The Mintz

It has been mentioned in many a post that Julia loves to gallop back and forth between the living room, dining room, and kitchen.  Furthermore, it has been mentioned that galloping is necessary for Julia to THINK ABOUT THINGS.  What sorts of things?  Her thoughts have ranged from all kinds of topics to Harry Potter (specifically, pretending the characters of Harry Potter are real and are her friends and they're doing things together) to a made-up kindergarten class complete with names and hairstyles for each child.

Julia's newest Gallop Time thinking is about the Mintz family.  This family exists only in her head, although Julia sometimes refers to them as if they're just regular old people.  For instance, on our walk home from school today, Julia saw her classmate get picked up by his 20-year-old sister.

JULIA: Wow, his sister looks so much OLDER than him!
ME: Well, she's twenty  He's the youngest of six children so his older siblings are adults.
JULIA: Hey!  That's just like the Mintz!  Max is twenty!

I finally decided it was time to learn all about the Mintz family so that I could better understand Julia's casual references to its members.  I sat down with Julia today to get the FULL SCOOP on the fantasy family of Julia's brain.

JULIA: Max, he's TWENTY, Justina, she's NINETEEN, Jessica, she's EIGHTEEN, Lilly, she's TWELVE, Juliana, she's SIX, and Zoie's FOUR.  I think about them when they're at school and what they do on the weekends and stuff and what they do at HOME, and what they do on vacation.  They live in Massachusetts and they go to my school and I pretend my school has the OLDEST grades too, like sixth grade to GRAD school.  So they all go to school there together, except for Max, 'cause he's too OLD. 
ME: Well, twenty-year-olds could be in college.
JULIA: Well, I pretend he's NOT.  Since they're imaginary, they do imaginary things.  And, um, they live on an imaginary street called Beatles Way, and some of their friends live on the other streets that are Walker Down Lane and Alier Road.  And when they're at school, they kinda just do NORMAL stuff like have recess and lunch and do stuff in their classroom, and when they're at home, they kinda do their homework and do stuff on their electronic things, and eat dinner and stuff, and watch tv, and do stuff outside, and play in Lilly's CLUBHOUSE.  And...OH!  They also go to church!  And some of them sing in the choir, but the younger ones go to Sunday school.  Um, on vacation, they do stuff like go to the Whale's Tail, Santa's Village and Storyland, places like that.  And sometimes their friends come to their house and sometimes they go to their friends' houses.  And I also think about their FRIENDS.
ME: Wow.  You think about a lot of stuff.
JULIA: Um...can I gallop now?

She is currently back and forth galloping between the various rooms again.  I guess I can understand her constant need to gallop when she has such a huge imaginary world to keep up with.  No wonder she has to fit in so many gallop sessions each day!  I mean, what if one of the Mintz children was doing her homework and Julia missed it because she couldn't gallop to think about it??

As I have stated time and time again, oh, how I would love to be inside the heads of my wildly creative children!