That's how we ended up with Isabelle's first little tea set and kitchen set - they bought it for a special 'Isabelle toy' to keep at our holiday home (although, of course, the toys are for everyone!). Since then, we've actually seen a lot of little tea sets and she seems to adore them, and I have been amazed at how well Isabelle has taken to this type of imaginary play.
I suppose I still think of her as such a baby, but at 16 months she is well in to toddler territory, and proving to me every day that she is growing up. Imaginary play is just the latest way in which she is telling me 'Hey, I'm a big kid now!'.
It's so sweet to see her take part in 'pretend play'. She loves sitting in her little tent, with all her tea party things, and 'making tea', and feeding it to her babies, or to anyone who is with her. It actually makes me laugh that she spoon feeds her babies - she was never spoon fed as we followed baby led weaning, so we assume she learnt this from watching her auntie feed her little cousin. She'd obviously been watching us all a lot more closely than we think!
She mixes, scoops, feeds babies, pours tea, drinks tea, feeds us, gives us tea to drink...the list goes on. She knows that it isn't real - if I offer her the little spoon to 'eat' from, she does it with a big smile that says 'Oh mummy! This is funny!'. We didn't have a tea set for her for our house, but after watching her play this last week, we ordered this beautiful set for her, and I can't wait for it to arrive!
And it's not just tea sets either - at our local science/discovery center last week, Isabelle spent ages in the play shop pretending to pour the contents of bottles into a tin, and make goodness only knows what with it! She had a tuna tin, a bottle of HP sauce, a bottle of Listerine and some washing up liquid going in there - so I'm not 100% sure what she was making, but whatever it was she was having a great time. She picked the bottles up, took them to the tin and 'poured', then put them back. And repeat. I actually had to manhandle her away to go and have our lunch!
I truly think it's amazing that such a small child can understand how to pretend something is there, and that she is doing something. I know it doesn't seem like much - especially to those of you with older kids who are well acquainted with imaginary play - but it just seems like it's such a big kid thing to do.
Don't let it slip, but Isabelle is getting a play kitchen for Christmas (it's in the loft already), and I know she is going to have so much fun making food and feeding it to us.
I know that as she gets bigger, her imagination will develop and her games will become more elaborate. But for now, there is nothing I think is sweeter than seeing my baby feed her babies with food she has lovingly prepared herself.