The other week our son was pretending that his Diplodocus dinosaur was baby Riley, the girl pictured here playing with our younger son. Whenever he was too busy to properly care for baby Riley, the dinosaur, I was asked to push her/it in the swing and carry her in my front shirt pocket.
While playing Go-Fish he says, "Hey, mom, look at my face." Then he scrunches eyebrows together. "That (points to forehead) is a reason." He nods his head in approval.
He stops for a minute building letters with foam blocks, walks off, cups hands together. "Mom, I'm getting you a secret." He sneaks on toes into other room and gets a toy stethoscope. He returns. "Here is your secret. Now you need to listen to somebody's heart."
He stands in garage and pees on driveway rocks, raises hands and exclaims, "I just made a number nine!"
I think he had a fun time today with the real baby Riley's older sister Morgan. During a hike he was able to take photos with her camera and wear her backpack. Together, they pretended to fix the old tractor pictured for about an hour. See them conversing. He practiced her name about 50 times before he went to sleep. "MorGAN. MOORgan. Morgan. Wheeeere Arrrrre Yooooou?"
After today, Morgan will probably be added to the list of friends that he always requests: Cedar, William & Julia, and Arthur. He starts preschool next week and he will meet 10 new friends with whom he will learn and play twice a week and who will probably become a part of our lives also. As the years pass, more and more of life's realities will be instilled in him. Whatever happens, I hope at least part of his amazing imagination sticks with him for life.
