Backyard Play

After some morning rain, the day became warm and sunny, and the girls and I have spent a lot of time out in the backyard. While Julia was at school, Madeleine and I hung out in the yard, and Madeleine played with the toy houses and little plastic figurines we keep out there. This afternoon, Julia joined us in the back, and she took to playing with the houses and figurines as well. Seeing as we have only two figurines, a man and a woman, the kids relied remarkably on their own imagination and creativity to immerse themselves into pretend play worlds.

The general gist of Madeleine's game can be summed up as follows:

MADELEINE: (laying the plastic woman figurine in one of the plastic beds) And the girl is going night-night. (fiddling with the pink plastic door on one of the little houses) MOMMY! Can you help me open this PINK DOOR?
ME: (opening the door) There you go.
MADELEINE: The next morning, she woke up. (lifting the plastic woman out of bed.) MOMMY! Can you help me shut this PINK DOOR?
ME: (shutting the door) There you go.
MADELEINE: It's night-night time. So the girl is going in her bed. (laying the woman back in the bed.) MOMMY! Can you help me open this PINK DOOR?
ME: (opening the door)
MADELEINE: The next morning, she woke up. (lifting the plastic woman out of bed.) MOMMY! I need help to shut the PINK DOOR!

Great entertainment. She kept herself busy with this for about twenty minutes. I got to do a lot of opening and shutting of the door so I got my fun in too.

Julia's version of the pretend game was much more complex and involved many more houses and a more varied plot line. She used the same woman as Madeleine had, only this time she wasn't "the girl" and was instead "Dear June." Some snippets of Julia's narration and pretend people conversations:

JULIA: "Let's see what's over here." (Opening up one of the little plastic houses) "It's like MAGIC in here!" she exclaimed. So she decided to make the pool her new home. "Oh, here you are, Dear June. Wait! You're not the real Dear June! What did you do with the REAL Dear June?"

At one moment, a car drove by with its windows open and its music blasting, the bass thumping so loudly it felt like the ground in the backyard was shaking. Julia was momentarily awoken from her Dear June world and asked me, "Mama, where was that, like, AWESOME music coming from?"

Madeleine has been more into the music coming from our car, since we have continued listening to the "Jesus Christ Superstar" soundtrack anytime we drive anywhere. She is particularly excited any time she gets to hear one of her favorite three tracks: "The Bus," "Jesus Christ Stuperstar," or "This Jesus Must Guy."