Pretending....

Elise has discovered the art of pretending. She may have been doing this for quite some time, but in the last several weeks it has been brought to my notice more forcefully. She loves to pretend she is eating out of things. Anywhere she can stick her little fingers, she will stick them, and then she'll bring them to her mouth and make nibbling noises. Then she'll repeat the process. THEN comes the really exciting part. She'll give you a nibble too. She is fantastic at sharing her little pretend treats wherever she finds them. Sometimes they are in a book, sometimes they are in a straw, or a bowl. The worst was one day she discovered the trash can....I put a stop to that one quickly and got her interested in something else. Usually she will start nibbling on pretend snacks before I know that is what we are playing, and it is only brought to my attention that we are now doing pretend snacks when she sticks her little fingers close to my mouth and smiles really big. This makes for a great break when we've been packing boxes for a whole ten minutes....
Today we were sitting, reading, and she got up to get a bowl and measuring cups and sat back down with me. She handed me a measuring cup, which I used as a spoon, and we both got to dip and slurp from her bowl of imaginary soup. Occasionally she'd want to switch cups, so we could each take turns with the big one. What a fun little snack time, and how grateful I am that she shares the big cup for that wonderful pretend soup!