ME: Madeleine, honey, what's the matter?
MADELEINE: (grief-stricken) I don't have any BUNNIES.
ME: You don't have any buddies? (feeling around the bed until I found all her "friends" - aka the various loveys and stuffed animals she sleeps with: Cowie, Kitty, Puddles, and Meow-Meow.) Here you go, honey.
MADELEINE: (clutching onto her friends for comfort and laying her cheek against my face to snuggle close.)
ME: Do you need to go potty?
MADELEINE: (pausing, then slowly shaking her head from side to side, rubbing her plump, wet cheek all over my own in the process)
ME: Okay. Here, you go back to sleep.
MADELEINE: Mama...
ME: Yes, honey?
MADELEINE: Mama, there were TWO BUNNIES hopping around in...in...in...in SOMEBODY'S yard, and I was chasing them, and...they HOPPED AWAY. And...then we had to come home and I didn't have ANY BUNNIES.
It was at this point that I realized that a) Madeleine was talking not about "buddies," but about BUNNIES she had been dreaming about, and b) she was completely unaware of the fact that what she was describing was indeed a dream and not a heart-breaking scenario that had literally just occurred.
It took a few minutes for her to full awaken and understand that the whole bunny chase had NEVER ACTUALLY HAPPENED. Once she was sure that she hadn't missed out on capturing a new bunny for a pet, she was able to settle and get back to sleep.
I'm sure that inside Madeleine's head, it's pretty hard to tell dream from reality, especially considering the wild imagination she has. Just a few nights ago, I checked on her after putting her to bed, only to find her having a one-sided conversation with an invisible angel, who was instructing her to hand out flowers to a group of invisible children. (Invisible to me, at least; Madeleine was kind enough to point out both the angel and the group of children, but I guess I'm not Divinely favored enough to have been privy to their appearances.)
And let's not forget her (also invisible) friend Ellie with whom she argued a few days back over who got to get their bum wiped first after pooping on the potty.
She also spent about a half hour yesterday having a long and involved conversation with an imaginary dragon as she galloped around the dining room showing off her "magic stick."
Even when she has only a split second in which to pretend-play, Madeleine will seize the opportunity, as she did this morning when I announced it was time to head out the back door for school.
ME: Okay, come on down the stairs, Madeleine, it's time to go!
MADELEINE: (pausing to splay her arms out so that her hands touched each respective side of the door frame) Okay, hang on Mama! I'm on my CROSS! Mama, this is my CROSS. Mama? I'm JESUS.
So, at any rate, it's a wonder that I was even able to clarify for her that the bunnies had been a product of her dreaming mind.
Now, if only she could allow her vivid imagination to invade her perfectionist artistic world. Hey, what she tries to draw may not look EXACTLY like she envisioned in her mind, but why not just use her imagination if there are slight imperfections? Then we wouldn't waste a whole piece of paper on utter FAILURES like this:
After all those failed heads/bodies, Madeleine started anew, and was satisfied with this picture:
Until she asked me to write words on it like in Julia's books, and I ruined the WHOLE THING by not writing the letters exactly like Julia does, and Madeleine had to THROW THE PICTURE in the GARBAGE.
So it goes.
I wonder if that picture is supposed to be of Madeleine being Jesus on the cross.
No comments:
Post a Comment