Pretend Play, All Day

Madeleine's morning has been full of pretend play, beginning with the descent of her Tinkerbell fairies upon the Little People wedding set.  Or, as Madeleine put it, "The fairies are sleeping on his KINGDOM!"  (his being Police Officer Patrick, who stood sentry in the middle of the wedding set.  See, set your sights high enough, and even a lowly police officer can one day be a king.)

Next, Madeleine moved onto baby dolls.  While she enjoys playing with her dolls, I have to say, I don't think I'll trust her with any real babies any time soon.  Her game started off with Baby Lily going into her carseat, and repeatedly whacking her head and crying.  Picking up Baby Lily, I attempted to join the game by giving her a hug, then asking, "Do you want to go to your Mommy?", handing her over to Madeleine.  "No, no, she's just a little baby!" Madeleine corrected me.  Aha.  I see.  Instead of drawing the logical conclusion that I was speaking to Baby Lily and handing her over to her pretend mother, Madeleine assumed I was speaking to her, and referring to Baby Lily as the mother that Madeleine wanted to go to.  Further evidence that Madeleine is not in any way interested in playing a maternal role in her games: to clear things up, I said to her, "No, YOU'RE her mommy.  I'm asking Baby Lily if she wants to go see you."  Madeleine's response was, "No, I'm not the mommy!  YOU'RE her mommy!"

The Baby Lily play was interrupted by an abrupt, very disturbing idea on Madeleine's end concerning another of our baby dolls: "How bout Baby Dashiell got a bloody ear?" Quickly tossing Baby Lily aside, she began searching for Baby Dashiell amidst our pile of dolls in the pretend pack 'n play.  Once she had her new baby in her arms, Madeleine began tending to the bloody ear:

Next thing I knew, Baby Julia had joined the fray and was enjoying snuggles from Madeleine after having her head whacked against the floor:

Madeleine was suddenly in the care of triplets.  Hey, with three babies, who really cares if you stick one of them face down on the hardwood floor and squash them with your body weight?  After all, you still have two others to play with:

Clearly, the true issue here is that Madeleine simply isn't willing to give up her position as Rowe family baby.  All of these baby dolls are threatening her role, after all (hence the Baby Dashiell choke hold?):

Madeleine finally took matters into her own hands and claimed her rightful position on the throne (or, in this case, in the play baby bassinet):

Night-night, Baby Madeleine.  You're not too big for this bassinet AT ALL.


After baby dolls lost their luster, Madeleine was on to Polly Pockets.  If you saw yesterday's post, you'll remember that Polly Pocket Cinderella was last seen making out with Polly Pocket Sophie.  Given that heated interaction, I found today's game of Cinderella yoga poses frighteningly suggestive:

Luckily, the game wasn't ALL about Cinderella and her backbends.  Sophie got some attention as well, mainly in the form of a conversation between the naked Polly Pocket and her talking dress.

POLLY POCKET: (to her dress) Hello!
DRESS: (in a low, booming voice) HELLO!

Madeleine immediately became aware of the illogical nature of this conversation, however, and simply couldn't suspend her disbelief.  "Mommy?  I think this dress doesn't have any mouth, so he can't say 'hello' to her."

Maybe this is why she wants Hello Kitty to have a mouth so badly.  Then Hello Kitty can actually say "Hello."

The final stage of her Polly Pocket game was an example of art imitating life.  Madeleine gave her Polly Pockets the smack down in response to their unruly behavior.

MADELEINE: (to Sophie) You HURT me!
SOPHIE: (softly and sweetly) Please can you open my gummy pack?
MADELEINE: (sternly) No.  You HURT me!  You HIT my dress!  So I told you, you need to GO!

At least there is hope that she is actually listening when I reprimand her after her tantrums...