If you are a dreamer...

When I was younger, I always envisioned the type of parent I would be. 
When it came to playing with my kids, I always thought I'd get down to their level and play with them, and dress up or pretend to be whatever character they wanted me to be.  To pretend that my kid was a dog if they said they were a dog.  To make food into funny faces and do things to encourage creativity. 

And then real life happened.  I became a full time employee, a homeowner, a wife, a cook, a maid, a mom, and then a student.  And though I want to be able to play with my daughter in the way that I pictured I would, I find myself being a little too aware of the time and my giant to-do list to do some of the things that I thought I'd do.  Or at least to do them as regularly as I'd thought I would.  I find myself starting to color with my daughter only to get up after few minutes to clean the kitchen or get lunches together.  Though we do lots of fun things together, like our morning dance parties, going to the zoo, hitting up Trail Dust Town, popping popcorn and watching movies; in the area of make-believe, I am no Mary Poppins. 

Monday night, Brylee asked if she could sleep in our bed.  We let her do this sometimes and then when she falls asleep we take her into her room.  Sean went to bed early, and as he snored next to us, we talked about all kinds of random things.  Then she asked if we could go to the zoo.  My normal response would be "No, they're closed."  Or, "The animals are all asleep."  Or, "Maybe we can go this weekend."  But for whatever reason I said "Yeah!  Let's go to the zoo!!  But, we have to pretend."  So Brylee and I proceeded to take a virtual walk through the zoo, talking about all the animals (we've been so many times that we know by heart what order they're in at our zoo), and I'd ask her what they were doing and she'd tell me that the otters were swimming or the monkeys were swinging and making lots of noise. We fed the giraffe, played in the splash area and got to see all the animals that aren't always out when we visit the zoo in real life.  And when we were done with the zoo, complete with stopping at the cart to get popcorn, she wanted to see her favorite animals one more time.  So I asked her to take me to them and tell me about them.  We visited the tigers, polar bear, otters and the monkeys- it was adorable listening to her describe what she saw in her mind. And after that we said good-bye to the animals and went home. 

By the time we were done, she was pretty tired.  She kissed me, told me that she loved me and had a lot of fun at the zoo with me and then she fell hard asleep.

This was by far my favorite moment that we have ever shared.  It was the longest that I have ever engaged her in a pretend situation, and it reminded me how important it is to develop her imagination.  I think we'll go to Disneyland next.  :)

If you are a dreamer, come in,
If you are a dreamer, a wisher, a liar
A hope-er, a pray-er, a magic bean buyer...
If you're a pretender, come sit by my fire
For we have some flax-golden tales to spin.
Come in!
Come in!
-Shel Silverstein, Where the Sidewalk Ends
(My favorite book as a child and one of the first books I bought Brylee)