"Imaginating" - The Boy

This definitely falls under the "What I learn from my children" category.

Recently my son (aka The Boy) has discovered "The Backyardians", a cartoon about a group of friends who use their imaginations and their back yards to have some awesome adventures. My son has taken to choosing this to watch as his daily treat, and as soon as it is over, turns off the TV, announces to the house at large that he is off to and heads into the back yard for a bit. Now this bit can be anywhere from 5 minutes up until I have to call him in for dinner, but the end result is always the same. When he comes back in the house, he tells me of the adventure he just went on, and then says, "I'm good at imaginating, aren't I, Mom."
Other than correcting grammar, I'll ask more questions about what he did, or to clarify something I don't understand (he loves to make up words). Unfortunately, he always tells me these stories while I'm in the middle of doing something else, like trying to keep the house from burning down from the chicken flambe (Really, I'm not a bad cook; my son just has his mother's timing when it comes to discussing important things), so I don't always remember what he said. Only that it was interesting and he had fun. Oh yes, and I'm not allowed to go with him on these adventures (I asked to come one day).

Now one of the things The Boy detests is having to take a nap. He's old enough that he does not need to take a nap every day, but still young enough that I need an hour of quiet from him in the middle of the day. So nap time is the time when he has to lay down anywhere in his room and be quiet for one hour. I don't care if he sleeps or reads a book, just as long as he's given me time to recover. This weekend, for the first time in several months, he actually slept during his nap time. When I asked him about it, he said that he "imaginated" that he was on a space ship and he was traveling to a new planet, but it would take such a long time that he had to go to sleep for the whole trip (Which explains why he asked "Are we there yet?" when I woke him up). And he's been doing this more and more whenever he is asked to do something he doesn't want to do, he pretends he's doing something fun instead.

So today, I'm not at work. I'm an international superstar, planning out a world tour of shows and interviews. And my drive home, will not be stressful, because I'll be on a leisurely tour of the canals of Venice. That should freak out the moron who tries to broadside me in bumper-to-bumper traffic when I home, smile and wave.

I might even blow a kiss his/her way.