Her Play

Tess's play right now involves all kinds of tiny props that are chosen with care. Often the play is as much about choosing the toys and loading them into buckets or purses as it is about doing something with those objects. Lately she will load up a couple of buckets or bags with toys, put them on her scooter handlebars, and then scoot around the apartment pretending to go visit someone. Eric and I hear her saying things like, "Bye, Sarah. I like your house. I will come back later." or "Do you want to see my horses, Sarah."

I decided to photograph the after-effects of her play one day while she was at school. This is what was I found. (It had been a really tidy day. Usually I find much bigger messes.):

She has a set of animal cards and insects cards from my Mom. She likes to lay them all out and ask me which animals I've seen and which animals she's seen. She had been looking at the insect cards in her room, and was super excited when she found a monarch caterpillar, because she had seen those at Nana's house last month.

Some of her precious objects left in the foyer. She loves little books, even ones without a story inside. She likes to sit with them and make up something. The other objects are just ones that she has decided are special that day for reasons that aren't clear to me.

She loves painting and coloring with markers right now. Often I'll set her up with water paints while I shower in the morning. This is what she finished that day.

This is her "Lasso Rope" aka "Blasto Rope." Alicia (from Diego) has a magic rope that she uses to lasso all kinds of objects. It's her equivalent of Diego's magic rescue pack. So, Tess decided long ago that my tape measure was her blasto rope. (She thought Alicia was saying, "blasto.") She walks around "blastoing" things like Eric and me or anything else in her path.

Tess packed this purse for a trip we took into Manhattan to go to my doctor. This is an example of what she considered important. (She never took anything out of her bag during the trip.) It's like an I Spy game. :) Can you find the lone cufflink? What about the shell?