Beyond imagination

Lately The Boy has been doing a lot of pretending. By this I mean, he's taken on different personas, such as his favourite Backyardigan character, and assigning us various characters as well. I always have to be Pablo. Sometimes we all get to be animals, usually crocodiles or tigers or some other equally fierce thing.

This morning The Boy decided that instead of characters or animals we would be happy foods. Yes, you read that right. Happy foods. "I am broccoli," he chirped. "Which happy food are you, Mama?"

Where this concept came from, I don't exactly know. We haven't ever discussed which foods are happy and which aren't -- perhaps this is a concept introduced in daycare. I decided that I would be brown rice. Brown rice is a happy food. The Man became almond, and the cats sushi (because it makes us happy, not because it's a happy food) and broccoli two (because we ran out of food ideas that early in the morning). 

And then ... the elephant in the floor puzzle became Peanut. Not a happy food, but a food that apocryphally makes elephants happy.

But the craziness was complete when the (imaginary) yellow frog snake that was sitting in the corner of the living room also needed a new (imaginary) identity, and he became orange. Let's just note that again. I had to come up with a new imaginary identity for an imaginary creature. 

I ... I don't even know where to go with that, but I think it's clear that we're taking this imagination thing way too far.