Thursday, November 5, 2009

James and the giant zebra..

James has such a wild imagination. That's been going on for quite a while but each month it gets more vivid and he has begun telling us more and more what's on his mind. For instance, if we ask him, "so James..what did you dream about during your nap today?" he'll tell us, in some detail, what it was about. The other day he had a dream (maybe it really happened but we still don't know) that he was at school playing and someone pushed him onto the sidewalk. And because he's at the age where he can't really decipher between what's real and fantasy, I'm not always sure if it's his imagination. But the other day, this was totally his imagination at play:
he wrote a story about a big zebra, a girl, and about a few other animals like giraffes and snakes mixed in..


This wasn't his ordinary "scribble and toss" work..wanna know how I learned that the hard way? Well, when he was finished with his bath, he asked me where his story was. I usually clean up and get their night clothes out and all of that while Rick washes them.. well.. I threw this tiny pile of papers away. When he asked me, "mommy, did you read my story?" I had no idea that he was scribbling on those papers with such thought and creativity.
So this was first time I had heard that James wrote a cool story. And I threw it in the trash. I definitely had my decent mom prize taken away that day. But, to redeem myself, and because I really really wanted him to read his story to me and he worked so hard, I dug it out from the top of the trashcan, unwrinkled it, and handed it back to him. Oh the look on this sweet kid's face. He was so pleased.
He then handed it back to me and enthusiastically says, "Mommy! you read it!".

Uh oh.

So, I made up a story the best way I could (I'm not a very good story teller but I gave it my best shot) so.. I made up a story about a girl named Mary who loved zebras so much that she wore a zebra shirt and had a zebra backpack... she went school and the teacher read her a story about zebras..then they went to the zoo and she fed a zebra and this was her first time seeing a real life zebra..oh and it went on and on. His big brown eyes, sitting there, was listening very carefully to each word. He smiled big went I spoke about the stuffed zebra that her teacher gave her and how happy she was.
This kid, I tell you, melts my heart.
He's been in a huge drawing mood lately. And he loves longer and more detailed stories from his favorite big books. He will sit for a while and with such interest, a full-length Disney movie and love it..the colors, the characters, you name it.
I can't wait to share more of what his imagination is full of.



I love that little guy.

2 comments:

Chicke3 said...

This is so awesome! I love it! Such a creative and smart little guy!

caesmom2002 said...

Wow! That's awesome Dawn. Claire is at the stage of story writing too. She tends to lean toward telling a story by art though. She'll draw out a story and then go into explaination about it. I absolutely love the innocense of children at this age. They're able to express theirselves without having people look at them as a lower being. They're cute, honest, and so on point w/ explaination. There is nothing more beautiful than a child's imagination!