Imagination

You know what's awesome?

Finding a pair of fluffy hiking socks, the staple of my winter footwear, near the clean laundry mountain in my bedroom, and not being able to tell if they are clean or not. Which means of course, clean enough! Score.

I've been mooching off of car-driving friends lately to go stock up on new stuff I don't really need at IKEA. It makes my day a bit brighter, the new stuff. The trips to IKEA are just magical, let's face it, but the stuff at home, picked with the help of people whose taste I trust to aesthetically moderate mine, has refreshed the apartment a bit. The two biggest results are the bathroom and A's room.

Finally found somewhere to put the big rock stickers

All the remaining live plants in the house went to the bathroom. Once summer actually comes and the sun is shining again, this will be a very calming, cool bathroom. Putting it together during the longest weeks of sunlessness...was probably a bad idea.

And the photographic grass shower curtain got some more neutral rug friends.

New rug. Vrooooom. Vroom, vroom!

The kitchen reno. Empty STUVA cabinet was waiting for drawers for over half a year.

Who knew that once they came, it would become the hideable kitchen. Flat cardboard, drawn-on stove top is still one of the most versatile pieces of her kitchen. Once you add a real, old espresso pot, and the old spice rack, no one has time to notice the crayon hot  plate. Old dishtowel got a ribbon and re-assignment as an apron.

Taped on, bent paperclips hold the cooking utensils on one side and the oven mitt on the other. Alas, although this kitchen is easily cleaned up and put away, I have no idea where she's going to see that behavior modeled.

This bedroom kitchen was a hit yesterday afternoon. So much so that in the middle of getting her coat and boots on to go out on the balcony to play after dinner, when we had to go into her room to get a hat, she remembered the kitchen and suddenly the coat and boots were off. There was some food cooking and serving left to be done.

While the restaurant is very cozy, and there is only one table available, I have to say the staff can get a bit pushy. "Nein! Warte! Heiss." ("Don't you touch that fork and spoon and try to eat/drink/whatever that dish I just put down in front of you. You better wait. It is hot. I mean it. Nope, not now either. Still hot."

Ok, so that was my imagination run wild at IKEA. But what caught me off guard last night was that as A was trying unsuccessfully to get into a small mesh bag that all her stuffed animals were able to fit in, she started complaining, crying. Frustrated. For some reason, at that moment I remembered a book my mom had bought for me as a child, about putting your parents on the ceiling. A book about imagination. Now, my daycare helped me plenty with imagination, so I never read much of the book, but it reminded me to try with A. I think I've been waiting until she's older. But I figured I'd see what happened anyway. So I went back into her room and pretended and told her that I was making her "tiny A" and once she was small in my hands, I placed her inside the bag.

I half expected she would freak out at the thought of me making her small or separating her from her physical being. Nope. She loved it. She had no problems with "tiny A", and ten minutes later as we went off for yogurt for dessert, tiny Mama, tiny Papa, and tiny Pupper joined tiny A in A's jumper pocket. What a kid.

This is going to be fun.