Tales from the Crib

Recently, we got a crib put together for Nate. It's in Livy's room. He's not sleeping there yet but oftentimes I will lay him in there when I'm attending to Miss Olivia's needs. Queenie is fascinated with her brother's crib. She is constantly hanging off the crib railing pleading, "Help!" She wants to get in the crib, play with his mobile, and jump around like a monkey. I guess his mattress is boingier than hers. It's actually really cute to see her in there, examining the mobile, and naming all the animals dangling precariously from it. "Turtle, alligator, lion (which sounds like lie-non), monkey, giraffe." All spoken in that sweet little Livy voice. So, it's hard to resist, and more often than not, I indulge her and lift her in to play.

Recently, Olivia has also decided that all the things she likes to have in her crib with her while she's sleeping, should also accompany us to other areas of the house when she's not in her crib. After all, these are some of her favorite things. Why not bring them along? When she wakes in the morning, before she'll get out of her crib, she hands me these things, one by one, naming each, "Turtle, Elmo, Elmo (yes there are two), Rocket (from Little Einsteins), puppy, Jesse blanket, elmo blanket, Ernie...this can go on and on depending on which other items have migrated into the crib. Before long, my arms are so full that I can barely lift her out. When it's time for her nap, we carry all the items back into her room and place them back into the crib.

Anyways, I guess she decided when she was in the crib with Nate that he needed her special items around him since they make HER feel so good. She placed them all around him and in true Olivia form, named each one as she lovingly placed it by her "brother Nate." What a sweetie!


The other thing she's doing lately which is funny is orchestrating this scenario. She tells George to sleep in her tent. She has him lay down, she tells him to close his eyes, she brings in all of the aforementioned animals and items, one by one, naming each as she lays it next to him. Then she leaves the tent only to return one moment later screaming, "Daddy! Wake Up!" George pops his eyes open and jump with surprise, which gets her really giggling. It's exciting to me though, to see the beginnings of all the pretend play that toddlers are so famous for. She got a tea set from Nanny for Christmas so she's been pouring us cups of tea. I'm sure the extent of these tea parties will expand exponentially soon. I better start making some crumpets.