From Imitation to Imagination

By rights Fiona is too young to have started imaginative play; the fact that she imitates us talking on the phone, or changing a diaper, or cleaning the house (okay, maybe she's not imitating her parents cleaning the house) at her age is impressive enough. And yet...

Fiona has started having what sure look like conversations with some of her stuffed animals -- Pooh bear (of course), Eeyore and Paddington. But even more surprising is that yesterday (and again this morning) she moved her high chair (it's on casters) out from the wall so she could enter a space from behind the chair. She carried a stuffed animal (either one of her toy babies or Paddington) and set it up leaning against the bar on the front casters. She then sat on the bar between the back casters and shouted out something that sounded a lot like "car!" as she tried to roll the chair.

She didn't pretend to hold a steering wheel or strap on a seatbelt or anything, so we can't be sure, but the fact that she repeated the action in the same exact way each time she played her game does seem to indicate that Fiona has taken yet another leap forward.