Tonight Ella and I were looking at a “grown-up magazine” (one of Lauren’s old baby magazines) and naming all the babies that are on every
page. "What's this baby's name?" she asks. "That baby's name is Shadrack." "What's this baby's name?" "That baby's name is Eskimo Jim." Etc.
This is something we do
regularly. But we got to one picture of a
baby that looked kind of like Ziggy and Ella decided that he was someone we
knew: “You know, I think you’re the baby that lives at our house!” And she
started talking to him as if he were Ziggy.
I did the Ziggy part, asking all kinds of questions about what it’s like
to eat food and if, when he’s older, she would share hers with him. “Yes, you can have some of my food.” “Can I have all your ice cream?” “Um, you can have some of it, but you have to
save some for me, because I really
like it!”
Ella talked and talked to him about
all the things she was going to teach him how to do, like how to run, and how
not to run into the street—“or else a car might come and mush you”—and how
sometimes you have to do something even when you don’t want to do it—like when
it’s time to go somewhere and you have to get into the car even though you want
to play in the front seat—an issue that we had had earlier that day. “When it’s time to go, you just get in your
car seat, and then daddy gives you some toys to play with from the trunk,” she
said. “You know, when you do something you don’t
want to do … sometimes, you get a treat!"
She kept talking to him all through
bedtime, putting the magazine next to her for PJ-time, explaining that she
still wears a diaper at night, but during the day she just uses the potty. Then she explained what PJs are while we put
those on her, and she placed the magazine next to us while we read books and
then put it in Ziggy’s spot in the bed when it was time for her to go to sleep. He’s still in there now, soon to be replaced
by the real Ziggy, but I think we'll still hold onto that picture.
OK, and a video too. But it's a little anachronistic, because this video is from almost a month ago now. We'll try to get some newer videos up soon!
