She Got Him Good

You may not know this about Andrew but he can be quite aggressive.  I think part of it is the boy in him.  I wasn't expecting that when I had him, even though I have brothers.  Either my brothers weren't super aggressive or I was oblivious to it because they left me alone.  Either way, it's been a surprise for me.  Andrew is constantly hitting Anna and pulling out large bits of her hair.  He just attacks her!  What has been more surprising is that Anna has never retaliated.  Honestly, never once.  She'll just sit there and scream and cry.  She'll yell at him to stop but has never hit back.  All of that changed this week.  

I was upstairs putting away our laundry while they were two floors down in the basement.  I heard them yelling, which is very common in our house, and didn't think too much about it.  I thought that I'd wait for them to come to me.  I've been trying to teach Anna to come and get me when Andrew hurts her instead of just sitting and taking it.  So after a few minutes I hear a yeller coming up the stairs but this time it wasn't Anna.  It was Andrew.  He came up with big crocodile tears sobbing and wanting to be held.  I picked him up and tried comforting him.  He was pretty upset so it took a while.  I noticed something red on his cheek but thought that he just bumped into something, also extremely normal. 

About 30 minutes later, we were all in the kitchen when I was looking at his cheek.  It seemed to be getting worse.  I looked closely and then it hit me.  "Oh my gosh, she bit his cheek!"  I about died.  I turned to Anna and asked her if she bit him.  She denied it.  I asked her again and she denied it again.  I told her that she had to tell me the truth if she wanted to play with her friends later that day.  She then confessed.  I asked her why she bit him and she said it was because he was pulling her hair.  I was just baffled that after all this time of no retaliation that this was what she chose to break her perfect streak.  I was upset.  I explained how it doesn't matter what other people do to us, it's only important what we choose to do.  I told her it was wrong of Andrew to pull her hair but it was also wrong for her to bite him.  She had some quiet time in her room and came out feeling just fine.  I, however, was still in shock.   

 After thinking about it however, I began thinking, "well he deserved it."  I would never tell her that it was a good choice to bite him, but honestly, he's always beating up on her.  He had it coming.  I think that after all of this time, it's just been building up in her.  Finally, she couldn't take it anymore and just bit him!  Smack dab on the cheek.  She wanted it to hurt and wanted it to show.  Wow.  I always tell Josh that I often feel like a referee between the two.  They fight a lot.  Perhaps now Andrew will think about it a bit more though. 

 Don't worry, their friends again.  They are quite inventive too when they need a height boost. 

(The first picture shows the bite mark the best).