Lauren's Imagination

About a month ago Lauren’s imagination really started going wild. We’d have imaginary food and I would have to hold things and not drop them….I even remember holding “pizza” at the zoo one day to feed the crocodiles. She was so adamant that I couldn’t use the hand that I was holding their pizza in also! Then she started with the imaginary play where anything and everything is a mommy, daddy, baby and big sister- it can be seat belts, rocks, animal crackers, spoons, green beans, cups…literally anything- it really doesn’t matter. She can have conversations with these objects about all sorts of things – being on time out, eating dinner, going to the gym, being sick, going to the library, calling the museum, etc. It is fascinating…

And within the last couple weeks, our imaginary family has blossomed with the addition of two frequent characters- parrots named Rio and Stetson. Sometimes there are 4 parrots, sometimes two, but they go many places with us and she will talk to them all the time. They seem to like Target a lot…so much so that Lauren often has to run down half an aisle calling them back to her. We left them inside Target once but luckily they can fly, so mid-meltdown at the stoplight leaving the parking lot, I opened Lauren’s window and we called for them. Whew! Luckily they flew back in the car and made it home with us.