a world of pure imagination

hannah lives in her own world. it has really been amazing to watch her imagination evolve over these past couple of years. at first, it was the typical pretend play - she would pretend to be whatever character she liked on tv or in a book. she loved to pretend to be alice in wonderland, sister bear from the berenstain bears, or any sort of princess. then she started assigning us roles, too. if she was going to be ruby, then tim had to be max and i would be louise.

the newest development in imaginary play is an interesting one. she gives out roles to me, tim, and libby, while she remains hannah. she will say to me, "you be spongebob and i'll be hannah." then she starts talking to me as the character, asking me things like, "where do you live?" and telling me things like, "i live in opelika. i'm going to go ask my mom if you can stay here for five days." then she will actually leave the room and pretend like she's asking permission. now this is all really funny but it can be exhausting for me to have to stay in character all day! and it can get confusing to her when spongebob is trying to tell her to pick her toys up off the floor.

this morning she wanted me to be angelina ballerina, while she "pretended" to be hannah. she wanted to go outside to sit on the front porch stoop and eat breakfast. she packed up a bag of cheerios and another bag of apple slices. when i told her i couldn't go out with her right at that moment because i had to empty the dishwasher, she went out by herself and pretended angelina was with her. i watched her from the window eating and talking up a storm to angelina.

later this afternoon she wanted to pretend that she, libby and i were butterflies. she said her name was strawberry, libby's name was coconut and i was the momma butterfly. i wish i had a video of her coming out of her cocoon because it was very theatrical.