Two Against One

The Shoe Thief

Ailsa has a habit of chewing on the bottom of people's shoes. She especially loves to chew on Zoe's shoes- yum! Obviously, we are discouraging this habit but it doesn't help when Zoe is encouraging her by giving her shoes!

The other day both girls were playing on the mats. I took off Zoe's shoes and Ailsa quickly grabbed one and started going to town on it. Much to her dismay, I took the shoe away and placed both shoes well out of either girls' reach. As I did this, I said something like, "Zoe has been walking around school all day, her shoes are dirty. Shoes are not for eating." I left the room to get something and when I returned, I could hear Zoe giggling- always a sign she is up to no good!

As I peeked into the living room, I saw two things going on simultaneously:

1. Ailsa was loudly vocalizing at Zoe while reaching one hand toward the desired shoe. After years of having a non-verbal child, we have learned to interpret body language and vocalizations. But I think this would have been pretty obvious to anyone watching. If Ailsa could speak, she would be saying, "Sister, grab me that shoe!"

2. Zoe was deliberately rolling back in forth to reposition herself next to the shoes. All the while she was giggling her head off. I interpreted this to mean, "Don't worry sister- I'm on it!"

Zoe finally positioned her self close enough to the shoes. She grabbed the shoe and handed it to the very excited Ailsa who immediately began chewing on it. All of this was quite hilarious to Zoe who then did a double roll away from Ailsa and the shoes and began innocently playing with a toy. When I entered the room and said, "How did you get that shoe?" Zoe looked at me with a very serious face and said nothing.

Hmmm, perhaps we shouldn't be encouraging the girls to communicate so well!

This picture is kind of dark but you can see how Zoe rolled away from "the scene of the crime."