Time travel, chain reactions, and the Butterfly Effect

I just had the most amazing conversation with Allison since... perhaps ever.

She was about to leave on a playdate.  On occasions on playdates, she's really had a hard time getting along with the other kid.  She wants to be the on in charge, and wants to be the one saying "Look what *I* can do!" but doesn't reciprocate, and gets mad or frustrated when the other kid has a mind of their own and doesn't march to her orders.

Anyways, I was saying that if her friend suggests an activity that isn't her favorite thing to do, she should do it anyways, and then suggest the next activity, take turns, etc.  She then started talking about how if you do something nice for someone, it makes them feel good, and they they'll be happy, and they might do something nice for someone else, and so on and so forth.  Likewise, if you are mean to someone, or do something that makes them feel bad, they in turn might feel bad about themselves, and then might say or do something mean to the next person, and so on and so forth.

Allison can get super frustrated when it's time to turn off the video game we're playing or turn off the TV.  She can start crying pretty good, get frustrated, throw toys, etc.  This, of course, leads to frustrated parents, time outs, trouble, etc.  It was a great opportunity to talk about how one person's behavior affects those around them, both positively and negatively.

I brought up the idea of someone at her school saying something mean to her.  Maybe this makes her feel bad, so then when Diana picks her up, she is mean to her.  Then Diana tells me, and I get disappointed, etc, and how one persons comment can really make a difference.  Then we talked about the opposite... how someone says something nice that makes her feel good.  That means she greets Diana with a smile and a hug after school.  Diana calls me and tells me what a good day Allison had, and therefore I'm feeling happy, and we play well together at night, etc.

Through all this conversation, both of us are talking and saying the same thing, finishing each others sentences.  It was really her bringing up the major point of how our feelings affect other people, and me just building on that foundation with examples and stuff.

I told her about the Butterfly effect.  Somehow we started talking about time travel and causality, and how if you could go back in time and change some event in the past, it would cause the whole future to change.  It was really quite an incredible conversation, and I really hope the ideas stick with her.

I haven't written in a while, so I will include an update about Samantha.  She is the happiest, calmest, most easy-going baby I have ever known.  She's about 10.5 months, and has been crawling for a couple weeks now, and as a result, she's just a completely different baby than she used to be.  She has nailed the trifecta of going from sitting to crawling, crawling around, and then going from crawling back to sitting.  She loves exploring.  She loves scratching at any little dot she finds on the ground, or putting mysterious things in her mouth.  She *loves* her big sister, and laughs and squeals when Allison does various antics to make her laugh.  Allison, likewise, loves to try to make her smile and laugh, sometimes a little too vigorously, but always with good intentions.