Playing With Toys

     Hunter and Bella are silly. They argue all the time about all sorts of stupid things. Just this morning Hunter wanted to sit where Bella was sitting and he went over and just stared at her hoping she would get up and sit somewhere else so he could have the spot they both covet. Usually she leaves because she knows he will just keep on bugging her until she does. This morning she decided not to let him get his way and she refused to move.

     Just yesterday I brought home a toy for each of them, the exact same toy so they wouldn’t have anything to fight about, or at least that was my hope. They both followed me when I came in the house with the bag of stuff I bought from the store. They were fairly patient as they watched me put the groceries in the refrigerator.

     Then when I finally got to the last two items in the bag their eyes got big when they saw I was taking two toys out. Rather than have them make a mess on the floor with the packaging I decided to take the toys out of the cellophane wrappers before I handed them over.

     Their eyes were glued to the toys and I took the wrapping off and handed each of them a toy. Hunter took his toy and quietly went over by the couch to play with it. They were noisy toys and he delighted in the noise his was making. Instead of playing with her toy Bella just watched Hunter excitedly playing with his. She barely even touched her toy and just kept watching him play with his. I could tell she wanted to take his toy away. She is three years older than him and has always loved to steal his toys. He frequently tries to hide when he gets a new toy so she can’t steal it. She gets really mean and threatens to beat him up when he won’t let her have it.

     I thought I had solved the problem by getting them the exact same toy. Same toy, no reason to covet it, or want to steal it, or so I thought. Wrong I was. She didn’t want him to even have a toy it seemed.

     The last time I gave him a toy she waited for him to get tired of playing with it for half an hour. She watched him intensely and walked around waiting for him to quit playing with it. He finally got even with her. When he broke it he tore it up so she didn’t have any reason to want to steal it. It worked. When he left the broken toy on the floor she didn’t even pick it up. He finally won a battle.

     Pretty smart on his part I thought. This made me think that they were making progress in getting along with other, at least as far as playing with toys anyway. I figured that by buying them the exact same toy there wouldn’t be a problem anymore but she dropped her toy on the floor and just stared at him playing with his as soon as I handed them out. He wins again and he didn’t even have to tear up his toy this time.

     Back to this morning, Hunter of course came back to where Bella is lying at the front door and she starts snarling at him as soon as he approaches her. Maybe he won by not letting her have his toy but she isn’t going to let him make her leave the spot on the floor by the front door where you can look out the window and see all the action outside. It is especially cool when a cat or a squirrel walks by.

    Like I said, Bella and Hunter are silly.