Pita Pocket has really been into building "secret hideouts" lately. His favorite place to build them is beneath the arm of the couch with a blanket or two draped over, and unfortunately for the adults in the house, Pita seems to believe that secret hideouts should store electronic things. If we can't find our phones, the tv remote, etc. we always know to check where that sneaky toad has most certainly stashed our things!
The other day while Short Pants was gone with The Mister at a library event Pita dragged the boys' art table to the center of the living room and started building. He told me he was a bunny building a nest and very carefully arranged the loveseat cushions and whatever old blankets he could find around and on top of the table:
After just a few moments he ran over and started storing play food in the nest, as it had become a kitchen and he was a chef. And just a few moments after that, Short Pants had arrived home and the secret hideout had become a mountain lion lair. Pita Pocket was the baby mountain lion while Short Pants was the daddy busy bringing food to his baby:
And again, just a few moments later, the play had changed and suddenly my boys were both toonasauruses (Short Pants' made-up dinosaur) in the wild, snarling and protecting their home:
Then they became toonsauruses at the zoo on exhibit:
I love watching my boys play like this. Besides making me laugh, it reminds me why it's so important to treasure and protect our children's imaginations. It seems like our culture is obsessed with looking for measurable results at incredibly early ages - pushing the alphabet at toddlers, crazy electronic "learning" toys for babies. I think our society is trying to measure the wrong kind of things.