Playmates

Sophia and her classmate, Chiara, met up after class for a playdate. Actually, it was more like the mommies decided that the kids needed to play together while we sat down to chat. Chiara's 10-year old brother, Tony, joined us because Chiara's mom managed to 'bribe' him to babysit the girls. The price? A toy dart gun from Toys R Us.

We set up shop at Spinelli's and I brought out the markers, stickers, paper and books. Tony had fun drawing but insisted that he couldn't draw properly with a marker. Chiara had fun with the Thomas (Tank Engine) and princess stickers. Sophie hijacked part of my ginger cookie and was more intent on eating and lounging on my lap than socialising or drawing.

After hanging around the tables for a tad too long, we instructed Tony to play with the girls and to get them up and running. Sophia, who normally doesn't take to other kids, let alone boys, promptly followed Tony's lead and the two girls headed with the boy out towards a more open area to romp and play, the girls to romp and Tony to practice aiming at the wall with his little dart gun. To his credit, Tony was really good with the girls, entertaining them with the dart gun and not getting too carried away with it himself but paying the girls attention too.

It turned out the dart gun fascinated both girls, especially Sophia, who squealed in delight every time the foam dart left the gun. In no time, she took to following Tony around, 'assisting' him by picking up the darts, bringing them to him and intently watching him load the gun. When he sat in a corner to fiddle with the gun, she sat next to him, watching closely. Pretty soon, she figured out how to shoot it (!!) and when Tony disappeared back to the tables for a break sans gun, I could hear her hollering, "Tony! Where are you? Can you help me, please?" Turns out she had the gun and needed help with it.

"Wow, Tony. You're a popular guy," I told him. Tony turned to look at me and said, "She calls me 'Bony', y'know."

Oh dear.

Not only does my daughter now know how to handle a gun, albeit a toy dart gun, but she also seems to be taking liberties with names.

Of course, once one of the girls decides that holding the gun is fun, the other wants it too. So Chiara came by and took the gun from Sophia. When I told the small fry (Sophia) she had to share, she burst out, "Dowan to SHARE!" and promptly threw herself onto the floor into a temper tantrum.

This happened a couple of times. In the end, we took a break for lunch (chicken nuggets for the girls and wraps for mommies and brother), and after we had gotten their attention away from the gun, they started running around looking for pigeons.

All in all, a pretty typical playdate for the day, other than the fact that she took to 10-year old Tony so well and the major temper tantrums. But then again, she is only two.