I love the imaginative stage of a 3 year old. Everything comes to life. The jump rope in my car is the mean snake. Every baby doll that rides in the car must be properly buckled in her own seat belt before we can put the car in gear – its so they can be safe, mom. Monsters don’t come in our house because Raffi, our super-intimidating yorkie, scares them all away. Oh, and all of the plastic animals/toys are currently in swimming lessons with Jane Bradley, the instructor, which take place in the bathtub during bath time – only on the days that she doesn’t have her rainboots on and umbrella opened as she pretends to swim in rain puddles (still the bathtub). She also teaches those toys her own version of P90X (Brad’s morning workout routine that she trys to copy). These things I really hope I can store up in my mind – I don’t want to forget!
This one today, though, was truly classic. We went to our neighbors’ house for swimming and dinner. They have a two-year-old that Jane Bradley has had some fun playing with. Usually Jane Bradley is the younger of the playmates, so she follows their instructions in whatever game they are playing. This scenario, however, allows Jane Bradley to show her friend exactly how to play babies, which is what her mom and I found them doing in the front yard. The boys were playing kick ball, and the little girls were playing babies in the outfield. The game had come to a mysterious stop, which is where my neighbor and I entered the scene. We walk outside to check on the game and the boys were congregated at the pitcher’s mound in discussion. I noticed Jane Bradley and her friend in the outfield with their baby dolls folded into something white. They were rocking them back and forth like little mommas – adorable. Well, until I realized what was going on. Jane Bradley and friend had literally stolen second and third and wrapped up their baby dolls – the bases being the closest things to blankets that they could find outside and of course, it was the babies’ bedtime. The boys (age 6) had stopped the game to figure out where the bases went and how they were going to play with only first and home – Im not sure they realized the theft at that point.
After alot of laughs and replacing the bases with real blankets so that the girls could feel comfortable giving them back - the game was back on and the babies were quickly on their way back to bed.
Really Funny… Great memories.
