Today was the Christmas party at Lisa's. A couple weeks ago, the kids drew names and we bought a gift for another kid ($10 value).
Zach and I came to the party. Most parents couldn't be there- working, obviously. One other set of parents was there with their baby (Brooklyn, whome T calls Broccoli, and who was born premature and is now 8 months old and just hit 12 pounds).
Anyway, Lisa gathers the kids around the tree. I think she had... 6 or 7 kids today. Anyway, Teagan was already up from her nap when I got there and was eager to find out which present was hers. She was so polite about it. Asked frequently but wasn't pushy or annoying about it. So Lisa starts handing out gifts. Each kid is getting a gift from her and then their exchange gift. She's passing out gifts as she pulls them from the tree. Then Teagan has none and every kids has 2. Teagan keeps politely asking. And she has this sad and worried look on her face. And it takes EVERYTHING I have to not jump up and take over for her. She is not upset but my heart is breaking because she's not getting the same treatment.
Lisa finally finds a gift for Teagan- the one from her. Teagan gets it but won't open it. She wants "2 gifts" because she sees that every other kid has 2. So she sits and waits. And waits.
Lisa has a family member (I think it's her MIL) who helps out several days a week. Nana Troudy. She has brought gifts for the kids and there is chaos as Lisa is handing those out. Another 2 gifts for each kid. Somewhere in there, Lisa finds T's exchange gift and hands it to her.
The gift from Lisa was Dora Memory which T has.
The exchange gift was a baby doll.
And Nana Troudy left Teagan's gifts at home.
Teagan... I watched her to see if she was going to catch on... and I could tell that she knew... and she totally was understanding that the gifts were forgotten...
My baby was so excited to help the littler kids open their gifts. And she helped her close friends (Kyle, her BFF, and Kristina who is an older girl who is developmentally delayed) with their gifts and was so excited for them.
She was disappointed in being forgotten but was so genuinely happy for the others... it warmed my heart. I wanted to jump in and fix the unfairness but instead, I sat back and let my daughter teach my a valuable lesson in what fairness really means.
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