Imagination

Being a father to two little boys has been a lot of fun for me. I love coming home at night and playing with them. I was very surprised one day to see Jaron pretending to eat and drink some food with his play kitchen toys. Then he proceeded to give me some food and beverages, too. He must have been only 9 months or so, but it made me realize that even at that young of an age children can have an imagination.

Since then I've noticed several other ways in which our boys have expressed their imaginations. I've noticed Russell doing the same pretend game Jaron did with the play kitchen. Jaron has a pretend lawn mower that he runs across our yard. He even pretends to pull the starting cord and add gasoline. Of course, Kim and I will never forget the 3 to 4 months that Jaron had an imaginary frog he carried around everywhere.

A few weeks ago Jaron took all the cushions off the couch and Jaron, Russell and I pretended we were on a train. Jaron really gets into it, putting keys in the ignition, changing out the engine when it is broken, and even bring freight on. Kim wishes that idea never started because Jaron wants her to sit on the cushionless couch and get on and off at every stop. Don't you realize, Jaron, that your mom is in her third trimester? (No, the baby has not come yet.) Its a good thing that Russell is willing to play along.

And, to leave you with a visual of what I mean, last week we got out one of their Christmas presents to play with. It was a set of foam squares that connect together with letters on each one. What surprised me was that the boys didn't play with it as I expected. Instead of putting them flat on the ground they wanted to do this:


It is surprising what children come up with sometimes. I wonder where they get their ideas from. Here's another of Russell, just for good measure.


So here's to children and their imaginations. And that we could be more imaginative like them.