Imaginary World

One of the joys of having little girls is watching their imaginations run wild. I remember as a kid pretending that my parents had a baby boy, Matthew, and carrying a doll around with me all over the place wanting to love him to life. (Maybe too many readings of The Velveteen Rabbit?)

Our girls, Jenna and Maya, are all day and night playing pretend. Jenna has been this way since I can remember. Maya idolizes her older sister and wants to be just like her, so in turn, has followed suit accordingly. We have an entourage of babies, each with a name. Each of the “kids” has been named for someone the girls know and love. We have: Ava-named for an acquaintance Jenna has from preschool, Matthew-the obvious Matthew Karen, Zoe-unknown origin, Brooke-Brooke Karen, Evan-named for Evan Karen, Charlie-a double naming—Charlye Sutton a new cousin and Charlie “The Puppy” Johnston, Patrick-named for Patrick Griffin, Baby Stella-named for the recent addition to our friend network Stella Langille and Morgan-named for Jenna’s middle name. The babies are cared for SO carefully by their mom or their aunt, depending on the child the girls alternate roles appropriately.

Jenna even has a pretend father to her children-intermittently her husband-known as Chick-named for Nana’s new husband Howard’s brother, Chick. (FYI-Jenna has been at a number of events with Chick, but has had NO interactions with him.) J They all live in a town, “Cougartown”-makes me chuckle each time she says it though in her imaginary world she is only 4 years old and Chick isn’t an infant or anything… Chick and some of his friends and work at a camera shop, known as “Watertown Camera.” (Not to be confused with Hunts as that is definitely where Daddy and Uncle Gary work.) Why Watertown you might ask, well because our close friend Amy teaches in Watertown of course.

The kids (the dolls) each have their own specialties, from breastfeeding to dance class to taking trips to Florida, Hunts and to the “dog bookstore,” they each have a role. The girls manage to keep straight everyone’s ages-though they do change, everyone’s areas of interest/favorite colors, foods and such, and most of all their needs. Brooke and Stella seem to demand the most attention, which does make sense, as they are the youngest in Cougartown and in real life. The girls feed them, burp them, carry them, rock them, bounce them, shh them, and those babies are getting the best care around!

Imaginary friends, playing pretend and creating this world for themselves is a joy to see it develop. I can’t wait to show it to them all when they are older!