Therapist Barbie

My mom has graciously offered to watch the girls every Wednesday through Friday this summer. The girls are thrilled because Gram has way better food and television options than we do at home, where Tom limits their tablet screen time and makes them eat an actual lunch instead of letting them snack all day.

Grams really are the best, aren’t they?

So when I got to my mom’s house yesterday I half expected to find both girls on their tablets, still in their pajamas, hair unbrushed and chocolate smudges on their faces.

I found something very different. Both girls were dressed, their tablets were plugged into the wall, charging and ignored.

My mom had been cleaning her garage that day. She’d come across a bin of Barbies that had been packed out there a couple of years ago.

Both A and O were enchanted by all the Barbies and clothes that were suddenly available to them.

My mom said they’d been playing with the Barbies for hours when I got there. Olivia asked her gram if she could take a couple of the dolls home with her.

My mom said, “They’re yours, you can do whatever you want with them.”

When we got home, Alyssa went up to our toy room (what?) and brought down our own Barbie bin, from which they both pulled clothes and dolls to dress, undress and redress.

They played while I made dinner, paused to eat dinner, then played more while I cleaned the kitchen after dinner.

When I finally made them stop at 8:30, Olivia brought me a doll and a dress. She asked me to help her dress the Barbie in one of Merida’s dresses. It was clearly made for a Merida doll, not the Barbie she was attempting to dress, which was why it was hard to get on Barbie. Did you know that regular Barbies have bigger hips than Merida and Rapunzel? Now you do!

I loved watching Olivia work with the small clothes, putting non-bendy arms into dresses, fastening snaps and Velcro. It was great to see her working on her fine motor skills even as she had fun.

I love it when we can turn play into a therapy session and she never even realizes it. If you ask me, that’s the best kind of therapy.