The free gift that has kept on giving - for 45-ish years!

When we were young, my Nana had a small suitcase of wooden, coloured blocks - that we LOVED, I would go as far as to say they were our favourite of the myriad of toys, at Nanas house.  I remember playing with them when I was around 4 - and I remember watching my 'little' cousins playing with them when I was around 12.  There were rectangular blocks, square blocks, half circle blocks & rectangle blocks with an arch in the middle (obviously the half circle blocks, were cut out, leaving these arches)... they were all painted yellow, red & green... very basic, homemade - but still SO much fun.

A couple of years ago, my Nana & Step-Grandad, moved away from Oamaru, and all the children were invited to come & claim various pieces of furniture etc, which were going to be surplus to requirements, here in Christchurch (they moved from a large 2 storey house, to a small villa, at a retirement village).  My parents were awesome enough, as to claim these blocks for Gaby - and when I saw them for the first time, it was like a blast from the past - in a very pleasant, sentimental way!

Lately Gaby has started playing with these blocks all the time - she makes roads, she makes towers, she makes houses, she makes shops - anything that little imagination of hers desires.  We went and visited Nana on Friday - and I was amazed to find she had a whole bunch of the old toys we used to play with, in her wardrobe, for my young cousins to play with.  We got talking about the old toys, and how fun they were, how much we remember - and then I told Nana that Gaby had taken to playing with 'the blocks' - and Nana was amazed.

She then told me where they had come from...

Her & my Grandfather (who passed away, when Dad was 12) had been driving to [or from] Dunedin, and saw a red netting bag, on the side of the road - they pulled over to inspect the bag, and found the blocks inside.. obviously they'd fallen from a trailer, or something along those lines.  They picked the blocks up & took them home with them...  Dad & his 3 siblings played with them for years.  Me, my sister & our cousins played with them for years.. & now generation #3 has started playing with them - and I plan to ensure that generation #4 & onward also get the chance to play with them!

Gaby & Lily - BFF's! (onto the next stage of development)

Gaby has her first official BFF! (Best Friend Forever).

There is a little girl at her preschool - Lily, and Gaby has been talking about her for a while now, and a couple of weeks ago said to me "Mum, Lily is my best friend!".  It was the first time I'd heard her mention 'best friend' or anything of the sort, and almost made me cry a little, because it means she's moving on to a whole other stage of her social & emotional development!

I took Gaby's profile book home from preschool last Wednesday, and in the back was a story about Gaby & Lily (they take photos of the kids & write stories explaining what they were doing)... In this story, Gaby & Lily were going to the beach, but first they had to go to the supermarket to buy bread, toothpaste and toilet paper, eventually they made it to the beach.  Was really really nice seeing the photos - it was like being given a glimpse into Gaby's life at preschool.  Her and Lily were both wearing the dress ups - shoes with a little heel, big floppy hats & dresses over their normal clothes... VERY cute.

It's so amazing to actually notice a change in Gaby's development.  Studying early childhood education for the 2 years I did, and then human development for a further year, I learnt a lot about the various theories of human development - it was something that really interested me, and I managed to keep it all in my information bank....  The biggest change in development I have noticed, is Gaby's play & choices are becoming more 'gender appropriate' - at preschool she is now crazy about Lily, rather than her boyfriend Kayne, rather than playing on the bikes, she plays in the family corner, plays with the dolls, dresses up... & I've noticed she's also very much into the "I was the Mummy and Kayne was the Daddy", whereas a few months ago, she would have been the Daddy & Kayne might have been the Mummy.  I guess now is an important time to try to not label various jobs, activities, roles as 'for girls' or 'for boys'....

Gaby seems so.. old!

I've noticed the past couple of weeks, that Gaby is suddenly a child, as opposed to a toddler.  She talks to me like a 'real' child now - I can understand everything she says, rather than trying to decipher the toddler babble that I've been so used to.  She's also grown a LOT - she is starting to get so tall, it is amazing...  I've no idea how tall she is, or how much she weighs, but we should be having her 3 year appointment with Plunket (Well Child providers) soon, so it'll be really interesting to find out!!!

This morning I noticed how much her imagination is developing - she was riding around on her little bike, pretending to be a policeman, and then next thing I knew, she had the bike upside down and was being a "bike fixer", because her 'motorbike' was broken.  After her motorbike was fixed, she got her money from her bedroom, and went to the supermarket, because we needed milk and a chocolate treat.  So freakin' cute.  Of course the whole time she was in the confines of the lounge, but in her mind, she was out on the open road, in a workshop, at the supermarket...

I'm so so unbelievably proud of how my little girl is developing - and that she's developing into a wonderful, bright, funny, smart child.