stroller

There's a poem by Shel Silverstein that goes,

"The saddest thing I ever did see,
Was a woodpecker peckin' on a plastic tree.
He looked at me, and 'freind,' said he,
'things ain't as sweet as they used to be'"

That's pretty much what went through my head each night as we watched Abby try to play stroller.  You see, we never got her a toy stroller or anything.  But, that wasn't going to stop her.  Nearly everynight, she would go get her little red plastic chair and put a doll in it.  She would then proceed to try to push the plastic chair around like a stroller.  There's a couple of problems with this.

Firstly, our house is 99.8% carpeted (bleck)  and plastic chairs don't really glide well.  So, the chair would get stuck as she was trying to push it, the chair would tip forward, the doll(s) would fall out and Abby would sigh.  But, she didn't usually get mad.  She would pick up her dolls - talking to them the whole time- and try again.  And again.  And again.

Usually, she would end up dragging it backwards to the kitchen where she could slide the chair across that floor with more ease.

A few weeks ago, Kyle and I were just watching this play out for the umpteenth time.  And it was a particularly sad display of trying to play stroller.  Almost at the same time we said

"we've got to get her a stroller"

Kyle said, "yeah, just do it.  I can't watch this anymore"

:)

So, Abby's new stroller got here yesterday.  And it. was. a. HIT.  I told her she had a special new toy downstairs and she was interested.  As soon as she saw it - already loaded with Tilly - she didn't waste 1 nanosecond.  She said "Stroller! Tilly Stroller!"  She rolled that thing around the house for a good hour before we had to go run some errands.  She strolled with Tilly, and she put all her crayons in the stroller. She talked to them the whole time.  She told Tilly they were going running.  When she went over bumps between rooms she'd say "BUMP!" just like she does when we take her out.

It was just, really cute.

She wanted to take it upstairs, but we told her the stroller has to stay downstairs (otherwise, she'd want it in her crib eventually)  But, you'd better believe it was the first thing on her mind this morning.  I tried to take some pictures last night, but the combo of low lighting and her movement made it nearly impossible.

Abby talking to Tilly while pushing her in the stroller

(that's the old "stroller" behind her)

Last night, after we'd had dinner and more stroller time, she wanted to read a book with daddy.  A co-worker of mine made us a photo book of Abby for my birthday, and what do toddlers like to look at more than themselves?  They went through each picture and Abby pointed out something from each one.

It was kinda sweet.

So, just wanted to document how happy Abby was to get her little doll stroller.  It's fun to see your kid so happy over something so small.

And now, keep the little munchkin in your thoughts, she has caught whatever stomach virus some other kid probably left on the playground and is having a hard time keeping down anything today.  Hopefully it will pass quickly and we can get on with having fun and being healthy.