"Mommy, would you like some sugar-sugar?"
"Yes, please. Thank you!"
"Go use the big one, Mama. I using the baby one. Too...oot (pouring sound). I put sugar in it too."
"Mmmm. Very good, Nana. What's next? May I have something to eat, please?"
"Mommy, go eat."
"Okay, what am I going to eat?"
"Ummmm...steeeek (steak). Go eat."
"Okay. Soooo good."
"I'm full...a 'leetabeet' (little bit)."
"Me too!"
What little girl doesn't like to play tea time and 'penden' (pretend) to eat steak? She is definitely her father's daughter. 'Pendening' to eat steak made me really want some...in particular, my Ladies steak from Texas Loghorn in Hammarby. Instead, I have my Shake-a-Shake-a-Mango-(protein)Shake with a new ingredient I've added to make it a little sweeter...2 swirls of honey. Soooo not the same!
Miss C-Jaz was so cute, as always, and now she can hold her fork and knife properly (plastic of course) while 'pendening' to cut her steak. She can pour, stir, and serve. The weird nostalgic part is that she's playing with MY old tea set. I don't even remember playing with it when I was little. All Miss C-Jaz needs now is her own table and chair set. We play on the couch because it's a perfect height for her when she's standing. The disadvantage being away from our Canada home is that we don't want to start collecting and buying new things that we may not be able to take home or that we already have back home. I'm not sure what to do now for Miss C-Jaz, aside from open dagis, because we can easily play with all the toys I've brought from home and go through each book we have in her library here. She really is growing so fast.
One new game I came up with today was for an animal hunt using her Animal Stencil Cards. We would spread out each animal card onto the floor, then we would meet at one spot to blindly name an animal at random (which usually ended up with me naming an animal because she would look for an animal to name). Finally, we search for the animal to take away. Of course I always pretend not to find it first, and in the end, she found each card on her own. Miss C-Jaz had fun, and whenever she found the right animal card, I cheered for her. She wanted to play a second time, so I gave her clues about which animal card to look for. Sometimes I made an animal sound and other times I would describe an animal. It was a little more difficult for her, but she still managed to find the right cards.
It's been a long morning of playing, stretching, pretending, jumping, and reading, especially because Miss C-Jaz woke up earlier than usual today and has been whiny, but it's always interesting to watch her get those lightbulb moments of, "Oh yah..." Just recently, she's finally able to complete this cube thing of shapes.
