Imaginative play

Addie is funny. Really, really funny. Like, stand up comedian funny. She loves to be silly to make us laugh. This weekend, Addie and Gillian had some great play time, and I hear with my own ears, when Gillian said "Addie, let's play Princesses"...Addie said (in her usual, overly pacifying tone) "Ohhhhkayyy Gillian". Then Gillian said "who do you want to be?" and, seriously y'all, Addie said "Baby Rapunzel". Gillian is training her up right to love all things princess and all things pink.

Something not so cute lately is Gillian roaring in Addie's face with her "claws" up like a T-Rex and making Addie cry. Gillian has been getting LOTS of time outs over that. Well, that and chasing Addie around the house making her screech in panic and fear while making a T-Rex sound (Addie comes crashing into my thighs screaming and crying her head off when this happens). When the girls are ugly to eachother, whether it be physically, or yelling, or scaring, they have to apologize, give eachother a hug, and if warranted, kiss the site of the offense/booboo. So, Addie processed the T-Rex terror by acting the scene out with two little Happy Meal Smurfs in the kitchen yesterday when it was just us. So, one Smurf went "RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!" then she made the other one cry. Then the first Smurf said "I'm sowwy Gi-yann" and then Gillian Smurf said "That's OK. I forgive you" and they hugged and kissed. Then they held hands and went to the playground. So, in Addie's world, she is the one who is powerful enough to torment Gillian with terrifying dinosaur roars, but she is also compassionate and sorry. Well, at least she sees Gillian modeling kindness enough to imitate it. 

This weekend, Gillian and Addie played so well together. I had a glimpse of the future and it looks pretty awesomely SANE. the day when they can role play for hours by themselves will be amazing. But in the meantime, I am playing a lot of mermaid princess in my house. The current favorite storyline is that I catch Gillian in the sea and bring her back and put her in my tank at home (she, every SINGLE night tells me she has "long rainbow hair that GROWS EVERY SECOND" and "a rainbow mermaid tail to HERE with pink fins" (gesturing toward ankles)). Sometimes she is a baby mermaid (with no parents) who was "just born" and other times she is an adult mermaid and Addie is her baby. Either way, when she dries off her tail, they become legs (we once watched Splash with her), and then I introduce her to such foreign things as underpants, nightgowns, and toothbrushes. The emotional pinnacle of her story is when (after prompting that it's time to "ask the question") I ask her to stay and be my daughter. To this she adds, "Yeah, I'll stay with you forever" and then I breathlessly exclaim "REALLY!?! YOU WOULD DO THAT FOR ME??" Then she nods, beaming, and we give eachother a giant hug of celebration. This is a sweet little storyline, and varies some, but holy moly it's hard to muster the energy after my 12 hour day. I keep telling myself that one day she won't give me the time of day and to enjoy it while I can.

Two other Stories of the Moment are: 1) Gillian is the Easter Bunny, who is really a beautiful princess in disguise and also the daughter and personal Elf Assistant of Santa Claus. In this story I am the child, and she wears a terrifying water color bunny mask she made in preschool (I swear I had a nightmare about it the first time we played this game). 2) Gillian is Ariel Marianna and/or Rapunzel (whose rainbow hair GROWS EVERY SECOND) and she is getting married (first she tried telling me she was 19 and had a baby when she was getting married and I told her she had to be married already to have a baby in my house, so she decided she was 25 and getting married). We put the crown and veil on and I play the wedding march on the piano, and we have a big dinner party, and last time, she even laid on the floor and gave birth to baby doll Rapunzel. I tenderly swaddled her and handed her over. GILLIAN LOVES THESE GAMES. She is also ashamed of them and tells me not to tell Papa or Nonni about them. How precious that she trusts me that much. ♥ ♥