A world of play

Elise isn't the only one growing and changing lately. Not only is Kalina now too tall for some of her intended winter/spring pants, but she's developed a new skill that I've been waiting a good two years for.

The girl can play on her own. Even with Mommy around.

Has the addition of Elise rocketed her toward this independence? Was there a switch that flipped in her brain? All I know is that Kalina is now dragging out old toys I was practically ready to donate to Goodwill to play for an hour or two at a time, dwarfing the previous record of about 12 minutes of independent play that was probably induced only by a new toy.

She's even been known to play downstairs while Mommy casually heads upstairs, or vice versa. So it turns out that if Elise happens to be napping, and Kalina is in the mood to play, I temporarily end up with more free time than I did with only one child. (This has probably only happened once or twice, though.)

Kalina has always had a dubious history with toys. After all, from the very first time we dangled a bright object from her carseat or stuck her under a playgym, she's seemed to see through them as an attempt to divert her attention away from Mommy for just a few seconds, please, for heaven's sake. Smart girl.

Toys would entertain momentarily, but pretty soon she's demanding Mommy (or, in desperate times, Daddy) to play with her. Which Mommy doesn't do nearly enough to her liking, so the situation results in a child sticking to me like glue as I perform such fascinating tasks as loading the dishwasher or folding laundry.

"You're welcome to go play," I'd remind Kalina every so often up until about a week ago.

"No," she'd reply.

And then one day, everything changed. Although Kalina's been a bit more independent since Elise came along, her 2-hour-playfests that include complicated "plots" and constant running dialogue ("Kalina's Friend, The Turtle [as her wheeled turtle is now referred to] wants to get a suitcase and a ticket and fly on an airplane to Grandma's house and come back home and take a bath and Kalina will feed Kalina's Friend, The Turtle, eggs, and break the eggs into a bowl and mix them up and bake them. And I need some pretend flour.) came on all of a sudden.

At first I just stood and watched, open mouthed, as my child entertained herself (and me, really), purely with her imagination and a happy spirit (and about 8 dozen toys ranging in size from tiny to ride-able, each of which I was thrilled we'd hung on to). Soon I jumped into action to make the best use of the time and probably cleaned something, being careful not to be too loud, or two quiet, and in so doing, distract her.

The next day, it happened again. I rearranged my schedule and didn't make Kalina change out of her pajamas until close to lunchtime just so that she could continue to play uninterrupted.

The day after that was rainy and nasty and I needed to get out of the house, but Elise had a cold so I didn't want to really go anywhere. I proposed the Dunkin' Donuts drive-thru and a short drive past some of Kalina's favorite landmarks. The poor conflicted girl, albeit enthusiastic about the prospect of a donut hole,was drawn more powerfully toward her favorite new hobby, playing. When she looked up 45 minutes later and still wanted donuts (but it was now too close to lunch), she happily took the yogurt raisins I offered her and went back to playing.

And the next few days I happily ignored my 2-year-old as she happily played, all by herself, with the occasional request for a story or a snack thrown in (okay, sometimes more than occasional). It became a sort of experiment to see how much Kalina actually could, and would, play on her own. After all, we'd hardly seen it happen before, and were curious as to what it'd be like to have a child that played.

And then I realized that I missed my girl and didn't actually want to ignore her. Although at times I feel like a bit of a third wheel around Kalina's Friend, The Turtle, I try to join in occasionally, slicing pretend cheese onto pretend bread to make a pretend sandwich, or simply untangling Doggie's leash. As it turns out, play can be fun!

Truth be told, we love Kalina's playtime not only because it's really, really convenient for us, but also because it's just plain adorable. You can't make this stuff up: "and then, Kalina's Friend, The Turtle, wants to go to the grocery store and buy ice cream and mail it to the pig to eat..." and so forth. For an hour or more sometimes.

Our house now looks like even more of a disaster area, as Kalina stocks my empty canisters with toy silverware and fish, and decides to bring every single item from her toy kitchen into the living room to feed Kalina's Friend, The Turtle, but I care not.

We do, however, clean up every so often because Kalina needs a new canvas to create from.

Photo: At the EPA lake.