LET'S PRETEND!

One of Maggie and Aleita’s favorite activities to play together is dress up and let’s pretend. Often times, this activity consists of Maggie costuming Aleita in an eclectic combination of dress up clothes, complete with hat, glasses, and shoes, and then assigning roles. For as headstrong as Aleita is about most things, she is actually willing to go along with whatever role Maggie assigns her in most cases. They have a large box full of dress up clothes, but many times, their choice of clothing doesn’t really represent the game they choose to play.

Case in point: About a week ago, they decided they were going to play school. Aleita was assigned the role of the teacher. For this role, Maggie costumed her in a spaghetti strap black cocktail dress, a pair of pink sequined high heels, about 10 Mardi Gras style beaded necklaces, and a large, blue straw gardening hat. Now, I will admit that I have only talked to Maggie’s teacher a handful of times, but I have yet to see her in anything that even slightly resembles this ensemble.

Last night, they decided to play firefighters. For this game, Aleita’s garb was a cape fashioned from a baby blanket, purple sunglasses, and appropriately enough, a firefighter’s hat. Their firetruck was their little red wagon that is actually meant for pulling dolls in, but Aleita often gets pulled around in it as well. Apparently, they were hearkening back to the days of the horse-drawn fire carriages, as Maggie pulled Aleita around as they went to put out fires.

At one point, after they had just put out a pretend fire, Aleita said to Maggie, “I need to go get my tambourine from my bedroom.” Maggie responded by saying, “Firefighters don’t need tambourines!” But apparently, the little caped firefighter felt differently as she ran off to grab her tambourine. Maggie yelled down the hall after her, “that doesn’t make any sense!!” I guess even she has her limits for pretend play.