Sometime in the spring, Esther started randomly chattering about Beebee Bobbi, or occasionally Robbi Bobbi. I couldn't make much out of it, but it sounded occasionally like she was talking about a person. Over our Memorial Day trip to my grandmother's house, it became clear: Beebee Bobbi was her imaginary friend! I learned that Beebee Bobbi was small (small enough to climb on the curtains, and be carried in Esther's cupped hands) and was a girl.
Esther continued to talk about Beebee Bobbi a lot all summer, occasionally changing her name. Sometimes she was Robbi Bobbi, then Robba Bobba, then Rugga Gugga, and now for the last few months she has been Rugga Guggan. The name hasn't changed in a while, so maybe this one will stick.
Esther plays with Rugga Guggan a lot on some days, usually days which she has spent with only me for company, but pretty much ignores her on days when she gets a lot of socialization elsewhere. I don't think she has yet asked for extra treats to give Rugga Guggan, but has been known to share food with her. She has also blamed her for messes ("Rugga Guggan did that!"), for disobedience ("But Rugga Guggan doesn't want me to do it!") and for slowness ("I'm waiting for Rugga Guggan!") Esther takes great delight in scolding Rugga Guggan when she breaks house rules. Sometimes she carries her around in her hands. Once she had a fight with her and came complaining to me about it. I must say, I anticipate having to deal with sibling rivalry someday, but I never expected to find myself arbitrating a quarrel with an imaginary friend! Then again, this is the same child who the other day dropped her imaginary ticket out of her imaginary pocket and lost it. We are not lacking for imagination around here!
Sunday, October 17, 2010
Friday, October 1, 2010
vignettes
If Esther doesn't decide to become a scientist or a physician, she might have a great career ahead of her as an electrician. Seriously! She's fascinated with all things mechanical, and seems to have a real knack for learning from observation. We have to be careful how much access she has to tools! Before we moved, Tim was putting the lock back on our bathroom door (we had removed it for fear of her locking herself in), and found when he finished that she was well on her way to removing the doorknob from another door. He asked her how she managed to get the screw loose and she blithely replied, "lefty loosey, righty tighty!"
We've finally figured out why Esther thinks that Tim's classes involve soda pop. It's because of the "fizz" in "physics."
The last time we visited my grandma, her church was having a child baptized, and so all the children in children's church were brought in to watch. Afterwards, Esther announced to me, "I went to a Baptist church today."
As we were leaving my grandma's hometown, Esther asked, out of the blue, "Is that an evil one?" Startled (I didn't even know she knew the word evil!), I asked, "an evil what?" "An evil church," Esther replied, pointing to a church logo of a cross with a flame (representing the Holy Spirit) curved around it. I asked why she thought it might be evil and she explained, "Because it has fire." There are times I really wish I knew what was going on in that little head!
On Tuesday when Esther came home from daycare, she reported to me that one of the little boys had asked her if she was his buddy and she had told him, "I'm not your buddy, I'm my Mama's buddy!" A little while later she asked me, "Are you my buddy, Mama?" I told her that I sure was, and she added, "You keep me safe from cars in the street."
For Esther's first week of AWANA, she was supposed to learn a motto and three Bible verses. She has a great memory, but wasn't really keen on memorizing something that was initiated by me. One of her verses was "God loved us and sent his son, 1John 4:10." I would periodically ask her to say her verses, giving her the first word of each. At one point she evidently got tired of that, because she recited, in a tone of long-suffering, "God loved us, and so on."
We've finally figured out why Esther thinks that Tim's classes involve soda pop. It's because of the "fizz" in "physics."
The last time we visited my grandma, her church was having a child baptized, and so all the children in children's church were brought in to watch. Afterwards, Esther announced to me, "I went to a Baptist church today."
As we were leaving my grandma's hometown, Esther asked, out of the blue, "Is that an evil one?" Startled (I didn't even know she knew the word evil!), I asked, "an evil what?" "An evil church," Esther replied, pointing to a church logo of a cross with a flame (representing the Holy Spirit) curved around it. I asked why she thought it might be evil and she explained, "Because it has fire." There are times I really wish I knew what was going on in that little head!
On Tuesday when Esther came home from daycare, she reported to me that one of the little boys had asked her if she was his buddy and she had told him, "I'm not your buddy, I'm my Mama's buddy!" A little while later she asked me, "Are you my buddy, Mama?" I told her that I sure was, and she added, "You keep me safe from cars in the street."
For Esther's first week of AWANA, she was supposed to learn a motto and three Bible verses. She has a great memory, but wasn't really keen on memorizing something that was initiated by me. One of her verses was "God loved us and sent his son, 1John 4:10." I would periodically ask her to say her verses, giving her the first word of each. At one point she evidently got tired of that, because she recited, in a tone of long-suffering, "God loved us, and so on."