The Baby Brawl!

You know how although you may try to keep an open mind about people, there are always times when someone may rub you the wrong way? Sometimes you may come across someone and decide "Hmm...there's just something about that person that I don't like". Usually it's unfounded once you get to know them, but sometimes it turns out that there really is a reason. Most of the time it's probably just a clash of personalities. That kind of intuition isn't something that I thought people start to do until they are at least teenagers. Apparently, it starts much earlier than that! Yesterday, Keira and I were out running errands. It was about an hour before her afternoon nap, so I decided to run her to the mall to let her play in the Playtown area to tire her out. When we got there, there were lots of children about her age running and playing. Some were a little older and chasing each other, but most were right around her age give or take a couple of months. Keira is generally good with sharing and playing with other children, although she will get possessive with things at times- like most babies will. One of the things that I never noticed until I had a child was that babies and small children will give the other children a little push when they are playing with something that they don't want to share. Other children have done it to Keira and she has done it to others. I'm usually right there to try to correct the action and she's gotten much better about not doing it. There she was sitting in a little play car when a cute little baby about her age walked up. She stood up and they both stood there staring at each other. I turned around for not more than a second to see if the stroller was still where I put it and when I turned back around there were the girls holding on to each other's dresses shaking each other and trying to push each other down. YIKES! I ran over as fast as I could and picked Keira up breaking up the little fight. After a timeout and letting Keira know exactly what I thought of her bad behavior, I let her back down. The little girls each stayed in opposite corners of the Playtown and by chance ended up playing close to each other after a while. As soon as they were near each other again, they started up again, trying to push each other screaming baby screams at each other. What on earth was going on?!?!?! They were near other kids and didn't have this type of reaction---why only to each other? I felt like Steve on the Jerry Springer Show! The other baby's mom and I both separated them again giving them each a timeout and apologizing to each other profusely. After a little bit, they ended up next to each other again and the little girl grabbed Keira's arm and pushed her down. Her mother took care of it right away and apologized again. After another period of time, they ended up next to each other on the little slide. They stood next to each other and looked at each other again. Her mother and I both had the same idea and moved closer to break up another fight before it started and to my surprise---it didn't! They both slid down the slide and from that point, the fighting was finished. Granted, they weren't buddies now, but they were no longer interested in fighting with each other. It was all so bizarre! I had never seen anything like that before in babies. Kids maybe...but not in babies this young. The other mother and I laughed it off. None of them were hurt and they are both babies, so I mean, what can you do? They were exactly the same height, same age and although they didn't look alike, they were both little asian babies. Was Keira the bully, or was the other little girl? I don't think that I'll know until something similar happens again and I can catch it. If it's Keira that was being a bully, that will DEFINITELY have to stop! If she wasn't the aggressor, I'm glad that she stood up for herself. I have a feeling though that she wasn't exactly completely innocent in the whole thing- you can call that MY intuition ;).