How Green Becomes Wood

"Oh," Daizi cooed, revealing where Ivy inherited her noise from, "Did you find a snail, Hummingbird? That's so sweet! Does Ivy like snails?"

"snail!" Ivy grinned, and used every ounce of her young restraint to touch it with only one finger.
 
"Snail," Xander approved, nodding. "Good job, Mini. Very gentle. You are doing a great job. If you don't touch it for a while. It will move."

"I will be impressed if Ivy can manage not to touch it," Alec said to Xander.
 
"Ivy," Daizi said, "Let me hold your hands, so the snail will move."

"Mama," Ivy frowned up at her, still touching the snail shell.

"I know, but let's try? Would you like to try?"

Ivy shook her head and kept touching the shell.
 
"Uh-oh," Ivy mumbled.

"You don't want to make the snail sad, do you?" Daizi asked, crouching beside Ivy.

"No!" Ivy said, looking to her Mama.

"Here, give me your hands then," Daizi said, waiting a moment before gently taking Ivy's hands into her own.
 
"Good job, Mini," Xander told her. He held his palm flat where she could see it and held perfectly still. "Okay. Now we hold still, and then it will move again." He watched the snail, waiting to see if it would come out of its shell. He hoped it would soon for Ivy's sake.
 
It took a couple minutes, but eventually the snail crept out of its shell. Immediately, Ivy squeaked and squirmed, but Daizi gently restrained her, "Careful, habibti," she told, guessing at what had happened, "You don't want to scare the snail!"
 
"If we hold still, the snail will move around," Xander told her. Internally, he was trying not to cringe at the feeling of the tiny slime trail it was leaving behind. He wanted to give Ivy only positive experiences with bugs and insects and whatever snail-things were so that if she decided to be scared of something, it was because of her own personality, not someone teaching her to be scared. It was still a bizzare sensation.
 
"So you have to wait," Daizi said, kissing Ivy on the cheek. Sure enough, eventually the snail began to crawl up Xander's arm. Maybe it was relaxed, maybe it was trying to get away from this toddler, but either way, Ivy gasped in delight at the sight and loudly just began to cry, "Snail! Snail, snail!"
 
Xander quickly put his other hand in the way of the snail before it could start climbing up his sleeve - or worse, inside his sleeve - and swapped it around so it could crawl from hand to hand. "There we go. Snail. We gotta put the snail back eventually, okay? Soon we have to put it back, but you can watch it a little longer." He was trying to copy his parents when they said Ivy had five minutes left for this or that.

"You are doing excellently," Alec told Xander as he watched the slime trails glisten on his brother's skin.

"Thank you very much," Xander said dryly.
 
Daizi listened to Xander, feeling incredibly proud of how good he was being with his sister, so she didn't want to say anything to interrupt.

Watching the snail with wide, amazed eyes, Ivy held out her hand to Xander and asked, "Vee?" Share?"
 
"Yes, we can share, but you have to hold still," Xander said, gently emphasizing the word. He turned his hand and held it next to Ivy's so the snail could crawl onto her hand. "We need to wait for it to come to you, okay? Still and still."
 
"Stay still," Daizi said, keeping both her hands on Ivy's shoulders and somewhat supporting her arms. Still, when the snail eventually crawled onto Ivy's hands and she felt it on her hand, she flinched. Never in her life had she felt anything like that! Her little eyes went as big as dinner plates, and she wasn't sure if this feeling made her want to laugh or cry.
 
Ivy still didn't know if she liked this or not, and she made a sound which sounded both like laughing and whimpering, and then in a pitiful, confused voice just said, "Snail!"

"Do you want Mama to take the snail?" Daizi asked gently.

"No!"

"Do you want to keep holding the snail?"

"No!"

"Do you want to set the snail down? Or give it to Xander?"

"No!"

"Okay," Daizi said, trying not to chuckle because she recognized this was a very confusing moment for her daughter, "Do you like the snail?"

Ivy sniffled a little bit, but then nodded her head, "Yeah."
 
"Oh dear," Alec chuckled. "Poor Ivy. You don't know what to do, do you?"

Xander waited at the side, ready to rescue the snail if he needed to. "One more minute, then we need to put the snail down. It's a cute snail, isn't it?"
 
Ivy sniffed again, still feeling a bit unsure, but with her hand that didn't have the snail on it, she grabbed Daizi's hand.

Still kneeling down, Daizi said, "You have to be very careful if you want to walk with the snail, okay? Do you want Mama to hold it for you?"

Ivy hesitated for a little while longer, and then said, "Mama," so Daizi put her other hand next to Ivy's so the snail would crawl onto her, "That does feel very weird, Ivy! Let's go show Baba!"
 
"Nicely done, Mini," Xander said. "Baba is up there by the grill talking to Toby and Uncle Cooger."

"Looks like Toby is learning how to flip burgers," Alec grinned. "I wonder if he'll use that to get a job and buy more skateboards?"
 
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