Bedtime playtime

There's nothing like a two-minute warning (until bedtime) to encourage children to remember all that they love about their toys. Suddenly, the lure of TV is gone. Squabbles with their siblings end. And their imagination kicks into overdrive as they play with their toys as quietly as possible. I think they figure we'll forget they're there, and thus let them stay up later.

And on Thursday nights, that logic works for them. Knowing that they can (and usually will) sleep in on Fridays, I decided to sit back and listen to their playtime conversations.

Sydney had a talk with her "pink mommy," (Not to be confused with the "yellow mommy" who seems to be taking a header off the picnic table.) explaining proper etiquette for addressing me. "Not Dana. Mommy mommy." Can you tell what's been an issue at our house lately?

AJ, meanwhile, launched a battle between knights. Funny how if he were a girl, he'd be playing with dolls and dollhouses. But because he's a boy, we call them knights and castles.

Regardless of what you call these tiny figures, there definitely is a difference in the way that the kids play with them. As Sydney prepared her "peoples" to go to sleep, AJ's knights knocked each other over with cannon balls.