Blowing & Drifting

Forecast: Significant blowing and drifting, with the possibility of heavy accumulation in rural areas.

Imagination Station

This morning I stayed home for about 90 minutes longer than usual to let Shannon try to sleep off some of the effects of the weekend's death march. I dunno if it worked, but I enjoyed being with Julia and soaking in her imagination. She got up at about 7:30, and between that time and my departure for work around 9:15, I don't think she spent more than ten minutes *not* in some sort of imaginative play. Immediately on waking up, she identified all the stuffed animals in her bed and described for me their familial ties: Rabbit was White Bear's sister, but Pinky Bear's cousin and Sweet Dreams Bunny's daddy. Then, as a way of introducing the idea that she (Julia) would be able to watch a video later that day ("because Daddy goes to work today!"), she said that she was going to take all of these "fwiends" downstairs to watch a (nonexistent) "Arfur video." (She saw some actual Arthur videos at the library on Saturday.)

Sure enough, when we got downstairs, she set all the animals on her beloved chair in front of the blank TV screen, pressed an imaginary button on the TV, and then sat on the floor next to them while they watched "Arfur." Only with difficulty did I finally peel her away for breakfast, and then her waffles turned into cake, her milk became coffee, and her water became "ornjuice." The only real breaks in this 90-minute sequence of imaginary play came when I retrieved Genevieve: Julia talked very directly and matter-of-factly to her sister about the morning so far, indicating her rather sophisticated awareness that Gigi can't "pwetend." Then, it was back to make-believe: putting all the exhausted animals to bed under a burp cloth.