Dumbo and the Peepees

This isn't a picture of the toy room.  It's MY room.   When Brandon is gone my room just kind of turns into another play room.  Ug. This picture was taken at some point while he was at gunnery in August.  

My Dad was still visiting the day that Brandon went to gunnery.  Somehow we all ended up in the playroom and somehow I thought it would be a good idea to pull all the toys out of "toy prison."  (It's supposed to be a rotating toy "library," but let's not kid ourselves here.)  So the whole time Brandon was gone ALL the toys were free to be scattered around the house.  The kids had a blast, but I was going crazy.  This is what the toy room looked like most of the time.  Keep in mind half the toys are elsewhere in the house (my room, the living room).

Once Brandon came back home we made "hide half the toys back in the window seat" one of our high priorities.  This is what the toy room looked like today.  Some of the toys are in the living room on the floor, but you can see what a difference boxing up half the toys makes.

The girls really haven't noticed that half the toys are missing again.  That's mostly because I pay attention to which toys they actually care about, as opposed to the ones they just play with for a second.  The ones with special status obviously get to stay out of prison for this go around.  

I thought I'd do a post about what toys the kids play with - especially since they aren't the toys that would normally come to mind.  

Let's start with Dumbo.  Here is a picture of Charlotte with Dumbo.  

No, I didn't upload the wrong picture - that golf ball is named Dumbo.  (Before being named Dumbo this ball has a life as Charlotte's "soccer ball.")  I have no clue why this ball is named Dumbo, but that's it's name.  Charlotte will come up to me and ask me, "where's Dumbo" and I will help her find him.  He also has a "Mommy and a Daddy" who are also balls - just bigger.  Charlotte will act out scenes from the movie Dumbo with this ball.  The only problem with Dumbo is that Derrick doesn't understand that he's not a ball.  You can imagine the drama that ensues when Charlotte catches Derrick throwing Dumbo around the house.

Charlotte also has her "Peepees."  Baby Peepee is this little Mrs Potts toy from a Beauty and the Beast toy collection.  Again, I don't know how she got that name.  She also happens to be a boy now.  Mommy and Daddy Peepee are rubber duckies who apparently believe in adoption.  Somehow I don't have a picture of the whole Peepee family, but here is Charlotte holding up Baby PeePee and Grandpa Peepee who is also a rubber ducky.  Ever since my Dad came to visit the girls have made sure that all their little families have "Grandpa ones" in addition to "Mommy one and Daddy one and Baby one."

Lydia goes along with all of Charlotte's names and family relationships for the various toys.  But when she does her pretending she tends to be a bit more conventional.  She has about 6 baby dolls that she is the Mommy to.  Well actually she's the Mommy to the 4 biggest, while two of those babies have their own babies as well.  She's always asking me to swaddle her babies in blankets or bandannas and then she'll put them to bed.  Yesterday she had me sit in on "bedtime" while she did "scibbers and payers."   She said, "And it cama passssss" when she read the scriptures.  

  For a while there I was pretty certain the girls could read my mind.  I'd notice a toy that they hadn't shown much interest in lately.  I'd make a mental note to box that toy up as soon as I had a chance.  Then, next thing I'd know I'd find the girls creating an elaborate game with that toy.  Case in point, here is Charlotte making slides out of foam blocks so her "people" (we'll talk about those in a minute) can slide on them before flying in the airplane.  Not 10 minutes before this picture was taken I was planning on boxing up the soft blocks.  (I still did because Charlotte didn't show any interest in them later.)

Here are the kids vegging out in front of a movie.  Despite their glazed over looks I feel like they actually benefit from the movies we watch.  I often find the girls acting out scenes from different movies with each other and their toys.  And they are starting to learn the words to the "Hello Dolly" songs that are on Wall-e.  That counts as culture right?

Okay lets talk about Charlotte's "people."  I have this little internal debate about the kids' toys.  On the one hand I think it's awesome that the girls have great imaginations and can pretend that something is different from what it really is.  But on the other hand I wonder if it would enhance their play if they actually had some real stuff to work with.  The "people" are a prime example of this.

Take a look at this picture.  Ignore the fact that the girls are asleep in the hall - some nights I'm just happy they fall asleep, I don't care where it happens. Take a look at the little row of blocks on the stairs.  Those are Charlotte's "people."  These ones are special in that this is actually our family.  There is a Mommy, Daddy, Charlotte, Lydia, and Derrick one.  Charlotte carried them around for several hours and played with them like they were our family.

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery so I love it when the girls "write in jornals."  Brandon took this picture of the girls writing in their journals while I wrote in their real ones.  The girls are always carrying around notebooks and pens and scribbling in them.  Lydia is especially good at filling each line with careful little scribbles.

And check it out, Charlotte actually smiled for a picture!

When we first moved here it took about 3 weeks for all our stuff to show up.  We had some toys, but not all of them.  Fortunately we had the cooler which is apparently the coolest toy ever.  Charlotte always wants to play with it when we get it out for a camping trip.  A little while ago she figured out where we store it.  She asked me to get it out for her, and since this was after half the toys were back in prison I said yes.

Charlotte likes to put Dumbo, the Peepee's, her "aminals," her "people," and whatever other toy is special into the cooler and push it around.  Sometimes she pretends it is a shopping cart and that they are all grocery shopping.  I'll hear her pretend to get milk, and eggs, and cereal, and juice and put them into her cart.  Here she is getting the Peepee's out of their "house" which is really my cupboard's lazy Susan.

Derrick isn't left out in the weird toy department.  He is OBSESSED with the vacuum.  He can open doors and so he is always opening the closet door and pulling out the vacuum. Then he repeats, "Ahdoo" which is his word for vacuum while following me around.  He'll do this many, many times each day.  I think he did it at least 10 times today - and that was AFTER we'd vacuumed every room in the house.  He always cries when I turn off the vacuum.

Charlotte recently added "cowie" to her list of favorite toys.  Here he is asleep in his bed in the doll house.  (I think the book was the song book for scriptures and prayers.)

These are Lydia's "cookies."  She always takes two blocks and puts them together and calls them her cookies.  She'll grab whatever book is nearby to use as her "recipe." She follows the recipe and says things like, "one teaspoon, what's next hummm, one cup." She pretends to cook them in the oven which is really the drawer of my bedside table. Then she hands out the cookies and you better let her know how good her cookies taste.

This isn't of a toy, but it was still fun.  This is from the day I showed the girls what finger nail polish is. They were so excited.  (BTW I think it's been two weeks since I could get my wedding ring off. I will be so happy when I'm not pregnant anymore.)  

There are so many other toys that the girls love.  But I didn't get pictures of them all so you can just imagine what these are like:

• Charlotte has added a dog to the Peepee family.  It's actually a hippo. 
• All my bathroom bottles of shampoo, conditioner, body wash, and so on have been assigned a family rank.  The girls are always taking them out of the shower and putting them to bed in my bathroom cupboard.  
• We have a mommy firetruck and a baby firetruck.  (This is another area where Derrick and the girls have misunderstanding about how to play with the toys.)
• Lydia is really good at folding.  She loves to fold anything.  She has some little squares of fabric that she calls her "laundry."  She also likes to take my wash cloths and calls them her "baby cloths."  If she is really devious and sneaky she will empty a whole pack of wet wipes just so she can fold them all.  I'm devious in my own way and will leave a pile of kitchen wash clothes out in the open - she can't resist folding them.  
• We have a teapot that the girls call their "teasp." They love to put water in it and then pour the water into cups.
• Charlotte has two real reindeer that she calls her Bambies. One is the Mommy one and one is the Baby one. There is also a "tender Daddy one." ("Tender" is how she says pretend and I think it is the cutest thing ever!)  

Anyway, thanks for paying attention to all the silly things my kids do.  I love watching their imaginations grow.  But don't assume that I spend all my time following them around and watching them play.  I try to ignore them a lot too.  Here is what happened to Lydia when both she and I were just to tired to deal with whatever she needed.    

Yep, fast asleep on the kitchen floor.

And look what I made during her meltdown/nap.  Dinner!  With color! And more than two ingredients!  Brandon and I have been working on meal planning and such.  But that is a post for another day (once we've figured out all the little kinks.)