Jenelle beat up a 1 year old!

Can you believe I'm actually excited to tell you that Jenelle "beat up" a one year old? Well, "beat up" is a bit of an exaggeration - in realtiy, Jenelle fought for a toy. If Jenelle were a normal child, you'd expect me to be worried about this behavior, but instead I'm so proud of her.
Last Saturday, we had dinner with friends. Altogether there were six kids; Jack, Jenelle, a 5 year old girl, an almost 3 year old girl, an almost 2 year old and a baby that just turned one. During dinner, Jenelle sat in the living room that was already baby proof with various toys sitting around her. She had taken a liking to a tiny toy piano with Barney on it and was at times kicking it to get it to make music.

The one year old baby arrived late to the party and was placed on the floor near Jenelle. It was amazing to see how small this child was in comparison to Jenelle's almost 4 year old body frame, and how she could do so much more developmentally than Jenelle. The baby was not yet walking, but could crawl fast and get into things easily. Eventually, the baby took an interest in Jenelle's Barney piano.

I slowly watched the situation to see what Jenelle would do next, because even though it seemed she wasn't playing with the toy, I knew she was still interested in it. I watched, and all of a sudden, Jenelle rolled onto her side, leaned back, and kicked the baby square in the chest - not too hard, but enough to roll the baby back away from the toy! The baby screamed bloody murder and her Father (who thankfully witnessed the whole incident) picked her up, moved her to the other side of the room and got her interested in another toy. And then we laughed.

I am so curious to know now exactly what Jenelle is thinking. I would love to communicate with her somehow. Clearly, she wanted to get the toy back, and that was her way of responding to the baby. I am so proud! She's come a long way, don't you think?