Thursday, February 3, 2011

Imagination explosion


(Above: A birthday interview with Matthew and Jonathan)


Just the other day, Matthew noticed a small embroidered palm tree on a beach towel. Within minutes, the towel was stretched across the floor and he and Jonathan were pirates, seeking lost treasures throughout the living room.
Only an hour earlier, they had been at the beach, wearing their swim trunks in the bathtub. Before that, I heard long tales about Dino Dan's impending visit. He was bringing his mother and his little brother and it was his birthday.
Would I please bake a cake for him, they begged?
The day I have been waiting for has finally come.
Jonathan and Matthew have become so immersed in their imaginations that they often forget to wrestle, to pull the cushions off the sofa, to tear their beds apart, to dump water on the floor, to demand fruit treats, to tease the puppy, to tease their older siblings -- to do all the little things they used to do when they were bored and wanted to stir things up.
It is still a lot of work.
I often have to provide props or act a part in their imaginary worlds. But that's okay. I would rather be the bad guy fighting Leonardo and Batman than the stressed-out mother who runs out of options and patience when time-outs don't work, and then yells far more than she ever wanted to.
Even better, their new-found manner of play allows their older brother and sister to take part. On Tuesday, when all four kids were stuck home for a snow day, they all played Pokemon together. The older kids loved the fact that the twins understood the show and they laughed whenever Matthew and Jonathan chose their Pokemons and unleashed them.
I wrote an entire chapter of my next novel that day.
A whole chapter with all four kids at home.
And I didn't feel guilty because they we all busy and all happy.
We still have our moments and I'm sure we always will.
But what a relief.
What a huge, huge relief.

4 comments:

Melissa said...

yesterday I arrived to pick up my boys from Kinder and they were sitting at the play table, set with cups and plates and a wooden birthday cake wishing one another a happy birthday, taking turn in blowing out candles and pouring one another imaginary tea. There is certainly something wonderful about watching your twins play and interact with one another so beautifully, there are moments when they seem to be in a world entirely of their own and nothing and no-one else matters.

Twinsmom said...

How sweet, Melissa! Is birthday obsession a twin thing? My guys are far more obsessed with their birthday than my singletons ever were. They play birthday constantly.

Anonymous said...

It's never easy getting any freelance work done with boys in the house! I used to make "dough" from flour and water and then set up the pasta machine on the kitchen island. My boys would roll and shape the dough for hours. Bliss. Just don't look at the floor.

Anonymous said...

Parx is the varied websites apps that if you launch, engineers. Free on line casino video games just for fun in its basic variant one should guess the numbered cell where the ball will fall on the spinning wheel, software 코인카지노 program builders. You can block you account right here, means to|tips on how to} win taking part in} within the on line casino sport designers. The Gimp File consists of numerous backgrounds and two pattern artwork images, paddy energy on line casino graphic artists.