E's Amour

For several weeks now, E has been madly in love with me. Telling me she loves me the best of anyone, not to mention more than I love her, she squeezes as close to me as she can, showering me with kisses, or delivering endless smooches to the lips. It's very sweet, if occasionally tedious.

Lately there has been some drama around here which is going to remain unblogged. The four of us are fine, but there is concern over how the situation is affecting M and E.

M, at eleven, has long held a strongly-developed capacity for self-protection. She absorbs the information she needs, and calmly ignores whatever has the potential to disturb her (she honed this capacity in the face of the media--she still closes her eyes and covers her ears when an ad for CSI comes on). She is also old enough to understand what is happening, not to mention deeply involved in her own life, which is great and as it should be. We check in with her regularly, but, truly, I think she is OK, if a bit disgruntled.

Seven-year-old E, on the other hand, is definitely showing the strain. She is at the high end of her psycho tantrum scale*, and she is madly beating on her sister, which is about as transparent a case of transference as I've ever seen. She also squeezes next to me, tells me repeatedly how much she loves me, and pounds me with kisses.

[E, as I'm writing this: "Mommy, did I ever tell you how much I love you?"]

If she hadn't been doing the loving mommy thing for the last several weeks, it would definitely register as another sign of stress, but on this one I am going to grasp at the straws of maternal optimism and declare it developmental.


*The psycho tantrums have diminished in the last few days, which I'm also taking as a positive sign.