Lydia and I have baked a cake a half dozen or so times and each time when I take the baking pan out she notices the cupcake pan and asks if we can make cupcakes instead. Each time I tell her no, that we need to make a cake because..well..there is no reason really outside of lack of spontaneity on my part. So for this Sunday we agreed ahead of time that we would make cupcakes.

Sunday came and we shopped for the supplies which are identical to the cake supplies. When we got ready to beat in the three eggs I asked Lydia if she wanted to call Naomi. Naomi is Lydia’s best friend and has made the previous cakes with us. Lydia said she would call Emily instead. Emily is Naomi’s 4.5 year old little sister. I asked her why not Naomi. Lydia said “Naomi is not my friend.”

With Emily not home the two of us made the cupcakes with an assist from the Ayi for the remaining batches (we only have one cupcake tin). Later I asked Lydia why Naomi was no longer her friend and she tried to explain to me but I could not really follow. Something about Naomi cheating someone.

A couple of days later they had not made up and I’m sitting at the dining room table with Aidan slightly perplexed because there is no dinner on the table. I ask Aidan if he knew why Lydia and Naomi are no longer friends. Aidan said he did and told me. Seems there was some kind of drawing activity at school and Naomi picked up a drawing that wasn’t hers and claimed it was. Lydia say something to the effect “hey, that’s not yours” to which Naomi replied something like “yes it is”. Lydia then pointed out that the name on top of the drawing was not Naomi’s. Naomi did not like this breakdown of her fantasy so she became very agitated and Lydia also got very mad. It got physical. I asked Aidan who won the fight. Without hesitation and with the tone of utter assurance Aidan said “Lydia…and I think she bit her.”

Picture of Lydia and Naomi (blond one) pre-fight.

I couple of more days passed. I noticed Lydia and Naomi in the playground but not paying attention to each other. Emily would come by to visit and seems like the cat that caught the canary. Lydia would list our her friends, in order one to five leaving our Naomi.

And then I saw Naomi, Emily, and Lydia in Lydia’s room. I asked if they were friends again and they both gave an enthusiastic “yes” with a wee bit of reservation in their voices. We hi-fived and that was that. At least that was my that.