I had a last minute visit by “my” little girl last night. Her parents had an event to go to and they dropped her off so that she could babysit me. I had gone to Cub (Foods) earlier (yesterday) and I, again, wandered past the small area/aisle of toys (which is really strange, I feel, for a grocery store to have), but I again noticed the Hot Wheels display, and I looked thru them, remembering how Lailah really enjoyed playing with the first set of four cars that I purchased recently (a month ago?), playing with them on my coffee table (the LR/den carpeting is really not conducive to rolling them on the floor). Anyway, I looked thru the new cars they had, and found a few more that I thought she would enjoy, along with a package of track sections (at 50% off – about $5 – I love a good deal!). I don’t think they had any track there before or maybe I just didn’t think we needed it that first purchase.
Took the groceries home (and after putting them away), I started setting up the track for her to play with. Brought back lots of memories, let me tell you. I first just laid the track flat out of the floor (two tracks, one for each of us), but then almost immediately thought of a way to elevate one end so that she and I could have down-hill races…
Katie and Jordan dropped her off a bit after 6pm, and first thing she sees is the track, and before even taking off her coat, she starts playing with them. Both parents are trying to say goodbye to her but she’s already “in the zone”, and totally ignoring them. I pick her up off the floor, and they do that parental unit thing saying they love her, giving her a few hugs and kisses and the whole time, she’s looking off toward the cars and track, then, off they went – leaving me to deal with taking her coat and hat off. She usually immediately wants me to take off her shoes/boots, but tonight (last night), she was just so absorbed with putting the cars on the “hill” and nudging them a little bit in order for them to go down the track – weeeee!!! She then would squeal and run over to where the car stopped, and picked it up, running back and start the sequence all over. She looked so cute, with her boots still on – but I finally convinced her boots could be taken off. I sat down beside her and we started racing each other, both of us having the time of our life for quite a while.
She then moved on, and we did our usual thing of play-doh at the kitchen table (and dinosaur stamping), princesses and (now), “pirate fairies” as well.
After a couple of hours, GranMa Rose came over to visit with her, and they also played “Hot Wheels”, and Lailah decided to do her own version of a “Victory Dance” when she won a particular grueling downhill race with GranMa Rose. It was so f’ing cute – someday, I’m just going to get me a go-pro to capture this stuff – I know if I post her videos on u-tube, they’ll go viral with millions of hits, I just know it.
Tuesday night’s are “Justified” nights, being the new season just started a couple of weeks ago, and last night was Episode 3. It usually starts at 9pm (CT), but Lailah is still up and playing with both myself and GMR. I knew I would miss the show (no big deal) but thought I could “catch” the “re-run” at 10. Well, missed that one too, with Lailah’s parents eventually picking her up around 10:30. Point being – who cares about missing a favorite TV show when you have such a special, lovable, smart, and beautiful kid around to babysit you?? I certainly do not. [now, where is that iTunes remote??]
Lailah – You are the Best. Kid. Ever.
[gonna to go to toys-r-us and buy some curved track now…I can see this getting out of hand with her, eventually having a serious collection of cars, straight track, curved track, service stations, loop-de-loops, and…who knows what else they have out there these days – Hot Wheel-wise]Did I mention she usually leaves my place in such an uproar when she is finished babysitting me? Gonna have to start teaching her to put away my toys once she’s done with them.
Oh, for those of you with 2-3 yr old girls (who are special geniuses) and with iPads, look up an app called “Endless alphabet” (aka “Endless ABCs”), by Originator. It’s a free app and she loves it, teaching her her letters and how to spell words in a completely fun way – she just loves it. There are other apps developed by the same firm for “Numbers”, “Wordplay”, and “Reading”, which I’m sure we’ll be using in the very near future.
