Life with Lucy: The World of Make Believe

One thing that has become very clear to Brian and me as Lucy has continued to get older: girlfriend has a creative mind. She likes to live in the world of make believe. Before I share the latest story to demonstrate this, a little background information may be necessary.

When Lucy is presented with various options for what she wants to play, she inevitably will choose fantasy over any type of structure (like a puzzle or board game). She loves to play dinosaur or Simba (from Lion King) with Brian, and baby or school with me. Which, by the way, we are not trying to promote these stereotypical male/female divisions in our play with her---it just has occurred naturally, I swear! If Lucy had her choice, she would live in this world of make believe 24-7. (Is this normal? Do we need to seek immediate consult?)

Brian showing Lucy the remnants of a (dead) tree he just dropped.

So, the latest example? It began with our typical school play. Lucy is Mrs. Hofmeister (my sister, who is a teacher). I am the student. Teacher Hofmeister decides it is story time. She uses one of her piano books, and makes up a story as she goes along. And here is a rough and brief (it was a long story) synopsis of how the story went:

Santa has a tooting problem. He decides to get help from Scooby Doo. Scooby brings Santa a Scooby snack (I guess to help with the tooting problem?). Santa then dies (from the Scooby snack?). But, ---teacher Hofmeister clarifies-- that he does not die “on the cross.” Santa eventually wakes up and is not dead after all (a reference to the resurrection?). All is fine and Santa is able to deliver toys to the children.

Like me, probably you never guessed that Santa, Scooby Doo and Jesus could all make it into the same story—did you? And, like me, maybe you are wondering if I have a morally confused child? I really am not sure here on any of this… feedback?

I guess one thing I know for sure that this illuminated for me: Lucy is certainly getting lots of information about various people and images in our culture, and from our history. And maybe sometimes it is a bit confusing in her little mind how to sort through all of it and make sense of it? And maybe playing in this world of make-believe helps her process it and figure it out?

Yeah, we’ll go with that for now.

Getting ready to go to "Muffins with Mom" at our church.

Helping make vegetable soup.

Notice the apron. My mom made it for Lindsay many years ago; I treasure when Lucy wears it.

Now, onto the world of reality....

My Dad was visiting his sister, my Aunt Buzzie, in Columbus and Lucy and I decided to take a day trip up for a visit: