Role Playing

Sophie is an expert tornado around our house. If I am busy feeding Camille or doing homework with one of the older kids or just generally do not have my attention focused on her, she will busily wander around the house and leave messes in her wake. If she is unsupervised and tired the messes are magnified.

Yesterday afternoon she began pulling out all of our plastic grocery bags and filling them with her toys. She kept saying that they were garbage bags. I thought it was odd but didn't pay too much attention. Then I left her with Emma while Robert and I ran to look at kitchen counter top samples and when I came home I saw all of her "garbage bags" out on the front doorstep. I came in asking what was going on and Emma said that Sophie just kept putting the bags outside and saying she was taking her toys to the garbage. I asked Sophie if she wanted to throw her toys away and I didn't get a very clear answer, so I asked her to bring them inside and put them in her room. Later in the evening, I finally figured out that she was acting out Toy Story 3! She was bagging up her toys like Andy did to get ready for college, and then acting out the part of the movie where Andy's mom takes the toys out to the curb. She is on a Toy Story 3 kick right now. Its what she does while she hides out from Mark, our kitchen guy.

She was at it again today. She bagged up her toys and brought them out to the living room and told me to pick up the bag and take it outside. Now that I was up to speed on what she was doing, I played along. I pretended to trip on the bag and acted a little annoyed with "Andy" and then I took the toys outside. A little later, she told me to get the bag so she could put them in a box to donate. When I brought them in she got a box from her room and put 3 toys inside and said she wanted to donate them today. We had to run to the store, so she carried her box out to the car and when we were done with our shopping I asked her if she still wanted to donate and made sure she understood that she wouldn't get the toys back, then I took her to Saver's and let her donate her toys. She got out and carried the box over to the guy taking care of drop-offs all by herself, and we said good-bye to 3 little toys. A little plastic doll brush, a naked Kelly doll and a ball. That is role playing at its best! And as we drove away, I couldn't help but wonder what adventures those 3 toys would have.