Pretending

Growing up there is nothing better than an imagination. Ace in recent weeks has really started to develop his imagination - including once when baby elephants had to be let inside from our front door so that they could play with him upstairs in his room. It was the first time that I had really seen him take nothing and turn it into a lot of fun. He really enjoyed that.

Like all kids they like to play with things that they see adults playing with. Of course he loves to talk on his phone and he loves loves LOVES to cook. He's owned a grill now for about a year, something I found on craigslist for not too much. It had been the plan that for this upcoming Christmas, both he and Mae's "big" gift would be a kitchen - I had been eyeing a particular one by Step 2 and it had been on my 'list'. A little over a week ago we drove by a garage sale and they had a kitchen and they only wanted $50 for it. Super! The one that I had my eye on was $140 and this particular model this family was selling, sells new for $220!! The woman also had drawers and drawers of utensils, dishes, pans, and food! So much food! We offered another $50 for all of it, which after some research after the fact I discovered she had well over $200+ worth of food alone. For $100 we walked away with so much imagination and excitement for the boy (and the girl, eventually.)

He loves it. He wants to play with it all the time, he wants to cook us food, he wants us to cook with him. He makes food for sister. It's pretty adorable and I love that he's playing with it so much. It certainly is bigger than one that we would have chosen, but I have a feeling that he will be playing with it for a long time to come - so it has ample space for he and his sister to play simultaneously with it.

I have to go ... I have been requested to go cook with Ace!