Everyday magic

This stage, right here, the midst of toddlerhood, is that sweet spot where everything is happening all at once. Where her abilities - physical, cognitive, emotional, communicative - have all collided into non-stop active learning through play and imitation, brimming over with curiosity and wonder, and a little bit of chaos.

These days we try to find the balance of creating a magical world for her, while also including her in practical every day life - even if it takes longer, even if it results in a flooded sink, an unevenly swept floor, a spilled-over mixing bowl. Play and work is one and the same at this age, with equal interest in building a block tower and baking a cake. And so her environment is surrounded with woodland animals, felted mushrooms and gnomes, play scarves and fairy tales - but also child-sized home-things, a space at the kitchen counter during meal preparation, a shallow basin for hand-washing her soiled clothes at the end of the night. We build pretend cities for her creatures to live. We sweep beneath the furniture. We hide in secret blanket forts, fold laundry, have dance parties after dinner, wash dishes, and lay on the sofa pouring over imaginary worlds from Beatrix Potter, Elsa Beskow, Jan Brett. Always a little magic mixed in with the everyday. xx

"In the tapestry of childhood, what stands out is not the splashy, blow-out trips to Disneyland but the common threads that run throughout and repeat: the family dinners, nature walks, reading together at bedtime, Saturday morning pancakes." — Kim John Payne












Wooden Broom: Fawn & Forest
Mini Market Basket: Plum & Sparrow
Striped Linen Dress: Red Creek Kids