“You can discover more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation.”
Plato
It’s happening. Pip and Crazybaby are starting to play their own little games together and it’s an astonishingly exciting development.
Before we had Crazybaby, I sort of took for granted the fact that my daughters would be playmates, but there have been times during the past year when I had my doubts. Pip’s feelings toward Crazybaby have ranged from mild interest, to tolerance, to blatant resentment. She has uttered the words, “I don’t love her,” and more recently, “We should sold that Crazybaby.”
Today, however, genuine enjoyment shone on the face of our eldest daughter as she played some form of chasing game with her toddling sister. When Pip yelled, “WE’RE JUST PLAYING A GAME, MAMA!!!” from the living room when I called the family to dinner, I nearly jumped for joy. I’m not sure excactly what the game entailed, but it was all their own. Crazybaby would walk Frankenstyle past the kitchen, then I’d hear two voices scream excitedly before erupting in fits of giggles.
My husband was the ‘parent-in-charge’ of the girls while I was making dinner, and at one point I heard him try to discipline them with a firm, “There’ll be no screaming in the house young ladies,” but we were both so thrilled at our daughters’ mutual delight, that there was no rule enforcement whatsoever.
Later, while eating dinner outside, out of the blue Pip announced, “I’m going to tickle some toes.” She got up, walked over to Crazybaby’s high-chair, and tickled the naked little piggies that wiggled before her. Crazybaby was over the moon. (And so was her Mama.)