Jan. 2: Andrew and I got some fun playtime in this morning while Sylvia was napping. His imagination is so vivid. Down the road, I thought I might enjoy remembering how a play-session with Andrew went, so here it is, captured for posterity.
(note: Andrew was naked as a jailbird the entire time we were playing. I was dressed in layers…and was cold!)
After a long game of Sequence for Kids, we snuggled under a blanket. In a heart-warming moment, Andrew wrapped himself around me and joyfully declared that he was so happy that I could stay home with him and Sylvia.
He decided the blanket was a den and we were both foxes. While in our den, he asked me what we were going to eat. I’d name an animal, then he would catch the prey with his hand, take a bite, and give the rest to me to eat. In this manner, we ate nearly every animal I know of…all the animals at the zoo, all the farm animals I could think of, all the backyard birds, forest dwellers, fish, whales, and polar creatures that would come to mind. Full, we’d crawl under the covers of our den and fall asleep until "our bellies were as flat as a pancake!" Then we’d eat more.
Next, Andrew decided we should crawl out to seek our prey. We crawled across the room to the animal dominoes and ate all the animals on the cards. Then we crawled (note: crawling on hardwood floor=not comfortable) to the kitchen where we pulled out our fishing poles (we’d had them on our backs) and fished for turtles to eat. Satiated, we decided to go for a swim.
We swam and swam…all the way to the ocean. The first time we went to Oregon. The second time we went to Minnesota and saw Maretta-fox and Kyle-fox. We brought them back home with us to our den. Andrew was so excited that they are going to stay with us "for a whole week!" I asked if we should dig them their own den, but her wanted them to stay with us. Then we crawled back to the ocean a third time (the Pacific this time) and swam to John and Grace and Tim’s house. We brought the Manubay-Ernst-fox family back home to our den. Andrew said that there were one, two, three, four, five, six, seven foxes in our den now. Andrew-fox was so excited to play with John-fox. They played catch the rabbit ("who’s going to be the rabbit?" Andrew asked) and hide-and-go-seek-fox. Andrew stayed hidden a long time until John-fox found him. Andrew informed me that John-fox was imaginary…just so I didn’t get confused.
After a while, we decided to go exploring, so we crawled down the hall to my bedroom, where Andrew-fox found his den under the covers of my bed. I was a jaguar and he was a badger, but I couldn’t get him with my sharp claws because he would crawl down deep in his burrow. Then a muffled voice came from the bottom of my bed, "How about if you be a nice jaguar. Are you a nice jaguar, Mommy?" I said I was, so he crawled tentatively out. Then he declared that he was a jaguar to and he snuggled up in my arms. We spent the next 10 minutes crawling in and out of the covers as mommy and baby jaguar as the seasons rapidly changed and we played with the flowers or the snow or the leaves or took shelter from a snowstorm.
So there you have it…a half-hour play session with my very imaginative boy!