Hail, The Conquering Hero (Heroine?)

For quite a while, we have been certain that if we pitted M against most babies her age, she'd win, particularly now that she's learned to make fists with the thumbs on the outside.*

We had not, however, considered her chances against other flora and fauna.**

But this afternoon, I watched an interesting scene unfold in front of me.

Having vanquished the wild purple-antlered moose, she turned to the rare turquoise elephant.

She began by putting in some nice twisting, really showing the elephant who was boss.

Then, having thoroughly crinkled his tummy, she turned her attentions to tickling him.***

Finally, she attempted the old tickle and gum him to death combo.

As the elephant was not submitting, she decided to finish him off with a body slam.

It just takes a minute to get all the way over.  Be patient.

Result: One squashed crinkly elephant.

When Leo got home, she decided to try to subdue the wild daddy.

She got him pinned, though he tried to get up.

She is, however, well aware that it is VERY HARD to sit up that way, so she didn't worry, and he eventually tired and gave in.

So she trod on his face, just to make sure that he understood that he had been vanquished.

And then she had some nice warm milk and went to bed.****


*I warned her most particularly about the dangers of hitting someone with the thumb inside the fist, and also pointed out that she wouldn't win any baby bare-knuckle boxing matches if she was punching in that sill fashion.  She seems to have heeded my warnings.


**Mostly fauna; I'm not sure how she'd do up against a wild daffodil, and I'm not sure we want to find out.

***She learned how to fight during her nightly roughhousing session with her father.  It's not my fault that she has come away with the impression that tickling is how you win fights.

****Must come up with tougher-sounding exit line.