Imagination Station

So I am spending a lot of time this summer listening to my girls play. And I love to hear their imaginations at work.

{cue wavy, squiggly lines and flashback music}

... I am 6 and playing Partridge Family in Barbara Nappy's garage.- I always had to be Keith. She always got to be Laurie because she had long , straight hair. We were trapped in an abandonded mining town on our way to a performance at a retirement home and we'd sing "Point Me (in the direction of Albuquerque)" and if I was lucky, I'd get to strum the broom guitar or jangle the beach-pail full-of-shells tambourine...but she always got be the cool girl and I always had to be the guy. Or worse - I'd have to be Ruben.

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The little one has always created scenarios by which the Polly Pockets or dinasaurs or combination of both are in perilous situations; dangling over a precipice or walking a plank...She loves to construct and build and has many things like Lego's and magnet thingies and TinkerToys and Ello's. She seems oblivious to the fact that anyone is listening because she uses her regular squeaky voice and doesn't play in a whispery tone. I love that about her. And when one of the little creatures is hanging upsidedown from a string attached to a make-shift 'yardarm' held fast by a two pillows resting on a blanket covering a table surrounded by a vast network of Lego's and buildy things., she uses a particularly higher pitched squeaky voice that only dophins and dogs can hear. If I stop and look at her, she stops - no she jumps as if she was busted with her hand in the proverbial cookie jar. I have tried to capture this on film ...but she is not a mugger for the camera like her big sister.

When the big one and the little one get together , it plays like a scene from any number of Disney channel tweener shows. She and the little one play Barbies or whatever and recreate the characters. When they play they always start the dialogue with "pretend you said blah,blah, blah" or "pretend you said yada, yada" and then they say whatever it is they were pretending to say. I say to them " Just say what your character is going to say...you don't have to say "pretend " first. Just do it.

{{cue more Flashback music and squiggly , wavy lines}}

Playing with Jodi in my room. We played "I Dream Of Genie" -( 'cuz we couldn't twitch our noses like Samantha and Tabitha and it's just as well, because if we did...she'd always be Samantha and I would always have to be Serena, the evil twin cousin ), because we could cross our arms and "Boiing" and jump from twin bed to twin bed and tuck our shirts up and put jewels in our bellies. Jodi had long blonde hair so naturally she was always Jeannie and I, with my dark hair had to be the evil sister, Jeaney , who was always trying to steal the 'real Master' away from her.

We didn't say 'pretend Major Nelson is trapped in the bottle by evil twin sister and Jeannie has to figure out a way to get him out. We just did it. Major Nelson was trapped in the bottle...We didn't say "pretend you say 'Oh Master and you Boi-yoi-yoing him out.' We just Boi-yoi-yoinged him out, then would make-out with our pillows and....

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I don't get what happened to imaginations. Are kids these days so overloaded with media that they can't just play without writing an entire screenplay complete with script and stage direction? Just yesterday they made their own Vlog -That they even know what the hell it is is mind boggling. But there was an episode of Suite Life (on Disney channel of course) where some one had a webcast, so it goes without saying that they is how they came up with the idea. I usually wouldn't do this because they use real names and if this winds up on some Craig's list adoption site or something I'll hunt you down- but here it is. Eat your heart out Nancy Grace.

Almost live and almost in person on the their own Imagination Station.

And they didn't say "Pretend" once. They just did it.