Little People Day

Sydney has a lot of Little People stuff. A whole lot, actually. I'm choosing not to feel bad about this opulent display of suburban wealth because
a) she really plays with these sets and loves them
b) grandmas are responsible for most of the purchasing
c) all the sets I bought were from craigslist, consignments sales, or the used toy store
d) I loved my Little People as a child so much that I still miss that little yellow house... my dad gave it away because I didn't play with it enough. After that, I made sure to at least touch every favorite toy two to three times a week while he was looking, but that may all be a story for another day

Anyway, today was Little People Day. What makes Little People Day so special, you ask? Well, normally this buzzing metropolis of miniature folks is on a three set rotation such that at any given time, over a third of her Little People are put away (because of the lack of space and because I think having too many toys out and about is the cause of many unavoidable fights, tantrums and meltdowns). On Little People Day (and only on Little People Day), all of the sets can be out at once. (And even that is a lie... I just bought this super cool castle set off of ebay that Jeremy decided should be saved for Christmas, and I bought this 50th anniversary house and I cannot decide if it belongs to Sydney or me - did I say that out loud? and she also has a Nativity Set that we save for Advent.)

For Little People Day, in addition to getting out most of her Little People, I also took many, many pictures of her playing, as well as some video. As I have said before, I am so impressed by how much her imagination and vocabulary have blossomed and I felt that this was a good way to document both. And since I was taking all of these pictures, Sydney had to take some of her own. (I would have posted her pics, but right now she is way into the flash and just takes unflattering self-portraits.)


Some of my favorites scenes of the day:



A pig on a pirate ship? I never could get her to explain that one.







The pirates (who obviously were silly pig-toting pirates) found an exotic island inhabited by crocodiles and hippopotamuses (all of whom looked like dinosaurs to me, but what do I know?).








There were also some shirtless cavemen on the exotic island. The cavemen seemed very embarrassed to be shirtless.





Phil the Mechanic was seen driving around in a car clearly owned by Giggles the Clown. When asked if the car was broken, Phil was certain that it was not, so I'm wondering if we have a classic Ferris Bueller's Day Off moment here. The car was eventually returned to Giggles, mileage unknown.





The carnival (owned and operated by Giggles, of course) was originally next door to Crockett's Farm, but it seems that Giggles and Farmer Crockett had some sort of disagreement because the carnival soon relocated entirely.




I'm sure Farmer Crockett had his reasons for asking Giggles to leave, but seeing as the carnival move left his open pastures available for a dinosaur (crocodile/hippo) encounter, I wonder if he made the best choice. The big orange dinosaurs, I mean crocodiles are apparently a little mean and slid all of the other animals (and a caveman) away.



Finally, because so much of this was a "had to be there" moment, some videos of the morning:

All told, Sydney spent a full two uninterrupted hours just playing with all of the Little People. She then went off and did some other things and came back for more Little People play. In the afternoon, we went and picked up pictures that we (I) had taken in the morning along with a small photo album which we put together to make a Little People book.

I'm glad we stayed home and had Little People Day for so many reasons. First of all, it was a lot of fun and it was something just a little bit different, but also, as many out and about things as I do with Sydney, she is (sadly) turning into a homebody. Poor girl. Most days, if I ask her if she wants to go somewhere, she will tell me, "No, I wanna play with my house" and of course she means her Little People house. So, for once, Sydney got to do what she wanted and stay home and play with her house and not be dragged out to children's museums or playscapes or toy stores by her mother. But just this once.







This final picture is mine. It's the Dad driving the SUV with the baby and the groceries in the back. I love you, Jeremy.