"You Wanna Play with Me?"

It is with mixed emotion that I make the following announcement:

Millie is officially as socially hungry as her older siblings.

She began as such a sweet little person --very willing to entertain herself, humming and singing. Her activities have been fairly consistent: coloring, building with blocks, doing puzzles, dressing up, and coloring some more. In the last few months she has added Barbies (where someone is always the mother, and everyone else is a sister) Littlest Petshops, and Polly Pockets. The characters are all named. We have Abigayle, Emily, Courtney, Polly, and some variation on the sound "AL-IE"(Lallie, Callie, Sally, BaJalli...) During my pregnancy we were determined to play "The Mom and Mudder (mother) Game" with everything from dolls to barrettes.

And now -- she believes she is in desperate need of friends outside the intimate circle of Mom and Millie/ Millie and Mom.

This would seem like a good thing right? After all, putting my best "mother-ease" voice to a butterfly hair clip can become taxing. However, many of her little friends are at school. Many of her friends think that the playroom at our house is the ONLY real place to play.

I remember when Zach turned 3 and decided that Mom was not company enough. We were living in a townhouse community. He would simply let himself quietly out through the front or back, and begin going door-to-door. He would patiently knock for as long as it took for someone to finally respond. It was discovered that despite his resemblance to his mother, he really had more of his father in him. That persistence in sociability has persisted. And is now being displayed in our "Millie-Girl." --SIGH---

I will need to find joy in welcoming pint-sized princesses and pirates for some years to come.



And Thank Goodness.