Soft touches

Every day we get a sheet from Mia's teacher that says what she ate, what the class did and all info. It's always funny to read because they usually eat something (like enchiladas) that I can't imagine feeding one child, let alone six.

But today we got a note that was decidedly unfunny.

What does that say? Let's take a closer look.

What?!? Hitting? OK, so apparently this is what happened. Mia stole a toy from her little friend/nemesis, Troyce. Well, this flew directly in the face of the the No. 1 thing listed on the class activity sheet: practice sharing. So her teacher took the toy, handed it back to Troyce and explained to Mia that it's not OK to just take things from people.

So Mia decides to smack Troyce. And then she walks around the circle and smacks each of the other children one at a time.

Seriously? She's like a tiny, adorable mobster! I imagine that she said in baby babble, "You see what happens when I don't get my toy?" She probably makes them pay 10 percent of their snacks as a protection fee.

Leigh's mom gave us some really great advice about how to handle this. We're pulling her hand down and saying, "Ow. That hurts. I don't like when you hit me. We use soft touches in this family." We've been praising soft touches like crazy. She probably wonders why on earth we're clapping for her every time she touches us or the dogs without smacking anyone.

Hopefully this strategy will work. Or maybe she'll give us a cut of her snacktime take.