When I was little, my favorite thing to play was "house". My girlfriends and I would make up scenarios, like we were neighbors or sisters, and our husbands were in the army or on tour with a band, thus explaining why we had children but no husbands. And I was big into dolls- Cabbage Patch, and remember My Child dolls? One year for Christmas my cousin Sonia and I each got baby boy My Child dolls, and we named them Michael Andrew and Andrew Michael. And as I remember it, while playing house I would want my name to be Amy Grant, or Debbie Gibson, or Tina, my mom's cool friend who drove a Cabriolet and listened to the Footloose soundtrack. Good times.
Max and Lucy have started playing house together. There is usually a doll involved, and their house is the tent in our living room. Lucy is the mom and- this is the part I love- Max is Joe. Lucy pretends to read books to "Joe", and he calls her "mom", and occasionally she bosses him around and says all-too-familiar stuff like, "You can't play until you've done your homework, Joe!" or "Now, have a good attitude, Joe!". This morning Lucy asked Max, "Why do you always want your name to be Joe? You should pick a cool name like-" I wish Max would have let her finish the sentence, because I am curious about what she considers to be a cool name, but Max jumped right in and said, "No! I am Joe! Joe is cool!"
I know that both Lucy and Max look up to Joe, but there is something extra special about watching Max actively pretend to be Joe. It is pretty darn cute. And, to be fair, sometimes Max is Spiderman, but for today I'll just end this story here. :)
This week, this made me laugh:
And this made me smile:
Lucy loved opening the Valentines from her classmates.
And this made me a little bit sad:
My baby sister turned 21 years old last Sunday and I wasn't there to give her a big birthday hug. :(
21! 21?? Does this mean that I'm not 21 anymore? (This explains a lot, because I certainly don't feel 21 anymore!) Happy birthday, Molly!
And little brother Seth turned 28 last week. 28?? Does this mean that I'm not 28 anymore?...
I love you, Sethy!
8 comments:
Oh how I loved this post! I love the cartoons, loved the Lucy, Max and "Joe" story, loved Lucy's valentines day pic's and most of all I LOVE how you love your brothers and sister! It makes this mama's heart smile :) loved seeing the pictures of you loving on them but I suppose this means that I am not 21 or 28 either?? Oh well! Lovee you!!!
Aahhh! Andrew Michael and Michael Andrew!!! I think I still have him in a box somewhere. I really need to dig him out. Avery could use a boy baby. Well, maybe Blake could use a boy baby... Great post!
Love the pics of you little, with curly hair? And the cartoons are soooo funny, makes me smile big. Very clever.
It seems little kids play very similar "house" stories when they are small. We played that our husbands were off to war. Sometimes someone played the husband and crashed to the ground (if one or two neighborhood boys played with us).
I know exactly how you feel watching your siblings growing older. Imagine how I must feel looking at my youngest son who is now over 40!! I don't even want to think about my oldest son who will soon reach a milestone year. But wait, does that mean I am......
Which reminds me that for some reason Lucy asked me how old I was last night. I think she will have to learn to count that high all by herself :-)
ANNIE!!!! Such a great post!!! I gotta say I laughed and cried right along with you!!! LOve you so much!!!!
BTW...I could look at the pictures of yesteryear :) all night long!!! Wittle molly and sethie with the best big sister in the world!!!!!
So great! The boys have been playing house too, and guess who we are? Ethan is Lucy, Grey is Max, I am you and Jude is Joe! Grey is so funny because he follows "Lucy" around calling, "Sissy, Sissy... I want a hug!"
Oh, and the Andrew Michael thing... Adam has twin friends from growing up and their names were Andrew and Michael.
I remember Molly being in a stroller when we were in jr. high. Does that mean I am not 21 anymore either?! :) Great post Annie. Thanks for sharing.
Whoops. That was me, Chanda, and not my husband Keith making the comment. :) Guess I should have checked to see who was signed into gmail.
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