Jack's Creative Play

The alternative title to this post should be "or How an Empty Container With Lid is More Fun Than a $30 Toy." Once again, I'm going to treat you to my observations of Jack playing in his natural habitat -- the living room. Sometimes I wish I could see into his mind to understand what he's thinking. Some of the things he says while he plays are intriguing. Anyway, here are my observations:

"Windmill! Windmill! Where's the Windmill?" he says while holding two DVDs in his hands. He throws them down and picks up the little satin box Lily got in Chinatown. He brings it to me. "Take it!" He put it on my lap and examines the little Chinese men with braids that are all around the box.

He goes over to the high chair and then comes back. "Milk!" He trips on his Hot Wheels track and falls down. "Ow!" He picks up a Play-Doh container and sys "Coffee! My milk! Milk! Milk" He starts crying. He struggles to climb into my lap. "Up, please!"

I lift him up and he points to the plastic tea pot lid next to me. "That one, please." I hand it to him. He half reclines next to me and puts the lid on the Play-Doh container. Then he takes it off and puts one of the chips from his snack into the container and shuts the lid. He opens it and says " Look!! all gone! No, all gone coffee!" He dumps out the chipand gets down from my lap, saying "B. U. B. U. B. U." He walks over to the radiator cover, turns around and says "Nope! All gone!"

He walks back over and climbs onto the sofa. He shows me the Play-Doh container. "Please, please, please. Look! All gone. Look! Hot hot! Look, all gone, hot! Look!" He pretends to take a sip. "Nope, all gone milk." He pretends to sip again and sings "me me me me my L L L L L." He gets down and walks over to the radiator cover again. He pretends to sip, pauses a moment to look at the TV, where they just showed an explosion. He comes back over to the couch, humming "MMMMMMMMM." He eats one of his snack chips and climbs back onto the sofa. He puts the lid back on the Play-Doh container. He opens it and says "All gone, no more. Uh oh!" He shakes the lid and then puts it back on. He cuddles next to me, and continues to open and close the container.

Suddenly he gets down. He carries the container to the middle of the room, turns and shows it to me, saying "Here take, take, I make bed. Where's blanky?" He goes over to the chair to get the brown throw. "Brown ! Brown! Brown! Little brown, brown brown, play. I make brown please. Brown, brown, brown. A brown. I make bed. Mmmmm, MAMA, make the bed, please. Make the bed please! MAMA! MAMA!"

I fold the throw to make it into a "bed". He gets in and lies down. He lies there playing with the Play-Doh container and lid. Suddenly he says "OWWW!" He turns onto his stomach and crawls out of the bed. He stands up. "I out of, please. Out." He whistles very faintly and walks over to the couch. He eats another snack chip and sings "'Doot doot doot. Dun dun dun dun dun, hmm hmm hmmm." He walks closer to me with his container and lid. He eats more chips. He holds the container with its lid on in two hands. "Hot! Hot! Oh, all gone!" He opens and closes the container repeatedly. "Oh, all gone! Oh, uh-oh! Breaking! Uh! Wow! Where'd it go? Uh? Uh-oh! Hee hee hee hee (giggling). Up high! Oh! Mommy, uh, way up. Uh oh. I hide, I hide. Uh oh, Uh! Uh-oh, where'd it go?" He pretends to twist the lid while opening and closing it. He pretends to sip and a chip he stored inside falls into his mouth. He eats it.

He climbs up on hassock at my feet and lies down. He kicks one leg into the air. He hops down and then gets up and lies on my leg. He hops down. "Other one, one, one," he says as he gets another chip and stores it in the cup. He comes back to hassock. He puts the lid on the container. "Uh-oh!" He opens it and closes it, and then "drinks" the chip out of the cup." He hums tunelessly "hmmm, hmmm, hmmm, hmmm." He tries to climb into my lap while continuing to hum. I ask if he wants to sit with me. He laughs and says "Uh oh, please!" He climbs onto me and the lid falls behind the couch. No doubt the lid will make it onto this week's couch detritus list!