The imagination of a child.

[temporus]

So, recently I noticed a particular behavior of my son, that just makes me in awe of humanity and our capacity for creativity.   In one of the various books that we read along with him, there are little flaps to open up and see what's underneath.   In one of these books, there's a cabinet, and behind one of the flaps/doors is a box of cookies.   He sees this box, says "cookie" and then pretends to gingerly pick up the tiny dot meant to represent a cookie, and pretends to eat it.   Along the same lines, if he gets an empty cup or bottle, he'll pretend to take a sip, and then go 'Ah!" like it was so refreshing.   Both of these actions are completely unprompted.   In fact, neither my wife nor I can figure out where he got these ideas from.   I guess it's possible that at some point I might have done the refreshing "ah" thing after taking a drink, so it's could be an action he stowed away to mimic later.   But pretending to eat miniature cookies just kind of blows me away.  At just under a year and a half he demonstrates a fully formed imagination.   Wow, who knew it started so early?

And to top it all off, he's got a new word in his vocabulary.  One that makes his dad happy to hear.   Book.  He's known what a book is for a while, he'll happily hand you one and sit in your lap so that you can start reading one.  (He'll only let you get through the whole book if its short or he's getting sleepy.)  But now he'll pick one up and say  "Book!"  And that makes me happy.   Now if I can just convince him that books aren't meant to be torn apart...