BFF or Nemesis?

Today's Blog is introducing a new character in Mellie's life.  Her name is Paisley, and she is about two weeks younger than Mellie.  Paisley is another one of the children that Ms. Betty cares for at her home day care.  Being that they are both girls, similar in age, and have been going to Ms. Betty's since they were each about six weeks old, they spend a lot of time together.  Here is a picture of Paisley taken back in March.  Honestly, she was in the background, but it's all I have got.  She is actually a lot cuter than this picture indicates.

Now let me tell you about Paisley's personality.  Unlike Mellie, she is a very content baby.  As such, Mellie was crawling for I want to say two months before Paisley started crawling.  Mellie took her first step near the end of her tenth month (she is now thirteen months) and now walks EVERYWHERE.  Ms. Betty told me today that Paisley is still rather unsteady on her feet (remember this for later).

From the time that Mellie started crawling, she has a love/hate relationship with Paisley.  The first stories I would hear were that Mellie woud take all the baby toys to the other side of the room and leave them there so Paisley couldn't play with them (when Mellie was crawling and Paisley was not).  Then, Paisley started crawling.  One day, shortly after Mellie started crawling, I personally witnessed Mellie crawl up to Paisley (who is chubbier and weighs more than Mellie) and she either tried to shove Paisley, or take a toy from her (I forget.  Clearly, my near photographic memory is not any use when I actually need it!).  Paisley responded by pushing Mellie back.  Mellie than proceeded to crawl as fast as her hands and knees could take her to me and "tell" on Paisley by crying and otherwise having a hissy fit.  I told her that it was about time Paisley started standing up for herself.

Most recently, the stories from Ms. Betty are generally related to Mellie pulling Paisley's hair (Paisley was born with a flop of dark hair on the crown of her hair, which has lightened significantly, but she still has TONS more hair than Mellie has).  She then laughs when Paisley starts crying (understandable - I have also been the victim of Mellie's hair-pulling, and it HURTS!  I have had to start tying my hair back at all times as a result.  And yes, she laughs when I indicate that her pulling my hair is painful).  There has been at least one incident of her grabbing Paisley's hair and then "bouncing" Paisley's head up and down (I'm sure this was in a friendly manner) while in time out for doing the exact same thing to another, younger, baby.  Paisley was just dumb I mean unlucky enough to get too close to Mellie in her time out.

So, it sounds like they hate other, doesn't it?  Or at least that Mellie gives Paisley plenty of REASONS to hate her, right?  Honestly, they don't.  One day, I was getting out of the car in Ms. Betty's driveway to go in and pick Mellie up.  Paisley's mom, Jill, was already in the driveway with Paisley and her older brother Hudson and putting Paisley in the car while Hudson was busy telling me that Mellie looks like a robot when she walks (he, of course, is right...).  Jill informed me that when Mellie saw Jill was there to pick up Mellie, she threw a HISSY FIT.  And trust me, Mellie has HISSY FITS down to a FINE science....  Anyhow, I'm not sure I believed her.  Afterall, most of the stories I hear about Mellie and Paisley are not so nice.  But, sure enough, as soon as I got inside, Ms. Betty told me the exact same story.  So, clearly they are friends, and probably spend quite a bit of time playing together well, it's just that these stories do not make it to me because they are less interesting and/or noteworthy (I'm very worried that Mellie is becoming a bully, though, so really, stories about her playing well with others would be very welcome, although probably not very interesting for blogs....).

So, this morning, I was dropping Mellie off at Ms. Betty (honestly, Ronnie has been doing this recently as it's already hard enough for me to get to work by 8:20 I mean 8:00 am.  Sharp.  Every day.  Rain or Shine (mostly Shine lately, due to the fact that we are having the worst drought in the history of the PLANET EARTH.  Honestly, I don't really remember what rain even looks like....)).  I came in and gave Mellie to Ms. Betty who gave her some love before setting her down (which resulted in a hissy fit).  Ms. Betty was very excited to see me (I don't know that Ronnie talks to her, or whether they just don't understand each other, but I imagine Ronnie just grunts at her).  Ms. Betty told me an interesting story about Mellie and Paisley.  Apparently, Paisley has a sippy cup that is her favorite.  It is purple with a straw top.  Yesterday, Mellie apparently got ahold of it.  What ensued was a full blown tug-of-war over the sippy cup.  Finally, Mellie got hold of it, hugged it to her chest, and walked away.  Remember earlier when I said Ms. Betty had told me Paisley was not too steady on her feet?  Well, her next sentence was that Mellie "won."  I told her "Mellie always wins" followed by a heavy sigh on my part.

Anyhow, I'm not sure where, exactly, Paisley lives.  There are about four different elementary schools in two different districts in the vicinity of our neighborhood.  I guess, I am assuming she lives nearby, but I know her mother works at Foster High School, the local high school in LCISD, which is the same district that we are zoned to, so I am hoping that they will be going to the same elementary school.  Will they be best friends forever?  Will they be arch-enemies?  Will their love-hate relationship continue?  Only time will tell....