Wowed by His Childhood Imagination

My kid wows me. Often. And it doesn’t always come when he learns a new skill or speaks more clearly with more words or shows that he’s grasping the potty training thing. A lot of the time it comes when he’s using his imagination.

Most days, it happens with boxes. There are Amazon delivery boxes and diaper boxes and assorted other boxes kicking around the condo that really should be broken down and put in the recycling downstairs… but every day he finds a way to play with them and be attached to them. And it’s pretty cool to watch.

A collection of boxes might get build into a house. One box can be used as a car wash for his many toy cars and monster trucks. He could just want to build a tower that’s taller than he is. Flat boxes become TVs and he tells me what he’s watching. And it’s cliche, because cardboard boxes have been favourites of kids (and cats) for as long as they have been around – but I still love watching it all happen. Even if I have to move boxes out of the way multiple times a day.

And, as much as I love that, I love being able to feed his imagination a little bit when I can and be part of the action. The way Ollie’s bed frame is put together, we can put a roof on it with a sheet or blanket or whatever. So we went ahead and did that one day, and he loved it. He sat with his toys and we read stories and he had tablet time. He stayed in his room the whole afternoon in his tent.

Then it was time to up the stakes. So I added another sheet, pulled the roof further out into the room, and we tried that. And instantly he started jumping to try to reach the sheet and was pretending that he was trying to pick fruit like Daniel Tiger.

Note: If you have a toddler getting ready for, or in the middle of potty training, we highly recommend the Daniel Tiger episodes that have Daniel Tiger and friends learning the potty. Check out YouTube, and Canadian pals, download CBC Gem for your DT content.

As a grown up, an adult, a dad, I find I don’t use my imagination in the fun ways that he does. I imagine paycheques and jobs and backyards and family time and boring things. Sometimes I allow myself to imagine my favourite team winning a big game… but I’m dwarfed by the imagination my toddler shows me daily.

Maybe we all need to play with cardboard boxes more often. Or build forts. Or watch Daniel Tiger. I don’t know.

But I know he seems happy when he’s doing it. And I know that makes me happy too.

Keep dreaming, kid. Keep playing, building, making things up and pretending everything you can. Love you.