conuly

For Ana's birthday, I got her class a wooden birthday cake. Evangeline was there. And for Evangeline's birthday I did the same thing. After her party at school, as the class was leaving, Evangeline began to cry. And cry, and cry, and cry, and she would not be consoled. If we asked her what was wrong, her reply was a furious, frustrated "Nothing!", which wasn't very helpful.

So I picked her up and walked homewards with her while her mother went around the side to pick up Ana. And Evangeline eventually calmed down a little, but she wouldn't tell me what was wrong. We went through the churchyard and hit all their windchimes and yelled Boo! at her mom, and Evangeline still wouldn't tell me what was wrong. She was calmer, but she was still upset.

To make her stop crying after she started up again, I started walking backwards.

Evangeline: No, Connie! Don't walk backwards!
Me: Oh, okay. *walks sideways*
Evangeline: Don't walk sideways!
Me: Oh, okay. *turns around and jumps forwards*
Evangeline: No! *giggle*
Me: Oh, okay. *turns and jumps backwards*
Evangeline: No, don't jump backwards!
Me: Oh, okay. *turns sideways*
Evangeline: Don't jump sideways either. Don't jump backwards. Go for... for... fordways.
Me: Oh, okay. *starts jumping*
Evangeline: *gigglegigglegiggle* No, don't jump for... fordways. WALK fordways. Not backwards. Not sideways. Walk fordways, Connie.

But you know, even after that, she was still a little on edge, so finally, after I crossed the street, I sat right down on the sidewalk and put her on my lap and asked again what was wrong.

Evangeline: Nothing is wrong.
Me: Honey, don't give me that. You were crying. Something was wrong! Is it because your chair fell?
Evangeline: No. I can't tell you.
Me: Is it because you're tired?
Evangeline: Not tired. I don't know why I'm upset.
Me: Is it because your teachers are vampires?
Evangeline: No, they're not, and that's not why.
Me: Is it because an elephant snuck into your room and stole your snack?
Evangeline: Elephants can't fit in the door!
Me: Well, a small elephant?
Evangeline: No.
Me: Well, then....
Evangeline: (very quietly) cake
Me: You didn't... oh. Oh! You mean the toy cake?
Evangeline: mm-hm
Me: Oh. And you didn't get to play with the cake, did you?
Evangeline: no.
Me: And you wanted to.
Evangeline: *crying* Yeah, I wanted to play with my cake, but she didn't let me!
Me: Last year, you didn't get to play with the cake in Ana's class, but Ana's friends did and you saw her. And you thought you'd get to do that with this cake, but your teacher didn't take it out of the box.
Evangeline: Right, and I didn't tell her!

I can see what happened from here, of course. Evangeline didn't ask because she assumed she'd get to play with the cake that day, and she didn't, and then when everybody packed up to go and she realized her teacher didn't know she wanted to play with the cake at all she also realized it was MUCH TOO LATE to ask. Which is why she kept telling us nothing was wrong when something obviously was.

Poor honey.

We explained the problem to her teachers later, they'd been concerned.