Generosity

Rosalie, like all other toddlers, likes her own stuff. And other people's stuff. However, it's always so nice to see her share. The other day we celebrated Grandmama's birthday when she came to visit. Although Grandmama didn't want a cake for herself, she bought a cupcake for Rosalie, who had requested it.


Rosalie was quite enjoying her cupcake, as you can see, but when Grandmama asked her for a bite, she easily and willingly gave it to her. I love it.

Rosalie attended an "old fashioned" birthday party today, complete with party dresses--and she was so cool about coming to the toy store to pick up a little gifty for her friend with me. There were no requests for toys for herself. She helped me pick out stickers to go with the gift, and she put the gift in the bag herself. She was also excited to make her friend a birthday card. Just wonderful.

Getting Dressy

When Rosalie first learned to crawl, it made no sense to me to dress her in dresses: How hard to get around! When she first learned to walk, I felt protective of her little knees when she fell down. When she began Berry Patch, I loved that her time there is so messy with learning. So basically, there never seemed to be a time when I had a dire need to get her dresses. But today I was at a "gently used sale" and I bought her not one, not two, but FIVE dresses for cheap, plus some cute shoes that appear to be pretty comfy for her. I figured she has tea parties and maybe some other events to attend where a dress might come in handy.

We had so much fun this morning playing with these! Figured you'd like to see some of the fun.

Here she is seeing herself in the first dress. Pure pleasure. She loved playing with those purple flowers.


She also loved playing with the little doohickies on this dress.


This dress was pretty twirly. Good fun.


More twirling! This one is actually a knit dress, and could even be a "play dress" because it's stretchy and comfy.


This one can probably hold on until spring. It's actually size 5/6 (and she's a 4T at this point).

What a pleasure! Hope you enjoyed the eye candy as much as we did.

Where's the Fire?

Excitement on our block last Friday--we had a(nother) block party, this one to celebrate "Back to School." I called the fire department and asked them to come visit during the party.



The firefighters let all the kids climb into the cab and get a sense of what it's like to be a hero of the city. Rosalie enjoyed it immensely, as you can see. They even supplied sticker badges:



At one point, the firefighters were laughing when Rosalie was "steering" really fast, dangling her legs over the seat. One of the firemen said to the other, "That looks like YOU when you're driving!" Though it was a short visit (because the truck had a call to get to), I think Rosalie charmed some dudes in hats.



Later this weekend she had fun at a friend's 3rd birthday party and came home with a balloon. It's been awhile since she's had a ballon, and I must say, she's had quite the relationship with it. She needed to kiss and hug it goodnight, for example. It's cool how you can re-visit the supercoolness of a toy or plaything if you wait long enough in between exposures to it.

Sorting

Rosalie is really into grouping things by color. It's just a thing she does. Is this a "thing" at this age? I have no idea. She's been doing it for months now.


Aunt Melanie came to visit this weekend, and she and Rosalie hit it off. They had fun doing this puzzle, pictured above, and playing other games. I'm sure there was some sorting at some point during the day.

Melanie, who's trained as a teacher and who has been a nanny before, pointed out when Rosalie was thinking concretely. Rosalie was playing with a train, and Melanie asked if she could go for a ride, and Ms. Spatial said, "Nope, too big."

That said, she can be innovative and imaginative as well. I think she was saying no to Melanie because in general she turns down our ideas when we play with her these days. It's her way of gaining control, I think. It must be hard being a toddler with so many things being decided and done for you. Sure, that might sound nice in theory, but talk about no sense of autonomy. It would be exhausting. Who was it that said that "Every day is Children's Day"? It's kind of baloney. I'd never want to go back to that time.

Anyway, back to Rosalie's imaginative play: Currently her favorite roles to play are doctor and kitty. We've had entire conversations with "Meow meow" this weekend. She was enjoying curling up on my lap and licking her arm.

Salad Days

It does my heart good to see this big girl enjoying salad, my favorite food. She had approximately 7 servings of this the other night. For this picture, I asked her to say "Salad!" and this is the genuine smile she gave.