Toys

This is Abby's new favorite toy to play with. It was passed a long to us from a friend at church and Abby can't seem to get enough of it! She loves to move all the beads from one side to the other and back again. She has played up to an hour at a time with it.

It has been fun to watch Abby develop in her playtime over the last few months. Right around the time Benjamin was born, she was 18-months-old and still preferred a lot of extra attention and interaction from me while she played. If I stopped playing with her, a few minutes later she would leave her toys and start getting in my way. I can remember getting so frustrated trying to get stuff done because Abby always wanted to be right next to me. For instance, while I was trying to prepare dinner she would squeeze between my legs and the cupboards as if to say, "Don't forget about me!" It was annoying to deal with, especially when I was nine-months pregnant. I can also remember when Kevin was home doing computer work Abby would usually end up in the study, bugging him and he would over and over holler to me to come get her so he could get work done. Whatever room in the house Kevin or I were in, that is where Abby wanted to be too.

Well, somewhere along the line that all changed. Now Abby loves to play by herself with her toys. We still like to play with her and read books to her, but she doesn't need us to be constantly with her. She spends most of her time playing in the living room, whether or not someone else is in there. She works on puzzles, builds with blocks, reads books, rides her horse, plays with her dolls, and, of course, works on the bead toy pictured above. The only downside to this new stage is that she now loves playing with her toys so much that we have reached that point where occasional melt downs occur when she's told that it's time to stop playing and go take a nap. I guess you can't have the best of both worlds, eh? Oh well, I will just be thankful for not having a little toddler constantly underfoot and always whining for attention. That is, until Ben becomes a toddler. But hopefully it won't be as bad with him because he'll have a big sister to be entertained by and play with. =)