Creative Juice

We were walking home today when B said, "Chinese, Draggy, Lees, Fern and Lucy went with me to school today."

I presumed that those were the names of his new circle of pretend friends. I'd heard him talking to them up in his room the last couple of nights. So I let him talk, enjoying his creative energy.

B continued, "We walked there together and they sat on the carpet--- like this." And he proceeded to show me exactly how they sat, right there on the muddy sidewalk.

As Homer Simpson would say, D'oh!

Later on, this new circle of invisible friends took care of him as he went to the bathroom, which he had previously designated as a "spooky" place in the house. (FYI, as far as B is concerned, "spooky" is anywhere on the first floor of the house when the whole family is on the ground floor, no matter what anyone says.)

Intrigued by his newfound confidence in the "presence" of these creatures, I asked B, "Who are these friends of yours anyway? Where did you find them? Did you read them in a book or did you think them up in your head?"

"Oh, Nanay," he replied, "they're not my friends. They're animals. Chinese is a dragon, Draggy is a monster, Lees is a crab, Fern is a girl elephant and Lucy is a chicken. I didn't read them in a book. I rescued them from the forest and the tunnel and the seaside and the countryside and from the farm! Because I wanted them to be part of our family."

"We're very lucky then that they don't each much, huh?," I joked. "And how do you spell Lees' name? Is it L-E-E-S?"

"No," B explained. "It's L-E-Y-double S- and silent E."

Ohhh, I thought. Leysse. Not Lees. Where does he get these names? He has a backstory for each of these characters, too, I bet.

Someday, when B grows up, if computers and the internet don't go obsolete first, he will read this blog and see all these wonderful things you are reading about him.

Oh, B, what a gift you have! The worlds and colours and characters inside your busy little mind-- they astound me. Nothing I've ever thunk has come close to what you are creating.

As your Nanay, let me say that I'm so very proud of you.

And as a fellow dreamer, let me just say, I like your style.

Go on, B. Dream. Create. Imagine.