Play Food Assumptions

So, LouLou went to her little table yesterday and, while vigorously stirring a tiny pot, announced, "Je fait le FUFU!"

She was actually stirring some play mushrooms from Ikea - but in Kinshasa, those fungi are now fufu.  Way more practical.

So, I asked her to name some of the other things on her table.  Here is what she told me:

Okay.  She didn't actually say, "Les haricots."   She said, "Yum.  Mama Vida cook yummy."  Which I interpreted as "beans."  Obviously.

My two year old translated lettuce into cabbage.  Coffee into tea.  And mushrooms into fufu. Her casual responses were surprisingly astounding to me.

I really love fake food.  Always have.  But I assume that play food is obviously representative.  Of the foods I grew up with in Virginia*.

Lou's play food experience, on the other hand, is heavily shaped by the worldview of Mama Vida, Mama YouYou, and Mama NouNou.  No lettuce - it's cabbage.  Beans are protein.  Tea is shared every morning on the porch.  Big sips to the babies, of course.  And mushrooms?  No way.  But fufu is a way of life.

*I know, I know.  We have cabbage and tea in Virginia.  But, that's not what I would assume my kid would assume these items were.  Get it?