Pirate Stories

Phoenix eschews books at bedtime in lieu of personal drama so E tells P a story almost every night. They remind me of the choose your own adventure books in the 80's as P picks the plot and then twists it to suit his needs. Last week we visited the Transit Museum with P's buddy, Benny, and his mama, Jo. The boys had a good time until the fun police (aka overzealous and bored security guard - more on that another time) killed P's joy. Fortunately, our fun could easily be moved to Dumbo for a little park time. The playground there takes a pirate ship shape and Benny and P had a great time going up (to other mother's chagrin) and down the slides and swinging on the tire swing. So that night P sat aside his previous plot and placed himself, Benny, Mama, Papa and Baby Brother on a pirate ship. (E tried to tell P a story once that left us at home and P said "That's illegal. Kids have to be with them mamas or papas or nannys." :) Six days later and Pirates Benny and Phoenix are still the stars every night. Last night I heard P adding to the story:

E: So Phoenix and Benny quickly climbed up the ladder of their ship and "
P: and the shark climbed up too!
E: hahaha. Sharks can't climb up ladders.
P: Sure them do. The shark climbed up the ladder.
E: How does a shark climb up a ladder? They don't have hands...
P: They use their fins!
E: Oh, of course. So the shark climbed up the ladder with his fins....

The picture. ( I'd love to have a pic of P and Benny at play, but lugging our old, slow-to-focus 80 lb camera around doesn't thrill me so we only have slow-moving home shots for a while :) And no, I didn't dress the child! P has always been very particular in his clothing choices. So much so that some have suggested sensory integration issues. Nah, he just likes it the way he likes it :) Soft was the previous prerequisite. Then the pictures became important too (sea life and vehicles) and now the entire outfit is often important. Some mornings he slides on anything soft, others he has very, um, creative ideas as to dressing. Its an interesting process to watch... He's also started creatively combining foods. And I don't mean eating a casserole - that's never been a problem - tho he does like simple foods too. I mean, stacking dried corn on chocolate chip cookies for a snack. Dipping his cheesy noodles in ketchup. Then in his vanilla shake (surprisingly yummy). The experiments with success rates are repeated - he now systematically adds the dried corn to his cookies...