Little Miss Adorable and Baby Dunk
Baby Dunk spends nearly every waking moment in the company of Little Miss Adorable. Their relationship has evolved with the growing Baby Dunk. Baby Dunk is a typically developing one year old (actually 14 month old, but who’s counting, anyway). Little Miss Adorable is a tiny preschooler with Prader-Willi Syndrome. Three year old Little Miss Adorable is about the same size as baby Dunk and is now seriously lagging behind him in terms of gross motor ability.
But what she lacks in strength and speed, she makes up for in stealth and cunning. Siting unsupervised in the double side-by-side stroller she’d reach over and pinch poor Baby Dunk or pull his hair. She has been known to bite his fingers. She’ll steal his pacifier and he howls. Little Miss Adorable would then sit in the stroller beside the sobbing Baby Dunk, looking angelic, with his pacifier in her mouth.
Little Miss Adorable used to ‘mommy’ newborn Baby Dunk as only a toddler could. As a defenceless newborn he’d lie still while Little Miss Adorable stripped him naked and removed his diaper. She’d give him his pacifier on demand and forcibly remove him from his car seat so *her* baby dolls could sit in it.
As Baby Dunk’s motor skills progressed along a typical trajectory, Little Miss Adorable became his accomplice and partner in crime as they push-pulled and emptied their way through every container in our home. Now Baby Dunk is a very strong and active one year old in a quest to speed crawl his way through the world, demolishing most things in his path.
Baby Dunk has knocked Little Miss Adorable over countless times, and will try to remove things from her hands. He pulls and she yells. In terms of sheer brute strength, Baby Dunk wins hands down. Baby Dunk has knocked out one of Hubby’s teeth, bruised my orbital bone, and nearly broke my nose. Even our doctor is afraid to give Baby Dunk his vaccinations. See Dunk-Dunk Attacks for more on this one.
Little Miss Adorable is a tiny three year old who bum shuffles her way through life, holding onto her army of baby dolls. Little Miss Adorable has figured out how to bum shuffle and push her doll stroller with a baby doll inside and a mommy purse slung over the handle bars. Everyone in our household knows all the baby doll stuff is the exclusive property of Little Miss Adorable. If her babies are threatened by her marauding brothers she’ll yell, ‘NO! MINE!!” and we rescue the baby dolls.
One day Little Miss Adorable was pushing her stroller, purse and baby doll through the kitchen. She announced she was going shopping. Baby Dunk raced around the corner, speed crawling to the stroller. He grabbed the stroller and tried to use it to stand up with.
A tug-of-war ensured and Little Miss Adorable was yelling bloody murder, “NOOO!!! MY BABIES!!!!” Baby Dunk refused to let go of the stroller.
Suddenly, Little Miss Adorable let go of the stroller and launched herself at Baby Dunk. She pinned him in to the ground in a bear hug, still yelling, “NOOO!!! MINE!!!”
Flattened and surprised, Baby Dunk crawled away. Little Miss Adorable returned to sorting out her baby and purse.
I was astounded – I had never seen her do anything like this before. This is the Little Miss Adorable who sees a Speech Language Pathologist, an Occupational Therapist and a Physiotherapist?
It looks like mama bear instinct can lead to super-powers in preschoolers.