Play and Imagination

Play and imagination go hand in hand around here these days. I love watching the children at play and using their imaginations in the process. Katie has an extraordinary imagination. I get such a kick out of watching her and listening to her little voice as it acts out what is going on inside of her head.

I walked out to our family room to this scene yesterday. Katie did not know I was there until I snapped the pic. She read the whole story from memory ("Five Little Monkeys with nothing to do") to her favorite stuffed animals. She was so cute and she was asking them questions about the story.



The next two are from a photo shoot that Katie set up while she was home sick today. She explained to her doll that she was going to take her picture and that she was going to say one, two, three and then "lollipop" when it was time to take the shot. We don't say "cheese" around here as you can see :) Katie actually took the picture of the doll.




Tonight, our babysitter was coming to watch the DD so that we could have dinner with some old friends that were in town in addition to other friends that are local. When I told Katie that Chelsea was coming she asked me lots of questions about why we were leaving, where we were going, etc. I later walked into the kitchen to see her at the kitchen table and I watched as he orchestrated her three fingers into having a conversation as if they were people. One was Mommy, one was Daddy and one was Chelsea. The fingers were all having a conversation about when mommy and daddy were going and what Chelsea would be doing with Katie and Ethan; including what they would be playing. She got it all worked out in her head and then she seemed satisfied.

The DD also love to dress up and play act their roles. Yesterday, our superman and our princess were having quite the time together. Chelsea keeps telling me that Katie is going to have to explore acting, as she is a natural. Chelsea has that side to herself as well so she seems to really enjoy that aspect of Katie's personality. We told Chelsea that Katie really only feels comfortable to show that side of herself to the people closest to her. She is really quite shy outside of the home and especially in new situations. I am sure over time that will ease up.

When I got home Chelsea showed me some pics that she took of the DD at play. She took a little of an artistic slant and I really liked the honesty and innocence in them. Here they are:









BTW, the DD had a blast with Chelsea tonight and we had a blast as well. These were Marc's friends before we met and they became my friends ten years ago, so we have some amazing memories from many fun times together. We have not laughed like we did tonight in a very long time and boy did I enjoy myself :-)