Tea Party

Messy Maya, at the sand table

When Guillermo and Will went to build castles at Kidzu the other day, Maya and I threw ourselves a tea party. 

We invited her baby and we sat in front of her pretend Little Tikes kitchen. We drank pretend tea and ate pretend cheese, grapes, and apple pie. I think Maya was a bit disappointed when she saw that it wasn't a real party, but she got in the spirit pretty fast. She helped cut the pie and pour the drinks and made sure her baby was comfortable. It was so sweet to see her care for her doll, feeding it and, of course, checking its diaper. But after the party was over and we started to clean up, she showed me her more dispassionate side, or that of a 2-year-old who is done playing with her toys. She threw the baby, along with the tea cups and tea pot, and food, into her toy oven, shut the door, and walked away. 

Today, we had another tea party. She insisted on having desert, but the pretend pie didn't satisfy her. Since I had thrown out most of the pretend junk food, I started offering her pretend fruit and when that didn't work, I offered her a pretend chicken leg. That made her angry, angry enough that she lifted her arm like she was going to throw the leg, but she heeded my warning and stopped. And, then she smiled. She saw a pretend piece of bacon and gobbled it up.