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July 10, 2006
Pretend
I spent the last hour of Gustav's wakefulness playing the voice of Mama Fox to his Mama Dragon. Whenever I tried to say something to Gus, he would talk back to the Fox. We were not we, we were mere voices for the dramatic lives of these creatures.
I didn't think that pretend play would be so prominent at this age, but Gus loves it, giving me a new stuffed animal, car or dinosaur to play with everyday. The most amazing thing is that I hear my words coming out of his mouth, or, er, Mama Dragon's mouth.
He tells my Mama Fox that she's in time out because she hurt the baby. Mama Dragon also helps fox find her baby, who often finds himself in the form of a ball or shoe or, um, boob pad. His imagination is that wild. At one point, Gus told me the ball was my baby fox, so I started talking to it. Suddenly Gus says incredulously, "It's not a baby, it's a ball." As if it were my idea in the first place, crazy woman.
As I read books tonight to Gus, he was picking out books for me to read. I reached out my hand to take it, but Gus refused, holding back until I used Mama Fox to pick it up.
I'm finding that this pretend time gives me a chance to act through difficult situations with Gus, such as his dragon hitting my fox. I can act sad, ask why he hit, and he's very articulate in explaining his intentions, and he in turn repeats back any feelings I've expressed about how Fox feels in the situation. If only I could use the forum to get him to stop squeezing Eli's cheeks...
This pretend play made me think of all the times I spent in my basement in Iowa, recording myself acting like Olivia Newton John or making up commercials and playing radio. I could play and play and play for hours, and I'm starting to get the feeling that Gus will be able to do the same thing.
Posted by janna at July 10, 2006 10:49 PM