Jonah's Imagination

Jonah has always been a creative, spunky kid. It seems like he is in his imaginary world more than when he is in reality. I often hear, "Mommy, no! Don't go in the water!" when I try to cross a room. Jonah will also try to get my attention and I will say, "Yes Jonah? What would you like to say"? and often I get reprimanded by him. "Mommy, I wasn't talking, the dinosaur was talking!" so then I have to say, "Yes Dinosaur? What would you like to say?" To get anywhere with Jonah is a challenge. Well, anything is a challenge with Jonah right now, but it is also pretty hilarious! We just have to be on "Jonah time" with plenty of patience and an imagination ourselves.

Jonah has never needed toys. Sure, he has a couple toy animals he likes, but he finds household objects more than satisfactory. Right now, he seems to be pretty obsessed with turtles (This started after Paige invented the "turtle ride") so Jonah likes to have a towel wrapped over his shoulders and tied on. The towel is his "shell" and he will spend hours as a turtle crawling a little here and there and then covering himself with his towel "shell". The other day Jonah was in the bathtub and quickly grabbed a towel. I shrieked, "Jonaaaah! Why did you put that towel in the tub?!" Of course, that was his turtle shell... Last week, I left a half cup of tea on the counter with the tea bag still in it. I don't remember what I was doing, probably reading or playing with Paige or Jack, but I looked over and there was Jonah with his hands in my tea. Again, I shrieked, "Jonaaaah! Please get your hands out of my tea!" Jonah just looked at me innocently, "But Mama, this is my possum (the teabag)." Jonah played with that teabag for a good half hour... I also remember when we were in Aruba last year, Jonah did not play with any real toys but a little digger and a shovel for the whole week. He did, however, "vroom" Silvio's candy bar all over the house (Jonah had no desire to open the candy bar. He just wanted to use it as a car. Crazy kid!). Poor Silvio had a pretty deformed candy bar to eat! Oh, there are too many stories...
Here are some of Jonah's other favorite "toys":
Tongs- He does like to use them to dish up food, but they are also crab pinchers and garbage grabbers.
Small old piece of cotton batting- This is Jonah's ghost.
Sticks- These can be anything to Jonah. They are snakes, swords, bats, spiders...
Rocks- These can be just rocks, but usually they are some kind of animal like a turtle, a bug, a bird, a skunk...
Boxes- Many a child's favorite toy, right? These can be a boat, an island, a nest, an airplane, a car.
Laundry baskets- These are usually nests or animal cages.
White plastic strip that I took off of a can of juice concentrate- He's playing with his "skunk" right now.

Wanna play?