool; I want
to be ugly.”
Allie: “You’re ugly right now.”
Nicole: “Thank you.”
10/12/21
Alarm
goes off on the way to pick Nicole up from school.
Allie sings along,
“Time to leave, time to leave.” She chuckles, “We’re already leaving,
Bud.”
10/25/21
Nicole describes her painful brain freeze: “It felt like my brain was about to be split in half.”
11/6/21
Nicole: “Okay Allie, you won Quaker.”
Allie: “One, two, three, talk!”
“Okay!…”
Another time...
Allie speaks something that no one understands. “Seh Fwah, foo tup, put on.”
Daddy: “I didn’t understand any of those words.”
11/7/21
Allie: “I’m fine with everything. I mean I’m happy with everything. I’m happy if it’s good, I’m fine if it’s bad.”
11/21/21
Allie is holding her baby doll in her lap and starts singing very loudly, “…You failed to kill the alien!…”
11/21/21
Nicole interviewing Allison about which necklace pendants she liked:
Nicole: “What if I gave you this one?”
Allison: “I would have a smile on my face but I wouldn’t be happy.”
Yesterday, Nicole and Allison were being rotten to each other, so I separated them and put them into time-out for a while. I later had them apologize to each other and say something nice to each other. Allison, with a big smile, squeezed Nicole in a giant hug. Nicole, however, remained a cold statue, so I sent her back to time-out. Allison asked why I had sent Nicole back to time-out. I told her it's because Nicole hadn't forgiven her. Allison said, "I don't care if she forgives me."
"What do you care about?" I asked.
"I care about Nicole," she said.
 |
| At the butterfly world |
Tonight, I read the children's book, Chrysanthemum, to Allison. In the book, Chrysanthemum loves her name...until she goes to school. At school, everyone has short names, like Jo, Pat, Max, Eve, Sue, and Rita. The other children think Chrysanthemum's name is too long, and it doesn't even fit on her name tag. I asked Allison how she thinks Chrysanthemum should feel. "Fine," she said. I asked her how she would feel if she were Chrysanthemum and all the children thought her name was too long. She said, "Fine." I asked her what she thinks Chrysanthemum should do. She said, "Maybe she should make her name 'Chrys.'"
 |
| Guess which uncle the one in black pencil is |
 |
| We like to call this "the sad ghost." |
 |
| Sewing by Allison, under Grandma's supervision |
 |
| Paintings by Allison |
Yesterday, Nicole told me that they visited another class where they ate mealworms. In her straightforward, no-nonsense, sincere way, she said, "I ate five of them. They were really good." She told the other students right afterward, at lunch, that she liked the mealworms, and they just sat there and stared at her. Finally Janie said, "I don't believe you." Apparently, a bunch of the kids who ate the mealworms felt sick afterward (because they had lunch right after), and one boy felt so badly that he was going to throw up that he wore an N95 mask.
Another doozy - Nicole's teacher told the class that her older brother was chopping wood once and wasn't paying attention and chopped his thumb off, and then she showed a slide of his severed thumb to the class. Nicole said that a bunch of the students closed their eyes or felt sick, but, in her own words, "I was perfectly fine. I was like, 'Huh, interesting.'" Hahaha
One more to showcase the unique value of Nicole's teacher - The teacher was teaching them about the human body, and they were studying the stomach that day. So they filled plastic bags with a whole bunch of food and stuff and squeezed it around to look like the inside of a stomach, and then Nicole's teacher reported that Conrad had thrown up. I can only approve of this science lesson.
Nicole and Allie decided to make a card for me today. Allie drew her picture first, then Nicole. I like it!
Today, Daddy was giving a church lesson to the children about us being created in the image of God; ie. human beings have bodies like God's body. So he asks Allison, "What does Jesus have that's a part of his body?"
She says, "Skeleton?"
"What else?"
"Uh, lungs??"
So Daddy searches for a picture of Jesus and shows it to Nicole. "Nicole, what else does Jesus have?"
Nicole: "A brain?"
Allie: "Skin?"
Daddy: "What else do you see in the picture?"
Allie: "The sky?"
Finally, after further prompting, they give normal answers like "eyes" and "a chin."
Strange children.
As I may have mentioned before, Nicole seems to have a talent for head-cocking and, at times, mercilessly critical descriptions. Here are some things that Nicole has said that I've jotted down over the past several months. I've put them in descending order by date so my favorite can be the last:
10-25-21
Nicole describes her painful brain freeze: "It felt like my brain was about to be split in half."
6-17-21
Nicole: “The only cakes I like are Brazilian cakes. They’re spongy, I like the sponginess. Other cakes are like crackers.” (Not a very good endorsement of other cakes.)
6-5-21
At the track meet in the sun, Nicole:
"It feels like someone lit me on fire and put hot water all over me that is a thousand degrees."
5-20-21
Nicole’s description of what it felt like to put lotion on her broken skin:
"It felt like it was on fire and someone was pinching it over and over again."
What Nicole said about the chocolate milkshake that she didn’t like:
“It kind of tastes like a garden. A garden that has never been watered, or cared for, or loved.”
****************
At the end of September, we attended the local harvest festival, where Nicole and Allison had way too much fun.
We went to the festival once with Daddy, and returned a few days later with just me and the kids. On our return visit, we discovered the "kids only" section. There was an amazing two story castle with dress-ups and a Cinderella carriage. Nicole and Allie donned adorable dresses and were having such a charming time when they suddenly discovered the world beyond the fence. Staring through the fence, they saw a world that was better than the one they were living in. "How can we get in there?" they asked.
So we left the castle and the princess carriage and the dress-ups and entered the mini village, which read at the entrance, "For 12 years and under."
Nicole and Allie were each whisked away into two entirely different fantasies. Nicole was dressed up like a police woman and kept running around the village in chaos; at one time, she sprinted past me shouting urgently, "A case to solve! A case to solve!" Juveniles were running around all over the place, often in police uniform or fireman attire; there was tons of shouting and crime; arrests were being made left and right. So many events were happening at once, I have no idea what went on there.
Meanwhile, Allison discovered the nursery school, where she acquired a baby in a car seat. She peacefully tended to all her baby's needs, and then ventured out into the village. She moseyed around the village, stopping by the ice cream parlor, pausing to adjust her baby's car seat straps amidst the doughnuts and ice cream all over the floor. She later returned to the nursery to tend to her baby, and managed to gain another baby, who she placed in a car seat. She visited the local schoolhouse, where she sat against the wall listening to the school teacher's lecture--her babies in car seats placed carefully beside her. At one point, she took both babies with her for a ride in the car. Wanting to investigate something, she left the babies alone beside the car briefly. But when she returned a moment later, the babies were gone! One of the ever vigilant teenage workers had whisked the babies away, and was already striding toward the nursery to put them in their rightful place. Allison looked around, wondering. Where could her babies be? As a witness to the crisis, I quickly pointed Allison in the direction of the kidnapper, tipping her off that the nursery would be her best bet. Allison arrived only barely in time. Other children were already clamoring to claim her babies. She competently fought them off with stern words, "That was my baby," and perhaps a bit of gentle force. She soon learned the hazard of governing two babies in a community of 2 to 4-year-olds, as she often had to divert her attention to fend off other children from one baby while she had been busy tending to the other. And, of course, now having her attention on that baby, the other becomes a target. And so on.
