Vignettes of Erik and Madeline
A couple of scenes from yesterday:
Thursday morning we went to play in the gym at a nearby park and recreation center. They have a free weekly “family fun time” for parents and kids to come and play in the gym with balls, ride-on toys, small climbing equipment, and so on. Usually it’s mostly moms with their toddlers and preschoolers, along with a few elementary-age homeschool kids here and there. But, since yesterday was a “no school” day for the public schools, and there was also a special program happening in the park building for Latino families, the gym was teeming with kids of all ages.
I saw another mom I know from church, so we stood at the side of the gym and chatted while our kids played. I looked up from my chatting to see Erik across the gym, standing under a regulation-height basketball hoop with his toddler-size bouncy ball, getting ready to aim for a shot. He must have seen the big kids shooting baskets and decided to try it for himself. Erik tried to make a basket a couple of times (with the ball of course getting nowhere near the basket), then ran off to try something else. It was really one of those “kodak moments” I wish I could have whipped out my camera quickly enough to catch. Erik could not have enjoyed himself more for the hour and a half or so that we were at the gym. It was like little boy heaven for him to have such a big space to run and play with balls and riding toys. Madeline’s highlight, on the other hand, was playing with another little girl her age she knows from church. She was quite disappointed when our friends from church left after we had only been there a short time. Eventually she managed to have a good time just running around and playing, but she would definitely pick pretending and playing with another little girl over running around any day.
After we arrived home, had lunch, and Erik went to take his nap, Madeline declared that it was Suzy Pig’s birthday. Suzy Pig is currently her favorite stuffed animal, and during the past few days Madeline has often been “taking care of” Suzy by making sure she has “food” any time Madeline is eating and giving Suzy pretend baths. So, now Madeline needed my help to throw a great birthday party for Suzy. I managed to convince Madeline to wait until after Erik’s nap to get ready for the party, so we could use Erik’s nap time for some preschool activities and a few chores that seem to work better while Erik is out of the way. But it took a lot of convincing.
As soon as Erik woke up, Madeline sprung into action. She declared that we absolutely must clean the house (“for real!”) if we were going to have a proper party for Suzy. Madeline insisted that I help her sweep the floor and pick up the toys. And she wanted to wipe off the floor under the table and clean the mirrors and glass too. Sweet! Finally I had a daughter who was motivated to help out with chores! We really did work on getting the house clean for quite a while. Once she gets started with it, Madeline always loves cleaning the floor-length mirror and the other glass that’s at her height, like the doors to the foyer and the lower cabinets in the built-in buffet. This time, Erik also got into the act. He followed Madeline around for a surprisingly long time, his own dry rag in hand, “cleaning” right behind Madeline. I actually got a lot done in the kitchen with catching up on dishes and preparing dinner while the kids took fingerprints off the glass.
We never actually got around to having Suzy’s birthday yesterday. We got a few Madeline-sanctioned decorations put up…like fake flower leis that fit perfectly around lamp shades and play bead neclaces hanging from window locks. But, soon Tony arrived home from work and the play shifted toward running around the house playing tag with Daddy while I finished the dinner preparations. So, I would guess that an elaborate pretend birthday party for a small stuffed pig is ahead in my near future.
Now, if I can just capitalize on this idea of needing to clean the house for an Important Pretend Party (and we can have those parties a little more often), we might actually have a clean house a lot more frequently!