There’s a lot of chaos ’round here most days, so we use a playpen to prevent the squishing of newborns. See? I do occasionally put the babies down! Anyway, Pixie sleeps in the playpen when we’re out at Grandma’s, Auntie’s, the bar, a friend’s house, etc. She’s old enough that she hasn’t been sat in there otherwise for quite a long time. Now that we have Chappy, I have a playpen in my kitchen again. His little swing and his sling-backed baby chair both fit in there (separately), so he’s got some choices available when we set him down in his glorified baby crate.
Like many two year old children, Pixie loves imitative play. Momma brushes her hair; Pixie brushes her hair. Hubbles sweeps the kitchen floor; Pixie drags the broom across the kitchen floor. Tank eats scraps off the floor; Pixie… okay, let’s not go there. Pixie loves her baby brother Chappy, and Pixie loves her baby doll. Her baby doll has a little dolly chair and a little dolly play pen, and I’ll be darned if she didn’t put that dolly chair into the dolly playpen the very moment they came out of the box! She doesn’t always scooter it into the kitchen next to her brother’s playpen, but sometimes. Other times she just likes to push it around from the kitchen to the dining room to the playroom and back around again. And again. And again.
While giggling.
There are parts of my job that are seriously demanding, but I wouldn’t classify watching a toddler play, enjoy, and discover as one of those parts.
Are you sure that isn’t a picture of his dad when he was little? Even the expression on his face is classic.