Tea at two

One thing I've learned in my adventures as a mommy of a toddler is that you almost never reveal a fun and exciting plan until you simply can't keep it quiet anymore, since almost anything, from a too-runny nose to a sign on the door can cause a devastating cancellation.

This means that occasionally Kalina is bombarded with something like, "Guess what, Kalina! Today we're going to a puppet show birthday party! You'll get to see a puppet show, and there will be cake! Come on, get your shoes!" And just think--two minutes prior, the girl was expecting to spend a quiet morning at home. As the gears in her head change abruptly and clunk together, I get to watch a smile spread across her face and see her do a little dance as she gets ready. It's quite fun.

One recent afternoon, the air was warm-ish, the sun was shining and Kalina had done such a good job of being a "big girl" (more about that later) lately that I couldn't wait to go share some ice cream or a balloon with her has a special "big girl" treat. Fortunately, I had not let on that this was going to occur.

Because then the baby, who hadn't slept more than 30 minutes undisturbed all day, decided that the afternoon would be a lovely one for a long snooze that I didn't have the heart to wake her from. Kalina and I were officially trapped indoors (or at least limited to our doorstep, which wasn't much help).

What to do? I realized I didn't have to do anything special, but having gotten about 7 hours of sleep last night, I was feeling ambitious. And besides, I had an idea: earlier that day we'd somehow gotten on the subject of teaparties. Although Kalina has a teaset, I'd never been adventurous enough to allow her real water in her teapot. I decided that now would be a good time: after all, what could be more "big girl" than that?

I pictured myself and Kalina bonding over lukewarm water poured into slightly dusty plastic cups, while passing stale Goldfish crackers back and forth. I couldn't wait.

Having already lugged all of Kalina's "friends" (her stuffed animals) down the stairs to play on her indoor slide, compiling the guest list for Kalina's party was easy. As I gathered her pretend teaset, as well as some extra cups and plates, Kalina gave Lamby, Mountain Lion, Puff the Duck, the other Puff the Duck and herself special places of honor on the picnic table. Four animals, Kalina, and me: perfect, we had exactly six plates and cups out.

I then held Kalina up to the kitchen faucet with her teapot to fill, and she slowly proceeded to the picnic table with it, holding it gently with both hands and only spilling a drop or two. She happily poured "tea" into each cup, startling when the lid fell off and needing one refill. I was impressed that she filled several cups to within about 1/2 inch of the rim, stopping just in time.

I was less impressed with her ability to fill a few other cups exactly to the top, overflowing just a little onto the plate. I was, however, quite grateful for the ancient tradition of including a saucer with each teacup. Perhaps whoever came up with that brilliant idea was also present at a few toddler teaparties.

And then I waited expectantly for Kalina to sample her "tea." Hesitant at first, testing the water with her finger ("it's cold!" she mentioned, to which I responded "is that okay? Would you like it warmed up?" to which she replied that she liked it cold), she soon drained her mini glass.

Thrilled at my success, I made a move to drink my "tea," too.

"No!" insisted the toddler.
"Oh, oops, was this Little Puff the Duck's cup?" I politely inquired of my hostess, trying to mentally sort out which animal was nearest to which place setting.
"No," Kalina admitted.
"Well then can I have it?" I asked, since we could both clearly see that me and Little Puff were the only two who could possibly be in competition for it.
"No." Kalina flatly refused again.

At this point, I realized that I wasn't actually invited to the teaparty. This was the first time I wasn't cool enough to be around Kalina's "friends." My little girl really is growing up!

But the whole scene was too cute to be depressed about, so instead I busied myself by essentially playing servant to Kalina and her honored guests, helping Kalina refill the teapot a million times and "helping" one or two of the animals drink their tea, since I was, in actuality, thirsty.

"See, Puff the Duck is drinking!" I'd insist after draining Puff's alleged glass with Puff's bill right next to my mouth. "Right?"
Kalina suspiciously nodded her assent, and we reached a dubious agreement on how much involvement was okay from me.

Like a good mommy, I decided to sweeten my child's first teaparty a little more, by breaking out the colored marshmallows left over from Christmas. I put 2 or 3 in each of 4 bowls, and allowed Kalina to pass them out to her friends.

Kalina immediately assigned the blue bowl (her favorite) to herself, and gobbled up her 3 marshmallows before I could even watch. I expected her to do the same with the rest. But as much as she loves marshmallows, Kalina must love her friends more: she simply allowed the treats to stay in their bowls, and held each of her animals up for a taste.

Then she decided to float the marshmallows in the tea. And play in the water. And eat a couple soggy marshmallows. And pour water onto the plates. And then we were done, and the girl did a rather nice job of helping me clean up.

When Daddy got home, we told him all about the teaparty. "Did you drink the water?" Daddy asked.

"It was tea," chided Kalina.

We will be doing this again soon. Maybe one of these times, I'll actually be allowed to attend.

Photo: The green bowl should've been mine. Am I right???