Sydney is less than a month from turning 2 and we’re starting to get to that point where we are overwhelmed by toys – i’m not sure how it happened because i really haven’t bought her a lot of stuff and she doesn’t really know to ask for toys yet – i also did a really good job of not going overboard at Christmas – especially with her birthday being just 6 weeks later – so i don’t know how it happened but all of a sudden, her play area looks like a Toys R Us exploded!!
for Christmas, our ladies who lunch group decided to just exchange gifts for the kids and it was a plan i was definitely down with – but even with that small group, Sydney came home with a ton of toys – i decided not to take anything out of the package until Sydney actually asked or showed interest in it and that seemed to be a good idea – the party was the 2nd week of December and today Sydney decided she wanted to open the Disney Princess Tea Set that she received – um, it’s only been 2 months … and truth be told, *i* was the one who really wanted to play with it, but i let her take the lead and today was the day!
despite the fact that it had been sitting in the open right next to the rest of her toys for 2 months, his afternoon the tea set somehow grabbed her interest and she brought the box to me saying “open, open” – as i opened the package, she couldn’t wait to get the saucers and tea cups out – as soon as she did, she started drinking from the tea cups complete with slurping noises (where do they learn this stuff?) – then she handed me a cup and told me to “drink it” too – she was so excited about the cups and saucers that she barely noticed the silverware, the tea pot and sugar bowl - but i somehow managed to get them out of the packaging and once she noticed the other pieces, there was no stopping her – it was suddenly all about cooking eggs! she was mixing up something in the teapot with the spoon and kept telling me, “Mommy, cooking eggs” – after about 30 minutes i asked her if she was ready to take a shower (since it was after 3pm!) but the answer was “NO! cooking eggs!!” – okaaay, i guess i got my answer there – i asked a few more times and the response was always the same so i decided to kick back and try and get some work of my own done while she was occupied
a few minutes later, Sydney had disappeared – i didn’t think much about it until she returned with a big old jar of peanut butter – “Mommy, peanut butter – peanut butter Mommy!” – uhhhhh … i KNOW this girl does not think she’s about to play with peanut butter! i tried to explain that there wasn’t any peanut butter (because the jar was almost empty) but she was not about to be deterred – “Mommy, peanut butter! Daddy?” – “yes Sydney, Daddy eats peanut butter but we can’t play with the peanut butter because it’s Daddy’s” – “Daddy peanut butter!!” well crap.
great – now that she’s officially ready to play kitchen, i have absolutely nothing for her to “play” kitchen with – no pots or pans, no fake food – think mommy, think mommy – you’re creative – what can she use instead – as i racked my brain about what cardboard box i could empty out and give her, i remembered about the mandarin oranges that came in our co-op order this week – they looked like mini tangerines and are literally the size of 1/4 of the palm of my hand – i figured if i kept her on the leather ottoman, she couldn’t cause too much damage and ANYTHING would be better than peanut butter – “Sydney, would you like some oranges?” – she perked up immediately, “ORANGES!!” – score! i grabbed the peanut butter from her hands and ran (well, waddled) into the kitchen to get the oranges – i peeled it in about 30 seconds and in less than a minute, she was back on track!
after about 15 minutes, i was absolutely sure that she is ready to move to the play kitchen – up until now, she hasn’t really shown any signs of this so-called imaginative play i keep hearing about – that is outside of her long drawn out conversations on the phone (both real and imagined) – but today i knew – she was “making eggs” and telling me to “eat it” – she transferred the oranges from plate to plate and was pouring drinks from the teapot into the teacups – oh yeah, it’s all about “cooking” now – “Mommy, i’m cooking!’ – “yes, baby you are!” – maybe instead of sending her to the University of Texas to be an engineer, i’ll send her to culinary school so she can be a chef!
My two year old has that tea set too, and loves it! I was shocked when she handed me a cup and said “tea.” we rarely dri k it and she certainly doesn’t so I have no idea where she picked it up… Probably the too much TV I let her watch…