scooter race gone mad

Tonight I heard the kids out on our patio racing their scooters and then I heard a lot of crazy screaming and crying and just general frustration and obvious dissatisfaction, so I went out to see what was up. This is not entirely foreign around here but it did sound more urgent than even the more usual outbursts.

When I got outside both kids were beside themselves and very angry and frustrated. When I heard the story I couldn't help but smile. Ah. An exercise on who won. Samuel was using his scooter, one of the kinds you stand up on and push off with one foot. Eva was using her scooter, the kind that you sit down on and has four wheels and you push along. If I had to bet money on them, I would assume that during this game Samuel would win every single time and Eva would be more and more frustrated. Because one, it isn't much fun and because two, Samuel is not always the most graceful of winners and will let Eva know that she has lost every single time. There are times when he works with Eva and she wins some and he wins some and the *game* goes more smoothly. This was not one of those times.

What I did not know was that during these races, Eva's friend Lizzie was also racing. And would you believe that Lizzie, not Samuel, was winning every single time? For those of you who don't know Lizzie, she is one of those grand childhood friends that only a child can see. We don't call them pretend because who am I to doubt the reality of my child. We do admit that they are invisible to most of us and can usually only be seen by the child who knows them. In this case, Eva is the only one who sees Lizzie. So you can imagine Samuel's frustration when Eva would announce AGAIN that Lizzie had won that race, NOT Samuel. Samuel would race across the finish line, triumphant and shout "I won!" And Eva would smile slyly and say, "Nope, Lizzie won that one too." Oh was Samuel upset. That must have happened a couple of times at least by the time I got out there.

But! If you knew what kind of scooter Lizzie was riding, you wouldn't be surprised that she had won every race. Lizzie's scooter had wind machines (and it is very windy tonight!) and windmills all over her scooter and Lizzie's scooter had a cup holder (reminiscent of the cup holder on Samuel's new booster seat in the car) and Lizzie's scooter was comfortable enough to sit on with all of your legs up and the windmills just wheeled it along. No wonder she won. I offered to get Samuel a windmill for his scooter to give him a leg up on Lizzie and he was most decidedly not amused. I should say that at first he did smile, but then he remembered how upset he was by the whole thing and he yelled again. And what did he yell? "Lizzie can't race with us any more!"

Maybe Eva isn't the only one who can see Lizzie :)