The New Dynasty

Bitty loves to play pretend, as I have discussed in past posts; here and here. These trends have not slacked off in the slightest. If she can catch me holding still for more than 5 seconds she's all over me with "Mom, pretend you see a penguin in your kitchen and pretend penguins are your favorite animal and....." She gives herself the same name in every game she plays. For a long time she was "Ash." Then she saw the movie Matilda, and we were calling her Matilda for months. That name strangely morphed into the name "Makilla." Don't know where that one came from. She'd say, "Call me 'Killa' for short." Not my favorite, I'll confess. Next was "Mariposa," which is Spanish for butterfly. She got the name from a Barbie doll. I hang my head in shame.

So the next dynasty is upon is. Bitty's favorite name is now Caroline. It's cracking me up because this time she has named herself after an actual person. She doesn't have too many friends in the neighborhood - all the daughters of my local friends are older than she is. They're very sweet with her, but her one friend that was her same age and whom she got along with beautifully (most of the time...) moved to Millcreek. Luckily my friend Emily has had Bitty on her mind. Her boys play with some other boys who happen to have a 4-year-old sister going to kindergarten at Bitty's same school next year. Emily has been trying to set her up with Bitty for months. We finally had our blind date a couple of weeks ago, and they've played twice more since then. There were a couple of rocky moments at the start but pretty much the girls clicked instantly. She is Caroline, and Bitty is somewhat enamored of her. I call Bitty Caroline more these days than I call her by her real name. So funny. I was nervous about what would happen at the next playdate after she started calling her self by her friend's name. The real Caroline was fine with it - she had me start calling her Lisa! Little girls are so funny. And wonderful.