Alive and well

Stella has a rich inner life right now. All of a sudden, in the course of what seems two weeks, imagination play has kicked into high gear. It’s not that she wasn’t into playing pretend (she’s been known to pick up random bags and tell me that she’s headed out to the store to buy nanas and cheese – always nanas and cheese for some reason, but whatever). She plays with her doll and her stuffed animals, talking to them, etc. But lately, a stick ends up becoming 100 things in the course of day. On Monday after her nap, she stripped down to her underwear, found a bandana and asked me to put it around her torso because she needed to be wearing a “bathing suit,” grabbed a stick that was found on a recent walk, climbed into a swing floatie (that woefully has not been forgotten and makes nightly appearances in the bathtub) and proceeded to “swim” across the floor. What’s the stick for, I asked. “It’s my surfboard.” Oh. Sure, of course.

Food lately has also become other things, or at least shaped like them. “Look, it’s a boot! It’s a snail! It’s a…. insert the favorite shape of the day.” I just nod and say, oh, and try to see the shape that she does before the piece of toast/pile of cereal/pancake/tortilla/scoop of rice gets shoved into her mouth.

The most embarrassing pretend moment lately was at the dog park this week. A nature preserve high above on the cliffs above the beach, the Douglass Preserve is gorgeous, full of tall trees, wood chip or dirt trails, and oh so wonderfully leash-free. Stella usually asks for her own poo bag when I pick up one for Scup as we enter the park because she likes to use it to put “Treasures” – leaves, small stones, sticks, flowers, etc. I have no problem with this. However, this week, Stella decided that she would pretend to pick up dog poo. So at the entrance to the park, she was down on the ground, picking up wood chips and saying, “See, Mommy, I pick up dog poo too.” Now, if you were just walking into the park with your dog and didn’t look closely and overheard my daughter, you might assume that I was letting her pick up dog poo. I kept saying, rather loudly as people walked by, oh Stella, that’s an interesting thing to pretend. Are you pretending to pick up dog poo? etc. etc. She then asked me to help flip the bag over her hand and pile of “poo” (woodchips) and then asked me to tie a knot… just like we do with Scupper. At first, I was like, ok, Stella, this has gone far enough. Dump out the wood chips and let’s just go. She yelled at me, “Don’t throw away my poo!” and proceeded to pretend again to pick up more poo. This time, I quickly knotted the bag and she happily carried it back to the car, singing, “I have a poo bag… I have a poo bag…”

I just kept thinking all week, this is what we get for 1) being theater people and 2) taking her to the dog park since the week she was born.

Oh, yes, and we also go “snorkeling” in the bathtub. Go figure.