Over the last two weeks, Kenny has exploded into the world of Imagination.
He goes on imaginary shopping trips, where he scans the grocery aisles for cheese and pickles and snack-bars; he bakes cakes and cookies in the bathroom while I’m taking a shower (including twirling himself around to simulate the standing mixer!), then showers me with things to taste while I’m drying off. Today while I was conferencing in to a call with Casey and an estate lawyer, trying to comprehend the necessities of advocates and irrevocable trusts, Kenny kept walking over to the coffee table, where he pretended to scoop ice cream, then walked over to me, loudly exclaiming, “Mommy wants a chocolate! Kenny has lalilla!” (Casey told me that those in the room could not only hear every word, but every gesture he made.) He spent half an hour today “fixing” the Adirondack chair on the deck with a crab mallet, then another few minutes hammering the front door, and checking it with a level, to make sure, “It’s working!”
Along with the explosion in imagining, he is becoming amazing with his detailed recall. This morning, as I put on my running shoes, Kenny said, “Take Dudley for a walk. Go fast! Go slow little bit… Mama warming up legs!” I literally stared in disbelief, as, though we do take Dudley for a walk every morning, and he does ask to “go fast” (run), I have probably only mentioned once or twice that I always walk a block first to warm up my legs a little. So I said, “That’s right, Kenny. Mama goes slow at first to warm up,” and he replied, “Mama needs exercise!” Fortunately, the irony was unintended.
When we play legos now, we don’t just build mindless towers… today he wanted to build a house just like “guys build a house!” (we pass a house under construction on our walk) and then he wanted us to “work hard – guys working hard.”
Yes, he really does talk that well. I know, I know, he’s not yet two, and most of you are raising an indulgent eyebrow and thinking, “yeah, right, he says all those sentences,” but it’s true! Sometimes it takes me a minute to figure out exactly what he’s saying – his pronunciation is child-like – but the verbs and subjects and occasional adjectives are all there! Keep in mind, though, he does goe through entire afternoons where he says only things like, “Doomba, Doomba!” and “Kenny no like heebie beebee” and I have no idea how to respond. But then he’ll go down for a nap, and I’ll here, clear as a bell over the monitor, “Baa want some water? *slurp, slurp* Good boy, Baa!” (He is very good at sharing, especially with Baa and Baby Teddy, his two favorite stuffed animals.)
Anyway, I don’t care if he is reciting Shakespeare or parroting the Veggie Tales; I am thrilled, though, that he is learning to use his imagination. Funny, too, yesterday we were stuck at the car dealership for an overdue oil change, and I was flipping through a parenting magazine while Kenny played with the oily set of blocks in the “kids corner” and there was an article that stated that “Learning to use the imagination is the last great memory milestone” for a baby. Meaning, once the kid turned two and started to exhibit imagination skills, you could pretty much chalk up that babyhood was over, and your little precious was now officially a “kid.”
*sigh*
I’m not ready to let my little baby boy be a kid!
