My Purse, I Need My Purse

For Tatum's second birthday her La La gave her a princess purse.  This princess purse has gone from a dismissed item in the toy box to a necessity when leaving the house.  "My purse! My purse! I need my purse!" is a commonly heard cry.  It is now a part of the items taken daily to preschool.

Where does her preoccupation with the purse come from?  Me, I guess.  Or it may be a learned behavior.  Who knows. I do carry a bag. I have a work bag/purse that goes with me Monday through Thursday to work.  And now that I think about it, besides my own middle school phase with Liz Claiborne purses, I didn't carry a purse per say until last year when bought one as a thirtieth birthday present to myself to use after work hours and on the weekends.  And I do love it .  So I totally get it.  The girl needs her purse.

It has taken Tatum the course of a month or so to properly cock her shoulder to hold the purse.  Ladies, you know what I am talking about, there is a manner in which one must hold their shoulder to accommodate for a purse.  So after seeing her repeatedly reset the purse to her shoulder after it repeatedly falling to her elbow, she's now got it, mostly.  Sometimes she'll give up and just carry it by the strap.

And what's in the purse you may ask? A plastic ball, a shoe from her baby (the other shoe is missing), a rattle toy from the toy box, and a wooden egg: the play necessities for a busy two year old!

So, a purse story...We've gotten into the habit of grabbing a vanilla cone at McDonald's on Mondays (you can't beat the $.69 price) and then playing on the slides in the play structure.  This week she asked for some water.  I asked another mother to keep an eye on her while I stepped away to get the water.  Tatum soon was heard yelling "my purse!", grabbed her purse, and followed behind me.  It made the mothers and myself laugh.  The girl needs her purse.

She also fell getting out of her chair, not for the purse, but to go slide, and bloodied her lip.  You can see it in the pic.  You can also see her right front chipped tooth.  Yep.  That happened a few weeks ago getting out of the pool and not using the ladder (lesson learned).  I had a hand in it, I must admit.  And funny (or not so) thing is I also chipped Andrew's tooth in the first months of dating in college.