Wednesday, March 23, 2005

Magic

Life is playfulness... we need to play so that we can rediscover the magical around us.
Flora Colao


I love playing with my daughter. I don't do it often enough. I try to make sure that I read to her before she goes to bed so that she learns to love reading and that I talk with her often so that she learns to talk. But when we get wrapped up in the day-to-day parts of life, work, the cleaning, cooking, laundry, bathing, etc. , playtime falls by the wayside. And it shouldn't.

Last night, I just played. My husband was making dinner, and she kept getting in the way. So, I took her and her doll, Emily, back to her bedroom. First, we played a little
piano. My daughter, the little booger, loves an audience. She alternately banged on the keyboard and smiled at me.

From there, we had to take care of
Emily. She needed her diaper changed which of course means that we had to take off her clothes which can be a long, drawn out ordeal with a 19 month old who thinks she needs to do everything by herself. She starts by unfastening the velcro, but from there, she pulls at the feet rather than pulling the outfit off the dolls arms first (trust me, it's much easier to get it off that way). But, we managed to get Emily changed and sitting in her chair.

Then, we had to make Emily dinner in her little
play kitchen. She carefully washed her hands in the sink before starting (and we had to wash Emily's hands, too, what a good little mommy!). From there, we made bacon and eggs and spaghetti with meatballs. She pretended to feed me some food as well with a big grin on her face (which, of course, puts a huge smile on my face!)

When we got the kitchen, I was concerned because it was so interactive. I never had a talking kitchen. I had to use my imagination, and that was good for me. I wanted my daughter to have an imagination as well, not have a bunch of electronics do the thinking for her. Well, I shouldn't have worried. She hates the talking voice. She likes the sizzle sound that it makes, and the sound of running water coming from the sink, but the voice pleasantly asking her, "What do you want to eat?" she doesn't like. Actually, it sounds more like, "What do-- what do---what do you---what do you want to eat?" She likes to keep turning the knob (which starts it over).

It's always such a joy to play with her. It keeps all the other stresses of my life stuck in the back of my head while I just sit and enjoy playing with my baby girl.

2 comments:

Sasha@Pw said...

It's nice to find the kid in yourself every now and then and having children is the best way to experience that over and over. :)

Anonymous said...

That is such a great image - her feeding you when she feeds her doll. My daughter has been obsessed with Play-Doh lately and sometimes I get tired of doing the same thing over and over. But mostly I do enjoy playing with her (except when she throws her toys all over the floor!). You're absolutely right that you just let the other stresses go and enjoy being in the moment with a toddler. It is so refreshing after a long day.

Elise