Pretend Play

Anika's imagination has started to take shape. She is constantly raiding the diaper and wipes stash to "change" her baby dolls; she wraps them in blankets and sings them to sleep; she grabs "foons" from the kitchen to feed her dolls and talks to them ("it's gooooood! mmm!") and tells all kinds of stories with her Little People doll house figures.

There are good and bad sides to this, of course. She has figured out how to lie, although I think on her part it's more wishful thinking than willful deceit. At bedtime, she says she's hungry (altho a trip to the kitchen just results in her running around the house) or that her water cup is empty (even when you show her it's full). This morning, after she took a toy away from Reni, I asked her to give it back and gave her a small lecture on the virtues of sharing. She studied the toy for a moment, shoved it inside a box, and looked at me pointedly. "It's lost," she said matter-of-factly.

By far the cutest factor is how she loves to play with Reni. Here she is yesterday, feeding him "lunch":