I was sitting with Sprite in the cafeteria area of her day care, waiting for Sprite's day to begin so I could go to work. She was quietly sitting in a seat at a table, playing with a book and smiling at Austin, her little friend from the one year old room, who also sat quietly at the table with a pacifier in his mouth.
Two older boys were sitting at the next table, and when I say older, I don't mean by much. They must have been about 4. One of them was obviously strung out on sugar, judging by the sandwich baggie of fruit loops he was clutching as he jumped in and out of his seat.
He moved toward the table where Sprite and Austin were sitting and pointed at Austin. "Diaper Baby! Diaper Baby! You need a pacifier!" (Very un-original.) I looked at Austin to see if he would react. He just watched the older boy, his binky moving quickly in his mouth.
Then the boy pointed at Sprite. "Diaper Baby! Diaper Baby! Ew!" He looked at the other boy who was reaching for his forgotten fruit loops. "She smiled at me! Yuck! Diaper Baby smiled at me! I'm going to die!"
I don't know why I took this personally. Sprite is so young, she doesn't understand when she's being mocked or insulted. She just continued to smile at the boy.
I leaned over and spoke to Sprite softly. "You see him over there?" She pointed at the boy, who was back to bugging Austin. "That's a big baby. Big baby." (Yes, I know. I shouldn't have done it. I should not be pushing Sprite to call names. I should be telling her to ignore the mean boy and continue being Mommy's best little girl, but I swear I didn't know she would do it.)
Sprite called out, "Big Baby! Big Baby!" as she pointed to the boy, still smiling, unaware she was insulting him.
The bully looked stricken. "I am NOT a baby, Diaper Baby! YOU'RE a baby, Diaper Baby!"
Sprite kept smiling as she pointed and he faltered in his comeback.
The damage was done. She had struck back. He hadn't expected it (especially from a 1 year old) and was now out of material and stopped talking. As he slunk back to his seat, I could see the plastic pull-up diaper riding above his waistband.
Irony counts for something here, I think.
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