Zoo games with the Kid

P's imagination has been explosive lately. Where once he depended on E and I to string out the stories, we are now minor characters tapped for plot progression. Mere (though constantly required) back-up.

One morning he was the zoo keeper, capturing the wild lion. Danda liked this less than P did :) Eventually, Baby Brother and a dragon were also caged, together, much to BB's dismay and P's joy. There were various scenarios that had to be enacted, tickets sold, lions fed, all while P fed me BB's script for each and every possible plot. "I want Baby Brother to think that the dragon is going to get its own cage, but its not..." "I want Baby Brother to be scared that he's loose in the zoo and the lion has escaped its cage and the dragon is flying over him and he thinks the dragon will shoot fire at him but it doesn't it picks him up on his back instead and whooshes him out of the zoo. Ok? Go."

And on those rare and beautiful occasions that bring about a BB break, P builds a zoo for his elephant, who nurses the baby car and then they both receive presents (the orange blocks) from zookeeper Phoenix. Here he provides me with the dialogue for the monster car and is both elephant and zookeeper himself....

This stage has been the most fabulous yet, as a parent. I love recording his life here, but I hope I remember all of the stuff that is unrecordable. The little looks and mispronounced words and occasional moments of quiet concentration. Watching him grow is the most amazing thing Ever and he's really Truly left babydom behind now. I'm queen of nicknames, I love nothing more than a name picked especially for a friend and from this natural bent many, many lovenames have evolved for P. One of them is "baby." As we picked up sticks in the woods in Kansas I must have uttered this fondness at him and he looked me squarely and asked "Why do you call me baby?" Umm, its just a nickname, cuz you're my baby, not like gaga-googoo, just, um, ya know, my offspring. (Well handled as always I must admit.) P dismissed me by saying, "I'm not a baby. Don't call me that anymore. Call me "kid." And thus, a new nickname is born...