“The playing adult steps sideward into another reality;
the playing child advances forward to new stages of mastery.”
– Erik H. Erikson
I admire the creativity of children. We bought a new car seat for James who has outgrown the baby carrier. The box was in the living room and Ashlyn thought it would be fun to lift one side while James was sitting on it. James slid off of course, and this gave Ashlyn an idea. The box became a slide, and over the next week there were children constantly rolling and sliding down it.
Ashlyn is dangerous around water. The kids wanted to go outside and play, which is fine. Unfortunately, we forgot the water table was still filled with water after the rains. When Mom looked out the window to check on them, she saw two soaked and happy children. They were having fun together, and that far outweighed the work required to clean them up.
James is become more and more the mimic. If one of us does something James wants to do it too. One notable exception is his refusal to mimic sleeping in on Saturday morning.
He tries to follow Ashlyn too, but she’s a little more difficult to keep up with. For example, she is in a phase where she likes to mix strange food combinations. This is Ashlyn putting pears on tacos. James can’t do that, so he just shoves as much of the food in his mouth as he can. This kid is an eating machine, and he signs for food constantly.
On Saturday we hosted a scotch tasting event. Our friends wanted to see the kiddos so we volunteered to do it at our house. Ashlyn helped Mom make some chocolate covered pretzels, and James learned that it’s fun to put olives on your finger.
For the record, nobody drank too much and everyone drove home safely. But isn’t this pretty?
Sunday was a great day to be outdoors, and we spent a good portion of the day making a mess on the back porch. By “we” I mean Ashlyn and James. Ashlyn showed James how to get chalk all over his hands, and it spread to other areas of his body. I included a before and after picture for reference.
And that’s all she wrote this week folks. Adios!
