Presents aforethought

When Monkey turned two, I spent some number of weeks, if not months, contemplating and then sourcing his presents. He got a trike, a tent, and a Duplo train set.

The tent in question on the morning of the birthday

Mabel considers the trike hers now, though her feet don't yet reach the pedals. The tent still provides fun and a place to hide from monsters for all, and the Duplo is in regular rotation. Mabel will be two in two days, and this morning, with very little forethought beyond how to get there without any children, I left her with a friend and dashed out to Target to pick up something for her.

Since Monkey had thrown a hissy yesterday when I tried to drag them both, too late in the day, to the supermarket, I had to do the regular shopping as well as track down the perfect present, all in the scant hour I had carved out between school drop-off and Mabel's music class. So there was no perusing the toy aisles at leisure, no weighing the pros and cons of Little People versus Weebles, no doubling back to the art supplies (kept inexplicably far from the toys) for perhaps some magic does-not-write-on-walls-or-sofas markers and paper.

Mabel wants a baby. But she already has five babies: Dolly, Baby, Little Baby, Baby with Hair, and Fluffy Baby. Two of these are very recent acquisitions, one having just arrived in the shipment from Ireland. We had a discussion last week about how she might get a baby for her birthday, but it won't be a real baby. She wants a real baby, but has accepted - for now - that she can't have one, and certainly not two, until she's grown up. (Mind you, she told me this morning that Monkey is a grown-up. Hooray, I can be a grandmother in just two years' time!)

So maybe I'm crazy, but I decided not to buy her a new baby in Target today. (B's reaction to this was: "Tharg not sure how this will go down." Indeed.) I bought her some baby accessories instead - a set with a bottle and a changing bag and a nappy and, I dunno, something else. She's fascinated by the notion of baby bottles - never having had her own, I don't know how she even knew what to do with one, but as soon as she found them in Monkey's classroom last year, her favourite thing to do every morning as we dropped him off was to give the dolls there a bottle.

I also got a bucket o' kitchen sort of thing: a tub containing play cooking stuff that handily folds out into a mini kitchen and then folds back over to hold it all. She's clearly into imitative play, so I think she'll like it. And a new pair of shoes.

I will keep you posted on the reception.