This year was a delightful one with my granddaughter Annalise - for two, maybe three, reasons. First, we paced ourselves with the gift-giving occasions and made sure that there was plenty of time for each gift to be savored. Next, I combined my need to buy cute clothes as gifts with age appropriate gifts such as relevant toys or books. For example a sock monkey doll was included in the gift box with the Christmas pajamas with a sock monkey theme ...plenty of time was spent with the doll that could be made to take on several poses with the help of magnets in the hands and feet. Last, we followed Anna's lead when it came to interacting with the toy or book ...not necessary to learn all the rules of a game, but rather more important to reduce the pressure to use the toy or book in exactly the "right way" and infinitely more rewarding to experience these new toys and books with a real sense of wonder and playfulness, just like the children in our lives.
I confess that my expectations were pretty high for a positive response to the Christmas outfit I had so carefully selected - a plaid jumper, turtle neck shirt, sweater, tights and shiny patent leather shoes. I couldn't wait to see Anna in the outfit. My expectations were quickly surrendered when it became clear that Anna was not interested in putting on a fashion show with this new outfit. She delighted us instead with her willingness to strip off her jeans and sneakers to put on pretty pink tights and the shiny patent leather shoes that she dubbed "dancing shoes" ...the sweatshirt stayed on in what Daddy called the jazz-tap look. Plenty of time was spent with this gift, as Anna asked "shall we dance?" and then coerced great-grandma to go put on her dancing shoes, getting all in the act for dancing to Christmas music. What a gift from our precious little one.
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