Playtime in Julia's Imagination

This morning I watched a very interesting segment on the "Today Show" called "Are Your Kids Playing Enough?" Parents are so focused on giving their kids the latest and greatest electronic toy, educational toy and not really engaging in free play. Like yesterday, Julia and I really didn't play with her toys (except the ride along truck) but explored with her imagination. The sticks were presents, the wind was a dinosaur and something in her mind was an alligator. Not that I'm against all educational toys, it's just that some are so focused on getting their kids ahead of the curve that we lose sight that they just need to be kids.

It was grocery shopping day and off we went to Harris Teeter. This is Julia's favorite grocery store because of two things - food samples and the airplane grocery carts. It is my favorite because of two things - the samples and the cool cart give me one sane shopping experience and they sell San Marzano tomatoes. Kidding...well, not really. Anybody who knows Julia knows that her and I are exactly alike in the personality department (poor thing). Which just means our heads butt constantly. So anything to help distract her from what I am trying to accomplish is worth its weight in gold.

When you turn onto the road where Harris Teeter is located, you immediately see the fountains that are in front of the town center. Even if I had my eyes shut (yes, Steve would be driving) I would know when we reached the road thanks to Julia screaming "The FOUNTAINS! They are going to the SKY!". In the last several trips she has added one more thing - "The fountains are in the bathtub, Mama!" Well, I guess they are in a bathtub.

She is also a big fan of construction sites, trucks, tractors, cranes, buses and airplanes. The Harris Teeter road is under construction; so of course there are lots of dirt piles and tractors on the side of the road. Before I go any farther, let me explain something. In our backyard I've started a compost pile that is home to lots and lots of worms. Thanks to Steve and I reading her Richard Scary books, she has fallen in love with "Lowly Worm". Whenever we are working in the garden and find a worm it's Julia's job to take it to the compost pile. Whenever we take scraps out to the pile she informs us that we are "feeding the lowlys". Whenever I turn the pile she has to be there to see the lowly family. You get the picture.... Well the trip today went past the construction. And just like she does with any construction site with dirt piles she exclaimed "Mama! They are digging for Lowly!"

I'm so glad that Steve and I feed into her imagination and let her be a kid. Would she have such an imagination if we didn't? The world may never know ;)

Trash trucks and dinosaurs

Imagination is a funny thing. It can be our best friend or our scariest enemy. Well today Julia decided it was her best friend.

This morning she overheard me sing "Happy Birthday" over the phone to my friend Sandy. At the time I thought she wasn't even listening. But after we went outside to play with Phoebe and to inspect our garden; I realized she understood my conversation. She was running around the backyard gathering sticks with Phoebe, then decided it was time to come over to my chair to give me my 'birfday pawensense'. After carefully laying the many sticks down on the table she proceeded to sing "Happy Birthday". Then it got really interesting. She was handing me the sticks saying "happy birfday to you, Mama" and "happy birfday to Miss Sandy, Mama". When I said thank you for the stick she curtly corrected me. "No Mama, that's your pawensense". Sorry!

She heard the mailman and the distribution of presents was forgotten. It was time to get the mail. Usually after getting the mail we go inside again. But since the weather was perfect today we sat out on the front walk. As she discussed the flowers behind her, she heard a noise that brought a huge smile to her tiny face. THE TRASH TRUCK WAS COMING! Oh, how exciting! She quickly stood-up and watched as the large, white truck came down our road. She waved and the trashmen waved back. It was a cute moment...but wait...there's another truck coming! Two in one moment! She screeched with joy and clapped - how awesome! As she watched the second truck get our neighbors trash can she exclaimed "Mama! The trash truck is taking their dirty diapers!". Now it was my turn to smile.

The rest of the morning and into the early afternoon she played "trash truck". Using her Little Tykes ride along truck, she rode around the foyer and kitchen exclaiming that she was a trash truck. Various toys that were on the floor were put into the back of the truck as she made the noise of the hydraulic lift (garrrrrrrrr rrrrr rrrr). Wow, I didn't know we had a resident trash truck!

Before we left for Sandy's house to watch her kids (and make birthday cupcakes) so she could take her hubby to an emergency doc appointment we went out to the backyard again. It was a bit breezy. But little did I know the wind really wasn't the wind. It was a dinosaur! She grabbed my hand and pointed with her other tiny finger towards the trees that line the back of our property and yelled "Mama, yook! It's a dinosaur! It's walking!" One couldn't help but get excited with her! After confirming the siting, she looked up at me and smiled - "Yes, Mama. The dinosaur is here. Yes" As we started back into the house she stopped at the door, turned around and waved. While she waved she said "Bye bye alyeegator". Dinosaurs AND alligators?! I had no idea we had a reptile world in our backyard. Someone should warn the dog... And call Aunt Jess for reptile help...

Whoa

Well, it's official...the Haney Family has a blog. It's something I've been thinking about for a little since it's hard to keep track (and remember) of my thoughts and memories of the week.

This morning Steve, Julia and Phoebe are in "Papa's Office" playing something on the PlayStation, no doubt. Julia loves to hang with "Papa" on the weekends after she stuffs herself with his awesome chocolate chip pancakes. That's the weekend ritual...Steve makes chocolate chip pancakes and then we are off and running. But thankfully today is a lazy day. Steve and Julia will play and I'm going to finish canning. Last night we canned pickles and today it's tomatilla salsa and creole simmer sauce. Yes, I'm crazy, but when the product is finished I feel so proud of what I accomplished! Maybe I'll post some pictures if everything goes okay.