Wild Imaginations

Another month behind us... time really does fly when you're having fun! We've had a bit of a strange winter, or more accurately a lack of winter, this year- but we managed to have tons of outdoor fun anyways. And when it has been too cold or rainy or muddy to be outside, we have thoroughly enjoyed sitting inside and watching the boys' imaginations just EXPLODE. I can't even describe how amazing it is to literally watch their creativity develop right in front of our very eyes.

We first noticed their newfound creativity a few months ago when the boys were having trouble falling asleep. We'd put them to bed at 7:30ish but they would stay awake for nearly two hours every night, sometimes even pushing 10:00. But they weren't resisting bedtime. They weren't fussing or fighting it. Nope, they were just in the middle of a mind-explosion! When we would go back in after awhile to tell them to go to bed, we would find them doing the funniest things. One night, Caleb was laying on his belly and digging ferociously into an imaginary hole in his mattress... "I'm diggin' for gold mama! I FOUND SOME!" Another night Matthew was shoving pretend food into his mouth... "I'm eatin' golf course food mama!! I'm eatin' it!!" Jon and I, having gone in there to sternly tell them to go to sleep, would have to run from the room before we burst into laughter. So we spent many-a-nights sitting right outside their door, trying to hold in our giggles as our adorably creative little boys dug a pool, scrambled eggs, planted flowers, picked flowers, planted more flowers, and drove giant excavators late into the night until their little minds finally got tired enough to fall asleep. Then we'd let ourselves laugh out loud!

Most recently, the boys have forged some very creative friendships. They have these little wooden, stackable animals that are some sort of counting and colors activity. At the top of each stack is a different colored animal piece. They have dubbed these their "friends" and named them after their favorite skateboarders... Nyjah is the yellow duck with the wild hair, Ryan Scheckler is the green frog, Ariel is the blue mouse, Ponts is the red dog, and Ponts's friend is the orange giraffe. Last week Caleb started bringing his friends to meals at the table... he'd pull over extra chairs and sit the each on their own chair, pushing it right up to the table, and then he'd ask me to get them each a plate. When we make "cookies" out of another shape sorting/counting set, the friends got lined up, each served a cookie, and we would all sit and eat together. After my doctors appointment last week, the boys started laying them down and giving EKG's... "Nyjah's heart is just right mama!" Their "friends" have each had stints as skiers, presidents, doctors, chefs, pilots, dog catchers... quite an ecclectic group they are! Our other shape toys have served as beds, blankets, cookies, skateboards, skis, carrot cakes, pancakes, you name it... their imaginations just seem limitless right now!!! It is truly unbelievable to see the creativity just flow so effortlessly.

If you want to see more of the boys in action, check out our February video, http://youtu.be/5BaYH8dyyeo the latest installment in our video scrapbook and a wonderful summary of this months adventures