Rosie’s Great Idea

—shared by Rosie’s auntie

Rosie looked over at her sisters playing. Katy was handing little sister Jane one of her special doll clothes to dress her baby in. They giggled together.

Rosie sighed. She felt left out of the fun. “Auntie,” she said, “how come I never get special time with Jane?”

“What do you mean?” questioned Auntie. “You can play with her right now if you want to.”

“I mean special time just with her—she’s always having time just with Katy.”

“I see,” mused Auntie. “Possibly we can work that out—we’ll see.”

The next day Rosie had just finished making the salad for lunch. “This would be a great time to play with Jane, Rosie,” Auntie announced. “Katy needs to set the table, so you can plan something special to do with Jane.”

Rosie finished her job quickly. A pretend camping trip would be just the thing to do with Little Sister. “Jane!” she called. “Get your stuffed puppy and I’ll help you pack some dolly clothes for her in this bag!”

Little Sister didn’t even look up from her coloring. “No,” she mumbled. “I’m going to help Katy set the table.” And with that, she jumped up and darted for the kitchen.

Rosie grabbed Little Sister by the arm. Little Sister started to yell, trying to run away. “Jane, listen!” Rosie said loudly, over her yelling. “You’re going to have special time with me. We’re going to have FUN! I even have your bag all ready.”

“Nooooo! Let me go!” Little Sister screamed. Auntie came to see what all the fuss was about.

Rosie felt desperate. “She won’t come, Auntie!”

“Maybe ask her what she would like to do,” suggested Auntie. But that didn’t work very well either. Little Sister just wouldn’t cooperate, and when Katy was done setting the table, they both ran off together again.

“Auntie, why doesn’t Jane like to play with me?” Rosie asked later.

Auntie thought a while. “Maybe because you’re often bossy, and push her away when you think she’s going to ruin what you are doing. I’ve noticed that Katy tries to include her, and gives her something else to do when she’s getting into things she shouldn’t. Maybe that’s why.”

Rosie was making salad again when she thought of an idea. “Jane,” she called. “Do you want to make salad with me? You can have some little crispy lettuce pieces.” Little Sister really did love to eat crispy lettuce pieces.

“Yes,” said Jane, bouncing merrily into the kitchen.

“Get a stool,” directed Rosie, trying to make her voice sound like Mommy’s, “and you can help me chip it up.” Even though Little Sister was only two, she was actually pretty good at chipping lettuce, but now she was eating an awful lot of it, too! Oh, well, at least she was helping.

Then the carrot needed to be grated. “Get one out of the fridge, Jane, and I’ll get the grater,” Rosie said.

“I want to do it by myself,” Little Sister insisted, when the hand crank grater was set up on the counter.

“Honey, it’s a little bit too hard for you,” Rosie began. “But you can hold this bottom part, and we’ll turn the handle together,” she added quickly. Jane giggled as they turned the crank together and the grated carrots spun out onto the salad.

Rosie snitched a little off the top of the salad, and Little Sister followed suit, grabbing a big handful of carrot shreds. Oh, dear! There wasn’t going to be much left soon!

“Let’s leave those ones for the salad, honey,” Rosie said sweetly. “Here’s a big piece that you can eat.” She broke the remaining chunk of carrot stick in two, and handed one piece to Little Sister. Jane smiled up at her. She looked adorable even with carrot juice on her cheeks.

“What a special big sister you are, Rosie,” Auntie whispered in her ear, as she passed by.

Rosie felt warm inside. It was fun to make Little Sister happy!