Imagination Technician

Lately Little Brother has become quite the little pretender. It’s hilariously cute, the things he comes up with and it’s fun to watch. A serious look will come across his little face, you know the wheels are turning. Then off he goes in a full out sprint to get what supplies he needs for his latest mission. His favorite construction project is making forts. He’ll drag the blankets and pillows from every one of our beds to a spot of his choice and begin. One wall is the couch and the front wall consists of pillows. Finally he chooses a wall or another couch to be the final side. His houses are always triangle in shape so he has no need for a fourth wall. He’ll use one last pillow as his functioning door. And of course a blanket goes across the top of the whole thing. When he’s done a hasty job the roof falls in or a pillow wall collapses and you can hear his frustration. There are lots of “ughs” and “aww mans.” Once in awhile he’ll yell, “Earthquake! Oh no, escape, escape!” and burst out of the fort. He has also made a home out of the kitchen chairs and laundry baskets.

Another thing he likes to do is pretend he’s invisible. He puts a lot of effort into blending into a surrounding or trying to sneak past undetected. Last night he was in a laundry basket. He was slowly crawling across the kitchen floor. If anyone of us looked his way he’d freeze and not move until we looked towards another direction. You could hear the plastic of the laundry basket skimming across the linoleum but he was convinced he was being stealthy. When he got right in front of us we laughed because you could see his eyes peering out near the handle. That’s when he jumped up and said, “I was a submemine!” He was a submarine and I’m guessing the kitchen floor was the ocean.

At random times Little Brother will run after or toward one of us with a crazy look and moaning. He’ll walk with one leg dragging and teeth showing. He’ll say, “ I’m a zombie! Arr!” That impression fits the season since it’s October and nothing is scarier than a little zombie is. Other great things he’s done with his imagination is turning toys, clothes, household items into new more exciting accessories. He stood on two big metal cars and attempted to roller skate with them. A sheet turned into a super hero cape, which he dragged around for a whole day. A cereal box was a robot arm and he told us he was a robot boy. A curved train track was his new hook hand, and he spent an afternoon using it for everything from trying to open a door to picking up toys. A utensil organizer that I normally use to hold pens ended up in the bathtub where he used it as the best boat toy ever! Then there’s the obvious use for pillows. Which is laying them out in the living room. He pretends there is hot lava and earthquakes and jumps from the couch to the pillows to other areas of safety. In the house my mop is a killer octopus that he has to kill with his ninja sword. The ninja sword is the tube from wrapping paper. The broom is a high powered rifle that he’ll take to the windows and pretend to shoot birds and rabbits.

In the car he’s become the narrator of the drive. When we turn a corner he yells, “Ahhh! And Errrr!” like tires squealing. When we pass animals, he names them and if we pass decorated yards or houses he tells us what he sees. At a stoplight or stop sign he’ll say “brakes.” A green light gets the “Vrooom!” noise. Finally when we pass cops or see an ambulance he says, “Weohh Weeooh!”

At the end of the day when he should be exhausted and going to bed, he still wants to be the imagination technician.