Throwing

The other afternoon, P1 and P2 were upstairs playing when I heard P2 crying.  I went upstairs to see what happened and Presley told me that Paxten had thrown a ball at her and hit her so she threw one back.  Presley wasn't crying, so obviously, Paxten's ball didn't hurt Presley the way Presley's ball hurt Paxten.  I explained to Presley why it is important not to do this and how Paxten doesn't know any better.  She seemed to understand.

To myself, I wonder how Paxten could have thrown a ball at Presley OR if she even threw a ball at all.  I have no way of knowing what really happened, so my only option is to believe Presley.  I didn't want to punish her in case she was telling the truth either.

Ten minutes after this happened, I walked back into the room just in time to see left handed Paxten launching a ball across the room.  I'm serious.  I walked in as she was throwing a ball towards Presley.  Presley was about 3 feet in front of Paxten bending down and playing with something, and the ball that left Paxten's hand sailed over Presley's head and traveled a distance of no less than eight (8) feet.  If Presley had been standing up, chances are it would have hit her in the face, and this was a hard, solid plastic ball, so it would have hurt.  I told Paxten "no-no" and that "we don't throw things,"  and she knew exactly what I was talking about.  I watched her the rest of the afternoon, and one other time she started throwing something back and forth with Presley, and I had to remind them both that we don't throw things.  Obviously, I had put the hard solid plastic ball away.

I really don't know what this means.  Maybe I am impressed because Presley really doesn't throw very well and definitely could not throw anything at 18 months, but I know for sure, we're going to have to watch Paxten.  She is already displaying traits of aggressiveness that Presley has never displayed.  This doesn't mean she is a bad kid by any means, but Presley was and is sweeter than almost any kid I know. (Ignore the retaliation in the first paragraph above.)

I would also like to add that although I don't condone Paxten throwing things, her form when she threw the ball was perfect. She stepped with the opposite foot and everything.  That is not natural in all kids, including her sister and daddy and uncle.

I love both of my girls for all of the ways that they are alike and all the ways that they are different.