Eat Your (Plastic) Fruits and Vegetables

We got A one of those big kitchen playsets (my friend's sister was closing a preschool and sold a bunch of stuff). It didn't come with any supplies, so I ran over to Toys R Us (wasn't it Dave Barry who always called it "Toys Sure R Expensive?") and bought plastic fruits, plastic vegetables, plastic doughnuts, and a set of pink, purple, and yellow dishes. It took me a good half-hour to wrestle the dishes out of the plastic display box.

The kitchen has been up and running for two days. As far as I can tell, there is no method to her madness. She stores the doughnuts in the sink and the pitcher of milk in the microwave. The dishes are in the refrigerator and the utensils are in the oven. She serves us "milk" from a little pitcher. We drink it out of tiny blue cups. I noticed that she usually takes a big swig out of the same pitcher from which she just served us. The kid has a lot to learn about proper food handling, I tell ya. She does provide good service, though. "It's good? Want some more?"

In addition to serving gallons of milk to me and her daddy, she also prepares meals for the dogs. Yesterday I found Karl (our old black dog) sitting on the floor with a pink plate between his paws. On the plate was a pink doughnut and a blue fork (what, you don't eat your doughnuts with a fork???) She also prepares meals for Gideon (our Boxer) and Odin (our foster Boxer). The problem here is that the dogs will definitely eat the plastic food if given half a chance. So I go around picking up the plastic plates and the plastic food, all the while sending my compliments back to the chef ("Gideon says thanks! He said it was the best lemon he's ever eaten!") About the lemon - sometimes she squeezes it into the milk she's given me, which I find a little alarming.

I'm always trying to think of toys that might keep A occupied on her own for a few minutes at a time (I keep telling her, "You're an only child - you really should learn to play by yourself.") The kitchen, as it turns out, is as interactive as they come. You don't have to wonder what I'll be doing this evening - I'll be gnawing on an ear of corn and drinking my lemony-good milk, of course.

Comments

Okay, if you don't mind I'll be coming back. Your daughter and mine are two peas in a pod (G's a couple weeks older--mid-April 05). Seriously, same speaking in complete sentences, shapes, colors, numbers, alphabet for the past six months, tantrums over crazy crap...and completely beloved. She was ROUGH the first 18 months, then at 21 months we brought her sister home and she was full force into the Terrible Twos. She's gorgeous, hilarious, loved the Sound of Music, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and Mary Poppins before she ever got into kid programs, makes me sing to her (not well, but she doesn't seem to mind) nightly until I'm hoarse, and becomes utterly NUTSO at 7:30 every night. Oh, and cries herself to sleep every night no matter what we do (only for the past month or so. Of course, she didn't sleep through the night until 15 months...and hated her car seat...and detested her stroller...and and and...) She's exhausting but I wouldn't trade her for the world, you know?

By the way, G wraps her ball up in blankets and brushes its "teeth", plays with blankets and burp cloths more than commercial toys, and likes to pretend to be a spider.

I have two kids, but people who say onlys are lonelys are stupid. They are usually mature and comfortable talking to adults (my experience, anyway, and I'm not an only.) I hope you get what's best for YOUR family, not what society thinks is best for you.

Oh, yeah...G went through the "Mom", "Mama", "Mommy" phase, too. Don't know why, but it aggravated me! I was Mommy for a year, and now I'm "Mama" for some reason. She hasn't called me "Stephanie", though; that's hilarious!

Anyway, came here through Mr. Nice Guy--don't remember how we came upon him but we like to read about the exploits because we KNOW what he's talking about. Kids are wild! Well, at least mine is.

Sorry this is so long, but I read a good portion of your blog and identified with a good deal of it so I thought I'd drop a "few" lines. Isn't Dora for us...she went through a Wiggles phase (knew the songs by heart), then a Mickey Mouse Club house phase, and right now we're cycling through all of our Disney CDs. If it hadn't been for TV, I would never have survived the second pregnancy and the first few months of V's life--I'm a SAHM and it can get crazy.

"Supacalidocious" to you, as G likes to say!

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