Have you ever tried to act out an early 19th c. play with a three year old? Never, I repeat, never underestimate a child!
The first words to come out of my daughter's mouth on most mornings is "Pretend that . . . "
She is destined to be an actress.
After I exhausted my own shallow repertoir of playacts to keep her happy, which included Little Red Riding Hood and one Nora refers to as "Lulu and the Juicy Spider", I devised a plan to open up the storybook treasury for ideas. Since then, she has tormented her grandmother with pleas to play Mrs. Tiggywinkle for an entire day and almost driven her father and me mad with her meticulous direction of "Frog and Toad Take a Walk."
Today, she pulled an illustrated Twenty-third Psalm off the shelf and recited the entire book with me. But this did not satiate her ravenous appetite for drama. I had no other Bible books on my shelf (per her request), so I opted for the next closest thing--an antique pocket edition of Longfellow's "Judas Maccabaeus." She chose the character Antioch, and I was Jason. We acted out the entire first act! If only you could have seen the passion in her face as she plotted to Hellenize those Jews!! I tell you, it almost frightened me. She especially relished a certain line, which upon rereading, I shall omit from this post, for it is really rather grisly. After Antioch meets the Samaritan Ambassadors, she went totally improv--apparently so engrossed in her role that she felt moved to "squish the ghouls" with a bench cushion.
She's still calling me Jason, but is now chilling out a bit with The Muppet Movie instead--probably studying Fozzie Bear's technique for her next big role.
