The games we play

I'm sure I have said this countless times before, but I love the stage Lydia is in right now. In truth, I really have loved every stage. I feel fortunate to have truly enjoyed each stage, not wishing any of them away.
This particular stage, with her increased cognitive and physical abilities as well as her desire to communicate despite her lack of vocabulary, has me laughing all of the time.

She's a big fan of "beebees" (babies) lately. She has two little dolls that she mothers quite well. Here she is caring for her "children" by reading books to them, carrying them lovingly and pretending to sleep by them.
The latter has proved to be quite a task for me to learn my role in the process of putting her babies to "sleep." She empties all of her blankets out of her dresser, then hands them to me one by one and through a combination of jabbering and gestures I surmise that I am to spread them out on top of one another. She then places the babies on the blankets. Sometimes she lays down by them and I'm supposed to cover all three of them with a blanket. Other times such an idea is utterly preposterous and is met with a complete meltdown on Lydia's part at my lack of understanding what she wants. Trust me, it's a precarious position to be in when you're the interpreter of one who is truly speaking her own language.




A few weeks ago we visited a place called Creative Minds -- once with my friend Lila and her son Max, once with just ourselves. It is a darling indoor play place with a pretend grocery store, farm, castle, pirate ship, house, auto repair shop, wood shop, theater and more. There are dress ups in each station and all the props necessary to let your mind run wild. Lydia had a great time!






And what would life be like the spring in St. George without plenty of outside time? I absolutely love this time of year and I am loving that I have time to play all the games Lydia and I want to play. This is the first spring I've been working just part time and I continue to be so grateful that we are able to make this work for us. It is such a blessing to be a mom.