Monday, April 19, 2010

The night Olive called DFS


Friday night we took Madeline's bopoo away. I want to clarify, the Bopoo Fairy took them. We told Madeline that when a kid grows up the Bopoo Fairy (BF) visits and takes the bops to babies who need them, and leaves a big girl present. We've been talking this up for months. On Thursday, Madeline told us that the BF was coming on Sunday. (Let it be known that she knows the names of the days, but not the difference between them.) So she left a note for the BF asking her to bring her a baby with a doctor kit (one they sell at Target).
Then, Friday morning rolls around and Madeline told us, and anyone that would listen, that the BF fairy was coming to her house that night. We went with it.

As bed time approached she balked a bit saying she didn't want the BF to come. Then the crying started. She through a massive tantrum, the likes of which I have never seen before. She sobbed, she begged, she pleaded, she tried to reason, she threw books and flung her body to the ground. It was grief in its most raw form.

Have you heard about the seven stages of grief? Shock and denial? Check. Pain and guilt? Check. Anger and bargaining? Check. Depression, reflection, loneliness? Check.
It was heart breaking.


Look at that sweet face. You wouldn't want her to cry either. You'd want to give her back her bops and try again before she left for college.

I was heart broken.

So why would Olive* call DFS?

Madeline's emotions were raw and loud. She cried and kicked and screamed for more than an hour.
Olive sat outside her door as she cried looking at me like, "well, why aren't you doing anything about this?" Then Lydia started crying. Two shrill alarms to make Olive totally loose her mind. Eventually she just went down stairs but not without first looking up the hot line number on the internet.

Man it was hard. I have never seen Madeline that emotional. And she is my little drama queen.
Even before bedtime I was concerned with how she would react. I almost felt like we were taking away a friend. Although she only had her bop in bed and I'd say 90% of the time when I'd check on her at night her bop wouldn't be in her mouth, she still used the bop to calm down and relax at night.
That night she cried herself to sleep. I almost wanted to do the same. I was simply sad for her.

The next morning she woke up a 6am (about an hour and a half earlier than normal). She was still sad, but she had slept through the night so I call that a success. Then Saturday night she cried for another hour. This time she just kept asking if I could get her one of her sister's bopoos. Oh, that girl is clever. Eventually she fell asleep.

Yesterday, she didn't ask for it. She didn't cry. She fell asleep without issue.

Tonight, she asked if she could have her bopoo but didn't cry when I told her the Bopoo Fairy took them with her when she left her big girl present.


She is growing up. Although I knew we had to take the bopoo away it is still such a huge deal in her young life. Just one more step to being my very big girl.

__________
*Meet Olive.


mg

3 comments:

Bridget said...

So where's the pic of your big girl with her BF reward???? Did she get the doll w/doctor kit?

Molly said...

She did get the doll with the Dr. kit, and man, is it fancy! You squeeze the hand, the baby laughs... then it's cheeks glow red & it starts coughing, then hacking. It hacks till you give it a shot (in a little hole in one of her bum-cheeks). Then it cries. Then you give it medicine in a spoon and it sucks that up till it burps. Then it's cheeks stop glowing red and it laughs. It's awesome! And only a little scary.

I also was there on Sat. night when bedtime occurred. It broke my heart, too. I've never heard such desperate pleading. I got teary eyed myself. Mo does not exaggerate the raw emotion. It was awful.

Bridget said...

....my name is sickly Tina and I need medical attention......