Nanma has begun 'pretend play'.
When Ashwin and I prayed for our baby to be, we discussed what personality traits we wanted her to have. One of the things I wanted for my child was a creative imagination. Ashwin was not too sure about that because he thinks I have a wild imagination and sometimes fears for me! So when I saw Nanma pretending to be "Amma" to her dolls, I was thrilled!
Last week, she was playing with her HUGE teddy bear (a gift from a dear friend) . Suddenly I heard her say
"No! NO Paranjile? " (Didn't you hear me say NO?)
"Pinnem cheithal nere corner il pogum" (If you do it again, you'll go straight to the corner)
and then she proceeded to take her teddy to the 'corner' and said...
"sit!" and then...
"karayu! " (now cry!)
and then she stood there, with her arms folded, staring hard at the poor teddy. After a couple of seconds she picked it up. Gave it a hug and said...
"innim cheiyumo? illa? labu lu! goo girl teddybear!"
(will you do that again? No? I love you, Good girl teddy bear!)
And she hugged and cuddled her teddy bear.
* * * * *
Nanma was never too fascinated with dolls until now. Yesterday she unearthed an old doll - Emily - from her toy basket. She wanted to carry it all around. We had 2 birthday parties to attend and Emily came along for both. On the way, in the car she was pretending to put Emily to sleep. When Ashwin tried talking to her she said "Shhhh! doll sleeping!"
Later at our friends house, She went up to Ashwin and said "Appa, chuchu veruva" (Appa, need to use the bathroom). Turns out, it wasn't for her. Emily the doll apparently had to use the potty quite urgently. We rushed her to the bathroom where Nanma very gently, held the doll over the toilet and then pretended to clean her up.
Ah! I can't wait to play all the imaginary games we can play! I secretly hope she creates an imaginary friend. I never had one, but have a cousin who had an imaginary chinese girl friend, quite aptly named Noodle. And then another childhood friend who had an imaginary friend called "the boy" .
Fun times ahead!!
P.S. I can hear my ever practical, rock solid, stable headed husband groan as he reads this! Too bad Ashwin. This is your lot in life - to be irrevocably attached to two wild girls with untamed imagination!
In how many ways can one love this little doll? :). She is such a precious lil baby, Deeps. Can't wait to see her again. Haha, I am still laughing at the imagery.
ReplyDeleteProvidence had an imaginary lion friend for a good year, around this age. She's grown out of him but her wild imagination continues...
ReplyDeleteDeepa, she really is a lovely laughing likable lovable little lady..I enjoyed reading this post.
ReplyDeleteMy wishes in advance for her birthday and waiting for many more of her lovable new adventurous escapades to read this coming year...
Tight hugs to Nanma:)
@Roxy Poxy: Come! Wathca waiting for? Anyway we'l see you on the 19th right?
ReplyDelete@Lis: OH how sweet!
@Bindhu: :)
Imaginary games are fun! I encourage a lot of it here at home. Adiv and I have a favorite game. We go under the blanket and say the magic words, "Magic dungeon Magic dungeon, take us...." Every time we play we ask that we be taken to a different place (balloon shop, icecream shop, toy shop etc). Only in these stores the storekeepers are always rabbits. Once we were pretending we were in the balloon shop and I said I was taking the blue balloon. Adiv suddenly said, "you're flying away. look. up in the sky. the rabbits are laughing. so funny."
ReplyDeleteWhat an imagination I thought! encourage it. You need an imagination to live and enjoy this life.