honey

A few weeks ago, I realized Squirt has an imaginary friend. Honey. For a while, she called everyone "honey," a cute quirk picked up from her new teacher at daycare. It always made me smile when she referred to me as "honey" - not something you really expect from your three year old. Before long, she stopped calling people "honey," but the word stayed in her vocabulary. She'd prattle on about "honey" this and "honey" that, and I just couldn't figure it out. I thought she might be talking about friends at daycare or role-playing her day, which she still often does. The realization that this wasn't her referencing an absent friend, but an imaginary and very present friend finally dawned on me after a handful of VERY tearful daycare pickups. When we got in the car - not when we left the room full of what I thought were her potential "honeys" - she would become hysterical about me leaving "Honey" behind in the parking lot.

One afternoon, soooo not ready for another melt-down, I just stood back and let her set the pace as we left daycare. I watched, finally getting it, as she opened the back door opposite "her" side, pretended to put something in the seat, and snapped the seat belt. Then, with no fuss, she climbed in the other side of the car and got into her own car seat. "What did you just do?" I asked as I helped her snap on her belts. "I put Honey's seat belt on." Ooooooooooh! Everything makes so much sense now. Everywhere we go, Honey is with us. His size varies, from very, very tiny, to very, very large. From what she described, he basically looks just like Sully from Monsters, Inc. - fuzzy and blue with purple spots, though I'm sure that varies, too. Every time we get into or out of the car, she has to help Honey (and trust me, it is absolutely not worth rushing or skipping that step!). Most of the times she uses the potty, she has to help Honey go, too. When we go to a park, she pushes Honey on a swing, and at mealtimes, she feeds Honey bites. I wonder if Honey is a part of her day at school... It is indescribably fascinating to watch her imagination continue to develop and sometimes catch a glimpse of the way she sees the world.

Last night, she told me a story as she played in the bath. There were dragons coming into the bath - "two of them," she pointed out, with two little fingers raised. These were not nice dragons, as they sometimes are, but "big, mean dragons" who were coming "to fight!" She explained that they were coming to splash us and fight us and "ROOOOOOAR" (she is very, very good at dragon roars). They were going to try and take the baby, but it's ok because baby is in the belly and she'd fight them off. I asked how she would be able to figut two big, fierce dragons, and she said she'd use her "hero superpowers!" I asked if she would want daddy to help. Her response: "No, I can do it myself. I'm strong. I have powers!" Then, in the bubbly bath, she enacted a dramatic fight with these dragons, bubbles, water, and, I'm sure, blazing dragon fire spraying everywhere. Finally, she wipes her brow and says, "whew, they're gone now" and carries on with her bath as if nothing had happened. Like I mentioned above, watching her imagination grow, glimpsing a bit of her world, is nothing short of magical.

And now, here are just a few of the many, many, MANY expressions that come with her imaginative adventures.

Her "huh?" face.

Cheesy cheese.

 

She is a scary dragon. ROOOAR!