Imagination Train

Daniel's world of invisible play is expanding... rapidly!

He now cooks invisible food (by wildly waving his hands in the air), serves it to us, takes it back to put in his invisible oven so it can cook a while longer. "It's still too hot," he tells us while scrunching his nose.

He has created invisible houses for each of us (color-coded of course, by our assigned favorite colors). We all knock on invisible doors to enter our houses, then hold invisible phones to our ears and talk across the house. Even baby sister has a purple house in the kitchen.

I found him hugging himself and rocking side to side slowly and I asked if he was cold. He said, "No, I not cold. I hugging the baby in my tummy." (He knows that when he was a baby he grew up in my tummy, so I imagine one thing led to another!)

His best friend spent the week on vacation, out of state. He still played with her - the invisible version. They ran through the house together, and he told us she was "right here".

Yesterday during a picnic in the backyard, he extended his open hand to me and said "There you go, Mommy". I asked him what it was, and he said "It's baby Violet." I asked where, and he said, "Right here, on my hand. Here, I will put her in your leg" and proceeded to put invisible Baby Violet on my ankle, under my jeans. Daniel said, "Be gentle with her, Mommy. Like this." And he patted her kindly.

He imagines himself to be different animals, hopping like a frog or crawling like a cat. The other day he met a little girl at church who was pretending to be a puppy. Daniel barked for the next thirty minutes, only responding to me if I addressed him as my puppy.

The imagination burst has been wildly entertaining, but has brought along with it a downside, as well: Daniel's fears are greater, too. He told me yesterday he didn't want to be in the dark, and has frequently complained of characters from his movies being in his room while he's asleep. (Common repeat offenders are Grover, Cookie Monster, Swiper the Fox, and the "purple guy" who we finally figured out was the stapler from a Veggie Tales Silly Song. Go figure.) After the "they only live inside the TV" conversation (and another vow to not let him watch television!) life goes back to normal.

All in all, it's the most fun I've had yet as a parent. It's unpredictable and delightful. And extremely random.

After all, what is more fun than being served an imaginary banquet?