I’m probably jinxing myself by saying this out loud but the girls are in such a nice phase of playing together. Sure, just yesterday Pearl told me she “never, ever wants to play with Rose anymore” but she also played with Rose quite nicely about half an hour after that. Rose can’t always follow the elaborate plans that Pearl has but she is generally happy to tag along and copy her big sister. As a little sister myself, I am endlessly sympathetic to her desire to be one of the big kids.
Recently, I’ve been trying to wait a moment or two before stepping in to resolve their little conflicts. (Obviously, this doesn’t apply if there is physical violence occurring.) If they’re arguing over a toy or the “rules” of their game, I wait and observe and see if they can sort it out themselves. Sometimes they can’t but I’ve been surprised by how often they find their own solution and continue to play happily together.
This week the girls and I had a city day and took a ferry, a bus, and a SkyTrain to Science World for the day. (My mom and dad joined us at Science World.) This was Pearl and Rose’s second time and they have so much fun. “Is there more science?” is a question that Pearl kept asking as we went from area to area. Pearl even made a friend in one of the play areas, which is a big deal for our little introvert, and gave him a hug when they said good-bye.
I didn’t take many pictures because wrangling the two of them in a place where they are so excited to be is hard enough. The top left is Pearl and Rose on the SkyTrain, which they get a big thrill out of. I’m thankful they are good travellers and very patient on long bus rides. The bottom picture is ice cream treats while waiting for the ferry home. Yes, it ruined their dinner but after a long, hot bus ride I felt we all deserved it. I naively thought Rose and I would share an ice cream cone; she had other ideas.
It’s so fun to watch them enjoy Science World and to see Pearl in particular start to figure things out and make connections about the world around her.
The other night I chalked a hopscotch outline on our driveway and the girls provided endless, post-dinner entertainment for Peter and I as they attempted to “hopascotch” (in Pearl’s words).
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Steal half of her ice cream??? What kind of monster are you??? 😉
I know, I’m a mean mom! As soon as she got a hold of it, she just kept shouting, “Mine!” (her current favourite word).
LOL, Rose ate your ice cream. I love that you’re watching how they resolve conflicts. I know my niece would take an item she wanted from her little sister and then replace it with something else. Her little sister was happy, though I know their mom was worried that the bigger sister would just keep taking things.
We do the trade thing too but I do often have to remind Pearl to offer something equally good. Sometimes though the little one is totally happy with what I think isn’t a good trade and I’m never quite sure whether to step in then or not. As Rose gets older she’s better at making it clear when she’s NOT happy with a trade though!
Exactly! My sister-in-law was like “this seems not good, but no one is unhappy, so….??”
That’s exactly my reaction!