We recently ventured to IKEA to buy Claire a big girl bed. The absolute pure unadulterated cuteness of her big girl bed deserves it's own post (once I get brave enough to snap pictures of a napping baby...the shutter sound suddenly seems really loud!) but we found an unplanned purchase (how can you not at IKEA?) that has turned out to be tons-o-fun...Claire's first tea set. Well, technically, I think it's a coffee set since there is no tea pot included. Must be how the Swedes roll.

We busted it out a few days ago and played tea party in the front yard while we waited for Dad to get home from work. For some reason, my child, who has the hyperactivity of a hummingbird (ever notice how they don't stop moving), will sit in one spot if a blanket is laid out for her to play on. I'm sure that this is a fleeting phase but I've been milking it for all it's worth.

Claire has gotten really good at pretend play. Lots of "snoring" when she is going "to bed", telling me her baby doll is hungry, and basically treating her Elmo dolls like a human being (putting them in her high chair for lunch, sitting them on her potty chair, and tucking them in for naps). So it wasn't a surprise to me that she thought that "tea time" was pretty cool. Her fake sips sounded like something that would come from a truck driver chugging Red Bull, not a teeny girl sipping tea...she likes to add her own twist to things and she was extra generous with the pitcher of cream. Even going as far and drinking straight from it...good thing it was imaginary cream.

She was pretty excited to show her Daddy her new game. She decided today that it's not called tea party, it's called playing cups..."pay cups mama!"....or maybe I'm supposed to be paying her for my imaginary tea, not quite sure.
 

She kept serving me tea and would snicker at my fake sip in a way that gave me flashes of my future with a teenage girl who thinks I'm only moderately funny...but is sweet enough to pity laugh. 

Then Typhoon Claire hit. If you've spent any amount of time with a one year old, you quickly learn that a lot of activities end in a similar way...destruction.

Then remorse.

 Back to playing cups.

 Did I mention that I love her sweater? I think that there needs to be some sort of National Cardigan Month.

We had to take a quick snack break. Unfortunately Claire had already eaten all of the ripe strawberries. She insisted that the green ones would work just fine.

Then we heard one of Claire's favorite sounds, Dad's truck. Luckily, she had saved him some tea. 

You know what goes great with tea? A little cheese. Insert teenage pity laugh here.