Tuesday, October 21, 2008

Imaginary play

After returning home from a busy day filled with school, a playdate and swim classes, LittleMan, BoopaLoop and I escaped from eachother each decided to do our own thing. About 5 minutes into my blogging housework, LittleMan ran over with a huge MegaBlock/Lego monstrosity that vaguely resembled a large monstrosity rocket ship.  We then had this conversation:

LittleMan: "Look mom! It is a spaceship."
Me: "Wow! It is really big."
LittleMan: "Yeah! Flip it over!"
Me: [Flipping it over] "Oh look. It has huge holes underneath."
LittleMan: "Yeah."
Me: "You know what that can be used for? Out in outer space there might be a little spaceship in trouble, and the big spaceship can fly over the little one and suck it up in these holes. Then after depressurizing, the people on the big ship can repair whatever is wrong with the little ship."
LittleMan: [Looks far off in the distance.]

Now, I will grant you that half way through my explanation of what the big holes on the bottom of the ship were for, I probably lost my son (and most of my readership).  I certainly lost him with the word "depressurizing". However, my family has given this far-away look my son gets on his face the apt name "downloading". You see LittleMan has this uncanny ability to look like he is not paying the least bit of attention to what you are saying, but he is in fact storing the data for later use. Hence, the term downloading. I wasn't certain he was downloading at this time. After reading this conversation, I'm certain you could understand why it is he would tune me out. But then this happened...

LittleMan: [Returns his attention back to me, he flips the spaceship back over / top up] "Mom, see these holes?"
He is pointing to the holes that are on the top of the MegaBlock Lego-things.
Me: "Yes."
LittleMan: "This is where the water comes out to put out the fire on the little spaceship."
Me: "Oh. Well that's a good idea, but there isn't any oxygen in space."
Imagine a detailed description of what oxygen is, what it is we breathe, karate (just because it is cool), fire, and space.
Me: Summing up, "...so you see there is no oxygen in space."
LittleMan: "We can pretend there is."
Me: "True."
BoopaLoop: "Look at what I made."

BoopaLoop is holding a long strand of 2x2 MegaBlock Lego-things put together to form a very unstable yet functional staircase.
Me: "Wow, that's cool."
BoopaLoop: [Sets the staircase on the seat next to me.]

I then use my two fingers to form the universally understood walking man to climb the staircase. I do this while singing "Mr. Sandman".  Don't ask me why that song, but it turns out to be a very good choice.

Me: "Mr. Sandman bring me a dream.
Boom boom boom
Make him the cutest that I've ever seen.
Boom boom boom
AAARRRRRRGGGGGHHHHHH"

Because, Mr. Finger-Walking-Man naturally fell to his death after reaching the top of the staircase. My daughter looked at me with an unreadable expression and blinked twice while my son was laughing uncontrollably. I'll be paying for her therapy later.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Mom--I love it...you are correct about the therapy, however I will not pay for yours.

Tiffany T said...

I love you, mo... Hey, what was that you were saying about therapy?

Anonymous said...

Loose imagination among the children and they will grow to be happy adults.

Sticks and Legos and twisties and olive pits...and cooperative adults...we don't need no stinking electronics...we need grown-ups to get down on their elbow and purse-up their lips and nod in approval as a child explains what their organized debris represents.

Good on you, Tiff. Good on you.

All Things BD said...

Those kids will be scarred for life. Don't worry, I'll take 'em in when they run away from home.

Lump said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Anonymous said...

What a great imagination you both have! I loved legos as a kid!

Tabitha Blue said...

Haha, that's a great story!! Isn't being a mommy great! We get to do all kinds of things that are hilarious.. and sometimes regret them later. I'm sure your kiddos are just fine :)

~Tabitha~

Jannie Funster said...

Mr. Sandman was teh obvious choice for a song.

Uploading, yes, not opening but saving to computer for later use.

Fun story!