Callia Lee Riden

Callia's third birthday has come and gone.. but Callia is still excited about it all. Today in the car, completely out of the nowhere, she says, "Daddy, I want a candle in my applesauce and people singing Happy Birthday.. .. ..and presents."

Hey, who doesn't want a candle in their applesauce?

Callia has an arch-enemy on the playground: "The Girl In The Yellow Shirt." Callia is alway honest with me about whether or not she got into trouble or did anything bad at the daycare. She always tattles on herself and then apologizes to me and anybody else who was involved, without being prompted. The other day I went to pick her up and she had a report for me: she'd gotten into trouble.

It took a while to get the whole story out of her, but it all comes down to what seems to me to be a personality conflict between Callia and someone she keeps referring to as "The Girl In The Yellow Shirt." No name, no other details.. no notion of who this person is. She was wearing a yellow shirt and she was trouble. It took a while for me to get the whole story out of her.. but Callia and I talked about how we treat and deal with other people & that was that. Lessons learned and all is good.

Today, when I picked her up Callia declared that she'd gotten into trouble and was bad. One of the teachers came over and said that she was very impressed.. that a girl had hit Callia and she didn't retaliate - she just told the girl "NO! Don't hit me." and walked away. Callia chimed in saying it was (who else?) "The Girl In The Yellow Shirt." Uh-oh.. recurring problems with this chick.

I was curious, though.. so I had to ask, "was she wearing a yellow shirt again today?"

"Yes."

"Two days in a row? Yellow shirt?"

"Yeah."

"Really. That's weird."

"She's mean."

"I guess so.."

I'm not sure if this girl even exists.. and I'm not sure which scenario would be better: imaginary enemy or real enemy who already has picked out a trademark Super Villian outfit. Either way, I've got my eyes open and I'm lookin' for yellow.