He's Ba-aa-ck!

I feel for Mrs. Fang; I really do. She's got the kid who everyone else sort of plays a wide arc around. She unnaturally giggles in conversation, sort of saying, "I know you don't like my kid, but please don't hate me, I'm trying!" If I were her, I don't know what I'd do. I mean she's got to keep exposing him to situations in which he's bound to bite in order to see if he's getting better and to attempt to curb the behavior; but on the other hand, she's in this Catch-22 where she looks like she's not curbing her fine young cannibal well enough every time he goes to take a chunk out of another tot's face. So, I really do feel badly for her.

But, I don't feel so badly that I don't cringe every time I walk up to the playground and see them already there; or my stomach doesn't flip when I see him barrel ahead of her into the sand if we're already enjoying a bloodbath-free morning. My gut-check reaction is to say, "hey, we were here first!" I'm not sure when my thirty-year-old self regressed to being six, but somehow it happened approximately around the time my son was nearly killed by this child.

Anyway, he's been there A LOT lately and in Mrs. Fang's defense, she's been all over him like white on rice. He's never out of her sight. And, she doesn't take risks. She let him ride in a wagon with a VERY young baby the other day and refused, flat out REFUSED to let him ride with her unless he was strapped in, and restrained away from her, despite the mother's protestations that it wasn't necessary because they were going slowly and only a few feet. Mother of baby didn't know he was a biter and she didn't volunteer the info. But, I think taking precautions is okay, right?

So, over the past few visits, we've been bloodshed free and I've been pleased with her hawk-like hovering...until today. That kid is like lightning when he gets a hankering for flesh. He was lounging in a folding beach chair, sipping his little cup and in a flash, he was on Collin's forehead. Collin had no toys to take away and he wasn't even facing Damien Fang. He was simply standing in the sand.

That's what freaks me out the most. The kid just decides he wants to bite, picks a nearby kid and attacks with no provocation. I leaped up and, jammed my hand between them, hoping I'd get bit instead. Thankfully, it's hard to bite a flat forehead and I was able to pry him away before he got a grip. I feel a little bad for shrieking "NO!" at another kid and sort of shoving him away but...wait!...I don't' feel so bad after all.

Poor Collin thinking he was being told no so harshly cried hard. Very hard. Damien got a ten second time out because Mrs. Fang was engrossed in a conversation with someone else and didn't follow through with her punishment. He did have to "apologize" to Collin later before we left. I've tried to make Collin "apologize" to me for things, but he's 18 months old and I'm not sure he gets it.

So, I keep hoping that Collin does NOT learn to bite from this kid. And, I keep questioning now what it is about my kid that this kid finds so appealingly tasty about my son. Is it the juicy fat cheeks, the pudgy thighs? Nope, can't be that as he continuously goes for the face. Maybe he smells like chicken?