These children of mine...they live in an alternate universe.
Andrew is a super-star Lacrosse champ, spending literally hours practicing shooting and scooping in our side yard. He is often muttering to himself, so I imagine he is calling out the plays and live streaming the announcers comments as he makes amazing plays versus his evil opposing team.
Lily swings and sings in the backyard. She is a mommy, an explorer, a princess, a dog, a squirrel, an artist, a bird with a nest, a dolphin, a teacher, a dancer, a singer. Each day she slips effortlessly from character to character, drawing in whomever she can entangle into her imaginary game. Often it is Michael.
Michael recreates computer games with blocks, stuffed animals, game pieces from toys, rocks from the garden. He creates elaborate "worlds" and conquers them all. He loves to play with his sister, and becomes her baby bird, her pet cat, her dance student, her VIP student, her train conductor, her knight.
Occasionally, all 3 will engage in an elaborate pretend game...usually Ninjago or Pokemon inspired, but last weekend they were all whales because of a whale book Andrew brought home. When Andrew plays, the game becomes more planned and more chaotic at the same time. He writes instructions and draws diagrams to lead their play, but he also creates conflict by trying to manipulate the master pretend player (lily).
This morning, Lily and Michael woke up first. They watched tv for about 15 minutes, and then played gym class for a while. They took turns being the gym teacher and instructing the other how to do a specific move. Andrew woke up and began playing Battleship with Lily, leaving Michael to follow me around and tell me the latest intricate Angry Birds board he invented...something with a new orange bird that shoots baseball bats. But Andrew and Lily weren't ACTUALLY playing Battleship...they set it up and were pretending they were whale watching ships and...I don't know. Something about finding whales. They played for a good 35 minutes without fighting, so I don't care. Right now Lily and Michael are playing something involving a train (I have the kitchen chairs set up in a row while I washed the floor...voila! A train), and Lily is some kind of animal while Michael is a dragon trainer? I'm not sure. But they are having so much fun.
The best part? I'm not needed in the pretend play anymore. Remember all those hours of playing neighbor? No more. Remember all the playgroups I was a member of? No more. This is really the reason Michael and Lily will go to school the same time of day next year...I need playmates for the non-school half of the day!
