Babs was invited to a birthday party. A lot of it was at the local bounce house, which is loud because of the air machines for all the air slides, an odd mixture of bright colors and dim lighting with lots of shadows, and basically overwhelming to my children. (Last year, Kiddo finally broke down inconsolably for the last 20 min of someone's party. Silly me to think my children would be happy in a high stimulation environment.) Babs wouldn't go down slides unless I was with her (and I mostly had a baby strapped to my front), and as the time progressed her behavior showed more and more of the subtle distress signals that I rarely notice until too late.
Finally she looked at me and insisted that she hold the Boy. At three months old, in a public place with few places to sit on, I wasn't sure how to handle it. But she persisted, so I had her sit on the floor, then had him sit with her. See how happy he is? But it calmed her down, and then we left soon after.
Some children have stuffed animals, mine has a little brother.
