Playing With Toys

Hunter and Bella are silly. They argue constantly about all sorts of stupid things. Just this morning Hunter wanted to sit where Bella was sitting and he went over and just stared at her. He was hoping she would get up and sit somewhere else so he could have the spot they both coveted. Usually she just leaves because she knows he will keep on bugging her until she does. This morning she decided not to let him get his way and she refused to move.
Just yesterday I brought home toys for them, two of the exact same toy so they wouldn’t have anything to fight about. At least that was my hope. They followed me when I entered the house with the bag I brought home from the store. They were fairly patient as they watched me put the groceries away.
I finally got to the last two items in the bag and their eyes got really big when they saw I was taking toys out. Rather than have them make a mess with the packaging I decided to take the toys out of the cellophane wrappers before I handed them over.
Their eyes were glued to the toys as I took off the wrapping. I handed each of them a toy. Hunter took his and quietly went over to the couch to play with his. It was a noisy toy and he delighted in the loud noises he could make with it.
Instead of playing with her toy Bella just watched Hunter as he excitedly played with his. She barely even touched her toy and just kept watching him. I could tell she wanted to take the toy away from him. She is three years older and has always loved to steal his toys. He frequently tries to hide when he gets a new toy so she can’t steal it. She gets really mean and threatens to beat him up when he won’t let her have it.
I thought I had solved the problem by getting them the exact same toy. It was the same toy, no reason to fight, or want to steal it, or so I thought. Wrong I was. She didn’t want him to even have a toy it now seemed.
The last time I gave him a toy she waited for him to get tired of playing with it for an hour. She watched him intensely and walked around waiting for him to quit playing with it. When he broke it and it didn’t make noise any more he tore it up. He didn’t want it after it broke so he made sure there was no reason for her to want it either. It worked. When he left the broken toy on the floor she didn’t pick it up. He finally won a battle.
Pretty smart on his part I thought. This made me think that they were making progress in getting along with each other, at least as far as playing with toys anyway. I was sure that by giving them the same toy there wasn’t going to be a problem anymore. She should remember what happened to the toy she tried to take away from him that he broke.
Obviously I was wrong about that since she immediately dropped the new toy on the floor and just stared at him playing with his. I don’t know if she didn’t remember or didn’t care but she definitely only wanted his toy and not hers.
Back to this morning, Hunter came back over to where Bella was lying at the front door. She snarled at him as soon as he approached her. He might have won the battle of the toys but she wasn’t about to let him make her leave the spot on the floor by the front door. She can look out and see all the cars come and go. Besides it is especially cool when a cat or a squirrel walks by.
Like I said, Bella and Hunter are silly.