Cameelie and I go to a toddler/preschool playgroup every other week. It’s one of those things that didn’t occur to me to do with her until someone invited us to join in and then I thought, “Oh yeah! Playdates. I used to do those with Calvin way back when he was my only child.” It’s embarrassing all the things I’ve forgotten to do this time around. It’s no wonder that my youngest sisters never learned to ride a bike (until they were adults). You do all the normal, good parent things with the first few and then your brain cells all die off and your memory goes and you swear you taught them all to ride a bike . . . except you didn’t. I get it, Dad. Been there, doing that.
We were at this playgroup 2 weeks ago and one of the moms pulled out bubbles and I realized the girl has never seen bubbles before. She loved them, of course. All kids do. How did I forget about bubbles? Because if we were living in America I would be wandering the aisles of Target or Walmart and when the summer displays of toys came out I would see the wall of bubbles and think, “Ooh, Camille would like those!” And I would buy them for her, just like I did for each of the kids. There’s not a lot of impulse shopping here and the toy sections of the department stores are ridiculously priced, extremely poor quality plastic junk. Worse than dollar store quality, but Toys R Us in price. I don’t even bother looking at them anymore. Which is why my girlie doesn’t have any toys. Well, she didn’t, but I remedied that problem quickly thanks to my friend Amazon. I didn’t even notice the lack of toys until we went to playgroup and saw all the toys. Like Christmas. My girlie has been playing with her brother’s legos when there are loads of toys out there that I didn’t even know existed. Again, the problem with not having a store to browse and never having had a girl before. Who knew they still make My Little Ponies?
I went home and emailed my sister for suggestions since my niece is only a little older than Camille. And then I shopped. And then the packages started to arrive: wooden food, wooden dollhouse and furniture, a Dora microphone, toddler legos. We’re going to have a good time playing with my dollhouse her dollhouse. I’m sure there are still gaps in her childhood fun checklist, but at least I can check off playdates, bubbles, and dolls. I promise I won’t forget to teach her how to ride a bike.