Imagination

I have the cutest nephew ever. He is almost 4 years old. He came over to our house last night for a spontaneous pizza party. His parents took the opportunity to run a few errands. He wanted to play Star Wars so we pulled out all the old vehicles and people. He was so excited. I watched his little sister, who is almost one, while he played with grandma and grandpa. He came over to me at one point with two of the storm troopers. "Lisa, what are their names." I just looked at him and said the first thing that came to my head, a quote from one of the movies. "Roger, roger" He laughed and said, "Okay, his name is Roger and this guy is Darge." I think he meant Sarge, one of the cars in his favorite movie "Cars" but decided to change one letter. He smiled and went back to playing. I overheard him telling my Dad (grandpa) which people he got to be and which vehicles he got to use. A few minutes later an X-Wing fighter was flying over our heads. He was narrating the flight with scenes he remembered from the movie. He put the X-Wing fighter down next to me and I noticed there wasn't a guy in the pilot seat. He looked up at me and said, "I am pretending that the vehicles can fly and talk all by themselves." What an imagination. After about ten minutes I switched places with my mom. I got to be Princess Leia because "only girls can play girls". We acted out the rescue scene and a few other made up scenes. Princess Leia was climbing cliffs at one point being chased by "all the robots". I grabbed my laptop and loaded the Star Wars soundtrack and he had a great time figuring out the scenes that went along with the music. We had a great time. Star Wars really came to life in our living room last night. Roger, Darge, the robots, Princess Leia, three different Han Solos and the vehicles who could talk and fly by themselves. I miss those days when everything was real even if it was "just pretend."