On Monday Mira's interim babysitter started - she's substituting for a month while Mira's regular sitter is out of town. Mira has met her several times previously, and she came over on Friday for a warming up session with Mira, but yesterday was her first attempt taking Mira out of the house. They got as far as the front door before Mira started to scream "wanna find Mama." I came downstairs and saw Mira holding her cat stroller (a doll stroller which now has a stuffed cat permanently strapped into it) and sobbing, clearly afraid to leave the house with this new person she didn't know that well.
"Do you want to go to story time?" I asked.
"Wanna go to story time," she sobbed.
"Okay, so go to story time and come home and I'll be here waiting for you."
"Want Mama come to story time," she said.
"I can't go to story time. I'm staying here but I'm going to be right here when you come back, okay?"
"No," said Mira.
"You can stay here," I offered. "You can stay here and I'll be here, or you can go to story time and push your cat stroller and then I'll be here when you get back."
She was the most conflicted 2 year old I'd ever seen, and I really doubted she'd be able to make it to story time after the offer to stay here, but in the end she pulled herself together, and decided to go to story time. She sobbed with the weight of her decision as she pushed the cat stroller down the street. Her babysitter reported that she stopped crying after they got about a block from the house, and proceeded to enjoy all that story time had to offer.
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