Pretend Party

Our little island friend was recently back in town and we jumped at the chance to get the two girls together again. While Little Miss is making admirable strides in the hair-growing department, she's still far behind her much younger friend. So, what do you do...turn lemons into lemonade. She decided to play beauty shop with her friend and help her style her hair.

A few days later we got together again and our little friend wanted to play shoe salesman. Little Miss obliged.

Doesn't Little Miss look huge next to her friend? They're really not that different in size- it's amazing what a camera angle can do. Once again, we didn't get to see them again, and once again, we hope that the next play date will be in the islands. I doubt this will happen, but one can dream.

Truck Rally

I've been feeling the urge to buy Little Miss some dolls, but I'm determined she's not going to grow up with super-defined gender stereotypes. Don't get me wrong, the girl wears her fair share of pink, but I want to be sure that she's aware that nothing is off limits to her. For some inexplicable reason, I decided that since I was yearning to get her dolls, I was going to postpone that and buy her trucks instead. Between a mama Facebook post and the make your own bag bin at the local thrift store, I was able to get her a fair amount of cars and trucks for $3. That made me happy. Little Miss enjoys her trucks immensely. She particularly enjoys Daddy and I rolling them along the lower shelf where her toys are usually stored. She watches us roll them into things and asks for more repeatedly. Here's her and her daddy playing when we first brought them home.

She greatly prefers us to do the actual rolling. I demand that she tell me which one to roll next and she's good about gathering them back when they're all done, but she's not one to initiate much herself. Except last weekend I did see her playing with them. I had to quickly snap a picture because it's such a rare sight.

She enjoys the trucks and I'm glad that I got them before dolls. I don't know why I'm glad about this, but maybe in time I'll understand.

Gettin' the Feelin' Sensation

I've been starting to have a little mama guilt that I'm not doing enough to stimulate Little MIss.  So, I thought back to my days working at the preschool and scoured Pinterest looking for ideas.  One thing I should have started months ago was sensory play.  I decided better late than never, looked around the house for what I could get started with and jumped right in.

We've had some white rice sitting around for ages and I decided that would be a great first experience.  I poured it in a pan, got some things to play with, popped her in the learning tower and set her free.  She immediately put it in her mouth.  I was telling her it wasn't for eating at the same time she tried to eat it, discovered it was hard and immediately started crying.  It was meltdown city.  I had to take her out and cuddle with her for quite a while.  It was a rookie mistake, and I knew better.

After she calmed down, she reluctantly let me put her back in the learning tower, but she wouldn't touch the rice.  She watched me play with it for a while and talk about what I was doing and how it wasn't for eating.  Finally, she decided that playing with the cups was ok, but she refused to actually touch the rice.

I was ok with that as long as she wasn't freaking out. We played for a while and then called it a day. I came back the next day with some pasta for her to try. Before I put her in the learning tower I told her it wasn't for eating, but she just looked at it and said 'all done.' She wouldn't even touch it. After watching me and a few more exposures, she's now playing with it like a champ.

Hallway Hangout

 

Because when puppy's hanging out on the ground, shouldn't you get down to his level?

Selfie on a Walk

 

For one of my friend's 40th birthday, she asked everyone to do something we love and send her a picture of it.  This worked out well since her friends are scattered across the globe. I thought about what I like and, of course, it's spending time with Little Miss.  We took a special walk and I told her all about my special friend.  We stopped at a spot we usually just walk past and I snapped this photo.  I wonder at what point she'll actually start smiling for the camera.  

TGIF- The "Yellow Ghost" Edition

We've been playing with some large scarves for a bit and Little Miss loves putting them over her head and then peeling them off as a sort of peek-a-boo.  Today she enjoyed putting it over her head like so and walking around the room.  They're really sheer, so she can see exactly where she's going.  Imagine her crashing into the couch or me for cuddles and giggling hysterically.  And after all, isn't a yellow ghost better than yellow snow?