Pretend Play

It has been so neat to watch Lily begin to engage in pretend play. It all started late last week when I gave Lily a piece of clementine. It came out of nowhere, but she pushed her clementine across her tray and made a car noise as she pushed it. I, of course, got very excited, which in turn made her get excited and she did it again, smiling proudly. Jason and I have never used a clementine as a car so she really came up with it all on her own. Over the next few days she would use a piece of clementine as a car anytime we gave her one. I was very excited to give her a piece when Jason got home from out of town so she could show him, without prompting, and she did.
Earlier this week I was outside with Lily and we were playing with the neighbors toys which included a toy cow and some beans, as well as a shopping cart. Lily was pushing the shopping cart and stopped at one point picked up the cow and one bean and pretended to feed the cow the bean while making an eating noise. How cool! It was fun to watch her push the cart and then realize the cow must be hungry again and stop to feed it.
Lily's latest obsession is chapstick, probably because she sees me putting it on all day long these days, but I roll the chapstick all the way down so she can't touch it and she takes the cap off, puts it on, takes it off and then puts it to her own mouth. Today, she decided her toy dog needed chapstick and stuck his face down in the opening while Gizmo patiently waited his turn.
I am so excited to continue watching and engaging in pretend play with her. I can't wait to give her the full stocked play kitchen she is getting for Christmas!