"Mama, can we play tea party? Please, please, please?"
In general, playing pretend is a hard one for me. I'd rather play actual games, work puzzles, run around outside or color than exist in a non-reality world of my child's imagination. I'm sure that speaks volumes about my personality, but we'll skip the examination for now.
I donned the part and played tea party this morning. My ironing stack is now as tall as I am and in danger of toppling into the unfolded laundry pile, but play we did. Irish Jig asked to play tea party with her little tea set, but I decided to treat her (and myself) to real tea in real china tea cups. We prepared a platter of tea munchies that included this morning's blueberry pa'nuffins and Girl Scout cookies (don't judge me). I brewed raspberry tea and then iced it down to a palatable temperature for the little miss. I let her choose a tea cup from my stash** and we were all set to go. Or so I thought.
She informed me that fancy dresses were required attire for our tea party.
Wait! What?
I was comfortably ensconced in layers of fleece as the high will be in the 40's today.
"But MAMA, you NEED a fancy dress!"
And so, I donned a fancy dress. You can see the purple knee of said fancy dress in the picture below. Be thankful I can't take a full body shot of myself. Irish Jig opted for some Disney princess dress from the costume box (I am proud to say I don't know my Disney princesses). Please ignore the rip in the side of the dress. I will add it to the repair stack that's buried somewhere under the ironing stack but on top of the "needs a button" stack.
Once Mr. Potato Head and his posse were settled, we were allowed to start our party. We chatted about favorite puzzles and which ones were very hard, as well as the possibility of visiting the playground today. We identified letters on her alphabet blanket and some were even correct. We drank lots of tea and figured out how to evenly divide the number of cookies and carrots available.
Our older children tended to seek out one another for these types of pretend games. I remember entire weeks of Restaurant and Camping being played when they were closer to this age. Irish Jig doesn't have that advantage since she's so much younger than the others. She's home with boring Mama and spends her days learning colors as she sorts laundry. She happily plays with her Little People, creating elaborate stories and adventures for them while I putter through daily chores.
While I do make a point of engaging her in various age appropriate activities during our days together, I admit to skipping the pretend portions most of the time. I'm just glad I didn't skip it today.
**During my youth, my paternal grandmother would gift each of her seven granddaughters with a tea cup and saucer each Christmas. Usually accompanied by a pair of "granny panties" or a half slip, these were not gifts we particularly looked forward to receiving. Many years later, I finally appreciate my collection of tea cups. I really can't say the same for the undies....
Today's post title = Brad Paisley's Time Well Wasted
Playing tea party was quite new to me also when I ended up with all those girls in a row! I grew up a tomboy, playing sports, and running wild outside and hardly played with dolls. It's so funny how much pleasure they get out of pretending though.
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