Imagination

Abbie's imagination is running at full capacity these days. Above she is engrossed in a "phone call" with a friend, apparently "taking notes" on the details. This is just the tip of the iceberg. Here are a few highlights:

Cockroaches - A couple of weeks ago, she accompanied me to work and, while we were in the bathroom, she noticed a cockroach crawling around in a shower stall (no, I don't work in the ghetto, for those of you who are wondering). Understandably, she was pretty surprised to see such a big bug. Then, shortly thereafter she came across some of her plastic bugs, one of which is a life-size cockroach. She got quite excited at the idea of a cockroach family - a mommy, a daddy, and a baby. This plastic cockroach, she decided, was the mommy. The baby, she decided, was living in an imaginary Baby Bjorn that she was carrying on her back. She referred to this repeatedly over the next few days. In addition, the plastic cockroach kept turning up in various spots around the house, and I did a double take every time I saw it. Most recently, she had put it in her bed so that she could give it a little scratch on the belly before her naps. Just telling this story gives my the willies, but it is also just so funny on a sick kind of level.

Dragon Clara - We have developed a pretty complex series of stories that revolve around a dragon named Clara, a dinosaur named Mac, and a couple of princesses named Abigail and Sophie. It turns out that they are all living in a tent in our backyard and have tons of adventures together - swimming, going shopping, going to the playground, going to Chicago for the weekend, roasting marshmallows for S'mores, playing tag, etc. Every night before bed I have to tell her a "Dragon Clara Story". Tonight, the four of them helped some kids with some art projects. Um, can you tell that I am starting to run out of plot lines?

Interesting interpretations - There have been a series of "interesting interpretations" lately, which show how Abbie is creatively thinking about the things that she hears. For instance, the other day she finished a bike ride and we were talking about how it was good exercise. To which she replied, "I need to stay in shape. I don't want to lose my shape. If I turned into a triangle, people would think that was pretty funny. Yep, I don't want to turn into a triangle. Gotta keep my shape." It gives me a whole new perspective on the idea of staying in "shape".

Tonight, she was lying in bed when she decided that she needed to dispose of a band-aid that she had just placed on an imaginary wound about two minutes earlier. The healing power of a band-aid on an imaginary wound truly is amazing. Of course, I was in the middle of the Dragon Clara Story as she tried to climb out of bed. I asked if we should pause the story. "Yes", she said. "Let's pause it." As she wandered into the hall, I heard her saying, "We paused it. A giant animal just lifted up is paw and 'pawsed' it." At this point, I realised that when you don't know the difference between "pause" and "paws", life can be pretty interesting.

A Chef in the Making

Abbie getting to be a better and better help in the kitchen. She and I have made meatballs multiple times now and she really seems to be getting the hang of it. Here, she insisted on using the food processor all by herself. She also cracked and beat all of the eggs by herself. Not to mention, dumping in all of the cheese, parsley, and breadcrumbs. Any time we are working on the stove and I warn her that things are hot, she'll jump down from her stool and run to her kitchen for a potholder, which she'll use to hold the handle of the pan (ironically, the handle is usually the only thing that isn't hot). She has gotten really good about following directions and understanding that thing like raw eggs and raw meat need to be handled carefully. This is a far cry from the first time we made meatballs together and she tried to eat a giant spoonful of raw meatball (of course, she was much younger then). Anyway, its great to work with her in the kitchen these days and it is great to see how proud she is of her abilities.

Just random dialogue

All sorts of funny things come out of Abbie's mouth. Probably too many to capture, but here is the most recent one. Tonight Abbie and I were relaxing after her tub. Daddy was listening to a song called "Windfall" by a group called Sun Volt. The chorus in the song has a line, "Let the wind take you troubles away." I asked Abbie if she had any troubles. Turns out she does. When I asked what they were, she replied, "Water and paper." "Why, honey?", I said. "Because I spill water and I rip paper sometimes," she replied. I asked her if the wind was going to take her troubles away, and I guess she decided that this was a viable possibility. Accordingly, she turned to the open window and yelled out to the wind, "Wind, I have trouble with water and paper is a trouble, too. Wind, take the water and the paper away, wind." I was cracking up.