Rosi at play

Rosi was in the playroom. This room has a kitchenette with sink, refrigerator, microwave, cupboards, and a stove that makes noise and lights up when a pan is placed on it. With a full set of play kitchen utensils, child sized table with chairs tucked in, and play food in a shopping cart, Rosi is set up to have lots of fun. The flooring is a thick brown shag carpet which would not work for a regular kitchen, but is enjoyable to walk around barefoot while playing. It has one area that is covered with a “car carpet” which her three year old sister enjoys playing on, but has yet to capture Rosi's imagination. The room has many windows which let in a lot of natural lighting, as well as a dining room chandelier which sheds limited lighting. Next to the kitchenette there are two tall bookshelves that are filled with book on many different reading levels with the Rosi level books on the bottom shelf. On the second shelf there are about a dozen wooden puzzles. These puzzles are at a variety of developmental levels. There is a red adult sized rocking chair that Rosi enjoys sitting in even though she has not figured out how to consistently rock the chair and usually gets frustrated after two or three attempts.

Rosi's auburn shoulder length hair is pulled up in two pig tails. She is average height for an 18 month old girl. She has gross motor skills such as walking and climbing stairs that are fairly average as well. She does not yet talk usually communicating through grunts, chucklings, and shrieks. She has strong facial expressions showing her pleasure and frustration. Rosi and dad walk into the playroom and dad pushes the little red shopping cart full of plastic food and other kitchen playware towards her. Rosi takes her sippy cup filled with water and sticks it into the front of the cart next to the side so there is plenty of room for her dolly. She puts her dolly in legs first, front side down, getting her legs through the leg holes. She then tries to climb into the back of the tiny cart. Her dad grabs her to keep her safe and the cart from breaking as it falls over when she tries to climb in. Rosi finds a cake platter in the cart spillage and decides to put it in oven. She then decides she needs a lid and takes upside down bowl and puts it on the platter. She closes door. She opens pokes with hand wearing oven mitt. Not able to pick it up, she throws oven mitt down and pulls it out with her hand. She puts it on the table. Then she notices a broken rubber band on floor and puts it on the cake platter under the bowl. She tries to climb into chair which is too close to fit. She pushes into chair and chair is tipping backward. Father moves chair back so she can be safe. She sits down, arranges her plate in front of her and looks to dad as she clasps her hands. He smiles and prays for her finishing with a singsong “amen”. She lights up, laughs, takes the orange plastic flipper and with her other hand lifts the bowl. She pokes the rubber band a few times and places the bowl inverted back on top of the cake platter. She repeats this pattern a half dozen times prompting dad when he needs it to do his “assigned” part. Dad is continually chatting with her as she plays. She quietly ignores him until she needs him to say the prayer for her, then she looks at him with hands clasped. At one point dad distracts her and steals the rubber band under the bowl. She unknowingly lifts the bowl and does not find the rubber band. She looks in the bowl which is still inverted that she is palming in her hand. She then starts to look around the table and floor. When she is not looking dad replaces rubber band under the bowl. She looks again and finding it and her face lights up, she gives a deep throated chuckle and starts repeating the routine again. She hops down and starts investigating the overturned shopping cart. She finds a plastic slotted spoon. She decides to replace the flipper with this slotted spoon, throwing the flipper back into the shopping cart. She starts playing again repeating the same routine using the slotted spoon to poke the bowl and rubber band. She notices the cupboard door open in the kitchenette. She immediately hops down and closes it. She goes back into the same routine this time stabbing the bowl, and in turn the rubber band, with the slotted spoon. This routine goes on a few times and dad switches out the slotted spoon for a broken slotted spoon that is “handle only”. She picks it up to use it and she is visibly confused. She is resistant to continuing playing her game. She starts grunting to show her frustration and confusion. Dad smiles and returns the whole slotted spoon to her. She picks up both and quizzically rubs them together as if trying to make them into one. Then she throws the broken one at the cart and returns to play. A few minutes later the phone rings startling her and she starts to cry hysterically and reaches for dad. He calms her down quickly while jumping up to answer the phone.