Emotional regulation training for a two-year-old bond-hybrid who could freeze time turned out to involve a lot of sitting on the floor talking about feelings, which sounds simple until you realize the feelings in question could accidentally reshape reality if not properly processed.
"When you feel your tummy getting tight—" Vera kept her voice gentle, patient, like she'd done this a thousand times instead of making it up as we went. "That's your body telling you something. What do we do when we feel that?"
"Stop and breathe." Hope recited the lesson perfectly while making her stuffed wolf orbit her head because apparently she could multitask emotional regulation and casual magic. "Five big breaths. Like Mama showed me."
