At last, I can play with my new toy!

Wednesday December 7, 2007
A couple of days ago while searching on Toys R Us for toys for my two-year old grandson's Christmas presents, I accidentally ran across the cutest little Fisher-Price Musical Tea Set. I instantly fell in love with it and knew I just had to have it. After all isn’t that what I’ve always said The Little Princess and I would spend time doing? Playing with our tea sets. It is the prettiest pastel colored saucers and teacups as well as a little tea pot that makes a little noise when it’s tipped up and the tea is poured out, and the little tea pot also plays the tune “I’m a little teapot” when a little button on top is pushed. It also has four little spoons, a cream pitcher and sugar dish.

I was so excited, I wanted to play with it immediately, but I had to wait until the Little Princess came over and could play with me. So, today was my first chance. After she came in, I pulled it out for us to play with. She was almost as excited about playing with it as I was. She could hardly wait for me to get it out of the box.

I pulled each piece out one by one and placed them for us to play with. She watched as I showed her how to pour the tea from the pot into the cups, add the sugar, the cream and stir it all up with the little spoon. She did a very good job for this to have been her first time. We even invited her favorite pal Teddy to join us in a spot of tea. He sat politely as he waited patiently for his tea. I was proud of him, too. He was on his best behavior.

Later the Little Princess even learned to share with Teddy by giving him sips of her tea. I’m sad to say, she did offer it to the back of his head, and she also poured the pretend tea right on top of poor Teddy’s head. I sure hope he didn’t suffer any major burns!

She didn’t pay as much attention to the little tea set to begin with that I had hoped, but she is only thirteen months old and her attention span isn’t supposed to be several hours long, I guess. We kept coming back to it again and again. Eventually she’ll get the hang of it.

We ate at The Golden Corral for lunch. It’s a buffet meal and that’s a great thing when you have a picky little one. She could pick and choose what she wanted to eat and not be stuck with just what Grandmomma wanted her to eat.

She ate a very hearty meal of broccoli, black-eyed peas, carrots, pear, fried okra, even a smidge of a chopped up brussell sprouts, sweet potato, mashed white potatoes, a bit of corn muffin, and I can’t remember what else she ate. I do know I added a few green beans on the side and when she spotted them,she handed them towards me, made a face (without even sampling them). When I suggested she put them back on her diner’s mat, she immediately hung them over her the edge of her chair in a threatening manner. She was going to put those nasty things on the floor if I didn’t get them out of her sight. So, to save the restaurant workers the task of cleaning up after a messy baby, I removed them from her sight.

I knew she was all finished-done because she finally decided to roll up her little diner’s mat with the remnants of her food still in it, so she could get them out of her way. Then she spotted my goody bag and remembered I had packed a banana in it. I had promised her she could have it at the restaurant and she pointed at my bag and let me know she wanted it, NOW. She was really excited when I pulled it out. She laughed and talked about it while waiting for me to cut it up. She ate at least 2/3s of it, before she was finally full.

I left the table to get a dessert. I could hear the Little Princess in the background. She was crying. Granddaddy said she had missed me until he showed her where I was. I came back with some ice cream for both of us. I didn’t think she could possibly hold anymore, but I didn’t want to leave her out. Well, that little stinker ate every bit of the ice cream I had brought back for her. It wasn’t a large bowl, but she loved everything she had.

I asked her if she was full and let’s check her tummy to see. She held up her top and smiled. She was full. I could tell by looking at her. And she was happy.

On the way back to the car, we could see our long shadows in front of us. I introduced her to the game of “step on Little Princess, step on Grandmomma, step on Granddaddy.” I may have even made the mistake of saying “step on our shadows”, but I’m not positive. That would have been a big mistake since one of her kitty cat's name is Shadow and according to her mommy she already aggravates the kitty enough. I think it was mostly Little Princess, Grandmomma and Granddaddy, though. However,it was a fun game for her as I stepped onto her shadow. She smiled the biggest smile and finally got the knack of the game and stepped on mine and Granddaddy’s. At least it kept her entertained until we reached the car.

She’s gotten better about climbing into the car and she’s working on sitting in her seat so we can buckle her in.

She was really sleepy when we got back to the house. She wouldn’t let me rock her to sleep. She didn’t want to lie down. This went on for a short while until I finally put her down in her bed. She was not happy, but she got over it and went to sleep for about 40-45 minutes. Then nature acted and woke her up.

We spent some more time playing with the tea set, Teddy, wrapping my bunny in a blanket like mommy used to wrap her when she was a little baby, listening to Grandmomma's recorded voice on an older pay-style telephone the boys had played with when they were younger, reading some books, digging in the toy bucket for something new and who knows what else. She wasn’t all that impressed with the game of wrapping the bunny, but just wait until cold weather gets here and she can relate to why bunny needs to be wrapped up!

After mommy came home we brought out the graham crackers. This was her first tasty bite of graham crackers. Of course, we put a little on her saucer from the tea set for her to enjoy. After she had finished her allotted amount, she wanted more and pointed to the box on the counter. Mommy couldn’t believe she knew what was in that box. This was the first time she had ever had any, she had never seen the box before today. Maybe she’s learning to read.

Granddaddy has been working on another digital page featuring The Little Princess. He did a really good job on this one. It’s a quick page, but he’s improving quite a bit on his skills. Of course, I had to go back and re-do it to suit my style. Someday he’ll learn what I like, and I won’t have to do them over for him everytime! He’s really doing great work and I’m proud of him.