Molly has shown a very sweet, empathetic side lately.  Her sister is still having some occasional jitters from kindergarten, coming hope grumpy and sometimes very sad.  Tonight, Claire had an especially hard time and was standing in the living room sobbing about something we didn’t understand.  Kit and I were trying to comfort her, without much success, when Molly decided to give it a try too.  Molly patted Claire on the back a bit, and then she ran into the play room to grab a teddy bear.  She handed the bear to Claire, and in fact sort of insisted that she take it.  Then Molly clapped her hands and ran off to get some more stuffed animals to deliver to her poor sister.  Eventually Claire was completely covered by stuffed animals, compliments of Molly.  And right about then, Claire finally cracked a tiny smile, also compliments of Molly.  Not long after, the two girls were off playing together.  Kit and I could never cheer Claire up like that!

Molly’s teacher tells us that she has done this routine before for one of her classmates, Lexi, who was sad after being dropped off at school.  Molly patted her on the back until she stopped crying, brought her a toy, and eventually led to her into the room to play.  Molly has this down pat!