Each In Our Own Way January 21, 2014

Ellie and I love to have tea parties. Whether it is pretend tea or real tea makes little difference to us. We love to sit down and sip tea, add sugar or honey, and add milk. When it is pretend time, exaggeration is the name of the game, with cups filled overflowing, if only in our minds. When we sit down with real tea, we chose a decaf tea lightly sweetened with honey. Ellie likes hers filled with ice cubes while I drink mine hot. There is something fun about sitting down for a tea party with a little girl, no matter her age.

The other morning, Ellie invited me to a tea party. We had lots of time so I boiled some water and brewed a pot of tea. As Ellie grabbed her favorite tea cup the smile said it all,  she was happy. I love this time with Ellie, so I grabbed my phone and snapped a quick picture of Ellie.

As we drank our tea, Ellie saw a pouch of fruit snacks laying on the table. She had forgotten to eat it the night before when we were out. In the middle of the night she had awoken crying about not getting to eat her fruit snacks. Rather than disappoint again, when Ellie asked I decided that a snack of fruit snacks would be fine, even if she had been eating all morning. It turned out to be a great choice.

Ellie directed the next course of events. We would put a fruit snack in our mouth and then take a sip of tea. The goal was to keep the fruit snack on the tongue and still swallow the tea. We had to prove it by sticking out our tongue with the fruit snack. Ellie thought this was so much fun that I had to make up a second pot of tea. Towards the end of our tea time Ellie grabbed her little camera. After the next sip of tea (and tongue sticking out with fruit snack) Ellie snapped a picture of me. She wanted to remember our tea that day.

Ellie and I both had a blast at that tea. I wanted to remember that we sat down together excited and happy to spend time together. Ellie had so much fun playing a game while we drank our tea that she wanted to document it. I love that we can each have parts of an activity that appeal to each of us. How we enjoy may be different but that we are both enjoying makes my heart happy.

I have a feeling that enjoying things differently but both having fun will continue. It does not have to be threatening, that Ellie enjoys different things than me. I believe that it is more important to be doing things together, especially if we both find it fun. My goal is spending time with Ellie.

When spending time with your child(ren), do you mainly do activities your child(ren) like, ones you enjoy, or you both like? What is the right balance with that?

 

Fun Firsts: A Trivia Game March 12, 2012

We played a game at Ellie’s first birthday party. Since it was primarily adults, I geared our game to the adults, and just let the birthday girl and other little one play in the toys. We played a trivia game, called Fun Firsts.

Here was the introduction for the game: You’ve all seen Ellie grow over the last year. Can you remember when she could do each of these things? You can either answer in what month, or how many months old she was. First person to answer correctly wins that question. We had candy prizes for each winner.

1. On what day was Ellie born? Thursday (The party was on Ellie’s actual birthday, so I thought this would be an easy question, but there was a leap year this year…)

2. When did Ellie first smile? 5 weeks old
3. When was Ellie’s first plane flight: 3 1/2 months old/ June (She’s flown 16 times already!)
4. When could Ellie roll over (both ways)? 4 months/ July
5. When did Ellie get her first tooth: 5 months old/ August
6. When could Ellie sit by herself? 5 1/2 months/ September

7. When did Ellie start eating real food? 6 months/ September
8. What was her first food? Banana
9. When did Ellie start crawling? 6 1/2 months/ October
10. When did Ellie start laughing? 3 1/2 months/ June
11. When did Ellie take her first steps? 9 months/ December
12. When did Ellie start walking all the time? 10 1/2 months/ February
13. How many teeth does Ellie have today? 8
14. What was Ellie’s first word? Mama (7 months/ October- Right before my birthday :))
15. How many words can Ellie say? 10 words: Mama, dada, ba (Aunt in Thai), nana, pop-pop (Poppy), ja (interjuntion in Thai), mum-mum (food in Thai), bye, ooh, hi (Funnily enough, all the Thais only guessed Thai words, and the English speakers only guessed English words.)

The game was fun as everyone racked their brains for when these activities occurred. Even Andy, as the father, couldn’t remember all the right time frames and was steering those around him wrong. Or maybe he was intentionally giving them the wrong answers 😉

What games have you played at a first birthday party?