My Little Blue Monster

“Mom! Help me! Mom!”

I’m in front of my vanity curling my hair when suddenly I hear these blood curdling screams from my daughter. In an instant I am tearing down the hall toward her and as I turn the corner to the living room,

I see my seven-year-old daughter flattened on the floor, spread eagled and screaming “Get Him Off Me!” The him was my two-year-old son. He was on top of her just pounding away with his tiny little fists, giggling the whole time.

The reaction she was expecting from me was not the one she got. Once I caught my breath and took in the scene, I started laughing. Here was my four-and-a-half-foot, strong as an ox daughter being completely undone by a two-foot, red-headed, green-eyed monster in a royal blue Dr. Denton sleeper with footies. “Carly,” I said, “Stand up!” “Stand up, he’ll fall off you.”

Amazingly, since she was still yelling, she actually heard my words.

I saw her expression change from fear to empowerment the moment she changed her mind about who had the power in this situation.

She opened her eyes, stopped screaming and got up. And with one good shove, down the little blue monster slid—right off her and onto the carpet in a puddle of blue. Without looking back, she stepped right over him and went back to the other room to watch TV.

The moral of this story: Sometimes huge problems are nothing more than a little blue monster.