Imagination Play

My little boy is a talker.  I love it because when he is playing I know what is going on in his head. At least in part. Here is a picture of what went on this morning:

He grabs one random object in the room and sets it down and then says "where's my hammer?"  He grabs a toy (not a hammer) and says "there's my hammer" and then proceeds to build a tower out of random objects.  "Whoa" he says, "It's a big tower!"  He loves everything "big" lately.  "Big" bites of food, "big" towers, etc.

Other days he has grabbed his tractor and then a random object becomes the trailer and he drives it around.  Or like today, he grabs a box, sits on/in it and turns it into a vehicle.  Or he grabs a different random object to use as a "wheel" so he can drive a "bus" around.

He has been exposed to enough real life adventures that he can and wants to imitate life when he plays.  He has an active, but directed imagination.

Then his wheel turns into a fan and he starts waving it around.  I really like hand fans and whenever I use one it fascinates him.

"Can we drive together?" When I ask where we are going he says, "The station, the train." and so we went to the train station (couch) and then went on a train ride together.

One of these days, out of my own curiosity, I want to time how long he can play this way.  Today gave me an idea of how long, as he was active in playing all morning other than eating breakfast and taking a few potty breaks.

When we took a trip in December he played a game he created once we were settled into our hotel room.  He opened the closet door and said "Good bye, see you later" and closed it on himself and then opened it a minute (or less) later and said "hi!" and then he said, "I'm going on a trip again" and he repeated that game over and over and over again.  No toys required.  Just a door, his imagination and my attention/interaction for him to say hi and bye to (and give him hugs between).  I did turn it into a bit of a hide and seek game with him at one point so that he had to find me and give me big hugs when he came out of the closet.  He squealed and was so energetic.

It is wonderful to see him blossoming in how he plays and interacts with me (and others).

Singing off...it was just my imagination
Gina