imagination

3 years old is the magic age of imagination. It suddenly kicks into overdrive and it has been wonderful to watch. Many of Butterfly's imagination games are imitating me. Most often she pretends to take care of her baby or cook dinner (sometimes with or without props). Other favorites is when she goes on a safari to Africa to see the animals or goes to Disneyland with Mickey. Today she declared we have a new pet. Apparently it's a penguin that wears a green necklace. Usually she involves Ladybug in her play, telling her what to do and Ladybug happily complies. I don't think she understands but seems eager to be involved.

They are playing together more and more and I'm thrilled. We still struggle during playdates. If Butterfly has a playmate that is her own age, she (and often prompted by the playmate) doesn't want "the baby" to play with them). Fortunately that's get better too as I insist that Ladybug is one of the big girls too and help find a way to incorporate her into the games. But lately, the girls do play together and it's wonderful. They play a LOT of "ring-a-rosies" and spend a lot of time just chasing each other, growling like tigers in a hide and seek/chasing game. Another frequent favorite is playing of the indoor playset grandma gave us. It's meant to be an outside toy but it's never made it that far. It has a small slide and attached swing. The swing is usually used for stacking books on. The girls will remove all of the novels from the nearby book shelf and stack them on and around this playset (building a castle). Or the other favorite is to simply chase each other down the slide, up the back and down the slide again. Despite the small size of the playset, this never gets old.

Butterfly also spends a lot of time reading stories to me and Ladybug. They always start "once upon a time there was a young prince" and then the story varies according to the pictures in the book. We especially spend a lot of time reading books when sitting in the car. I keep a stack next to their seats and they will be content to look at those for our frequent long drives. Ladybug's favorite is the Nemo book. Butterfly's favorite is usually the Precious Moments book about angels.

Singing is one of the best part's of Butterfly increasingly overactive imagination. Tonight, when driving in the car, she sang me a song about going back to Spain. I have no idea what inspired this song but it was beautiful and fun. ("I will go back to Spain, Spain is so beautiful and I love Spain and someday I will go back to Spain and take you to Spain") But usually her songs involve something about her dreams or her heart (a sign that maybe we watch too much Disney). She also is more frequently singing songs that we've learned in our music class and I love that she initiates it on her own. For example, we were eating pizza and she suddenly began doing the hand motions and blowing a staccato "ha, ha, ha" on her hands. I didn't get it at first but then she began singing "pizza pie hot, pizza pie cold, pizza pie in the box nine days old". Two other frequent favorites lately is "five little mice came out to play" and a song about a puppy dog tied up to a tree (she especially likes to do the howling). She loves to sing the alphabet song lately but at the end verse, she frequently crosses over into "twinkle twinkle little star". But my melt-my-heart favorite is "I am a Child of God". Ladybug is starting to sing out loud, usually timid but will sing along to "I am a Child of God" and "popcorn" and "twinkle twinkle". However, lately she will sometimes get bored in the car and start singing her own songs, without words but with loud and adorable vocalizations.