Wednesday, December 24, 2008

Independent Play

My kids have never been the sort to want to go play by themselves in their rooms (well - the adolescent wants to hide now, but that's a different sort of milestone) - they have always wanted to drag their toys out to where the people and the action are. I certainly can't blame my girls for wanting company, regardless of the charm of the stories I hear about children immersing themselves in imaginative play in their own little nooks. When we set up the Lone Star Baby's room this summer, she had a brief period during which the novelty of the room kept her playing in it, but it only lasted a couple of days. Recently, however, a sort of Christmas miracle has happened.

Lone Star Pa and I like to sleep in on weekend and vacation mornings since we get very little sleep at all in our workaday lives. Generally, once the Lone Star Baby stopped wanting to nurse back to sleep in the mornings, the only times we got to do this were when the Lone Star Girl generously decided to supervise the Lone Star Baby over cartoons on some such mornings. More lately, though, my repeated (and ignored) admonitions to "play quietly in your room until we get up" have actually been being obeyed! I don't know why, but it has been rather special! In addition to more sleep for the grown-ups, this has also resulted in a deeper interest in legos on the part of the Lone Star Baby, which seems like a lovely bonus to me.

Strange and wonderful times...

1 comment:

Saints and Spinners said...

Hurrah! We've been having good luck with that lately, too. It's so much better than, "Mommy get up! Daddy get up!"