Good Intentions

"Merrily we roll along, roll along, roll along..." Sweet voices sing songs on the two-minute trip to daycare. Happy as clams, they sing and clap in their matching car seats. Pulling up to daycare is no different than any other day. Bea hops out first and comes through the driver side door and she runs up to the front door and begins knocking to be let in. I pull Olivia out as normal and after she demands "I walk", I put her down and she runs up to the door and knocks along with her sister.

As we enter the front room, the girls are still all smiles and full of laughter. Winston is there. The girls love this little caged cocktail that seems a little frightened of all the little faces around it. But, he somehow pulls through the situation with ease. The girls are yelling "MOMMY SEE WINSTON??? DO YOU SEE HIM??? HE'S HAPPY!!!!" I acknowledge Winston and go to sign the girls in.

Out of the back room comes another one of the girls from daycare who we'll call Betty. She is about a year and a half older than Bea. Betty is bossy at times, loveable at others. She has a thing with Bea where she is either very nice to her or very mean and bossy. It looked as if today was going to be a nice day, and Betty comes running up to Bea and the following conversation takes place:

Betty screeches: HI BEA!!! GUESS WHAT????
Bea states in monotone: Hi Betty. What?
Betty: You won't believe this, but I lost my ring!!!
Bea: Oh (Bea had lost her necklace the day before so it is a mystery all of this missing jewelry or if Betty is being a copycat.)
Betty: Are you gonna help me find it?
Bea: Um
Betty: Bea, you gotta help me find it!!!
Bea: What? Your ring?
Betty: Yes, my ring!

Then, wonder of all wonders, Bea puts on a smile like I have never seen because it looked so fake but also sincere at the same time, and she says, "I'm sorry to hear about your ring, Betty. Maybe you can get a new one?"

The whole time she is acting nice and saying the right words. As soon as that conversation ends, Bea runs over to me and grabs my leg. I go down to her level to give her a hug and kiss her goodbye. She pulls my hair over my ear and comes in close to whisper, "Mama, I do NOT want to talk or play with BETTY." Did she really just...nah, not Bea. Oh, but she did. She really did. So I tell her that's okay, and that she can play with the other kids, but to always be nice to everyone.

I'd like to think that everyone in this world could just get along. But, you know me, I am always living in that dream world. As adults, of course there are people that we don't necessarily get along with, but we have to be nice because we work with these people or they know someone that knows someone that knows so-and-so. But, did you ever think that a three year old could put on this, I'm not even sure what to call it, fake face? Happy face? I-don't-like-you-but-I'm-gonna-be-nice-to-you-face? Believe it. I've seen it live.

Talk about learning early. Who did she learn this from? Serious pats on the back for whoever it was, because seriously, she could have whacked her on the head Olivia-style and yelled "I DON'T WANNA PLAY WITH YOU!"