Last week, while driving home from Spokane, Sophie got a little stir-crazy in the car. She insisted that she get out of the carseat "right now." I said all of the rationale parent-responses, ("We are driving home now. Mommy and Daddy both keep their seatbelts on, so you must keep your carseat buckle on, too. If we get unbuckled, we aren't safe and we're breaking the law. Do you want the police to arrest you? Please be a nice, big girl and stop whining..."). She persisted and stated that she wanted to get out of her carseat and walk along the side of the road in the rain. I responded, "That's ridiculous." The word "ridiculous" is apparently a funny word, so when Sophie heard it, she burst into laughter. I capitalized on this unexpected interruption to her whining and created a game that has taken our household by storm over the past week. The game goes like this:
D/E: What do you want to do today, Sophie?
S: Um, I want to ride a spaceship and run on the moon.
D/E: That's ridiculous!
S: What do you want to do today, Mommy?
E: I want to go to the North Pole and talk to a reindeer while eating clouds.
S: That's ridiculous, Mommy. What do you want to do today, Daddy?
The game continues on and on and on...but her responses (and ours, too!) continue to get more creative, ingenious, and hysterical. Today at lunch, Sophie told me that she wanted to "jump on all the breakable plates and cut off mommy's hair." It's amazing that she understands normal vs. abnormal, realistic vs. imaginary, tangible vs. intangible. Plus, her pronunciation of ridiculous is adorable.
On the other hand, her sense of time is confusing. When we are playing pretend, Sophie loves to pretend that she's going to work. She packs a purse with all the essentials and tells me that she'll be gone for 2 days. When we are pretending to be at the store, I'll ask Sophie how much something costs, and she still responds in terms of days ("This book costs 4 days, mommy.") I attempted to explain the concept of the New Year to Sophie. Abstract concepts like months are difficult. While she knows that her birthday is in the month of October and Christmas is in the month of December, it's still confusing. I told her that when she woke up in the morning, it'd be January and I'd see her in a new year. She started to cry, saying that she wanted to go to January with mommy. When I reassured her that I'd be with her all during the month of January, she asked me if January was big or small? Far away? Then, she made me promise that I'd take her to January with me.
Doug and I were in the kitchen making dinner while Sophie ran around playing. She came into the kitchen, and in a quiet voice, she told us, "My house is tipping over." She had been running in circles and was dizzy!!
And my final anecdote: The three of us were playing house and cars after lunch. We had no props except for a blanket and a phone, but Sophie's imagination was running wild. At one point, Sophie and I were both "driving our cars fast"when she had to call Grandma and Papa. Doug and I teased her about driving her car while talking on the phone. Doug pretended to sound like a siren and be a policeman pulling her over for talking on her phone when behind the wheel. With a serious look on her face and a finger pointed in the air toward D, Sophie said, "A policeman's not here. Daddy's not a policeman. Don't do that, Daddy. Don't make that sound." D was put in his place, and I swear I saw her eyes rolling...
Happy New Year from D, E, S, and B2!!
