Little Girls and Little Doors..

Tonight I played with a six year old girl. We colored, played with play-doh, had a tea party, crawled through a front door, and of course had snacks. It was fun. The following should give you some idea of how I spend my tuesday nights...

First, it was coloring time. We colored pictures. Mine was a circle that was supposed to be a sun, but thanks to her imagination turned into a sun princess. I thought it was a very respectable bow I'd drawn in her hair, but apparently it resembled more of a crown than a bow. And hey, a bow is a total downgrade from a crown anyway...

Then it was on to play-doh. We made pizzas. Then I got bored with pizza and proceeded to show how big of a nerd I am and made a sheepdog...

After play-doh, it was tea time. I was the daughter, and I was drinking imaginary milk, then imaginary coke. A deadly combination in case you were wondering. We were sitting there at the table and she said, You say the pledge. It took me a second and then it hit me. Oh! You mean we are going to say grace? She looks at me like I'm not the sharpest crayon in the box and says, No, we're talking to God so we're going to say the pledge. So instead of trying to explain the difference, I said ok, bow your head and close your eyes. (I've never prayed with a little girl before. Over imaginary tea or otherwise. I've been a little girl who has prayed, but this was a first for me tonight. It was nice and that's all I'm going to say about that.)

So I say the "pledge", then we have tea. Then its on to cleaning up because her mom was about to get there. After cleaning up, she started playing with this doorpost thing. Its kind of hard to explain. When I was little, I played outside with a tractor tire swing right outside the vineyard. Apparently toys have gotten more complex. This was a little plastic door frame that looked like the outside of a house on one side and the inside of the house on the other. It made noises and had switches to switch, buttons to push and unfortunately, a door to crawl through. After about 3.2 minutes of her playing with this, she says, Come knock on the door. (Ok, what happens when you knock on a door? Someone says, Come in. And you proceed to come in. Its the coming in I was worried about. Of the two of us babysitting, I'm the closest in age and size to her...) Back to the six year old command of, Come knock on the door! Sigh... Ok. I ring the doorbell. I'm met with the girly lilt of Come in! Crap. I'm going to get my derrière stuck in this door. So I hunker down and start crawling through this door. Thinking at any minute, something will catch. Whether its my shoulder, my knee, etc. Low and behold, I made it through. Which means next week, I'll probably be once again crawling through tiny doors.

I forgot how fun it was to be a little girl...