A boundless imagination

It is so fun to watch Jaida when she is engaged in pretend play. There are no limits as to how things can happen. Joe and I often joke that Jaida goes beyond thinking outside the box since technically there is no box. She is not bounded by reality in the slightest which makes her pretend play just too much fun to watch. Scale does not matter. A 3 inch dollhouse figurine can happily co-exist in her pretend world with a 12 inch tall stuffed elephant. They get along well. In fact quite frequently we witness the dollhouse figurine in her little red car which is being pushed about by none other than stuffed elephant. There are also no real differences in animate vs inanimate objects. If she gathers all the people from her dollhouse to go on a trip to the zoo often the toilet or a kitchen chair gets to go along for the ride and enjoy the sights as well. There is the ever popular tea party that always involves an entire menagerie of animals ... frogs, bears, an elephant and a duck. Quite the motley crew but they have one thing in common they all love to attend Jaida's tea parties. Her cuddle blankies can be folded in such a way that they apparently strongly resemble a swaddled baby to Jaida ... she sees a face with a mouth, eyes and hair. She loves to rock these blankie babies and coos them. I guess to her it is the best of both worlds it allows her to indulge in her love of babies while also getting to cuddle her blankie. Joe and I just can't keep up with her ... by comparison our mode of play is so boring.

Jaida loves to trick us now. In fact, being a little trickster is one of her favorite past-times these days. Her and I were sitting reading a magazine the other evening when she points at a picture of a woman in the mag and tells me that she wants that lady for a mommy. When she got a rise out of me she lets out a little evil grin and giggle and tells me "I trick you mommy I am a trickster". She also tricks her daddy but most of the time it involves poop. As in "I have poop in my diaper" but when he goes to change her she yells "I trick you daddy there is no poopie".

Lastly, Jaida LOVES to play hide and seek. For some reason I have a very irrational fear of this game. I just always worry that she is going to hide and not come out and I won't be able to find her. So far though this fear has not been realized since Jaida hides in the same place ... right out in the open ... EVERY single time we play. Finding her is always easy. :)

I just cannot describe Jaida in a way that actually does her justice. She is just a joy to be around. Even on cranky days she honestly does her best to be a sweetie. She is so fun and sweet and smart and funny ... it is hard to describe. Anyhow, we just love her to pieces. We couldn't ask for more.