Today, we were planning to fingerpaint in the morning. Ruby was very excited, but when I put her in the bathtub with paints and paper, she was surprisingly tentative. She put only a little paint on her finger and made faint marks. After a while, I realized that she didn’t want to get herself messy, so I got her a paintbrush. After that, she went nuts and painted several pieces of paper as well as the walls.
Among the things she said she painted: a boat, a wreath, circles, a kite. Not everything was described as being an object, though. Sometimes she was just painting for the fun of it.
Some things can really upset Ruby’s sense of order. For example, she hates sledding — and not just when she does it, but when anybody does it. Check out this video from last month:
She had the same reaction a few weeks later when we were watching complete strangers doing some sledding.
Last night, we had our first family video night and the three of us watched first half of Ratatouille together. There’s a scene where Remy (the rat protagonist) takes a harrowing water ride atop a cookbook, down a waterfall and into the sewers. This particular scene upset Ruby, and we had to pause the movie for a few minutes until she sorted herself out.
My parents told us a similar story from last year, when they took Ruby to see a dog show. They were up in the stands, far away from the action. One dog was supposed to jump a hurdle, but knocked over the bar instead. The dog then grabbed the bar and starting running around the ring with the bar in his mouth. This freaked Ruby out, she wouldn’t stop crying, and they had to leave the show.
I wonder what it is about these scenes that upsets Ruby? For what it’s worth, she has no problem with playground slides.
