After the initial tumbling introductions, the girls begin to play… but not with each other. The girls were all clad in cute girly attire and new shoes. My sister’s daughter, who is the oldest at fourteen months, just got her first pair of sparkly tennis shoes two weeks prior to our playdate. By now she is a very accomplished walker even though she did not start to walk until after her first birthday. With her advanced walking skills she kind of assumed the role of queen bee. My husband’s sister-in-law’s daughter had also recently gotten a new pair of shoes which were a special order due to her very small feet. She would only walk when holding onto something. My daughter was also wearing her new shoes that grandma and grandpa bought her a few days before. Her skill level was definitely in between her two cousins, especially as she was getting use to her new boots (she walks much better without shoes). The girls seemed to be enjoying the parallel play for awhile, but once I took the cushions off of the sofa and placed them on the floor in front of the sofa, the girls immediately walked, stumbled, and crawled their way onto the very springy cushion free couch. On the sofa they bumped into one another and took each other’s toys while bouncing and climbing on and off of the couch. It was this fun activity that really got the girls to interact with one another. As the day progressed they continued to play together and following each other around taking turns stealing toys from each other. When lunchtime rolled around we had a minor meltdown as I was preparing the girls’ lunch, but as soon as they had food in front of them to eat, the focussed contently on their food …
(To be continued …)