Pretend Play: The Next Level

We've hit a new level of pretend play, and the teacher mama in me is loving it.  Lately, Sam and Anna have taken to spontaneously acting out some of their favorite books that are read often at our home without prompting from adults. 

The first one that started to reoccur was Sam and Anna's rendition of The Napping House.  This is an excellent book that has been a staple in our read-aloud rotation for a while now.  Basically, they pile on top of me or Daddy, and someone is usually the sleeping child or the dozing dog, and at the end, we all wake up and the bed breaks... then, "no one now is sleeping."

Sam and Anna like to pretend to be Max and the wild things from Where the Wild Things Are often too.  Thankfully, they are okay with taking turns with both character roles.  I am frequently surprised at how well they can quote parts from the books they act out while they pretend and Where the Wild Things Are is no exception.

Last week they started acting out Ten in the Bed.  This is one of my favorites because it means that a.) this exhausted mama gets instructed to lay down while playing and b.) Unlike when the play act The Napping House, nobody piles on top of me and kicks me in the head.

This week, the story of the moment has been the Three Little Pigs.  Sam and Anna like it best when Daddy agrees to be the Big Bad Wolf on the other side of the bedroom door, but they will happily take that role if he's busy or not home.  It is super cute to hear them recite, 'Not by the hair of my chinny-chin-chin, I won't let you in!"

Love.  I tell you, LOVE these precious moments that will become forever memories of playing with my children.

Mama Bear

It's a busy time of year for us- not the holidays, but report cards and conference time for me, and deer hunting season for my national-deer-hunting-magazine-editor husband.  Monday night I arrived home just in time for bedtime, after a full and long day of conferences.  It was only 3ish hours later than I would normally see Sam and Anna on a weekday, so not incredibly different than normal but of course I missed my children that much more.  Sam was especially clingy when I got home, but I didn't mind one bit.

He's been playing this pretend bear game lately that he's a bear cub and Daddy is a Daddy Bear, while I'm a Mama Bear.  Anna joins in the action sometimes too.  When he's a Baby Bear, he likes to snuggle up, be held and carried by Mama Bear or Daddy Bear.  Since he rarely slows down these days for a cuddle, I gladly become Mama Bear whenever he wants.  In fact, I'm loving it... and Monday night was no exception.  I loved all the extra cuddles so much so that bath time was delayed a little so I could soak them all in.  I am fully aware that my days of carrying, holding, hugging, and smooching my little boy all over are not unlimited.  That one day he's going to be embarrassed by even a peck on the cheek in front of his friends.  Monday night he was stroking my hair and playing with it while he laid in my lap or carried him laying on my shoulder.  Like I mentioned, these days he's on the move whenever his eyes are open, so these Baby Bear-Mama Bear times are that much more important to me.  One of my primary love languages is physical touch, so when we have moments like this my heart swells with the reciprocal love of a mother and his son.  I marvel in the indescribable wonderfulness of it.  And without fail, I remember the days when it wasn't there and we wished so hard to be parents.