Stegosauruses are for losers

Clara was playing with some large, rubber dinosaurs in the museum’s toddler room. She had a triceratops (her favorite dinosaur), an apatosaurus (formerly known as a brontosaurus when I was a child) and a stegosaurus.

A boy walked over and grabbed the triceratops, which she had put down for a moment. She reached out and snatched it back from him. “No!” she said. “I’m playing with that!”

“You need to share,” I said. “You can’t keep all of the dinosaurs to yourself.”

She thought a moment, looked down at the dinosaurs in front of her and then threw the stegosaurs at the boy. It bounced off his chest. He picked it up and walked away.

Clara looked up at me and said, “I don’t like that dinosaur.”

At last she is beginning to understand the art of sharing.