Dramatic play

Julia and Madeleine have been engaged in a lot of dramatic play together lately, and although Madeleine won't always cooperate with Julia's grand ideas for whatever imaginative scenario she has concocted in her head, there are times when all goes smoothly and the girls are able to play creatively together. Some examples of their recent pretend games include:

Riding in the Car


This game involves a jump rope, which the girls wear across their lap as a seatbelt while they ride on the couch-car. Not to be confused with:

Riding the Bus


This is a recurring game the girls play, in which the little red chairs always represent the bus. Sometimes they sit side by side, as seen above, and other times they sit one behind the other, putting one girl in the role of bus driver and the other as passenger. This game is common enough that Madeleine even initiates it at times; which usually leads to Julia saying, "We're not doing the riding the bus game right now, Madeleine." (Of course. It's the role of the big sister to insist that the little sister play any pretend games she wants to, but she is in no way obligated to reciprocate.)


Baby Birthday Party


The baby whose birthday is being celebrated varies; today it was Baby Julia (not pictured above) who had the big day. You can see from the picture that Babies Madeleine, Caroline, Boo-boo and Aria were in attendance, as were the real Julia and Madeleine. These birthday parties generally consist of everyone sitting around the table and being served play food from the play kitchen; you may recall prior posts covering other baby birthday parties. Madeleine took care to feed the babies from their plastic bottles before deciding she would rather stick the bottles in her own mouth. Julia "wrapped" a bunch of presents with baby blankets and wore a Snow White dress to add to the festive atmosphere.


The Night-Night Game



You can try this game at home; it's very easy to play. Simply lay down on the floor with your head on a pillow and cover yourself with a blanket. If there are two of you playing, you can cuddle together under one blanket, or each use your own. One of you can repeatedly say, "Nigh-nigh. Nigh-nigh," throughout the course of the game. The game is over when one person gets tired of laying on the floor and decides to get up and toddle away.


Of course, Julia was the brainchild behind all of the above pretend games. Occasionally, however, Madeleine gets to devise a fun method of playing together, as in the following:

The Screaming Door Game

Players stand on opposite sides of a closed door. One player initiates the game by screaming loudly. The other player responds by screaming back. The more delighted and excited each player gets, the more force (s)he may choose to give each subsequent scream. This game is very noisy. Not recommended for those who don't love the sounds of shrill, repeated shrieking.

And finally, while I can't always see exactly what the girls are doing together in their pretend play, there is always the opportunity to overhear things one would never imagine to hear four-year-olds saying. As in: "Okay, Madeleine, you're a little hooker, so go hook!"

Hmm.

This was another game involving a jump rope, but as stated above, I was in a different room, so all I gathered was that it was Madeleine's job to hook the rope around something. Making for a really memorable quote from Julia. Yikes.