Too Real

This morning, we made a run over to the Europe side of the city and applied for our visas. On the ferry back, it was Ava's nap time and the drone of the boat engine lulled her to sleep against my chest. I figured she'd wake up as soon as we docked but she only roused briefly. I carried her across busy streets, on a bumpy bus ride, and down another street to our apartment with her slack against my chest, her head at an awkward angle, and her arms and legs flopping limply. Ava, the worst sleeper in the world, did this. I was amazed. Anyway, I just thought it was worth mentioning. She is just too big for me to carry like dead weight so I was glad to get in our door.

Ava woke up the minute I laid her on her bed - of course. I grumbled about it for a few minutes but ended up having a fun afternoon with Ava playing make-believe. First, I persuaded Ava (she was skeptical) to get on the boat (our couch) and I was steering the boat, pointing at the fish underwater, birds in the sky, etc. She looked at me like I was crazy. Greg was lying belly down on the rug reading something and Ava was about to hop off the couch. I hollered, "No, Ava, don't get in the water!" She said matter of fact, "Daddy's in the water." Oh, yeah. Then I said, "Daddy's swimming." Ava then went belly down on the floor and started to swim which was a hilarious sight to behold. I gave up and got on the floor, too. Then I had an idea: I'd pretend I was a shark so I said, "Ava, I'm a shark!" with my hand on my head like a shark fin. She squealed and scrambled back in to the boat. Her eyes were wide and she was grinning. Her expression was a mixture of excitement, anticipation, joy with a slight tinge of fear. I couldn't tell if she was enthusiastically into the make-believe or she genuinely believed it.

So then, I chased her around and our make-believe evolved from us running away from an imaginary shark, whispering while we hunted the shark (she was afraid to venture out of the living room), attacked the vacuum cleaner (our shark) with a paper towel cardboard roll, hid in our fort (bedspread over the dining table) from the shark. Then Ava became Nemo (from the animated "Finding Nemo" movie) and I became Dory where I spoke whale and Ava kept clapping her hand over my mouth. Daddy became Nemo's daddy, Marlin. Then I became the shark and chased Ava around. Then we couldn't walk on any of the rugs in the house because they all had sharks in them. Then Ava decided she was the shark and I pretended to be afraid and ran away.

It was at this point that I had another attack of doubt as to whether Ava understood it was completely make-believe. She was on the couch which has our big rug in front of it and the rug was dangerous waters teeming with sharks. She herself was the shark at the moment but she still held the rug as danger in her mind. I ran out of the living room in mock terror. I heard Ava calling out for me but I waited to see if she would seek me out (which she didn't because of the rug) so I could turn into the shark and chase her back into the living room. I came back in just in time to watch her face crumple into tears which she stopped immediately upon sight of me. "Ava's crying, I couldn't find Mommy." Like the switch from third to first person in one sentence?

Ava cheered up and said she was the shark again so I ran out again in mock terror but had to use the bathroom. She was in complete tears on the couch when I came back, with the same explanation: "Ava's crying, I couldn't find Mommy." I think she was actually a little scared of the imaginary sharks and the rug itself. I had to persuade her that it was just a rug but it took a little while for her to agree to walk on the rug.

Our make-believe evolved again. Ava wanted to ride on my back so I got on all fours. The hardwood floors are merciless on my knees so I came over to the soft rug because the rug "is soft grass" and that I didn't like walking "in the woods with thorny ground." I pretended to be a horse and Ava was a princess. I grazed and slept on the rug while Ava, unprincesslike, tried to wrestle with me.

After that, the game faded away. It was fun to see her imagination fired up and the possibilities of stoking that imagination into awesome fun.

Have I mentioned that Ava is mad about princesses? That's another blog post for another time.