Everyday, often several times a day, Hazel throws her imagination, emerging complex verb structures, and powers of empathy into the big pot that is her brain, stirs, and comes out with a "When I was..." statement.
"When I was a Mom, I change my baby's diapers because that's what Moms do with their babies."
"When I was a sandbox, I ate sand, do I? Because sand is my food!"
I know the proper form is actually "if I was..." or if you're really a stickler, "if I were..." but I make no effort whatsoever to correct her. I don't know if that's actually what she means or if the line between reality and make-believe is still fuzzy enough that she thinks she could be, or has been, these things. Either way, I enjoy her comments immensely.
"When I was ice cream, people eat me. Because I'm yummy in their stomachs and their stomachs like me."
But mostly it's a lot of, "When I was a Mom."
"When I was a Mom, I cook at the stove and touch hot things, do I?" (The "do I?" is my favorite part.)
"When I was a Mom, I can drive our car and I take you to the grocery store."
Sometimes it's, "When I was your Mom..." Then I explain to her that she can't be my mom because Nana is my mom. And I'm her mom. And when she's a mom she'll have a new kid we haven't met yet. I know it's complicated but I tell her anyway. Last time we went through it she considered for a minute and said, "Yeah, and when Nana was little I was her mom."
I just smiled and said, "Yep!" Plenty of time for boring truth later.
4 comments:
In the words of H.I. McDunnough's cellmate:
You ate sand!?
I like these little vignettes - we sometimes get similar stuff from E, but without the cutie do I? at the end.
I don't know, those seem like some pretty accurate descriptions. Maybe she's channeling her past lives?
I just love these posts. Really it is so fun to see the way she thinks and the way you interact with her.
I always wonder if kids think we are just making stuff up too. Crazy stuff, like how we were kids once and they came out of their mommy's bellies, and water steam and ice are the same thing. I think maybe the stuff they come up with doesn't seem any less believable to them than any of that.
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