Purposeful Play

One of the goals for Andrew at his new preschool is for him to play purposefully (I assume this means for him not to dump out every container of toys and leave a trail of dust as he moves on to the next!)  I definitely saw the need for him to know how to do this.  Now, don't get me wrong.  He will play with certain things for longer periods of time.  Like his trains.  And his cars.  But eventually, you can bet that the train track will be destroyed and everything will eventually be scattered all over the house!

See Exhibit A!

He disappeared when I turned my back for 2 seconds and I found him in the dryer!

He just thought it was hilarious!  He wanted the door shut but then didn't like it in the dark!

And see Exhibit B!

The other night before bed he was so wound up and he climbed inside his play kitchen sink!  Not exactly purposeful play.  Ha!

Well, the other day I caught Andrew playing with a purpose.  For the first time.  I grabbed the camera.  I did not give him any ideas- he came up with this all on his own.  He first took his favorite Woody doll and placed him carefully on our window bench.  Then he went over to his diaper basket and wanted a wipe.  Silly me, I didn't realize at this point what he was doing (since purposeful play really wasn't something that happened around our house!), so I nicely told him the diaper basket wasn't a toy and put it away.  (In my defense, in the past he has been known to pull out all the wipes and leave them all in a pile, before I could catch him!)

He was persistent.  This time he went over to his night night book basket (Yes, his books are still organized.  I know, I know.  Blame it on the teacher in me!)  He got out his favorite Bible.

 

If you don't have this Bible for your kids, I'd recommend getting it.  It goes through the stories of the Bible in a language kids can understand with beautiful illustrations. 

  

He opened up his bible and began to read it to Woody.

Then it clicked for me what he was trying to do.  This is what we do for him every single night.

So I got the diaper basket back out.  And I went with it. 

I let him have a wipe.  And he did exactly what he was supposed to do with it.  He wiped Woody's bum!  Complete with "blech!" noises (like I make when I change his diaper!)

 

Look at his face!  He is totally pretending Woody has an "ucky" diaper!  If this isn't purposeful play, I don't know what is!

  

Woody all diapered and ready for night night!  Ha!

  

                                "I love you Woody!"

I really was pretty proud of him!  I don't know what made him think of it, but he knew what he wanted to do!  He is learning so much these days.  I can literally see him grow up right before my eyes. 

 

He has been really into "helping" me lately.  He likes helping me cook!  The other night when Ga Ga and Papa were here to grill out (for the first time this season!  Yay!) he was trying to get our attention because we were all running around, getting things ready.  He finally went over to his play kitchen and got out his own food!  It was so purposeful.  Again, he was trying to immitate what we were doing.

  

This is his new favorite snack.  One afternoon when Ga Ga picked him up from school, she taught him how to eat graham crackers and milk.  My grandpa taught me how to dunk them in milk when I was a little girl, and I still do it to this very day.  It is one of my favorite snacks, too!

  

I think it is cute that he loves the same thing I did when I was his age.

And Ga Ga left a little surprise for me, too!

I am a little embarrassed to show you my make up mess here!  But I went to open it the other morning, and do you see what I found?

There is a story behind that rat.  My mom and I have passed this rat back and forth for years.  Ever since I was a little girl.  It started out as a joke, to scare each other for fun (See, I learned purposeful play way back then!  Ha!).  But it has now turned into reliving the memories.

Obviously, when I lived at home it was passed back and forth more frequently.  By the time I was in high school though, we were wearing thin on hiding places!  Ha!  It was still around in college some, and after, but occasionally now it will disappear for a while (we'll lose it or forget about it) and then when it reappears like this morning, it is just funny.

I laughed and laughed when I found it.  I think it had been since before Andrew was born that we had last seen it.  This rat has been to Spain, New Zealand, Australia and Hawaii, and countless other places across the country!  Anytime we traveled anywhere we would always stash it in the other's suitcase.  One year the tail fell off.  We thought about getting a new one, but it just wouldn't have the same effect!  I am thinking someday I am going to have to continue this tradition with Andrew.  I'm sure he'll be thrilled!  Ha!

I realized I never posted a picture of him in his St. Patty's Day shirt!

Appropriate, wouldn't you say?  I thought I better get it up here before March is over!  Ha!

Thanks again for all the wonderful messages in support of Andrew during his surgery on Friday.  He is doing much better now.  Still a little more tired than usual, but he's finally back to our normal, silly boy!  **On a side note...all of these pictures were taken before his surgery on Friday!  Ha!  He hasn't had quite this much energy just yet!!