Our House of Make Believe

Remember Mister Roger's Neighborhood? As a child I would suffer through the real world part listening to someone explain how to make shoes or something else that did not hold my six year old interest at all and waiting impatiently for Mr. Rogers to come home, change his shoes, sit down and wait for the Neighborhood Trolley. The clang clang of the trolley was my cue to sit up and pay attention. It meant we were going to be transported to the Neighborhood of Make Believe where King Friday lived in castle and I was entertained by stories. It is interesting to note that once Mike and I had a conversation about this childhood show. I made reference to the make believe part being the best part of the show only to find out that he had loved the field trips and real world part and found the castle boring. This says a lot about our personalities. In many ways we are opposite, but that's okay. It keeps us balanced.

Anyways, it is a good thing that I am the parent staying home with our children, because at our house it's all about pretending these days. From morning until his little towhead hits the pillow at night, Little Man is playing. "Mommy, I am a runner, a race car driver, a fireman, a daddy, a repair man, a (insert any age other then four here) year old. " He goes on grand adventures by train, boat, and car. Kiwi is always his little sidekick or baby and as often as I will go along with it, I am assigned a role also.

By the end of the day, I am more then ready for some adult conversation, but I am learning to use this to my advantage to get things done during the day. The children dine at "Melissa's Restaurant," I am the bus driver taking them to "school" (which is wherever we really need to go). I am the hairdresser for Kiwi and the owner of the "man spa" where Little Man has appointments to get his nails clipped or his hair done (and then he never likes how I do it and fixes it himself).

It is amazing how much I can get him (and sometimes Kiwi) to do by making it into a game.

Today we had yoga class. The children left their "house" (which they had elaborately set up and made a huge mess in the process) in the living room and showed up to a 10:15 session of yoga where I was the instructor. They were pretty cute.

Kiwi doing her version of downward facing dog. Little Man and I have done yoga several times when Kiwi is sleeping, but this was her first time.

Little Man doing the cobra.

Even Curious George got in on the action.

We checked a book out from the library called Yoga Bear and it was fantastic for toddlers/pre-schoolers. Really simple and age appropriate! I would recommend it.