Who needs toys when you have an imagination?

Judah is nearly always dressed up as something. Usually, he has a towel or bandana on his head and a sword in his hand. Prepare to hear an, "Arrrrgh, Matey! Where's the buried treasure? Are you ready to sail the high seas?" in his best pirate-growl. This behavior is not restricted to our home. No, it happens at restaurants, too. And parks. And grocery stores. And farmers' markets.

Yesterday at Kalamata's, a man asked me if this was just a phase. I responded, "I hope not. I hope he continues with imaginary play for the rest of his life. I hope I'm raising another James M. Barrie, the Peter Pan playwright." It's easy to forget how to pretend. Our kids remind us, though, that it's like riding a bike. You never, ever lose your ability to make swords from rolled up paper, eye-patches from rubber bands and old scraps of leather, and treasure boxes from anything that will hold a simple object.

More and more, I'm convinced that kids--especially boys--don't need conventional toys. Nearly all of the (plastic) gifts Judah received for his 4th birthday on March 1 are now broken and tossed in the trash. It's only July. At the same time, he rarely plays with anything more than his blocks and his "dress-up stuff." He loves to dress Miriam up, too, and swordfight as you can see from the picture. Give the kid a couple rocks, some sticks, and some dirt and he'll be deliriously happy for hours.

Miriam, on the other hand, loves to hold hands and dance. Put on some danceable music (our favorite right now is "R U Ready" from Godfrey Birtill & Band's Very God), and she gets Judah on one side and me on the other and instantly gets us all dancing. She's all of two feet tall, but she can move!

She has also taken to carrying around a little purse (thank you, Nana Pajama Pants!) and a little doll (thank you, Auntie Bec!) as she makes her way around the house and to the car, just like Mommy.

People often ask me about the kids and their imaginations, their verbal skills, and their temperaments (when they're not mid-meltdown, of course). I tell them that my secret is very little screen time (less than one movie a week for Judah and no screen time at all for Miriam until she's at least two) and LOTS of excellent books (check out Honey for a Child's Heart for recommendations).

We read book after book after book after book--all day. My favorite part of the day happens when Miriam goes down for an afternoon nap and Judah and I read the next couple chapters of The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis.

We cuddle up in my bed and read for at least an hour. We're approximately one-fourth of the way through the final book in the series. As excited as I am about finishing, I'm also sad that it's about to end. Those books are treasures. The real treasure, though, is the sweet time I'm getting with my growing young man while he's still small enough to sit in my lap and "cozy up."

This post is part of the Water-Cooler Wednesday blog carnival at Ethos.