Dress-up Tuesday

Every now and then I read about 'suggestions' for toddler play and I do my best to incorporate something new and different into our daily routine, at least weekly. Last week Katherine and I prepared a meal in her kitchen, packed it up with other picnic items, took a ride in the couch car, arrived at our 'cation' (short for vacation, which I'm finding out means anyplace fun), enjoyed looking at the farm animals in my room, took a dip in the pool in Nathan's room and admired the lovely sleeping accommodations in Katherine's room.

Yesterday we had our 'touchy-feely' workshop. I assembled things with different textures for us to touch, feel and talk about. Metal & plastic spoons, cotton balls, a fingernail file, her silky princess skirt, a DVD case, some strips of paper, etc. What did they feel like: soft, hard, cold, easy to break or pull apart. Last week in school she learned about her 5 senses so the cotton balls (which I use mostly for removing fingernail polish) introduced the sense of smell, they were stinky, and we talked about listening to the other items, tasting them and seeing them.

Today was another dress-up day. You may recall our last dress-up incident. I wasn't that patient this time, so it was just her dress-up time today. She got to pick out whatever she wanted to wear in my closet and try it on.

Mommy's skirt she wore to Molly's wedding...
Mommy's dress she wore to our wedding rehearsal...
(I can so see her trying on dresses for a school dance)
Mommy's juking dress she wore one time on our honeymoon...
(Why am I keeping this dress?)

And the one she settled on...
After she picked out the dress to wear for the next 15 minutes, we moved to her room and somehow ended up dancing. Although, I use that term loosely. It was more like interpretive dancing. She, wearing the blue flowery skirt turned into a tunic-style dress, and I, still in my pajamas, danced to the classical music tunes very cleverly turned into "Princess music" by Disney. Shirtless Nathan (I'm having visions of what his school dance outfit will be also) attempted to understand the overload of feminine-ness he was witnessing by sitting with his mouth wide open. Still. Speechless. It didn't take me long though to realize that his stillness was all part of the act.

Background: Katherine has a door stop that is easily removable and Nathan seems to think its fun to pull it off, put the dusty, grimy, metal spring-like object in his mouth, and chew on it. MANY, many times he has been told no, especially after realizing that it was missing for days and now the door knob has started creating an indention in the drywall.

So, Mr. quiet, who looks like he's in shock, is actually eyeing and slowly inching toward the door stop. In the middle of the 'dancing' a deep-voiced, resounding "NOOOOOO" comes from Mommy when I realize he's reaching for it. (The eyes in the back of my head are evolving to my advantage). Our venue had to change, the skirt/dress came off and it was time for bottle and nap.