Apologizes for the quality of this photo. The light was "just right" so I couldn't avoid the glare, even with the blinds closed. I hope you get the idea.
Piper has been amusing us with her "imaginative play" abilities lately. This is a "picnic" she set up one day, all on her own. Please notice that her dolls are being served steak and cheese while Piper and I are eating cookies. Ha ha!! She carefully makes sure to feed each doll their food and tea.
This is novel to us because Morgan doesn't do a lot of this type of play. She will play along with Piper, but then the next time they play a similar scenario Morgan gets upset if it isn't done exactly the same way as before. Piper is good in that she tolerates Morgan's repetitiveness, but it's nice to see that in her own play she is able to be creative and spontaneous. Just the fact that Piper does this is a great example for Morgan. Her pretend play is emerging and has made much more progress since Piper started doing more. That's why we always say that Piper is the best thing to ever happen to Morgan. As a sort of "peer model" she challenges her in ways that David and I can't and that is an amazing blessing.
On the other hand, Piper can model some of the repetitive behavior that Morgan presents. It shouldn't be surprising that she does this, as she learns much more socially than Morgan does. For example, I hear Morgan ask many times a day "Mama, what is your favorite color?" She does the same to Piper. Then, Piper in turn asks the same thing...just because she thinks she's supposed to (we think). In the last few days we've had to call a "cease and desist" on talking about colors. We are encouraging conversation on anything else. We'll let you know how that goes... :-)
