Playtime Habits

I realized today how much Matilda has changed recently in the way she plays. It used to be if we didn't leave the house daily for some adventure we were both grumpy and stir crazy by the end of the day. Lately, however, she is getting much better at playing at a given task for 20 minutes or so. Not that she doesn't still benefit from a good tiring run around a playground but she can do "quiet play" now too. I think this is probably a natural evolution but it was timed nicely with her getting her room and us being a bit more housebound as a one car family.

One of our many activities today was playing with the blocks my grandpa made for me as a child. We built houses for many different friends and the giraffe was happy with his private quarters. Actually, I did most of the construction while Matilda focused her efforts on testing the structural integrity of my design. She also seemed a bit jealous of the barns we were building for all the animals. Each time she would remove the animal and then back her butt into the structure, sitting down, and saying, "Me!"

Some other activities that M has been really enjoying lately: "mooshing" play dough, coloring with crayons, dancing, assisting in the kitchen, reading books, sidewalk chalk murals, cutting her plastic food, playing guitar. Someday soon I'll get brave enough to bust out the paints Grandma Marge sent us. (Right after we cover the apartment in plastic sheeting. )